How Web-Based Gage Management changes the way Global Manufacturers manage their Measurement Systems

Gage Management and Measurement System Analysis (MSA) is more than a statistical exercise. It is the foundation for trusting the data behind your quality decisions. If the measurement system is unreliable, even the best SPC analysis, process capability study or root-cause investigation can lead you in the wrong direction.

For decades, manufacturers have relied on dedicated software such as Excel, GAGEtrak, GAGEpack and Minitab to manage gages, perform calibration activities and conduct MSA studies. These solutions have helped many organizations establish better control over their measurement systems. But manufacturing environments have changed.

Quality teams today are increasingly distributed across multiple plants, countries and departments. Auditors expect immediate access to traceable information. Production teams need real-time information. IT departments want fewer locally installed applications. And quality data is increasingly expected to connect rather than live in separate software packages. This is where a modern, web-based Gage Management and MSA platform such as Datalyzer Qualis 4.0 MSA Gage Management offers a significant advantage.

MSA shouldn’t be an isolated activity

Traditional approaches often separate measurement system analysis from the rest of the quality process. A quality engineer may perform a Gage R&R study in one application, maintain calibration records in another system, manage SPC data somewhere else and keep FMEA or APQP information in yet another tool. The result can be multiple databases, spreadsheets, exports and manually maintained records. Datalyzer takes a different approach.

With Datalyzer, Gage Management and MSA can be part of the same quality platform as SPC, FMEA and APQP. This means measurement-system information can become part of the wider quality process instead of remaining a standalone activity. For example, Datalyzer can connect Gage Management with Qualis SPC, allowing MSA studies to use quality characteristics and process variation from SPC and enabling the status of a gage to be checked when it is used for measurement. That connection can make a fundamental difference:

Instead of simply asking “Is this gage calibrated?”, manufacturers can ask “Can I trust the measurement being used to make this process decision?”

Datalyzer versus traditional MSA and gage-management systems

It is important to recognize that many current gage management systems have strong capabilities. The question, therefore, isn’t whether these products can perform MSA. They can. The more important question for today’s manufacturing organization is: How well does the MSA system fit into the way the entire quality organization works? This is where Datalyzer’s web-based approach provides a different proposition.

1. Access MSA from anywhere

One of the biggest advantages of Datalyzer is right in the architecture: it is web based and data is stored in a database. There is no need to install a desktop application on every user’s computer. Users can access the system through a browser according to their permissions and only see the data for their production location. This becomes particularly valuable for organizations with multiple production sites.

Instead of maintaining separate local installations, spreadsheets, files or databases, multiple plants can work within a shared system while maintaining appropriate authorization and site-specific configurations. Datalyzer supports on-premise, private-cloud and SaaS deployment options connected to a central database.

You know the stories: An MSA study was done which was very time consuming but data was stored on the local PC of the engineer. When the study results were needed results couldn’t  be found anymore and only solution was to repeat the study…

The result of a standardized gage management solution is a more consistent approach to MSA across the organization. A quality manager in Germany can work with the same system as a quality engineer in the United States, Mexico or Asia. That makes it easier to standardize:

And because everyone works from the same underlying information, there is less risk of different plants maintaining different versions of the truth or loosing data altogether.

2. Reduce IT overhead and cut cost

Traditional desktop applications can be perfectly capable, but they can also create additional IT responsibilities. Software may need to be installed, updated and maintained on individual machines. Databases may need to be synchronized or managed separately. Users working remotely or at another facility may need additional infrastructure to access the application. Maintenance need to be paid for every gage management solution. A web-based architecture removes much of this complexity.

Datalyzer’s  Gage Management system requires no local installations and can be accessed centrally, either as Saas or as local installation or private cloud reducing IT support requirements. For manufacturers with many users and multiple locations, this can become a significant operational advantage. Licenses can be shared across sites cutting license and maintenance cost. Less software maintenance means more time for quality improvement.

