Q-DAS® Products

A Simple Introduction to the World of Q-DAS® and the

CAMERA Concept
A not totally made-up report on my experience Thomas Schäfer, Q-DAS® GmbH & Co. KG

Presentation The results are correct and validated.

So I have to take a closer look at my process now. And I
May I present myself? I work in the field of quality assur-
have to deal with these Cp and Cpk values that everyone
ance. My company produces shafts.
is talking about…
Different machines produce these shafts. My shaft has “I have to establish the capability of my measuring equip-
got five points (characteristics) I have to inspect in order ment continuously to perform the desired inspection
to find out whether everything is alright. task. solara shows me the capability in a clear and simple
There are different suppliers, different machine opera- way. “
tors and different appraisers for the material, but more
on that later. Cm? But I Wanted to Calculate Cp!
I use a caliper in order to inspect my shaft. At the push Machine capability -> qs-STAT®
of a button the caliper Everybody talks about process capability…
shows me the measured However, I have just checked whether my measuring
value of the respective equipment is able to measure correctly, so I should also
characteristic and I write it check whether my
on a piece of paper. machines are able to pro-
I know, this does not duce my parts.
sound like the best practice The magic word is
for quality assurance. Figure 1: My shaft machine capability analy-
s i s .
Is my Measuring Equipment Capable? Q-DAS® refers to this
type of analysis as a sam- Figure 4: Machine capability
Capability of measuring equipment -> solara.MP
ple analysis. The capabili- 50 values
This is the first time I encounter the world of Q-DAS®: If
ty index - a kind
I want to measure a certain quantity, I have to make sure
of “grade” for the
that my measuring equip-
machine- is
ment works precisely
called Cm/Cmk.
enough to do so.
I check whether
This is when it comes to
my machine is
the capability of measur-
capable in one
ing equipment; and it is
go by using a
this capability that I need Figure 2: My caliper single sample Figure 5: Machine capability analysis
to know.
and as few influ-
So I want to use the solara® software helping me to ence compo-
make different analyses easily. Eventually I will receive a nents as possible.
report providing an overview of all the important pieces
I measure 50 parts that have been produced successive-
of information I need to know.
ly.
This report shows a green smiley at best. Always.
Then I enter the measured values in qs-STAT®. Now I tap
Now I am able <F10> and, lo and behold, the machine is capable.
to evaluate my
qs-STAT® selects the correct and best suitable calcula-
measuring
tion method for my measured values automatically.
equipment. I
inspect it at I do not have to be a statistician in order to use this soft-
regular inter- ware but, if I want to, I may adjust everything in the
vals. And I can minutest detail.
rely on the cal- “I use qs-STAT® in order to perform sample analyses and
culations made Figure 3: Evaluation results for measuring process analyses. I check whether my machine is capable
by the soft- equipment of producing the desired parts. “
ware.

