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. View from CEO - Celebrate the Diamond Anniversary of SPC75 years ago Walter Shewhart published ‘Economic Control of Quality of Manufactured Product’ and revolutionized how we see and manage manufacturing processes. This marked the beginning of modern quality and process management. Shewhart’s inspiration was that statistical thinking combined with analytics gives us a method that is uniquely capable of monitoring process performance and a usable path to control and process improvement.
 http://www.nwasoft.com/appnotes/diamond-anniv.htm NWA Helps Keep Packaging Under ControlNWA has a long history in the manufacture and use of all varieties of packaging including metal cans, glass and plastic bottles, and cardboard. Many large packaging companies such as Crown Cork and Seal have implemented the NWA Quality Software Suite on a global basis.
http://www.nwasoft.com/appnotes/ind-packaging.htmGallo Glass uses NWA Quality Analytics and Reporting for World Class Production The Gallo Glass plant in Modesto California is one of world’s largest bottle plants. Fourteen glass lines make more than 100 types of bottles in sizes and shapes ranging from 187 ml single serving bottles to 4 liter jugs. The plant is the sole supplier to the E & J Gallo Winery and produces over 2 million bottles a day. Gallo Glass information technology and manufacturing management built their own optimized Shop Floor Information System (SFIS) based on commercial software packages for rapid and cost effective implementation, and minimal long term maintenance overhead. They chose GE Fanuc iFIX for user interface configuration, MS SQL (updated from Oracle) for database management and Northwest Analytical Quality Software for SPC and manufacturing analytics reporting. NWA QAx ActiveX components were embedded in the iFIX/Oracle system and the process engineering staff use NWA Quality Analyst for continuous process improvement.
http://www.nwasoft.com/appnotes/gallo.pdf Newark Paperboard Products Produces Customer Quality Deliverables with NWA Quality Analyst The Longview, WA facility of Newark Paperboard Products produces paperboard tubes that are used for applications such as paper mill winder cores, tubes used in a variety of packaging applications and as concrete forms. Newark Paperboard Products is the third-largest tube and core supplier in North America. The plant is ISO 9001 certified and SPC use is specified in their ISO registration. NWA Quality Analyst is the core software in their product testing and customer reporting program.
http://www.nwasoft.com/appnotes/newarkpaper.pdf Applied SPC with NWA Quality AnalystDate: September 18-19, 2006
City: 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. To view the full course description, see:
http://www.nwasoft.com/semspcqa.htm To view accommodations and registration information, see:
http://www.nwasoft.com/semtrain.htm Announcing NWA Quality Information Server (QIS)NWA has announced the newest element of its award-winning suite of SPC and quality analytics software. The new NWA Quality Information Server (QIS) provides flexible, scalable, and easily administered database services to support a comprehensive, integrated quality information program. QIS allows users to configure and maintain a database for collecting, analyzing, and reporting quality related information including measurement data, defects, descriptive information, specifications, cause and action, and lookup tables. With QIS users can integrate and analyze quality information that may be stored in other manufacturing, laboratory, or corporate systems leading to better decisions and improved processes. Find all the details at:
http://www.nwasoft.com/qis.htm Using Stored Procedures When Connecting NWA Quality Analyst to DatabasesStored Procedures are executable scripts used with database applications such as MS SQL Server and Oracle to perform complex operations. Often, a Stored Procedure is the most efficient and effective method of manipulating data in complex databases in preparation for supplying it to external applications like NWA Quality Analyst.
NWA supports the use of Stored Procedures in database connection definitions, and can also supply values to those scripts that require arguments (such as a date range or product code). Stored Procedures are considered fairly advanced functions, and are referenced in the Quality Analyst connection definition via SQL.
http://www.nwasoft.com/technotes/storedproc.htm
IFT ANNUAL MEETING & FOOD EXPO NWA exhibited at the 2006 IFT Annual Meeting and Expo and participated in the IFT Quality Assurance Division symposium entitled “Global Supply Chain Quality and Food Safety Management”. The symposium dealt with the issues of ISO 22000 and international supply chain quality and food safety management. All three members of the US delegation (Dr. John Surak, Rick Stiers and Steven Wilson) to ISO 22000 spoke. The international standard ISO 22000 was a primary focus, examining the role of prerequisite programs as a basis for ensuring food safety and the application of ISO 22000 and 9001 to the USDC Seafood Inspection Program. In addition, Sid Jhaveri discussed how Starbucks Coffee manages their international supply chain and Jeffery Cawley of NWA spoke on how to implement a supply chain quality and food safety information management system that meets current ISA, SCOR and ISO standards. The individual papers were: - John Surak, Clemson University, ‘Overview of ISO 22000 and international supply chain safety and quality management’
- Rick Stiers, Consulting Food Scientists, ‘Prerequisite programs as a basis for ensuring food safety’
- Steve Wilson, NOAA Fisheries Seafood Inspection Program, ‘Applying ISO 22000 and 9001 to food systems: USDC seafood inspection program as a case study’
- Sid Jhaveri, Starbucks Coffee Company, ‘A global perspective on the role of quality assurance in the supply chain’
- Jeffery Cawley, Northwest Analytical, ‘Implementing quality and food safety management systems’
Commercial realities suggest there will be wide adoption of ISO 22000 especially in the developing world. This also implies wider use of quality management, SPC and Manufacturing Analytics. According to John Surak, "Continual improvement is a very strong aspect of ISO 22000 which includes the 'analysis of results of verification activities' (ISO 22000:2005 element 8.5.1). I do not know how one could effectively and efficiently do this job without active use of SPC and manufacturing analytics. Examples of how this is done are the studies we did showing the integration of HACCP and SPC at Butterball Turkey,
http://www.nwasoft.com/press/mag_haccp.htm
and the one using control charts to monitor sanitation,
http://www.nwasoft.com/appnotes/plantsani.htm ." Users frequently ask us for the most current software release numbers so we publish them on our website. To view current NWA product release numbers, see:
http://www.nwasoft.com/releasenumbers.htm
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© 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 quality data collection, enterprise-wide SPC charting and analysis, web-based reporting, and embedded SPC.
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