Aside from DATAPAGE, what softwares has anyone found and used that works very well hand in hand with PCDMIS for doing SPC charts, 6 sigma, cpk analysis, etc., inprocess to the product run? Thanks as always
Another happy QC-Calc user here. Also agree that OfficeBudy is nice. And if you want "correct" stats on non-normal data Buddy will send data to MiniTab along with all the necessary commands to do the analysis. It's amazing how complete this product is. Easy too. Hard part is getting people to pay attention to the data.
Digging up an old thread but I have the same questions
We are looking for some SPC software which can use the data from the CMM as well as data gathered from DTI's calipers etc. So far we only have SPC software which works with gathering the data from our shop floor gauges which use DTI's. However a requirement has changed from one of our customers who want us to send them data from measured parts on the CMM which is something this company has never done before.
We output the data to the customer using a dmo file which is basically a text file generated by pcdmis. They use CM4D to analyse this data. We had a salesman give us a demonstration of this software and it looks really good, does everything you could want from an SPC software with one big catch, it costs $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and is maybe 4-5 times more than other software out there.
Just wondering what everyone else uses and more importantly how does it import the data to analyse it. Can the software you use make use of the dmo files we have to produce or does it require another method. I have a month free trial of minitab but so far I havnt been able to make it use the dmo files effectively.
What is the scope of your implementation? This plays a major role in the decision process. Are you thinking corporate-wide?, for your site?, a particular shop area? Is it OK to have the data buried on the island of the cmm computer? Or does it need to be available to the production and quality manager? Do you need to collect data from just the cmm, or other devices as well? (digital calipers,mics,air gages).
As I stated above, I like QC- Calc. It handles all of the above - split up into separate packages, you buy only what you need. It is inexpensive, simple to use. It's real strong point IMO is gathering data and exporting it. It can export data to any of the major (expensive) SPC softwares out there, and of course Excel - which seems to be what engineers want. Raw data dumped to Excel. Quality engineers want the stats. Honestly, the only drawback I can think of is there's no CAD integration. You end up looking at the SPC labels (derived from pcdmis dimension, feature and axis names). If you're not familiar with the cmm program, you've got no idea what you're looking at). For example, an spc characteristic could be "DIM1:CIR1:X". Cmm programmer or operator can track that down no problem. But nobody else can. The obvious fix is to give meaningful names to pcdmis dimensions and/or features. But even this would require some sort of map - depending on who is looking at the data.
And this is really important: Someone (on each shift) in the organization is going to have to be responsible for tending to the data. Following up on bad/bogus results, rechecking dimensions and correcting the data, etc. It's a time consuming activity. But if it isn't done religiously, you'll end up with a bunch of data you wouldn't want to send to your customer. Unless every part you measure on the cmm is perfectly deburred and cleaned, you never have a tip out of calibration, never have a part misloaded and all the hundred other things that can go wrong during a cmm inspection...
Just wondering what everyone else uses and more importantly how does it import the data to analyse it. Can the software you use make use of the dmo files we have to produce or does it require another method. I have a month free trial of minitab but so far I havnt been able to make it use the dmo files effectively.
I didn't even answer your direct question. QC-Calc can use either the old (xstats11.tmp) or new (xml) files. We are using the Datapage+ xml files generated by STATS/ON, STATS/TRANSFER in pcdmis. Qc-calc has a component called RealRime that runs on the cmm. It monitors a directory you specify, and as soon as pcdmis creates the output file, RealTime sees it and imports it into a "flat file database" in a location you specify. We keep ours on a network drive. By default, the qc-calc "database" filename is based on the pcdmis program filename. On the first run of a program, qccalc creates a new database and configures all the nominal /USL /LSL/ characteristic labels based on the content of the cmm program, no setup required. Once a database exists, it just pulls in the data. Pretty slick IMO.
Hope I'm not sounding like a salesman here. It's what we have, and I'm happy with it. I'm sure you've looked at Hexagon's Datapage+ and QDAS - both of these should have the same "no fuss" pc-dmis integration. And Datapage does allow you to show stats on a model. (.CAD converted to some format I can't recall)
What is the scope of your implementation? This plays a major role in the decision process. Are you thinking corporate-wide?, for your site?, a particular shop area? Is it OK to have the data buried on the island of the cmm computer? Or does it need to be available to the production and quality manager? Do you need to collect data from just the cmm, or other devices as well? (digital calipers,mics,air gages).
So far the scope is only site wide, we do have two other sister sites but ill focus on one for now, trust me that will be enough work in itself. I want to make it so anyone who is interested in the office can access the data. Minitab for example do a perfect license for this, you can install it on as many computers as you want but you can only have 5 concurrent users. At the moment it is just collecting the data from the CMM. We do however have spc software on standalone machines that currently are used as a go nogo gauge for the operators as no-one looks at the data, so pointless. I want to try and make that data accessible in the future as well.
And this is really important: Someone (on each shift) in the organization is going to have to be responsible for tending to the data. Following up on bad/bogus results, rechecking dimensions and correcting the data, etc. It's a time consuming activity. But if it isn't done religiously, you'll end up with a bunch of data you wouldn't want to send to your customer. Unless every part you measure on the cmm is perfectly deburred and cleaned, you never have a tip out of calibration, never have a part misloaded and all the hundred other things that can go wrong during a cmm inspection...
unfortunately that is going to be my job, fortunately however the part numbers are low enough to quarantine the parts so I can double check if anything is wrong when I'm in work.
About 5-6 years ago, way before I joined they had here a quality engineer on each shift. Now we don't have anyone with that title here, it is kind of my job for dimensional issues. Only now is management rethinking its approach of not having quality technicians and engineers.
I did look into QC-Calc but it seems more of a real time display which I think would work if we were measuring a part every 5 mins. Or have I got the wrong end of the stick there?
I did look into QC-Calc but it seems more of a real time display which I think would work if we were measuring a part every 5 mins. Or have I got the wrong end of the stick there?
It does have a real time display and the immediate visual feedback on the part just measured is nice, but there's much more there. It calculates stats (of course). It's the ability to gather the data with zero effort on my part that means the most to me. And the export capabilities. Just out of curiosity, I exported some data to minitab (since you mentioned it), checked the "open in native application box and there it was in minitab in a matter of seconds. And if minitab would be the way you end up going, this export can be automated in realtime, so the minitab file would be updated every time a part is checked. (Just as an example)
It most definitely solves the problem you're having with the .dmo files. But the hexagon offerings should do this as well.
Ill keep looking into, thanks for the info. As usual its hard balancing what you ideally want and what the management want to pay. which is often nothing.
