1999 Statistical Process Control Software Buyers Guide

Welcome to Quality Digest's 1999 Statistical Process Control (SPC) Software Buyers Guide. In this guide, you'll find a wide range of software dealing with SPC, problem solving, statistical analysis, design of experiments, gage R&R and related products.

 The matrix, which you can download by clicking here, contains an alphabetical listing of more than 100 software companies and distributors and nearly 275 software products. You need Adobe Acrobat to read the matrix. You can download Acrobat by clicking here.

Product attributes are listed across from the products under broad categories for statistical quality control, statistical analysis, design of experiments and statistical process control, with each of these categories subdivided into specific product functions.

 The Gage R&R heading includes gage management and control products. An "x" under this heading means that a particular product performs one or more of those functions.

 Within the last year or two, we've noticed SPC software applications making more use of the Internet. At their most basic, these titles simply create graphic files of SPC charts and post them to a Web site so that users can view them using a browser. More sophisticated applications allow a user with Netscape or Internet Explorer to click on data points and drill down into the data on a chart. All of this has lead to almost real-time SPC information available to anyone with a computer and Internet access.

 Many other software packages make data available on a corporatewide level via Oracle, Sybase or Lotus Notes applications. Raw data, charts and tables, often in real time, are instantly available to users. With critical files available via a corporate intranet, process shareholders can react more quickly to process problems.

 This month's Quality Digest includes an article by SPC expert Thomas Pyzdek on non-normal data distributions. Many of the software packages included in this guide help the user deal with distributions that don't form a pretty bell curve. Read Pyzdek's article to educate (or re-educate) yourself about dealing with non-normal distributions. If your processes are non-normal, you may want to verify with your SPC software vendor that its package can handle such distributions.

 To maintain the quality of the SPC buyers guide, we listed only those companies that fit within the scope of this guide. Some products are listed more than once because products may appear under both their producers' and their distributors' names.

 As with all Quality Digest buyers guides, the 1999 SPC Software Buyers Guide is intended to provide our readers with an impartial listing of software titles. The software listed in this directory has been neither evaluated nor endorsed by Quality Digest.

 Tell us what you think by e-mailing spcguide@qualitydigest.com.