36 PIQ International
 Q-DAS® Products

How Well Does My Process Work? I would like to check my

products continuously
Process capability -> qs-STAT®
now.
Capable. But what does that mean anyway?
Thus my appraisers shall
We produce 100 shafts a day. I cannot inspect all of inspect the shafts taken
them in a measuring room. from the production
I only inspect five of process.
them but I need software In this case, qs-STAT® is
Figure 8: procella input mask
that tells me the quality not the ideal software
of the remaining 95 parts solution. I want my appraisers, who did not receive any
based on the measured training in using the software, to be able to enter mea-
values of these five sured data easily. The data should refer to the respective
shafts. That is statistics. test part and be entered in the correct sequence. It will
However, before these Figure 6: Process analysis be perfect if my appraisers receive exact images, instruc-
few shafts are able to tions and information about where to measure the part.
provide information about my current process, I have to And this is procella® .
become thoroughly acquainted with the process first.
First I create a test plan. Then I determine the measure-
Three shifts measure five shafts for ten days. Based on
ment sequence. Now I define the characteristics and I
this “amount“ of values I am able to check whether the
am geared to my drawing from the development depart-
process is capable to produce the shafts.
ment.
qs-STAT® does that for me. The software calculates e.g.
These tasks are quickly to fulfill and procella® does all
the capability index “Cpk“ from my measured values.
the rest.
This index is like a school grade, the higher the better.
And if this index even exceeds my demands/my target In version 10, you may even stamp CAD drawings auto-
value typically amounting to 1.33, my process will be matically, i.e. transfer measuring points / characteristics
“capable”. from the development drawing automatically.
Short example: If I analyze my samples and this analysis The old piece of paper that I wrote the measured values
leads to a Cpk of 1.67, statistics says that I have to expect on has long vanished in the bin. Electronic data record-
0,63 erroneous parts out of one million parts produced. ing has got great advantages.
Result: Not even one part will be defective. I can live Here I have got the option to save images and drawings
with that. for each characteristic. Even untrained operators are
able to take the measurement correctly.
Once again: Even though I just measure few parts,
qs-STAT® draws conclusions about all parts. The soft- In the course of time I realize that I would like to append
ware reaches these conclusions automatically and, just additional information to the measured value. I have
as the Sample Analysis module does, selects the correct already recorded date/time but I would like to add batch
calculation methods, but more on that later. and machine. That is not a problem.
By the way, the method used to calculate the capability The past is already forgotten: At the beginning we
index and the reason why it refers to the number of entered measured values manually. Now, one of the
errors per million (parts per million, ppm) is a different strengths of procella® is the connection to measuring
and complicated subject. The TEQ® offers trainings in equipment. The latest list of interfaces includes more
this topic area. They are the experts in training and con- than 200 current measuring instruments that can be
sulting of the Q-DAS® Group. You may either participate connected to procella® directly and the number still ris-
in a certain training course or invite an expert to your es.
company. This seminar will then be adapted to your In the meantime, we have
needs and requirements. connected several feelers
“qs-STAT® helps me to understand my processes. I am and calipers, of course, to
able to control, monitor and analyze.“ procella®.
Push the button and the
I Need Measured Data, as Easily as Possible. measured values are
Recording measured recorded.
values -> procella®/ procella® jumps to the
O-QIS procella® next characteristic to be Figure 9: Connected measure-
ment system
My system grows. My recorded automatically.
measuring equipment is Figure 7: Drawing from devel- By the way, the feeler on the picture was not contained
capable. My machines opment in the list of interfaces.
are capable. We produce.

