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.

Industry News

New Business Partners

Aertia, S.L.
Aertia S.L. is based in Barcelona, Spain and focuses on distributing technical software applications. Aertia is committed to the distribution and support of programs and applications in many areas of expertise, from computer languages and graphical libraries to simulation tools and FEA applications and its ancillary products.

Aertia, S.L.
C/ Valencia, 463, Entresuelo 4ª
08013 Barcelona - Spain
Telephone: +34 93 2651320
Fax: +34 93 2652351
E-mail: info@aertia.com
www.aertia.com

JMP Engineering
JMP Engineering is a London, Ontario based systems integration and consulting firm which focuses on creating world-class, reliable and easily maintained automation, control and information solutions that leverage current technology to enhance manufacturing performance for clients in:
• Automotive
• Food/Beverage
• Pharmaceuticals
• Metal Processing
• Environmental

JMP Engineering
4026 Meadowbrook Drive, Unit 143
London, Ontario N6L 1C9
Canada
Tel: (519) 652-2741 Fax: (519) 652-6040  
www.jmpeng.com

Hong Kong Water Supply District Application

HONG KONG WATER SUPPLIES DEPARTMENT

Hong Kong today enjoys one of the safest water supplies in the world. With proper treatment and stringent quality monitoring and control, its water quality complies with the chemical and bacteriological guidelines for drinking water quality recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).  

The Water Supplies Department also decided to meet the latest NELAC standards. NELAC (National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Conference) is sponsored by the EPA as a voluntary association of state and federal officials and represents the latest and most rigorous US standards. In order to meet these standards, Hong Kong reviewed commercial LIMS systems and chose to purchase and implement the PerkinElmer LABWORKS Enhanced Security (ES) LIMS.

The standard LABWORKS system uses NWA Quality Analyst for SPC-based quality control functions.  At Hong Kong WSD’s request, PerkinElmer added additional SPC capabilities using ActiveX components from NWA’s embedded real-time SPC product, NWA QAx, to meet all of the NELAC requirements.

http://www.nwasoft.com/appnotes/app-hkwater.htm

Upcoming Product and SPC Training

Applied SPC with NWA Quality Analyst

EVENTS AND PUBLICATIONS

AMS National School Lunch Program case study to appear in Food Quality Magazine

Supply Chain Quality System Ensures Wholesome Ground Beef for School Children

The October/November issue of Food Quality Magazine will feature a case study of the supply chain quality management system for the School Lunch Program. The USDA Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS) has successfully implemented a world-class vendor certification and supply chain quality system to ensure the quality and safety of ground beef bought for the School Lunch Program.

Earlier, NWA invited AMS to present their results in a webcast on Supply Chain Quality Management. The archived webcast can be seen at: http://www.nwasoft.com/webcasts/20050330.htm. The webcast features Steve Olson, a Livestock and Meat Marketing Specialist at USDA AMS, reviewing the School Lunch Program’s ground beef vendor certification and lot quality reporting systems. He shares results that include higher quality and safer meat delivered to the School Lunch Program - with greater control of value. Jeffery Cawley, a vice president at NWA, discusses supply chain quality monitoring and the SPC systems that help to ensure successful execution.

2005 IFT ANNUAL MEETING & FOOD EXPO

“Using SPC methods to trigger preventative maintenance and prevent CCP violations”
Session 93, Integrating Preventative Maintenance into HACCP 

Summary of Jeffery Cawley’s presentation at IFT 2005

Abstract:
HACCP violations are characterized by exceeding critical limits at a Control Point. Often, monitoring CCP values is treated as a go/no-go attribute. It has been demonstrated that using SPC to monitor the underlying process and guarantee a stable, highly capable process is the most effective method to avoid CCP violations. Preventative maintenance programs are designed to avoid process destabilization by scheduling maintenance ahead of expected failure. Such schedules are conservative, and can result in excessive maintenance episodes. By using SPC methods to monitor the process, one can move to an event driven preventative maintenance operation and achieve the same process stability at less cost and downtime.

http://www.nwasoft/appnotes/spcforPM.htm

A ROADMAP TO QUALITY SYSTEMS THAT WORK IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

JMP Engineering will host a seminar in Windsor, Ontario on October 12, 2005. The seminar will examine the strategy for assembling an integrated manufacturing management system using existing software products. Northwest Analytical will participate and discuss the general quality systems deployment process with emphasis on:

Registrations will be taken after September 16 at:
www.jmpeng.com/mes.html

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 data collection and supervision, enterprise-wide charting and analysis, web-based reporting and embedded SPC.