3. Connect MSA directly with SPC

Perhaps the most important difference is the connection between MSA and SPC. Measurement data does not exist in isolation. A gage is used to measure a characteristic. That measurement becomes part of production data. That data may then be used in a control chart, capability analysis or process investigation. If the measurement system has excessive variation, the conclusions drawn from that data may also be unreliable.

Datalyzer’s Gage Management system can integrate with Qualis SPC, allowing information to move between MSA and process monitoring. When real time data entry in SPC and gage management are integrated you have full tracking and tracing. This creates a much stronger quality loop:

Gage → MSA → Measurement → SPC → Process Improvement

Instead of treating MSA as a document that is completed once and filed away, manufacturers can make measurement-system performance part of ongoing process management.

4. Manage calibration and MSA in the same environment

Another common challenge is the separation between calibration management and MSA. Calibration answers an important question: Is the measuring equipment performing within its defined calibration requirements? MSA asks a broader question: Is the measurement system capable of producing reliable and useful measurements under actual conditions?

These are related, but they are not the same thing. Datalyzer combines gage registration, calibration management and MSA in one environment. The system can maintain information about gage identification, location, ownership, calibration history, service history and MSA studies. It also supports calibration scheduling, reminders and external calibration certificates. This provides a complete picture of the measurement equipment lifecycle. Instead of searching through separate systems to answer questions about a gage, the information can be available from one centralized record.

5. Support multiple MSA methodologies

A modern MSA solution needs to support more than just a standard Gage R&R. Datalyzer supports a range of measurement-system studies, including:

This allows organizations to use different MSA approaches depending on the measurement system and application. That is important because not every measurement system is best evaluated using the same study.

Excel and other systems also provides a broad range of MSA analyses, including Gage R&R, destructive Gage R&R and bias studies. The distinction is therefore not simply about which software can calculate the statistics. It is about where those results live and how they are connected to the rest of the quality system.

6. Standardize MSA across multiple plants

For a single-site manufacturer, managing MSA with a standalone application may be relatively straightforward. For a global organization, it becomes much more challenging. Different plants may use different spreadsheets, templates, naming conventions, reporting formats and different approaches to calibration and MSA processes.

This makes corporate oversight difficult. A centralized web-based system allows organizations to standardize the process while still allowing individual plants to operate within their own responsibilities. Datalyzer supports multiple locations sharing a database, with authorization controls determining which information users can access. The platform is also available in multiple languages.

This is particularly valuable for organizations that want to move from plant-level quality management to enterprise-level quality management or companies who want to get away from several different software systems installed locally.

7. Be audit-ready without searching through spreadsheets

MSA and calibration records are frequently examined during quality audits. The challenge isn’t necessarily generating the information. The challenge is finding it quickly, proving its history and demonstrating that the process is controlled. A centralized database can make this significantly easier.

Datalyzer maintains traceability for gages, calibration activities and MSA studies and provides access to relevant records through the system. External calibration certificates can also be uploaded and linked to calibration records. That means that when an auditor asks: “Show me the calibration history for this gage”, or “Show me the MSA study for this measurement system”, this information does not have to be reconstructed from emails, spreadsheets and network folders. It is already part of the system.

8. MSA becomes part of a broader quality platform

This may be the biggest strategic advantage of Datalyzer. MSA does not happen independently of the rest of quality management. Measurement systems affect SPC. SPC can identify process problems. Process problems can lead to FMEA updates. FMEA connects to APQP and control plans. APQP drives production quality requirements.

When these processes are managed in disconnected applications, information has to be transferred manually between systems. Datalyzer is designed around a connected quality-management approach, with modules covering MSA/Gage Management, SPC, FMEA and APQP. This means organizations can start with the functionality they need today and expand the platform as their requirements grow.

A different way to think about MSA software

The traditional question is: “Which software can perform a Gage R&R?”. Today, that is no longer enough. Many established products can perform Gage R&R and other MSA calculations. The better questions are:

This is the difference between software that performs MSA and a quality platform that manages the measurement system as part of the manufacturing process.

Reach out to learn more about Datalyzer Qualis MSA Gage Management or to try this software in your own environment.