10 July 2015: Stephan Sprink

The market requirements for software products are changing. Current trends show that companies demand a uniform and universal solution leading to transparent products and processes. Companies may reach this target by providing operators in the shop floor with real-time visualizations including the required details and offering compact and clear summary of information to the management. The contents to be processed are quality-related statistics and graphics as well as information on the status and workload of the processes or production facilities.

Q-DAS software products focus on the display and evaluation of quality information in industrial production and processes. A MES (manufacturing execution system) offers solutions for a transparent and flexible visualization and planning of manufacturing processes reaching from the order to the finished product. Integrating both systems provides each company with a universal and value-added solution.

Approach to the integration of both systems

Our customers apply Q-DAS software products as integrated solutions (CAMERA Concept) but also as individual installations. Since our products are widely used, they often have to interact with MES solutions of different providers. This situation demands flexibility and openness of the Q-DAS company in order to offer the best possible solution to joint customers. The AQDEF data format (Q-DAS ASCII transfer format) and the Q-DAS Statistical Server already provide the basis for the interaction of both systems in the most flexible way.

The following section presents different approaches. Various requirements and tasks distinguish these approaches. Does the MES solution already include the recording of quality data? And would you like the system to evaluate quality data and process data?

Recording and evaluation of data by using Q-DAS

Q-DAS products provide test plans for the recording of quality data in this approach. The MES system always contains the current status of each machine, i.e. the current order of the machine or operation and the required quantity to be produced. When a company has to conduct a quality inspection for n parts produced, the MES opens procella and passes the header data specific to this order to the Q-DAS product...