Article: Quality software for professional quality

The latest release of NWA Quality Analyst shows the advantages which professional SPC software can offer over other approaches. THOMAS HARDING reports.

The case for implementing statistical process control techniques is obvious, but SPC without professional SPC software is like doing any job without professional tools. Long established as one of the most proficient PC-based approaches, NWA Quality Analyst provides an excellent combination of power, flexibility, and ease of use.

Many people have adapted general-purpose software, such as Excel spreadsheets, to tackle the requirements of SPC projects. But NWA Quality Analyst offers distinct advantages in terms of fast charting, simple setup and straightforward connection to external databases. It’s a far more powerful approach.

The latest release of NWA Quality Analyst, version 5.2, includes a number of enhancements which illustrate its considerably more advanced capabilities compared to other approaches.

There are now comprehensive Exception Reporting capabilities. Users can design any number of exception reports for each Data Set and provide a wide range of ways to report specification, SPC, and pattern rule violations.

The SPC chart associated with the exception is generated with the click of a button. In addition, multiple Exception Reports can be combined in Quality Analyst Run Files to produce a single report that scans across a process or facility.

NWA Quality Analyst 5.2 can use operating-system permissions to protect data and header files from even temporary modifications. In earlier versions, users without ‘write’ permission for data and/or header files could still make temporary changes in data and configuration parameters that remained in effect during their work session. This feature prevents unauthorised users from making even temporary changes, which helps meet the requirements of FDA 21CFR Part 11 for electronic records.

A ‘De-normalize’ Function reads data from normalised database tables that currently require complex SQL queries. A point-and-click interface, much like the current database connectivity, builds the required SQL query without exposing the user to its syntax.

Anyone wishing to investigate professional SPC software should take a look at a series of technical guides recently issued by Adept Scientific under the “SPC Casebook” banner. These discussion papers look at SPC software in action in various industries, and investigate some of the major issues such as the case for using software such as Quality Analyst rather than spreadsheets.

Why use professional SPC software instead of Excel? It’s quite understandable that a fair proportion of Quality Control professionals are still using a spreadsheet for statistical process control, despite the increasing availability and affordability of dedicated SPC software. After all, most people already own Excel, and it does the job reasonably with a little time, effort and patience. Or rather, quite a lot, actually. That’s the problem. Even if Excel can do all the analysis you think you need, the time taken to do it is increasingly precious. Meanwhile, there’s technically accurate, inexpensive SPC software to help you do the job quickly and easily. It’s well worth investigating.

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