eSPC - Supply Chain Quality Management

Download Product Sheet (.pdf)
Data Security and Availability(.pdf)
eSPC Launch Press Release

View Web Cast:
Supply Chain Quality
Management

Web-based SPC for real-time enterprise and supply chain quality management

Managing quality control in real-time at the enterprise level can be a daunting task, especially when you have facilities worldwide, each with their own production schedules and often individualized processes. Including the supply chain in your quality management and control initiatives is particularly challenging, yet crucial to your business strategy and success.

Supply Chain Quality Management

InfinityQS addresses both of these quality issues with eSPC. eSPC is a Web-based, fully hosted Statistical Process Control (SPC) solution that collects and analyzes quality data in real-time.

eSPC is based on InfinityQS industry-leading SPC software for real-time data analysis. From raw material suppliers located anywhere in the world to the final customer, eSPC can be used for automated data collection and statistical evaluation over the internet. Manufacturers can view supply quality data in real-time and evaluate it prior to delivery.

Additionally, eSPC provides a real-time enterprise-wide view of quality data, allowing corporate management to make executive level decisions on quality control. Finally, eSPC requires very little involvement from internal IT resources and it can be implemented within days, as opposed to months. Fast implementation allows users to instantly begin maximizing eSPC’s process control and improvement tools, thereby enabling a much faster return on investment as compared with older network-based technologies.

According to AMR Research, one of the ways in which manufacturers can make their food supply chain safer is by improving the frequency of quality data and analysis:

"Companies that analyze quality data at least hourly through cross-functional teams were able to improve the percentage of products recalled by 10%. This frequent analysis of production data places renewed emphasis on the ability to access data from production management systems. Don’t forget the dedicated quality management products, such as statistical process control (SPC) packages from InfinityQS. 77% of our study respondents had cross-functional review teams, with 14% collecting and reporting quality data on an hourly basis. When these two conditions exist together, dramatic improvements were noted in labeling and health and safety recalls."

- Lora Cecere, AMR Research

+ Fully hosted, Web-based solution

The application resides on an InfinityQS Web server at a secure, fully redundant data center. It provides similar functionality and reporting/alerting capabilities as our other industry-leading SPC software without having to manage the system internally.

+ Enterprise-wide view of quality system

The first and only product in the manufacturing industry to deliver quality intelligence for your entire enterprise and supply chain over the Internet through secured servers, eSPC provides the innovation you need to remain competitive.

+ Real-time supply chain quality management

The supply chain is playing an increasingly strategic role in the success of manufacturing businesses. It is imperative that the quality of incoming materials be consistent with the manufacturer’s standards and specifications. With eSPC, supply chain managers have more control over incoming material by viewing suppliers’ real-time quality data—before the materials are delivered or even ordered. eSPC empowers quality professionals and supply chain managers with real-time quality data analysis to determine which supplier is producing the highest quality materials at any given moment.

eSPC collects data directly from the shop floor, either through automated tools or by a shop floor operator. The software therefore links our customers to their suppliers’ shop floor processes and operations in real-time, using true “raw” quality data as it is collected. Other web-based data collection providers touting supplier quality management use data that is imported, not data collected in real-time. Therefore, these non-real-time solutions are not live and are not directly linked to the manufacturing shop floor. Additionally, these other providers leverage “scorecards” that do not allow the evaluation of the raw data that makes up the scorecard, therefore making it difficult to make scientific, statistical evaluations of suppliers.

+ Reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

As the only automated SPC solution with a centralized implementation that does not require significant IT expertise at each manufacturing facility, eSPC will help you recognize efficiencies and improve your bottom line.

+ High-level encryption ensures data integrity

eSPC is hosted in a physically safe, network-secure and reliably available environment:
. 24/7 monitoring of physical security, including motion sensor and security breach alarms
. Redundant high-speed internet links that connect eSPC directly into the core of the global internet backbone
. A world class server farm consisting of multiple application web servers and SQL servers with redundant, adaptive, dynamic load balancing
. The most redundant firewall technology available to protect against internal and external attacks
. 24/7 monitoring for inbound and outbound traffic against viruses, worms, denial-of-service (DOS) attacks such as SYN flooding, packet injection, application layer attack
. 24/7 monitoring of system health, network traffic, CPU utilization, and known and unknown anomalies before customers perceive performance issues

+ Advanced access controls, data collection features and analysis tools

Strict access control features support ALL the requirements of 21 CFR Part 11 including password aging, recycling, lockouts, length and encryption. Automatic audit trail logging provides a history of all changes made to any database item including sample data, limits and alarm rules.

Machine operators on the shop floor input test data into the system during production and the software presents the results on customized charts and graphs. Some of eSPC’s advanced data collection features include:

Control of data entry sequence
Real-time warnings of bad data
Preventing the input of unreasonable values
Limiting the edits of previously entered data
Integration with electronic gauging devices
Support of unlimited descriptive tag assignments

eSPC’s charts and graphs allow users to sort, slice and dice data in millions of ways, allowing extensive comparative analyses. By using readily available production data, you don’t need to invest in expensive off-line studies or additional statistical software. eSPC offers both variable and attribute control charts, multi-level Pareto charts, capability analysis charts (for normal and non-normal distributions) Subgroup tracking reports, and many others.

+ Advanced Data Collection Features and Analysis Tools

+ Drastically Reduced Implementation Timeframe, Minimal IT Resources Needed

eSPC is available and ready for use on the day it is purchased. Manufacturers can take immediate advantage of real-time SPC without having to wait for a lengthy and complex implementation. With traditional client-server systems, users must wait for their IT staff to procure and set up the hardware, purchase a server, configure the database, install the software and ensure a smooth integration.

On average, traditional SPC software requires anywhere from 1-4 people for ongoing management and support, depending on the size and complexity of the implementation. Many manufacturers use consultants for this ongoing management, which can be even more costly than hiring internal resources. Dedicated IT resources are needed to monitor and backup the system and provide on-site end-user support. With eSPC, companies eliminate the effort and expense that is needed for the security, servers, maintenance and equipment of a traditional client-server SPC software system.