Background/Problems
World-class manufacturers are using Statistical Process Control (SPC) and Process Capability measures to ensure quality; satisfy customer needs for transparency; drive improvement and reduce timescales for new product releases.
All processes have inherent variation; SPC is a technique for measuring the inherent variation and assessing how that compares to the product specifications to predict the amount of non-confirming product. It also allows abnormal variation to be detected so it can be acted on before product quality issues arise.
Besides the obvious benefit of avoiding product quality issues, reducing variation can have huge benefits in terms of managing the process. For example:
- Less process interventions means less downtime
- Saving material consumption e.g. over-filling, coating thicknesses, there are many examples
Solution
The SPC module of Shopfloor-Online™ Lifescience Edition provides a solution that lets you:
- Automatically generate SPC charts from any and all quality data collected
- View supported charts which include: XR, XS, IXMR, MXMR, Histograms, X and individuals, Capability Overviews, 3D charts, NP,P,C,U, Pareto
- Create control limits
- View charts that can operate in a hierarchical manner, e.g. across a Line, drill into Machines within a Line, drill into Heads on a Machine
- Configure charts in precise ways e.g. one big XR chart with histogram; or many charts on a page
- Create multiple views of SPC charts good for different people and purposes e.g. part capability and process trend
When Used with Other Modules
When the Quality module is used in conjunction with other modules of Shopfloor-Online™ Lifescience Edition more opportunities open up. For example:
- The SPC module automatically generates SPC charts for all quality data and provides real-time alarm generation if measured values break control limits or trend rules.
Benefits
- Reduce scrap – Real-time SPC means that operators can be flagged with problems from SPC rules or trends before scrap parts are produced
- Meet your customers’ demands – many companies expect their suppliers to be using and applying SPC techniques in their processes. With Shopfloor-Online™ Lifescience Edition the SPC tools are built in, anything you collect quality data for can be analysed with the SPC tools
- Support six sigma teams – Comprehensive SPC analysis to support six sigma work, coupled with a history of data means you have a complete repository of data to analyse
- Measure process capability – Indices like Cp, Cpk are automatically calculated, so you can measure your process capability and provide reports to customers if required
- Improve process capability – track the impact of continuous improvement work, see Cpk trend histories to check that processes are improving, or worse if they are deteriorating
- Automatically generate certificates – generate certificates based on key characteristics and the data collected during each production run