PIQ International 37
Q-DAS® Products

In these cases, Q-DAS® creates a new connection. sured value, test plan information and any further infor-
®
“procella can visualize any measurement procedure, mation provided by the measuring machine.
however complex it might seem. As an additional sup- At the beginning, we sent these files to the database by
port, I may integrate photos and drawings.“ using the Upload Client, a little Q-DAS® tool that is free
of charge. This service just searches for the best suitable
I Want to Find Information More Easily! pigeonhole in the database and saves the measured val-
Files vs. database -> Q-DBM ues there.
We work with files all the time. This is reasonable when However, in the course of time, you would have been
performing measuring system analyses (solara®). happy if erroneous measurements had not been saved
However, you will lose to the database at all or if additional information had
track of your process data been appended to the measured values as procella®
someday. does.
Q-DAS® always installs This is when O-QIS CMM can help.
an Access database pro- (Even though this piece of information might be confus-
viding storage space for ing: O-QIS is the main product and includes several
several millions of mea- modules, namely procella®, CMM, Alert Manager and
sured values and it is still Monitoring. However, procella® can also be purchased
free of charge. Figure 10: Database and filter as an own prod-
The great advantage: uct.)
Each program, no matter if it is solara®, qs-STAT® or pro- We installed O-
cella®, can load data directly from the database. QIS CMM
I may define the display of test plans individually. between the
interfaces of the
So I will find my parts more quickly.
measuring
If I am only interested in the production data of the last Figure 12: CMM data flow
machine and the
month and only the values of machine 1 and batch 4 are Upload.
important, I can filter the information.
As soon as the coordinate measuring machine (CMM)
I have got the option to save these filters and even selec- takes a measurement, the measured values are immedi-
tions which makes working faster. ately displayed in O-QIS CMM. There you find two but-
Someday, the Access database might not provide tons, a red one and a green one. Use these buttons to
enough storage space anymore. Now, MS-SQL or evaluate the measurement easily and quickly and decide
Oracle comes into play. And Q-DAS® offers Q-DBM, the whether you want to upload the data into the database.
database module in order to connect a “real” database. Now we have O-QIS installed at every measuring
And by the way: machine.
I was able to directly import my old Excel file that I still A new task for the appraiser is now to confirm the mea-
had from pre-Q-DAS® times by using an import tool. I surement.
could also have done it by copy & paste but the import This task leads to useful measured values in the data-
seemed more elegant to me. base and it does not matter whether they are inside or
“Working with databases makes it easier to find data and outside the tolerance.
provides the option to work with advanced filters.“ It is very easy to use the software. You may even activate
the input of additional data. Everything is possible.
My Measuring Machine Communicates with
“Due to O-QIS CMM, measuring machines are integrat-
Q-DAS®: Let’s Pass the Data!
ed perfectly into the system. In addition, the measured
Connecting measuring machines -> O-QIS CMM data are evaluated.“
The system continues to
grow. Several measuring Who Is Allowed to Delete My Measured
machines are in the mea- Values?
suring room. Their Rights management in the world of Q-DAS® -> all
providers are certified by products
Q-DAS®, i.e. the
Initially, we had local installations. This was sufficient.
machines are able to
However, by using a central database we were also
write the Q-DAS® transfer
searching for an option to manage user rights centrally.
format.
In the user management you may define groups and
Files in the Q-DAS® trans- Figure 11: O-QIS CMM assign specific rights to these groups. As an example, we
fer format are small text
have the “appraiser” group whose members are actual-
files containing the mea-
ly only allowed to measure.
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 Q-DAS® Products

The members of the “process responsible” group have additional information helping us to make evaluations.
much more rights, e.g. they are allowed to create test “O-QIS procella and CMM do not only suit the purpose
plans. of data recording, but also help us to evaluate and hence
I do not have to create every single new user anymore to control the machines directly.“
since I can use the “Use Windows registration” option.
Due to this option new users are created automatically I Need Own Reports. And I Want to Include
when they sign in for the first time. Then I move the new My Corporate Identity.
users to the respective group. Ready. Report design adapted to your needs ->Form
More and More People Want to Be Part of It Designer (Q-FD)
Single & concurrent licenses -> all products The reports provided by the software have been ade-
quate for a long time.
In order to save costs, we removed our single installa-
Someday, customers and other departments had addi-
tions (stand-alone) and decided to purchase the concur-
tional requirements.
rent version (floating) instead. So we use a server instal-
lation now. The Form Designer gives
us the option to create
This server installation knows that we own a certain
own reports or to change
number of “floating” licenses per product. Thus we may
existing ones. You may
install the client installation on any computer but the
even embed graphics and
number of users working with the software at the same
drawings, e.g. an
time cannot exceed the number of licenses we pur-
overview of all measure-
chased.
ment points including a
In the meantime, we have got a qs-STAT® plant license. drawing of the part show-
This means that we may use qs-STAT® as often as we like ing the location of all the
at our site. measurement points.
If we require an additional license for a product, we You configure individually
order it and receive a small license file that we can eas- how the information con-
ily load on a central server. tained in the report is dis- Figure 14: Customized report
played. You may even
Everything under Control!
combine summaries of parts, data related to character-
Control loops in the world of Q-DAS® -> procella® & istics and single lists of values as requested.
qs-STAT®
In addition to the recording of measured values and the More Communication between Measuring
overall evaluation of our processes, which is also Room and Machines Required.
referred to as a major control loop, the graphical user Two-stage CMM ->O-QIS CMM
interfaces of our recording programs were adapted in a
Another improvement. We introduce a new intermedi-
way that control charts and additional information are
ate step for the measuring machines. Do you still
displayed to the operators while taking measurements.
remember? The measuring machines used to send their
Thus we implement the minor control loop that helps data to the O-QIS software in the measuring room so
our operators to control the machines directly since far. There the data were receipted and transferred to the
they only have a short- database automatically by using the Upload.
time slot available.
However, our problem was that the information from
Action limits from differ- the measuring room hardly ever reached the machines.
ent calculated control The operators delivered the part to be measured to the
charts show operators measuring room. And what happened then?
when a process changes
Now we have changed this procedure. We installed O-
and when they actively
QIS workstations at the machines so that the whole pro-
need to take corrective
Figure 13: Control chart cedure has been modified: Depending on the machine
action in the process.
producing the part to be measured, the measuring
You may calculate the machines in the measur-
control charts automatically or specify them manually. ing room do not send
This is also done on a central server since you would not their measured values to
want to walk from workstation to workstation and the Upload but send
adjust the respective settings there. them to the second chain
In case the specification limits are violated, the machine of O-QIS installations
operator has to select an event, e.g. ”tool breakage“. We first, directly to the corre- Figure 15: 2-stage CMM data
now gain more and more measured values including sponding machine. flow

