BEST PRACTICESImplementing QualityNUMBERS IN QUESTIONby Bruce Brigham and Keith SummersQuality can be defined, as excerptedfrom Wikipedia:As the systematic activitiesimplemented in a quality systemso that quality requirements for aproduct or service will be fulfilled.It is the systematic measurement,comparison with a standard,monitoring of processes and anassociated feedback loop thatconfers error prevention.In practical application, words aresoon overwhelmed by numbers. Today’smanufacturing and measurementprocesses have the ability to generatenumbers at a rate that far outpacestheir ability to make parts. Whilemanufacturing produces parts, qualityproduces numbers, and lots of them!So, what do we do with these numberswe call data? Hopefully, we can convertthem into useful information that allowsus to pass a part on to the next step inthe process, prove that the final productconforms to its specifications, and improveprocess performance. Unfortunately,managing these numbers often becomesa “can’t see the forest for the trees” typeof problem. We get lots of numbers, frommany different sources, and finding waysto ignore the less than useful ones, findthe most helpful ones, and combine othersinto a more useful whole is sometimes aschallenging as making the part.A Single DatabaseOne of the best ways to meet thesechallenges is to get all the numbersinto a single relational database likeMicrosoft SQL Server or Oracle RDBMS.From this single repository of data wecan query out relationships and presentthem in tables, charts, and reports.These products have been used for yearsto manage enterprise-wide data fororganizations and now have been scaledand simplified to fit the needs of almostanyone trying to manage quality data forreporting and process improvement.Data from gages with digital output,CNC machines with sensors, in-line gagingsystems, CMMs, vision systems, automaticfixture gaging, and many other shop floorsystems generate their own unique resultsand data formats. Front end data collectionsoftware provides the flexibility to acceptdata from these different sources, provideuniform and critical real time processfeedback, and send the data along to asingle database for storage security andfurther analysis and reporting.Linking Blocks of DataThe key to the database is establishingtrace fields that link blocks of data from oneprocess source to another. Lot numbers,serial numbers, machine IDs, date ranges,and other trace information provide themeans for creating a web of relationshipsthat we can use to filter data out or torecombine into a more useful whole.The shop floor (or quality lab)generated data must be converted intoeasy-to-understand information asquickly as possible. Obtaining shop floorfeedback as soon as possible yields theReal-Time SPC. The timing of longtermtrends and other quality analysisis not as time sensitive as the shop floordata. When you consider most shopsgenerate thousands of features acrossall parts, it becomes a daunting task tokeep your eye on everything. You needsoftware that runs period checks acrossall combinations of features and filters,thereby focusing your energy. Printingand viewing 5,000 control charts is justnot practical.Time-oriented charts help the shopfloor best. Seeing what just happenedand comparing it to what happened inthe past helps operators quickly identifypotential problems.Reporting RequirementsReporting requirements often reflectthe “smaller, tighter, faster” demandsof today’s manufacturing. The needto assemble large quantities of data,documenting multiple inspectionprocesses from multiple stages inthe manufacturing process, with fulltraceability on the part, process andoperator, can be a clerical nightmare—one wants to combine paper reports, datafiles, and spreadsheets into a coherentwhole. With all of the required data ina single location, this reporting can beautomated and reported through customreport templates or sent to other softwarelike Excel or MiniTab®.Process Improvement EffortProcess improvement efforts now canlook at all of the data that indicates howwell a process can meet requirements.Rather than look at a single bore sizeand position for a single part number, adatabase approach enables us to look atevery similar bore and position done bythat process and compare it to similarbores and sizes at other processes.Thisenables process improvement and givesnew insight on the capability of oneprocess versus another.Beyond shop floor feedback, customerreports and process improvement projects,an automated collection and analysis systemalso enables simple desktop “dashboards” ofkey process variables. It reflects Real-Timeanalysis of what is happening on the shopfloor to manufacturing management.Not too long ago, the avalanche ofthe “number problem” was made simplerby the fact that numbers took a littlemore effort to get to: Someone wouldhave to make a measurement, write itdown, save it, or pass it on as needed. Theproliferation of digital data on the shopfloor enables us to save the time we usedto use for many of those manual tasks. Awell planned database enables us to usethe trees to see the forest.PMBRUCE BRIGHAM is vice-president at ProLinkSoftware. He can be reached at bbrigham@prolinksoftware.com. Keith Summers is presidentof Productivity Quality Inc. He can be reached atkeith.summers@pqi.net.26 | PRECISION MANUFACTURING May | June <strong>2013</strong>sponsored by | PRODUCTIVITY QUALITY INC
Lunch & LearnManaging Measurement DataWednesday, June 26, 10:00 - 1:00Take QC-CALC to the Next LevelPlease join us on June 26 for a free “Lunch & Learn”presentation with Gene VanPatten from ProLink Software.Gene will present how using a single database for all ofyour QA data can automate reporting, give new insightinto process control, increase data security and enhanceimmediate feedback to process operators.Anish Shah from PQI will follow with a discussion onmanaging data to comply with FDA 21 CFR Part 11requirements. A“free lunch” will be followed up by a tourand demonstration of how we use these tools in ourinspection lab. After lunch, for interested current ProLinkQC-CALC software users, Gene will give an update onnew software releases and present tips and tricks forgetting the most out of QC-CALC.Visual Factory DashboardsAgenda10:00 Welcome10:05 Gene VanPatten, ProLink CorporationBuilding a comprehensive datamanagement solution for QA data:> Operator feedback> Customer reporting> Process improvement> Data storage and security11:00 Anish Shah, PQIControlling data to meet FDA21 CFR Part 11 requirements11:45 LunchFollowing lunch, a tour and demonstrationof how our inspection lab manages its datawill be available for anyone interested1:00 - 3:00 Pro Link User Group MeetingOptional: For interestedQC CALC software usersSPC Office Buddy& Minitab IntegrationPlant/CorporateLevel ReportingPRODUCTIVITY QUALITY INC15150 25th Avenue North, STE 200Plymouth, MN 55447763-249-8130800-772-0620To Registeremail: training@pqi.netonline: www.gagesite.com/events.phpcall: Lebron Fix at 763-249-8130
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