Monitoring a Supplier's Quality Performance:
A Drilldown Approach Using SAS® Software
PatriCk D. Bivens, Caterpillar Inc., Morton, IL
With the development of this system, data access was
notably improved. However, the system required over
ninety menu, inquiry, and maintenance screens which
made it difficutt for the infrequent user to remember how
to access the information that he desires. To reduce the
need for navigation when inquiring on only one supplier's
data, the Supplier Ouality Report Card (SORC) was
developed. SORC minimizes the need to remember
menu and inquiry screen codes by substnuting
point-and-click drilldown capability. This significantly
reduces keyboard input for specifying criteria and menu
selections. Besides providing easier access to the data,
SORC also provided graphical depiction of the supplier's
data.
ABSTRACT
Caterpillar Inc. developed a supplier quafity system that
uses drilldown capabilnies to provide information
conceming a supplie~s performance. The system was
designed and developed intemally for Caterpillar Inc.
using SAS software. This paper focuses on the use of
SAS software to develop a user interface that significantly
reduces the time required to gather the data relating to a
supplie~s qualny performance.
INmODUCTION
A supplie~s qualny performance is critical to any business
seeking to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction.
Caterpillar Inc. has striven since 1985 to achieve one
standard source to retrieve a supplie~s quality
performance, Part of achieving this goal was the
development of the Supplier Oualny Report Card (SORC)
that mon~ors a supplie~s total qual~y performance.
SAS software was used to intemally design and develop
the application which provides drilldown capabilities for
analyzing the quality data
The SORC was originally designed to operate on
mainframe computers for the MVS environment using
SAS software for Release 6.07. The SAS software that
the system uses include Base SASe, SAS/W,
SAS/GRAP~, and SAS/ACCESS-Interface to DB2TM.
SORC uses Screen Control language (SCl) extensively
for screen navigation, validation of input for errors, popup
lists, and overall system development.
USER INTERFACE
The SORC allows easy access to corporate DB2TM
databases and SAS data sets to monnor a supplier's
quality performance by providing timely reports and
graphs. This paper explains how the use of SAS
software allowed the development of a user interface that
significantly reduced the time required to access data
related to a suppliers quality performance.
The objective for the development of the user interface
was to minimize the training required for the user to
access the desired quality information. This was
achieved by allowing point-and-cliick capabilnies, reducing
the number of menu screens required, and replicating the
corporate systems menu, input screens, and function
keys closely.
BACKGROUND
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The first screen (Figure 1) requests the user to enter the
supplier code or sup pier name wnh the option of using
wildcards.
During the 1980's, the Supplier Oualny and PurchaSing
departments realized the need to consolidate supplier's
quality data into one central storage location instead of
having different departments writing their own programs
to access the data from source systems. This would
allow purchasing and quality personnel easier access to
the information and improve the overall accuracy for the
reported information. The resutt was the creation of DB2
databases for storage with a menu driven system to
retrieve the data. The menu System was created using
Interactive System Productivity Facil~y (ISPF) panels.
Command List (CLlSn. and Ouery Management Facility
(OMFTM). The data relating to quality inciudes receipt
costs, rejection costs. quant~ies. nonconformance
documents, supplier ratings for qual~y audits, warranty
claims, complaints, and delivery performances.
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108
If nothing matches the selection criterion, then an error
message will appear at the bottom of the screen. If
muRiple suppliers match the input criterion, then a
selection list will pop-up to select the exact supplier.
Once a specific supplier is determined, data is retrieved
from 082 tables using the Structured Ouery language
(SOL) procedure pass-through facility along w~h
information from SAS data sets. This information is then
presented on a Supplier Oual~y Report Card screen
(Figure 2).
next screen presented would be the ReceipllRejection
SubMenu (Figure 4).
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"DA1" or types tt in the next screen field the user would
view an inquiry screen (Figure 5) to further qualWy the
selection criteria.
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The suppUer report card screen provides a summary of
the supplier's performance for e~er the past year or for
the current year. On this screen the user can click ~h a
mouse on attribute fields that are color coded. These
attribute fields are defined with a single choice group and
use the attribute list value to pass the selection to the
SCl program. (Figure 3).
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After specWying the criteria and pressing <ENTER>, the
user would see monthly receipt and rejection information
displayed in an extended table (Figure 6).
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Based upon the CHOICE GROUP's value, the program
retrieves the desired information. The user will then be
presented with additional menu screens, data input
screens, extended tables with certain variables defined
for additional selection and drilldown, or screens that
report the requested information.
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The best example of this can be explained by detailing
the process for retrieving a supplier's receipt and rejection
information. The usar would first place the cursor on
"PREY 12 MONTHS RCPTIREJ" or "YEAR TO DATE
RCPTIREJ" and click w~h his left mouse button. The
For further. detail, the user would select the month desired
and view receipts and rejection at the ident level (Figure
7).