PIQ International 39
Q-DAS® Products

Hence, the operator, who has just delivered his part of departments require them. Due to the growth of our
machine 1 to the measuring room, promptly receives system and the significance of the provided information,
the measured value and the value chart of his part since meanwhile, there are quite a lot of reports our plant
they are displayed at his machine. Now he is able to requires.
make adjustments, if required. M-QIS helps.
The kind of evaluation the operator makes changes. This is another product that should be installed as a
Now, the inspector in the measuring room only evalu- server. It offers several
ates the quality of the inspection. Measured correctly, functions and the first
correct test plan. one I will use is the
And the operator at the machine may add additional Reporting System.
information, e.g. the reason why and how this measured I define reports that I
value was recorded and which corrective action he have created with the
wants to take now. Tool breakage, machine readjusted, Form Designer. Then I
etc. The information is flowing… allocate them to selec-
“QIS-CMM is applied flexibly. A better communication tions in my database, i.e. Figure 16: M-QIS server
between measuring room and machine raises the signif- a certain amount of data,
icance of your measured values and leads to shorter no matter if they are related to parts, characteristics or
response times.“ values. I am able to provide “groups of recipients” with
a certain report and data. These recipients are e-mail
How Warm Was It? groups, printers and PDF storage folders.
Process data from machines ->all products The combination of report, data and “recipient” can be
The free-of-charge Upload Client allows you to load data created as a job in M-QIS so that this job will be done
available in the Q-DAS® transfer format automatically automatically at regular adjustable intervals.
into the database. We have managed that our in-house Would you like some examples?
tester system is able to create these data. The data for- Every morning my shift supervisors receive an e-mail
mat is described quite well and always disposable. Thus including a PDF file about the evaluation of the previous
we are able to combine machine data with measured day. In addition, the head of our division gets a monthly
data. evaluation of the production. The QM department also
As an example, we record temperatures and other receives reports, but only about bad characteristics - a
machine parameters at the time of producing a part and separate report for each customer we support.
save this information to the database. We determine Automatically, etc.
correlations when comparing these data to our mea- “M-QIS is a powerful tool. Its included reporting function
sured values. But don’t worry, qs-STAT® will do that automates your reporting system and indicates corporate
automatically for you. information paths.“
However, it is important to have a clear allocation of
data. In our case, this is a unique ID number identifying Our Group Wants to See Some Information.
the machine and the measuring station. Now we gain I Control It!
significant information about each part.
Web-based intranet solutions ->M-QIS Web
Q-DAS® or any Q-DAS® partner may also connect the
M-QIS was actually installed because of the automated
machines to O-QIS. They write converters to be imple-
reporting system only. But I am curious and there is a
mented into the Upload Client. After the implementa-
webserver activated on the server M-QIS is installed on.
tion is completed, your system can read any file format.
Born as a small test system, it developed into a source
And by the way, the program already includes an Excel of information for colleagues working in other plants.
and CSV converter.
The principle is quite simple. Q-DAS® provides a kind of
Punctually at 8 A.M. the Report Is on the qs-STAT® web version. It can be completely adapted to
your needs. Anyone who
Table! is acquainted with web
Automated reporting system ->M-QIS Reporting applications, is able to
Maybe “intermediate result” is the better heading. Our integrate it into the own
data stream flows all the time. Our information is valu- intranet structure quickly.
able. We regulate and control directly at the machines Now a Q-DAS® website is
and in a more comprehensive way in order to keep and part of our intranet.
improve our quality standard. We actually use almost
I got some new projects and I have only a short time left every qs-STAT® function.
Figure 17: M-QIS web
to create reports on a daily basis, even though different Read from database.

