Automatic Triggers for SPC Inspections Support the Accuracy of Statistical Process Control
By Matthias Kohlbrand In COSMINO AG has been supporting manufacturing companies in Statistical Process Control (SPC) with its proprietary software since the early 1990s.SPC is a statistical test procedure that does not require 100% testing to ensure a high degree of product quality: random samples are simply taken which are then compared with intervention limits.
The Cosmino SPC online dialog supports such a logging, checking and visualization of the quality data – it is the result of many years of customer relations and a considerable amount of expertise in this field.
In addition to the entry dialog, comprehensive inspection planning is part of the Cosmino SPC functionality. If inspection plans are not already available in an existing CAQ, it is convenient for customers to use Cosmino inspection planning.
The inspection sequences are also defined in an inspection plan. The development team at COSMINO AG also made sure that the defined inspection sequences can be triggered automatically by time or machine signals. In this way, inspections are planned “every X hours” or “all X parts”.
In the current version, the inspection sequences “Start of shift” and “X minutes after start of shift” have been added.
On the basis of an identical inspection sequence, the product characteristics to be measured are summarized for an inspection group in the entry dialog. The current software version also comes with another innovation: The inspection specification number from the inspection plan can now be taken into account as a criterion for a separate test group as well.
As soon as an inspection group is due, the person completing the inspection receives a visual notification. After all of the measurements have been taken and the values are within the intervention limits, the time until the next due date of an inspection group starts.
Overviews show the respective status of all the inspections at Work Centers of a department. This is because the statistical process control only works if all the inspections take place in the planned sequence.