Quality Magazine - March 2009 - (Page 46) | QUA LIT Y SO FTWA RE & A N A LY S I S | several software providers to assess how they are able to accommodate its needs. The list will allow a prospective vendor to provide a general price range. “Learn how each of these items works with the chosen software. You will like one software better than the other.” When evaluating a software package, an organization should consider whether it can be customized, the level of training and technical support offered, scalability and initial, as well as ongoing, costs associated with the product. Also, it is important to consider the robustness of the vendor’s business: will that vendor be around long enough to provide updates and new versions in the future? Also, look for a package that can quickly convey all pertinent gage information to an operator. “Calibration software should track the location of all gages and state the status of each gage,” says Rick Sloop, senior application engineer for InfinityQS International (Chantilly, VA). “The software should be able to query gages based on location, status, the operator responsible for calibration, the customer the gage is assigned to and calibration due dates.” ment. It should be determined whether the software needs to integrate with any existing software system. Finally, the organization should determine whether Calibration management is a crucial part of an organization’s management system, and calibration management software is designed to help organizations comply with a variety of ISO standards and other regulations. it will have to meet customer or regulatory requirements in the near future. “I would recommend focusing on replacing the current system while also adding additional functionality,” says Scott Johnson, technical support analyst for PQ Systems (Miamisburg, OH). “Planning for the future as well as meeting the demands of the present should be part of the thinking.” After a list of requirements is established, the organization should contact Mitutoyo’s Fruit recommends contacting three or four vendors, conducting a phone interview and then requesting demo software from the two vendors that seem the most appropriate. “You want to select, maybe, five gages: a couple standard gages such as a caliper and micrometer, something unusual such as a thread or go/no-go gage, something that needs an outside calibrator such as a CMM and a calibration standard such as a gage block set,” says Fruit. SOFTWARE OPTIONS Calibration management software is sold either as a calibration-specific package or a module of a larger management system package. A calibrationspecific package is used only for calibration management, but can usually be configured to interface with other software applications. A calibration module may be used in the same way as a calibration-specific package, but is intended to be a component in a larger management system package. Furthermore, an organization will usually have a choice regarding how it wants the software to be implemented: client-based or Web-based. In a client-based setup, software will be installed directly to desktop PCs or a centralized database. Installing the software to a centralized database allows it to be shared by multiple PCs across multiple locations. A Web-based approach requires a customer’s IT department to host the software and data, and access to the program can be granted to PC users in multiple locations via a Web browser. If an organization does not have the IT resources requisite for the traditional Web-based approach, some vendors provide software as a service (SaaS) solutions. In this case, the software is sold YOUR SINGLE SOURCE FOR CMM & VISION FIXTURING FOR NEARLY 20 YEARS R&R Modular Fixtures WHEN PRICE, DELIVERY & QUALITY COUNT The right fixture ™ at the right price. R&R Vision Fixtures R&R CMM Fixtures pricing for even the tightest budgets can meet demanding fixturing time lines precision fixturing and components 800-847-6045 | www.cmmfixture.com Quality Quick Clicks 419 at qualitymag.com Please visit us at WESTEC, Booth 3961 46 QUALITY | March 2009 www.qualitymag.com http://www.cmmfixture.com http://www.cmmfixture.com http://www.qualitymag.com http://www.qualitymag.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.