40 PIQ International
 Q-DAS® Products

Display of measured data. by machine and batch. So, in the end, our 10000 pieces
Open reports etc. of information become about 20 in our example. The
However, everything is data are compressed. And in our case, this is sufficient
globally accessible. Of for the data recorded five years ago. The database is
course, only within our compressed and I gain some storage capacity. And we
group. Now the other save the raw values on storage media.
plants have got the option Figure 18: M-QIS web “M-QIS data compression and outsourcing helps to con-
to see current data, how- trol the amount of data. The compression and outsourc-
ever, only those data we release. By using VPN tunnel- ing is automated according to your own regulations.“
ing I can also access these data at home.
And how can we top this? Other Plants Also Want the System – But the
Since lately, even suppliers are connected to our net- Same One, Please.
work. They have their own website in our Q-DAS® Evaluation methods -> all products
intranet and just need a mouse click in order to load Just a few more comments on the heart of the Q-DAS®
their measured data into their own supplier database software which are the evaluation methods or the func-
from the distance. tionalities of the programs.
That is how we check the quality of the supplied parts, Other plants of our group went along with us. However,
even though these parts have not even arrived at the it was important to meet the requirement that the cal-
plant yet. culation of statistics is the same for all plants.
In the course of time, we reduce the burden of the peo- Q-DAS® software makes
ple working in the goods receipt department. To some it possible by providing
extent, the supplier now conducts the incoming goods “evaluation methods“.
inspection. They consist of a collec-
“The M-QIS web application may be integrated into cor- tion of calculation rules,
porate intranet systems. You can use quite a lot of inspections / tests and
qs-STAT functions there. Reports are generated dynami- requirements.
cally.“ A huge number of group
and corporate strategies Figure 19: Evaluation methods
Even More Data. Do I Really Need Them All?
exist. In most cases, the
Data compression & outsourcing ->M-QIS Reporting companies use the methods of their customers, if avail-
In order to describe M-QIS comprehensively: There is able.
also the option to compress and outsource data. First, The evaluation methods are another reason why you do
some information about outsourcing. not have to select the suitable distribution model or cal-
Outsourcing helps to export certain datasets as files culation method for the data yourself when working
automatically at specified intervals. These datasets have with Q-DAS® products. The program always determines
to meet certain regulations. After the export is complet- them automatically and correctly. Our former Excel data
ed, the files are saved to an archive database or on any recording was only able to calculate normal distribu-
storage medium, as required. We do not need that yet. tions, since Excel just offers functions for working with
But there will be the day when our databases exceed a normal distributions. However, the normal distribution
certain storage capacity or contain a multitude of parts rarely occurs. Q-DAS® programs analyze the data and
so that we would like to use this function. We will sep- select the best suitable distribution model in order to
arate our data. Then we will have a fast production data- make a statement about the population. It does not mat-
base containing “few“ data and a big archive database. ter whether it is a Weibull, mixed, logarithmic normal or
Data compression is another topic. I have got the option any other distribution, Q-DAS® products get it right.
to save describing statistics instead of measured values Supported by TEQ® (Q-DAS® Group) we defined an own
or in addition to these values. How do I apply it? customized evaluation method. This is our standard
We assume that I collect one million measured values now that can be imported and exported. We all use the
each month for years. Actually, we do not need every same calculation methods, company-wide.
measured value that we recorded five years ago in our Moreover, you may not only exchange strategies but
plant anymore. However, we require the capability also any other settings (graphics, catalogs, etc.) between
index, average, standard deviation, etc. calculated for different installations.
each single calendar week. “The evaluation methods help you to evaluate all the
This is what data compression does. These statistics are data in the same way, company-wide. It is easy to select
calculated and saved to the 10000 measured values of specific customer requirements or guidelines.“
week 14 automatically. Maybe they are even separated

