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Premier calibration is a NAMAS accredited laboratory and
approximately 1500 gauges go through its testing and measurement processes
every month. The company has been
operating for four years and built up a large client base – 80% of which is
in rail, including WABTEC, English Rail and National Power.
With business expanding, and paperwork mounting, Paul Niles,
Premier’s Managing Director, was aware that a computerised system had to be
found to counter the increasingly cumbersome paperwork which was preventing
an adequate turnover of calibration.
Initially the company attempted an ‘in house’ program. Niles
recalls, “we’ve always had a managed calibration system, albeit somewhat
makeshift, something we developed on our existing software. However, quite early on we realised that
it was not going to fulfil all that we wanted. We wanted on screen calibration and a lot
of automation. It just didn’t do
it.”
Having difficulty finding a suitable gauge software product, Paul
Niles gave one of Premier’s IT consultants the agreement to develop a
program. “We spent a large amount of
money and time before we saw that there were software programs available”, admits
Niles. “I thought, what’s the point in
reinventing the wheel, so we started to look at various software.”
Premier had been reviewing programs for a number of weeks, and
were in the final stages of deciding upon the GaugePack when they visited
INSPEC ’99. “To be honest we were
trying to avoid any discussions on gauge management software, we’d had
enough of it by this stage.” Niles concedes. “Reluctantly we were coaxed onto the Powerway stand and within five
minutes we realised the system could do everything we wanted.”
Powerway were bringing Gauge Manager in from the States, but it was oriented more to
the production side of the motor industry rather than calibration. Working closely with Powerway Integration Services, Premier Calibration provided the
facility to gauge the reaction of a ‘hands-on’ laboratory to the software;
somebody to run alongside them and provide advice on whether to steer the
product this way, or that, and prepare it for full release. “We spent twelve months, some quite
intensive times, to get the software to the stage where we felt happy with
it, and Powerway felt happy they
could move it on to sell to other labs,” continues Niles.
Gauge Manager was tailored to fit their business
more keenly, especially in the areas of generic data pools, gauge R&R
and bias studies. “There were
certain functions we needed, not least to address the problem of
tolerancing, particularly for the difficult plug gauges.” Added Adrian King, Premier’s Technical
Manager, integral in the systems implementation and alteration. “We helped modify it into a calibration
environment, when before it was more tailored to manufacturing.”
Premier believes the online capabilities of the software will
be of great benefit to its service. “We’re
actively encouraging our customers to adopt Powerway, one of whose operations we will host from Premier
Calibration’s Web Server.” Niles insists. However, Premier is having difficulty
finding a company to take the plunge and commit fully to the online
service. This seems not to be
through lack of interest, but through a general suspicion of what is
essentially a step into the unknown.
Most companies who have discussed the prospect with Premier
cite security as their prime concern.
“We have had a lot of interest in the last nine months in moving
towards the situation where customers are directly online,” explains Niles. Five major clients have actively
discussed it with Premier, but for one reason or another none have taken it
up. There are certain apprehensions;
security being the main stumbling point.
Another is that of education of the workforce, making sure people
are making full sense of the system.
“Although eventually” Nile believes,
“the future has to go that way.” As
security is a major issue, Niles
suggests a means of prevention is keeping sensitive gauge information from
the web site itself and inaccessible to those using a web browser. Security features of the software include
customer profiles for individual users, which control each users access to
individual gauges and gauge functions, thus preventing the competition from
discovering the details of your gauge.
Gauge Manager has cut paperwork by at least third at
Premier, a figure that could be cut further with online calibration. Automation of activities associated with
the tracking, calibration and certification of measurement instrumentation
enable quick recovery of results. “There
is a wide spectrum of companies on our client list, some are very tuned in
to e-commerce and some are extremely cautious and even want to keep paper
copies. All of ours are on the Database.” Niles
adds.
Premier has a client that works for Boeing; they too need to
keep piles of paperwork. When the
auditors come in they tend to work with a mobile phone, going into various
cells, picking up an instrument and asking to see the latest search for
it. The results are then
e-mailed. “An instant response, with
no need to wade through files” King enthuses. With the online capabilities, this could
be cut to a simple search on the company’s computer linked to Premier
Calibration’s web server.
Premier Calibrations has built a
reputation of delivering and maintaining excellence in the engineering
market sector. Persistent in their
deliberate, diligent and determined attitude to deliver and meet customers
demands, their staff are constantly striving to meet customer demands.
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