Welcome to NWA SPC Update, a newsletter from the world's leading provider of SPC software, featuring the latest solutions from NWA and SPC-related news in manufacturing and the laboratory.

New NWA Website

NWA has completed a major redesign of its website. The improved layout and navigation will make it easier to access resources including application notes and articles. We hope you enjoy the updated look and feel, and find the site easy to use.

We plan to continue to expand the capabilities of the site and will alert you to significant new features. We welcome your feedback; use our Question and Comment Form.

Upcoming SPC Training

Applied SPC with NWA Quality Analyst

Date: June 17-18, 2004
Location: Chicago, IL

Participants gain expertise using NWA Quality Analyst while applying statistical quality control techniques in classroom exercises. The class then works in teams to solve problems in a simulated manufacturing process. Attendees learn how to maximize their use of NWA Quality Analyst while brushing up on SPC.

Full course description

Accommodations and registration information

NWA Product News

Quality Data Manager (QDM) for Configuring MS SQL Databases for NWA Software

We reported in our last issue that NWA and ASECO Integrated Systems have partnered to develop Quality Data Manager, which configures MS SQL databases for NWA software. QDM is now ready to install in process and quality management systems.

Representatives from NWA and ASECO participated in the ARC Advisory Group's Performance Driven Manufacturing Forum in Orlando, Florida from January 26 through 29. The forum provided attendees with information on real-world implementations of solutions in the process, hybrid, and discrete industries that enable users to achieve Real-time Performance Management (RPM). Forum presentations focused on enabling technologies for deploying an RPM strategy and on changes in work processes and the manufacturing organization that are necessary to achieve and sustain RPM.

NWA and ASECO staff briefed ARC industry analysts on the Quality Data Manager partnership and the implications for enterprise quality and process management. Tom Fiske, Ph.D., Senior Analyst Enterprise Applications with ARC, says of the collaboration, "The type of software and services provided by NWA and ASECO are essential to performance-driven manufacturing because it helps determine process capability, improve efficiency, reduce costs, and facilitate process improvement".

More information on Quality Data Manager

More information on ARC Advisory Group

NWA Quality Analyst Web Server 2.1 Upcoming Enhancements

The next version of NWA Quality Analyst Web Server (QAWS) is scheduled for release in May 2004. This new version includes Exception Reporting, matching the same capability already included in NWA Quality Analyst (QA). As with the Exception Report in QA, you can link to the appropriate SPC chart for each exception by simply clicking a button.

QAWS Exception Reports can be delivered in a variety of formats, including XML, HTML, and RSS. The XML format is useful for direct exchange of exception information with other applications. HTML exception reports can be delivered in one of the NWA-supplied formats, or you can generate customized reports by applying scripts written in industry-standard XSLT to XML output. The RSS (Really Simple Syndication) format can be used with one of the commonly available RSS clients to provide you with automatically updated lists of exceptions that can be tailored to your specific interests. Web-based exception reporting can simplify plant- and enterprise-wide distribution of quality information.

In addition, Quality Analyst Web Server 2.1 includes improved configuration tools that simplify setup and management, particularly for sites serving large numbers of charts. The new version also includes features such as chart and report caching that can eliminate duplicated database access and calculation processes, providing better overall performance—especially in peak-load situations.

More information on NWA Quality Analyst Web Server

Embedded SPC for Software Vendors, OEMs, and LIMS Vendors

In addition to our end-user oriented SPC products, NWA is the leading supplier of embedded ActiveX-based SPC software components for use by software vendors in their systems. In addition to reselling our NWA labeled software such as NWA Quality Analyst and NWA Quality Analyst Web Server to laboratory and manufacturing systems companies, we supply ActiveX-based SPC software components which vendors can embed within their own software. NWA QAx 1.3 is the latest version of the OEM product. In this version, we added stability calculations and Westgard rules for our OEM customers in pharmaceutical and clinical applications.

Currently, vendors representing approximately half the North American market for LIMS (Laboratory Information Systems) employ NWA QAx in their systems. We also have resellers successfully using QAx in applications ranging from blood testing instrumentation to control systems.

