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
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...
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...
