For many years, the term quality control meant inspecting to remove nonconforming products. Goods were produced, then inspected to determine if they were compliant and ready to be shipped to the customer. Products that were not acceptable were either scrapped or reworked. This approach obviously, is not efficient in fact sorting products is expensive (an employee has to be dedicated to continuously check whether the product is right) and it is also not very accurate (studies have shown that 100% inspection is approximately 80% effective). This is the reason why a statistical approach must be preferred.
At its most basic, statistical process control (SPC) is a systematic approach of collecting and analyzing process data for prediction and improvement purposes. However, SPC is much more; it is about understanding process behavior so that it will be possible for the organization continuously improves results.
Statistical process control helps manufacturers escape the inefficient cycle, because it leads to a system of preventing nonconforming product during the production process instead of waiting until products are complete to determine whether they are acceptable. By using statistical process control, manufacturers can move from a detection approach to a prevention approach and this reduces waste, increases productivity, makes product quality more consistent, and reduces the risk of shipping non-conforming products.
SPC is a powerful tool, but success depends on regular and proper application. While many who are familiar with SPC often associate it with traditional control charts, these are just the common visual representations of SPC. Behind those are a suite of powerful and proven techniques and algorithms that analyze, monitor, and predict the performance of a particular process or product characteristic. It effectively identifies abnormal trends in real time and provides alarms and notifications before a non-conformance occurs. For doing that, SPC requires data from operators, machines, Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, or programmable logic controllers (PLCs), and the ability to present analysis and notifications to the right people, at the right time, and in the right place in order to make effective, immediate short-, medium-, or long-term decisions.
Brick Reply™ is the innovative platform allowing to take under control the whole production quality process. With Brick Reply™ it will be possible to easily implement the SPC, that is one of the many critical components required as part of a smart factory strategy.