If you are interested in incorporating proven, industry-standard SPC components in your products, contact us at sales@nwasoft.com.

NWA Quality Monitor Maintenance Release

A maintenance release to NWA Quality Monitor 2.3 will be available in April. All Quality Monitor users under a maintenance agreement will receive a CD containing the update. This release includes improvements to record navigation, additional control of numeric formats, and the addition of conditional fields. If you are not under a current maintenance agreement, contact your account manager at sales@nwasoft.com.

Industry News

Dow Chemical Makes NWA Quality Analyst Available to Worldwide Staff

The Dow Chemical Company has purchased NWA Quality Analyst licenses to accommodate more than 5,000 users worldwide, including chemists, lab analysts, technicians, and engineers who will be able to access Quality Analyst for process analysis.

NWA Quality Analyst enables Dow to globally automate and standardize their process reporting so they can produce SPC charts more quickly, efficiently, and consistently. It also allows users to post the charts on an Intranet site where they can compare results between their plants worldwide.

"We are extremely impressed by how easy it is to quickly install NWA Quality Analyst and get connected immediately to the different global databases we need," said Suzanne Phillips, Analytical Resource Leader (ARL), Dow Chemical. "Once up and running, Quality Analyst is also very easy to use, and provides fast access to charts, even for the non-expert. NWA is enabling us to spend our time responding to data rather than obtaining and charting data."

Dow selected NWA Quality Analyst because of its flexibility, ease-of-implementation, and ease-of-use. The project goal is to increase the consistency and quality of Dow's products worldwide. It will also support the company's Six Sigma initiatives - a measure of quality used within an organization to strive for near perfect processes and products - and sustain gains in product quality after the completion of Six Sigma analysis.

Read the full Dow press release

NWA Business Partner Profile - Metquip Systems, Australia

NWA has a worldwide network of distributors, systems integrators, and OEMs who incorporate NWA products into their systems. We continue to expand this group of business partners so that we can better serve companies around the world. In each issue of the NWA SPC Update we introduce one of these business partners.

Metquip Systems has sold and supported NWA software in Australia for 5 years. Metquip has been servicing industrial automation customers since 1987 when the company was established as an operating unit from a major engineering conglomerate based in Sydney.

Today the company has offices in Sydney (HQ), Melbourne and Brisbane and is fast becoming the leading supplier of manufacturing automation software offering product sales, technical support, product training, and consulting services. In addition to NWA products, Metquip distributes and supports Wonderware industrial automation software.

Since its appointment as a distributor of NWA products, Metquip Systems has developed end users in diverse industry sectors including mining, petrochemical, materials and food.

Metquip Systems website

NWA Highlights for 2003

A major goal for NWA is to provide the SPC analytical and reporting functions for all the areas in your company that need process analysis and improvement. In 2003, we took several steps that have increased our ability to deliver those capabilities to you and your company.

We formalized our System Integrator Partnership program, which will enable us to provide more integrated solutions. The initial program participants are ASECO Integrated Systems, EnteGreat, and MAP Quality Engineering. We also joined the ARC Advisory Group to stay ahead of the latest industry dynamics, software applications and plant systems. ARC is the thought leader in manufacturing, logistics and supply chain.

2003 was also a year of increased financial success for NWA giving us additional resources to better meet customer needs. In addition to the large Dow Chemical adoption discussed above, several other corporations made large-scale adoptions. We also moved to our new offices and provided space for expansion.

2003 saw significant improvements in the performance of our products:

• NWA Quality Monitor 2.3 provided database connection capabilities for larger enterprise use
• NWA SPCx 1.1 provided embedded SPC capabilities for WonderWare InTouch control systems
• A new French version of NWA Quality Analyst was released to our Canadian and European customers
• NWA QAx 1.3 (ActiveX SPC components for embedded OEM applications) gave our LIMS (Laboratory Information Systems) OEMs a stability module and Westgard rules for pharmaceutical and clinical applications
• Quality Data Manager was co-developed with ASECO Integrated Systems to configure MS SQL databases for NWA software

We look forward to another successful year in 2004. We always welcome your input as to how we can better serve your corporate process and quality management and reporting needs.

