Clean Energy Companies Standardize on WinSPC for Real-time Quality Control
DataNet Quality Systems (DataNet) announced that WinSPC has been selected as the real-time quality control software of choice by a number of manufacturers in the alternative energy industry.
“We’ve seen a growing amount of business from manufacturers within the alternative energy industry,” said Stephen A. Arnett, DataNet’s CTO. “We forecast continued growth and expect it to form a considerable percentage of our customer base.”
DataNet recently added three new solar cell manufacturing companies to its customer roster. Additionally, it added two wind turbine manufacturers and a hydrogen engine development facility.
Arnett attributes the growth to two factors. Some alternative energy customers within the solar technology industry share similar manufacturing process characteristics with the semiconductor industry. DataNet has consistently held a distinct lead within that market.
The majority of new clean energy customers installed WinSPC in new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities that rely on a high level of automated process control.
“WinSPC is especially suited to this environment because it integrates readily with other intelligent manufacturing systems, adds Arnett. “It is designed with extensive programmability that allows other systems to configure, run, and receive feedback, or take action without human intervention.”
The second contributing factor to DataNet’s success in the renewable energy market is the manufacturer’s adoption of real-time quality control as a viable and critical technology for superior process efficiency.
“Leaders within this industry share a strong knowledge of –and acceptance for–real-time SPC software as a required technology for process efficiency,” said Ned Greenberg, president of DataNet. “Many of the industry’s leaders crossed-over from other high-tech industries, like computer and electronics manufacturing, and as in those industries, the manufacturing processes have high costs associated with failure and waste. These manufacturers have used SPC and real-time nonconformance monitoring techniques for years and understand the value it offers: superior quality, higher yields, and increased efficiency.”
Greenberg notes that another business accelerator is the $1 billion invested in the renewable energy industry by the US. government under the Recovery Act. This investment was further augmented just last Tuesday when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced in a joint statement another $550 million in awards through the Recovery Act “to companies committed to investing in domestic renewable energy production.”
“We look forward to continued growth within this marketplace,” adds Arnett. “Our upcoming release of WinSPC Version 8, due this winter, offers substantial new features that will expand WinSPC functionality ‘out of the traditional SPC box’ to provide more advanced manufacturing answers to more stakeholders throughout the enterprise. We expect this to make WinSPC even more attractive to the alternative energy market.”
For more information on the Alternative Energy industry and DataNet see Viva La Green Revolution, by Quality Magazine.