NWA SPC Update is a newsletter from Northwest Analytical (NWA), the world's leading provider of statistical process control software. Here you will find the latest SPC news and solutions for manufacturers and laboratories.

Industry News

Huhtamaki Uses Integrated Plant Floor SPC to Save Material Costs Making Plastic Tableware

Huhtamaki Americas, headquartered in De Soto, Kansas, operates seventeen manufacturing facilities in North and South America which produce paperboard, plastic, and molded fiber packaging for consumer and food products. The Coleman, MI Huhtamaki facility specializes in plastic thermoforming operations to produce disposable plastic tableware. Using SPC and continuous process improvement is the corporate standard process management method. NWA Quality Analyst and NWA Quality Monitor are the standard SPC software tools.

NWA is used as the tool to establish process control limits and support quality control initiatives. Engineering uses the software for process studies and to work process capability into specifications. The approach is part of the continuous process improvement programs which reduce variation, decrease scrap, and reduce product overages.

As a result of this system, Huhtamaki Coleman has been able to improve operations by limiting variation in weights during the manufacturing process. Over the past two years, the difference between the target weight and the actual weight was measured and benchmarked. The measured results showed a cumulative cost savings of over $200,000 since the program started.

The experience of the Huhtamaki Coleman facility demonstrates the substantial returns available to those plants which aggressively develop and expand their Quality Monitor based plant floor systems. Quality Monitor Professional Services (888-692-7638) provides the evaluation and technical services to implement added capabilities.

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Silliker eSCOPE newsletter on USDA AMS Supply Chain Quality Management

Silliker, Inc.’s on-line technical bulletin carried an article on the USDA AMS National School Lunch program supply chain quality management system and their role as an AMS Designated Laboratory (ADL).

The AMS program has been a major success in providing better quality and safer nutrition for the school lunch program. The TRS-GB focuses on two product parameters affecting food safety and nutritional quality - pathogen levels and fat content. In the four years of using the SPC based supply chain quality management program, the AMS can point to major improvements in the effectiveness of the ground beef procurement program:

• Salmonella incidence rate has been reduced from 5.5% to 0.9%
• AMS has used the program to move the target fat content from 22% to 15%

Silliker provides the testing and data analysis which enables the ground beef producers to monitor their production and certify their process and individual lots.

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NWA Joins Rockwell Encompass Program

Northwest Analytical has joined the Rockwell Automation Encompass Program. The NWA product line of SPC and Manufacturing Analytics software is now referenced in the Encompass program. NWA will be exhibiting the NWA line of SPC and analytics software at the Rockwell Automation Fair 2006, October 25-26, 2006, Baltimore, MD.

The Encompass Program is a product referencing program designed to identify, qualify, and jointly market third-party manufactured products that complement the breadth of world-class products developed by Rockwell Automation.

More info on the Rockwell Encompass Program

Rockwell Automation (NYSE: ROK) is a leading global provider of automation, power, control, and information systems and services that help manufacturers achieve a competitive advantage in their businesses. Headquartered in Milwaukee, WI, the company employs about 21,000 people serving customers in more than 80 countries.

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Upcoming Product and SPC Training

Applied SPC with NWA Quality Analyst, December 4-5, Philadelphia, PA

Date: December 4-5, 2006

City: Philadelphia, PA

Course Description

Accommodations and registration information

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Product and Technical Notes

Displaying Descriptive Information on the X-Axis of SPC Charts

SPC charts that show limited descriptions on the X-axis (some SPC packages only show the data row) are missing key information that is needed to clearly identify potential sources of excessive variation and reveal relationships. Including as much descriptive information as possible makes chart interpretation easier and more accurate. Something as simple as adding axis labels can transform your SPC charts into effective tools for solving problems and improving processes. Quality Analyst allows users to select up to 24 description variables to appear on SPC charts, and provides a combination of axis labels and drill-down methods to use that information effectively.

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QM Technical Services

Extending and refining your Quality Monitor system can produce dramatic improvements to productivity and profitability as shown in the above discussion of Huhtamaki’s application. NWA Quality Monitor Professional Services will help you evaluate your needs and improve your system’s performance.

Call your representative today at 888-NWA-SOFT (888-692-7638) to discuss improving the yield from your Quality Monitor installation.

