XmR charts have been useful to many businesses through the years.
Think about the things that you do and, via habit, you have to do them in a very specific way. Why? Over time, you’ve learned that when you do it that way, the results turn out to be perfect without fail.
For example, think about someone who grills chicken in a particular way. They know what spices to add, what the temp of the grill should be, how long to grill it, and when to turn it. This gives them the desired outcome every time. This is simply because they have a constant process of grilling the chicken perfectly every time, which gives them a repeatable outcome.
Imagine that same person wants to build a business out of their ability to grill chicken perfectly. They won't be able to grill all the chicken themselves, and they'll have to find people to do it for them.
As a result, they'll have to train these people to use the same spices, grill it for the right time, and turn it exactly when needed. But how would they know that the chicken turns out the same?
It's simple, and they need feedback from the process that will allow them to see if they are achieving the same desired outcome. And by knowing by monitoring this outcome, they'll know whether their grilling process is in control.
And this is where XmR control charts come in. This article talks about everything you need to know about XmR charts and how they can help you with your business.
What are XmR Charts?
Individuals and moving range or XmR charts are a category of control charts. They are typically used by businesses to monitor their business processes. Companies could also use them to monitor industrial processes.
It's important to note that, the XmR chart is actually two charts.
The "X" in XmR stands for individual. In industrial applications, this refers to the quality of a product. Likewise, this could refer to a key performance indicator of business performance in business processes. So, in simple terms, "X" is the data point being measured.
On the other hand, "mR" refers to the moving range. The moving range shows you the difference between the data point measurements.
In addition, XmR charts also display the average and upper and lower control limits. These control limits can only be calculated when more than seven data points show you where the natural process limits are.
This is very helpful because it allows for some leeway in the differences between measurements and provides a natural change in performance indicators.
This, in turn, eliminates the possibility of overreacting to a specific performance measurement when it varies from the others. Keep in mind that there may be data points outside the control limits, and you should then consider why that is or whether there was a change in the process.
It may be an outlier and not necessarily a cause for concern. It could also be that not enough data has been measured. Remember, the control limits can only be effectively calculated when more than seven data points have been collected. So, a single deviation from the norm might not mean much.
Despite this, keep in mind that when three to four sequential measurements are outside the norm, it may cause concern and may indicate a change in the process.
For this reason that it's often recommended to use only the X-chart to eliminate confusion when using the whole chart.
When and Why You Should Use XmR Charts
People can use xmR charts to monitor and track the performance of basically any business or industrial process. Here, it shows businesses how predictable and stable a process is, given normal variation.
For this reason, they've long been used in manufacturing, process improvement methodologies, stock trading algorithms, and other business processes.
Typically, you would only need the following to make an XmR chart:
- A constant process, or, in other words, a process that doesn’t change.
- A sequential output from the process. So, for example, when manufacturing products, the products would be the output from the process, and they will be manufactured one after the other.
- A relevant measurement that the business can use to track its performance. This could be, as stated before, product quality or a key performance indicator for business processes.
- The necessary math to calculate the average and control limits will enable you to observe any deviation from the norm.
Once you have your XmR chart, you can track the performance of your process to ensure that it is controlled.
How Can DashboardFox Help You?
We want to clarify this: we don’t have an XmR chart visualization type as of this writing. This might seem like the end of your stay here, but hear us out.
DashboardFox might not be able to help you out with your XmR needs as soon as possible, but we offer other visualization types that might help you with your current needs. These include creating dashboards, graphs, maps, and other charts that can help you relay your data and findings across the board.
We can save you a lot of money compared to other BI tools by offering a one-time fee vs. an ongoing subscription price.
And one more thing, we’re designed for business users. So, in our no-code building environment, you can convert raw data into interactive dashboards and reports without needing a technical pedigree. So that’s also going to save you a lot of money (and time).
And last (but not least), we’re a customer service-focused team. So we’re going to help you all the way to be successful with our software.
So how does this help when we don’t have the XmR chart you need?
We might not have an XmR chart visualization type right now, but we are a customer-driven development team. So if customers want it, we will add it (and not in months or years, but a few weeks).
If XmR charts are important to you and DashboardFox is the perfect BI tool for you except for that missing component, you can request new updates or vote up the request for XmR chart visualization since you’re not alone in this journey.
Still not convinced we can do that for you? Reach out to us for a formal meeting so that we can explain how things work for you. Better yet, book a live demo session free of charge so that we can show you how we work.