PIQ International 41
Q-DAS® Products

Camera Works. My Conclusion:

The CAMERA Concept -> all products Wait! I really should stop here. Please keep in mind that
Collecting, Assessing, Managing, Evaluating, Reporting, this is just an experience report that I have made up.
Archiving. These are the single steps of the performance The author of this article, me, does not work in quality
measuring system designed by the Q-DAS® company. assurance but is an employee in the system integration
We implemented this system by using all the compo- department of Q-DAS®. Thus he is definitely partisan,
nents already described. too. The employees of this department offer interna-
We monitor our production. We know our products. We tional workshops, support and installations for new and
have an alarm system informing us about critical char- existing customers.
acteristics by e-mail. Our reports are distributed auto- However, he did not invent all the experiences he
matically. The customer receives less defective parts. describes in this report. Only the combination, i.e. the
We do not need any special trips to solve problems any- company and the product, does not agree with reality.
more. No loss of image. We optimize our products This report consists of a wide range of experiences the
directly at the machines. Ideal runtimes for tools. Exact author gained while completing his last installations.
monitoring of cavities, batches and machines while pro- Maybe interested people and even long-time customers
ducing parts. Improvement, optimization and finally: will gather thoughts about new methods and solutions
quality. after reading this article.
A quote for a change: “The Q-DAS® CAMERA Concept Of course, not every company requires all these com-
serves the purpose of efficiently introducing and design- ponents. Some of them will not be as reasonable as
ing a performance measurement system for quality described here. And sometimes it is not even advisable
assessment in industrial production. “ to introduce all required components immediately.
A system has to grow. Users shall accept it. And it
should be flexible and provide a lot of different options.
Maybe, with this in mind, we will meet soon…?

Software Validation
Dr.-Ing. Edgar Dietrich, Stefan Weber, GmbH® & Co. KG
Dr. Berthold Lebert, Independent Consultant

Why Validate Software?

People generally assume that software systems always In accordance with ISO 9000:2005, validation is the
provide correct results. However, these programs are “confirmation through the provision of objective evi-
highly complex and complexity causes errors. You can dence that the requirements for a specific intended use
never exclude errors having a dramatic impact on the or application have been fulfilled“. You may provide this
results. evidence based on conformity assessments by observa-
tion or evaluation and, in case of conformance, validate
It is not possible to imagine companies that do not apply the software by means of measurements, tests and com-
software today. Nowadays, software is kind of the “cen- parisons.
tral nervous system“ of a company. Thus the correctness
of such systems is of utmost importance, especially in
case of calculated quality indices major corporate deci-
sion processes are based on. People became more and
more aware of this problem and paid more attention to
software validation. Software validation is even obligato-
ry for officially regulated companies (pharmaceutical
and medical engineering).

What is Software Validation?

If you want to put it simply: By validating an installed
software system you want to furnish proof that the sys-
tem delivers the performance it is supposed to deliver.

42 PIQ International