SPC Insights

Displaying External Documents in NWA Quality Monitor

One of the important usability features of NWA Quality Monitor is the ability to provide context-sensitive help to the operator at any point in the operation. Quality Monitor has its own built-in help editor, but it has limitations in document presentation and it also is most likely not the tool you want to use for plant-wide document production and management.

Quality Monitor can also read standard documents and web pages by using external application readers. You can maintain these documents on your central server with your regular software and procedures.

Quality Monitor (version 2.3 and higher) lets you launch an external application with the use of "actions." These actions can be associated with buttons on command bars or menus, changes to a data field, or the start or completion of a new record. While being used on occasion for launching control applications for test equipment, a more common use for this feature is to add buttons that allow a Data Entry Operator to open and view documents. These documents can be part-specific inspection procedures in Microsoft Word, or the company's SOPs in HTML, or whatever type of document the data entry session designer feels the operator might need to see.

To see how to incorporate different types of documents into the help system in your Quality Monitor plant floor test stations, see:

Displaying External Documents in Quality Monitor

3 Sigma Calculations

One of the seemingly deep mysteries of SPC (and often-asked questions for NWA Technical Support) concerns the relationship between Histogram 3 sigma limits and Control Chart 3 sigma limits. The limits are used for different purposes:

• Histogram limits evaluate process capability.
• Control Chart limits separate common variation from special variation.

Still, two main factors produce confusion:

1. Both are "3 sigma" limits
2. Different estimates of sigma are used for the histogram and the control chart

To learn more, see:

Why 3 Sigma Histogram Limits Differ From 3 Sigma Control Chart Limits

Fill Weight Control on Multi-head Fillers

Reducing fill weight variation is frequently the most effective way to get high returns on process control efforts. Not only do you reduce product giveaway, but also you can avoid regulatory and supply chain risks associated with underfill.

High-volume filling operations typically use multi-head filling machines to achieve the highest throughput at the least cost per unit. Multi-head fillers are complicated processes to monitor and control because they involve the effects of both system-wide factors such as product viscosity or pump pressure, and individual head factors such as orifice condition. These processes are often called "family processes" since the overall process includes a "family" of sub-processes.

Standard control charts cannot separate out the problems of an individual process from the overall effects of the family. The Median/Individual chart in Quality Analyst was developed specifically to handle family processes and deliver great increases in performance in systems that are difficult to adjust. The effectiveness of the median/individuals method has been demonstrated in a large variety of filling operations. In one of the first installations, the M/I method was credited with saving over 600,000 gallons of motor oil in a single filling operation.

To find how you can use Median/Individuals in your fill operation, see:

Median/Individual Measurements Control Charting and Analysis for Family Processes

To read case studies of Median/Individuals applications, see:

Choosing and Implementing SQC Software in the Food Processing Industries

Statistical Quality Control in the Packaging Industries

Events and Publications

Workshop Session

Laboratory Statistics
Jeffery Cawley, Northwest Analytical, Inc.

Conference Presentation

Developing a ISA-95 Compliant Production Performance Analysis (PPA) System Based on Off-the-Shelf Software Modules
Michael Grasky, ASECO Integrated Systems, Ltd.
Jeffery Cawley, Northwest Analytical, Inc.

Current NWA Product Releases

Users frequently ask us for the current release numbers for their NWA products. To help you keep your NWA software up to date, we publish the release numbers on our website.

To view current product release numbers, see:

Current Product Release Numbers

© Northwest Analytical, Inc., all rights reserved. NWA Quality Monitor, NWA Quality Monitor Supervisor, NWA Quality Analyst, NWA Quality Analyst Web Server, NWA QAx, and NWA SPCx are trademarks or registered trademarks of Northwest Analytical. *All other company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of those respective companies.

Northwest Analytical (NWA) is the leading provider of SPC software with more than 50,000 licenses shipped to over 5,000 companies. NWA software is recognized for its ease-of-use and ability to integrate with other software and systems. The NWA SPC software suite includes plant floor data collection and supervision, enterprise-wide charting and analysis, web-based reporting and embedded SPC.

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