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Finding the final piece of the total quality management puzzle
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Database Management & Storage
- Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
Applicable Industries
- Consumer Goods
- Electronics
- Healthcare & Hospitals
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Product Research & Development
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Predictive Maintenance
- Process Control & Optimization
- Regulatory Compliance Monitoring
- Remote Asset Management
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
- Training
The Challenge
Always customer-focused, GSI is committed to providing the highest quality products and services. To ensure product quality and compliance, GSI relied on a homegrown Statistical Process Control (SPC) program created in Microsoft Access. The company realized that its system lacked the robust data collection and analysis capabilities needed to meet client specifications, support a fact-based decision model, and fuel continuous improvement. Rapid growth of GSI’s Functional Printing division increased the need for a new SPC solution. Functional Printing yields active products and components such as medical electrodes, sensors, antennas, and circuits. GSI had to verify that components were fully functional after printing and also demonstrate that processes complied with specific requirements. GSI’s disparate systems (e.g., CMM scales, multi-meters, Vision inspection, and document control systems) made data aggregation difficult, and delivery of Manufacturing Intelligence to the organization and its customers nearly impossible.
About The Customer
GSI Technologies LLC is a manufacturer of functional printing and industrial graphic products. Founded in 1985 as Graphic Solutions Inc., the company provides customers with the highest levels of quality, service, and value for their markets. Located in Burr Ridge, Illinois, GSI is organized into two divisions: Functional Printing and Industrial Graphics. The Functional Printing division is a leader in the emerging space of printed electronics, while the Industrial Graphics division employs printing processes such as flexography, hot stamping, web and sheet printing, and fotofinish (photo etching) to deliver pressure-sensitive labels, aluminum nameplates, and polycarbonate panels. GSI operates one facility with 80 employees and is registered to ISO9001:2008 standards.
The Solution
In order to bring its total quality management initiatives full circle, GSI set forth numerous requirements for selecting a new SPC platform. The new platform had to: Scale to grow with the company and drive continuous improvements, Be SQL-based in order to communicate with other systems, Be able to both configure data for all the unique parts it produced and represent that data in various control charts customized to meet end-users’ needs, Assist in adherence to industry regulations, such as ISO compliance and FDA requirements. GSI selected the ProFicient™ Manufacturing Intelligence platform from InfinityQS®, the global authority on real-time Manufacturing Intelligence and enterprise quality. Powered by a centralized SPC analysis engine, InfinityQS ProFicient delivers real-time visibility at all levels of an organization, which enables GSI to proactively monitor, analyze, and report on Manufacturing Intelligence in real time to improve quality, decrease costs, and make more strategic business decisions. Before implementation, GSI enlisted the expertise of InfinityQS’s enterprise quality experts to drive buy-in and adoption of the software from the entire staff. It was vital that GSI’s employees had access to appropriate data to help them carry out their specific jobs.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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