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Extended tables were very useful in the development of
the application. However. a stumbling block was noticed
when selecting a row from an extended table that
required scrolling. The design required that after more
detailed information was reviewed the user would then
return to the extended table with the row that was
previously selected at the top. To accomplish this a
macro variable was created that stored the value for the
row selected from the extended table. Then when
returning from a lower level screen the row selected
would be displayed as the first row instead of the first
observation in the data set. The code that was used
follows:
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If there are rejection dollars or pieces for a given nem. the
user can select the ident and view a list of
nonconformance documents (Figure 8).
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TRMONROW=SYMGETNfTRMONROW);
IF "(TRMONROW = . OR TRMONROW = _BLANKJ THEN
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IF (ISSELLCURROW,j) THEN DO:
CAlL SYMPUTN('TRMONROW_CURROW,j;
Figure 8
END;
RETURN;
The detailed rejection information is then accessed by
clicking on the MRDRlQCIR number (Figure 9).
The above code stores the extended table row in the
macro TRMONROW and if n is not misSing or blank uses
n with the CAll TOPROW Screen Control function to
make that row the first row displayed upon return to the
extended table.
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Printing Reports
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The corporate system allowed the user to press the PF9
function key to print reports on local and mainframe
printers. Therefore, on any screen that provides the user
wfth a supplie~s qualfty information. he can press the
function key PF9 and a report routing screen appears.
The report can then be routed to a local printer or a high
speed mainframe printer. For a local print this is
accomplished by using the following corporate developed
macros.
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Figure 9
APPUCATION DEVELOPMENT
%MACRO LPRTON(DEST=);
%IF %SUBSTR(&sYSVER.l.l)=5 %THEN %00;
During the development. three critical areas needed
addressed. These included the following:
%DMSCMD(X ESFALLOC FT25FOOl OEST(&OEST)
RECFM(FBA) LRECL(l33),WlD=P)
PROC PRINTTO UNIT=25;
RUN;
%END;
%ELSE%OO;
OM "PGM";
1) Ability to drilldown from extended tables with scrolling
2) Imitation of the current corporate system for printing
3) Creation of charts and graphs.
110
OM "X ESFALlOC FT25FOO1 DEST(&DES1) RECFM(FBAl
LRECL(133)";
PROC PRINTTO UNIT=25;
RUN;
%END;
%MEND LPRTON;
RUN;
CONCLUSION
The SORC provides easy ac::c::ess to a supplier's quality
performance through a user"friendly information system
that integrates SAS software. By employing point-andclick drilldown capabil~y, the user is relieved from
memorizing the screens required to ac::c::ess supplier data.
The result is a comprehensive information system that
eliminales the need for users to program. This allows the
time and provides the information necessary for the
Supplier OualHy and Purchasing departments to
ac::c::omplish their primary task of analyzing supplier qual~
performance.
%MACRO LPRTOFF;
%IF %SUBSTR(&sYSVER,1,1)=5 %THEN %00;
PROC PRINTTO;
RUN;
%DMSCMD(X FREE DD(FT25FOO1l,WlD=Pl
RUN;
%END;
%ELSE%DO;
PROC PRINTTO;
RUN;
OM 'X FREE DD(FT25FOO1)'AF;
RUN;
%END;
%MEND LPRTOFF;
RUN;
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My sincere thanks are extended to members of
Caterpillar Corporate and Facil~y Information Center
Services who support SAS software. Their help and
guidance made the development of this system possible.
The LPRTON macro opens a file and uses PROC
PRINTIO to route output to the file. The LPRTOFF
macro routes the file to the local printer.
SAS, SAs/ACCESS, SAS/AF, SAS/CONNECT,
SASIGRAPH, and SAS!SHARE are registered
trademarks of SAS Inst~ute Inc. in the USA and other
countries. OB2, OMF, and OS/2 are registered
trademarks or trademarks of Intemational Business
Machines Corporation. ® indicates USA registration.
To route the information to the high speed mainframe
printer, job control language is created for running a
batch job along with a copy of the SAS data set used to
create the report. The copy of Ihe data set is created
within a SAS data library that has been allocated using
SASISHAR~ software. This allows the batch job to be
run at any time w~hout affecting the application.
Charts and Graphs
Besides reports, the system can also generate horizonlal
bar charts, line charts, and pie charts for receipt and/or
rejection data and delivery performance. Based on the
user's terminal, the graphics display as high resolution or
character. The user can route these graphs to a local
printer and receive character graphics output or to the
high speed mainframe and receive black and wh~e high
resolution graphics output.
PORTING TO PERSONAL COMPUTER PLATFORMS
SORC was easily transported to both Microsoft
Windows and OS/ZO using SAs/CONNEC~ to move SAS
catalogs and part~ioned data set members from the MVS
environment. After the transport of the application, minor
modifications were required to the Screen Control
Language to allow SASlCONNECT remote ac::c::ess to the
data. The major benefrts gained by using the SAS
System for personal computers are reduced usage of
mainframe resources and improved graphics output by
having ac::c::ess to attached personal computer output
devices. Unfortunately, response time is longer when
downloading large data sets.
111