The Manufacturing Execution System GUARDUS MES and Its New Early Warning Functions in the Statistical Process Control
The Statistical Process Control (SPC) is a must for almost every preventive quality assurance and it has been a basic function of the GUARDUS MES ever since. As an integral part of the operator’s self-control, this function serves for the manual or automated collection of product and process characteristics and their visualisation in real-time. The software of GUARDUS Solutions AG from Ulm now offers new early warning functions and user-friendly design elements so that the users of the Manufacturing Execution Systems can use the SPC method in a more efficient way than they have done so far.
Some standard tools that are used during the everyday work with the SPC method are the capability indices as well as the quality and process control charts. The latter ones have been upgraded with various design elements. From now on, the areas between the mean value, control limits, and tolerance limits will be displayed in colour. Moreover, the new display of individual values will supplement the displayed mean value with the actual value of a sample. The advantage of the coloured areas is that the user can be provided with a better overview of the criticality of the current process situation and can intervene to regulate the situation. Due to the display of individual values, the outliers and parameter dispersions can be visualised in an optimum way. Besides the well-known capability indices for process start-up, serial production, and machines or indicators such as control limits, run, trend etc., these improvements will bring a simplification for the production worker due to the fact that the process situation can be recognised pragmatically at a glance. Thus, questions such as “Is the whole cycle dispersed or is the dispersion so high because of one outlier?” can be easily and reliably answered.
Moreover, for a high efficiency of information between the in-process control and the person who is responsible for the process and in terms of a sustainable CIP (Continuous Improvement Process), GUARDUS MES also offers event-triggered mechanisms. The way it works: At the characteristic level of the quality inspection plans, the software user will store the respective limit values per each process indicator. Once a limit value has been reached, a workflow that starts automatically will provide an early warning system function and in doing so, it will inform all the operators that have been previously established via an e-mail or SMS. It is in this way that GUARDUS MES supports not only the direct quality control loop in the shop floor, but also the so-called “large” control loop aiming at the sustainable optimisation of the production process.
