On every trade show floor featuring additive manufacturing, there’s a growing selection of additive processes for making production parts that stand alongside machines more commonly associated with prototyping. An essential aspect of additive’s transition from prototyping to production is data collection.

Traditionally, the beginning of a new year is a time of renewed energy, when people and businesses strive to improve upon the previous year and take stock of their processes. What’s working and what’s not working? Above all, what needs to change?

The obvious reasons for automating quality in manufacturing are to reduce scrap, rework, overtime and costs while simultaneously increasing productivity and customer satisfaction. The non-obvious reasons include employee satisfaction, customer referrals and market growth. Automation also give managers and line workers insights into ongoing production. 

When a large food products manufacturer ran an onsite assessment to evaluate potential savings, the results provided insights to help them reduce variance, waste, and raw material costs.

Do you collect quality data to catch problems on the production floor—but then never look at that data again? If so, you could be missing an opportunity to reap big rewards from your quality-improvement efforts.

For this company, quality control wasn’t just a buzzword; it was the only thing standing between a site’s continued operation and certain closure.

When collected properly, data can be used to make production on the plant floor more efficient, accurate, and hassle-free—improving productivity and profitability.

To earn the return on investment that a modern, cloud-based SPC software service can provide, organizations need to rethink some outdated ideas about quality.

Modern SPC is about more than shop floor data collection and control charts. Today, SPC is about improving quality, reducing costs, and enhancing a company’s competitive position.

When you look for the root cause of scrap—and solve it—you’re likely to reap benefits throughout your entire operation.