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Events and Publications

IFT Annual Meeting and Food Expo

NWA exhibited at the 2006 IFT Annual Meeting and Expo and participated in the IFT Quality Assurance Division symposium #058 “Global Supply Chain Quality and Food Safety Management”

Symposium 058 dealt with the issues of ISO 22000 and international supply chain quality and food safety management. All three members of the US delegation (Dr. John Surak, Rick Stiers and Steven Wilson) to ISO 22000 spoke. The international standard ISO 22000 was a primary focus, examining the role of prerequisite programs as a basis for ensuring food safety and the application of ISO 22000 and 9001 to the USDC Seafood Inspection Program. In addition, Sid Jhaveri discussed how Starbucks Coffee manages their international supply chain and Jeffery Cawley spoke on how to implement a supply chain quality and food safety information management system that meets current ISA, SCOR and ISO standards. The individual papers were:

• John Surak, Clemson University, "Overview of ISO 22000 and international supply chain safety and quality management"
• Rick Stiers, Consulting Food Scientists, "Prerequisite programs as a basis for ensuring food safety"
• Steve Wilson, NOAA Fisheries Seafood Inspection Program, "Applying ISO 22000 and 9001 to food systems: USDC seafood inspection program as a case study"
• Sid Jhaveri, Starbucks Coffee Company, "A global perspective on the role of quality assurance in the supply chain"
• Jeffery Cawley, Northwest Analytical, "Implementing quality and food safety management systems"

Food Quality Magazine has requested selected papers for publication.

Commercial realities suggest there will be wide adoption of ISO 22000 especially in the developing world. This also implies wider use of quality management, SPC and Manufacturing Analytics. According to John Surak, "Continual improvement is a very strong aspect of ISO 22000 which includes the ‘analysis of results of verification activities’ (ISO 22000:2005 element 8.5.1). I do not know how one could effectively and efficiently do this job without active use of SPC and manufacturing analytics. Examples of how this is done are the studies we did showing the integration of HACCP and SPC at Butterball Turkey, and the one using control charts to monitor sanitation."

Applied Biosystems INFORM 2006, September 17-21, San Francisco

Darlene Stoll, NWA Global Channel Manager, presented "Benefits of NWA Quality Analyst with SQL*LIMS." The workshop covered the topics:

• Overview and demonstration of how Quality Analyst is integrated within SQL*LIMS.
• SPC Reporting for Improving Lab Quality.
• Strategic use of process-related LIMS data to provide a higher level of service to users in manufacturing and enterprise management.

Lisa Templeton presented a one-day seminar, "Applied Laboratory SQC with NWA Quality Analyst." In this hands-on seminar, laboratory practitioners learned how to use NWA Quality Analyst to apply SQC techniques to testing laboratories including:

• How to recognize sources of variability
• How to quantify and monitor precision and accuracy
• How to perform capability analysis
• How to utilize control charts to monitor performance

More info

Rockwell Automation Fair 2006, October 25-26, Baltimore, MD

NWA will exhibit and demonstrate the integration of NWA SPC and Manufacturing Analytics software with Rockwell Automation systems.

More info

PerkinElmer 4th Annual Labworks LIMS Client Workshop, October 23-26, Charleston, SC

Darlene Stoll will present a tutorial on using SPC to monitor analytical spike recovery.

More info

Applied Biosystems International INFORM November 7-9, Paris, France

Darlene Stoll will demonstrate NWA SPC applications within SQL*LIMS.

More info

Yokogawa Technology Innovations Fair, November 29-30, Houston, TX

NWA will exhibit and demonstrate the integration of NWA SPC and Manufacturing Analytics software with Yokogawa systems. Phil Schreiber, VP Sales & Marketing and Louis Halvorsen, CTO will present, "Integrating Manufacturing Analytics for Batch, Continuous, and Mixed Processes."

More info

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Current NWA Product Release Numbers

Users frequently ask us for the most current software release numbers so we publish them on our website.

Current NWA product release numbers

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© Northwest Analytical, Inc., all rights reserved. NWA Quality Monitor, NWA Quality Monitor Supervisor, NWA Quality Analyst, NWA Quality Analyst Web Server, NWA QAx, and NWA SPCx are trademarks or registered trademarks of Northwest Analytical. *All other company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of those respective companies.

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 quality data collection, enterprise-wide SPC charting and analysis, Web-based reporting and embedded SPC.

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