Benefits of using PathMaker:

Note: These comments were sent to us, unasked for, by one of our customers. We have reproduced it as it was written.

Improved preplanning. The meeting minutes and notes structure the planning of problem-solving activities thereby improving it. These tolls add significant emphasis to preplanning meetings.

Faster collection and analysis of data. The teams realize an increase in efficiency when it comes to working with data they have gathered. For instance constructing a Pareto chart without the software took an average of 18 minutes. With the software this time was reduced to less than two minutes.

Open collaborative meeting atmosphere resulting in participative management. A key element of post-industrial management is to remove fear in the organization s people are more inclined to work together. More knowledge is gained and documented in the software.

Setting priorities and making decisions. The use of data provided is formatted in Pareto charts, cause and effect, etc. The teams then work on the top priorities to eliminate or reduce these problems.

Emphasis on using data to identify, quantify, and solve problems. All of the tools in PathMaker are data-driven. This helps document the present process and determine what effect the solution has on the problem.

Improved problem-solving process. A structured documented problem-solving system is better than an unstructured one. PathMaker leads teams through the problem-solving process. It then helps teams reach a consensus for the best method to solve the problem.

Documentation of meetings. Research has shown that post-meeting use of data is crucial to problem-solving. It is also difficult to recover and manage after the meeting takes place. Having it in a data base file solves this problem.

Sharing Information. The tools in PathMaker allow easy access and distribution of data and solutions throughout the organization.

Alignment of the organizational problem-solving process. Having everyone on the same page when it comes to problem-solving results in expediency and efficiency. PathMaker creates a group of decision support system for the organization.

Preservation of organizational memory. All of the tools in PathMaker have been developed to facilitate access to the data gathered during the team meetings to solve quality or safety problems. Even non-attendees can have access to the meetings. The success of one group can be utilized by another that may be working on a similar problem.