GAGEpackEZ gives operators information about each gage, with menus for gage events, due dates for calibration, calibration steps, vendors, operator- defined fields and images of the gages. Source: PQ Systems Inc.
With sales of $9 billion and employment of 40,000 people in 97 worldwide manufacturing and service sites, everything is “writ large” at Honeywell Aerospace. Honeywell’s Propulsion Systems Enterprise (PSE, Phoenix) has more than 4,000 employees worldwide in facilities at Anniston, AL; Greer, SC; Waterford, Ireland; Olomouc, Czech Republic; Suzhou and Nanjing, China; and Yeovil, United Kingdom.
Honeywell’s Waterford facility, Honeywell Engines, designs and manufactures turbofan, turboprop and turboshaft propulsion engines for a variety of commercial and military applications. The facility uses approximately 2,900 gages, each requiring regular calibration and accurate calibration records. In addition, gage links must be made to alignment procedures, operating instructions and B/P information.
GAGEpackEZ allows operators to view photos of the gages they are calibrating. Source: PQ Systems Inc.
The Right Software
When Associate Metrology Engineer Derek Simpson began his position at Honeywell’s Ireland facility, he knew he needed to update the basic Microsoft system that was then in place for gage management. The complexity of such a large system of measurement analysis demanded a more powerful platform, something with greater detail and superior operator interface. In his search for such a product, he found GAGEpackEZ from PQ Systems Inc. (Dayton, OH), an ISO 9001 and AS 9100 registered company. Simpson discovered that this product could meet his requirements for recording calibration data and results better than other platforms he had been looking into.Simpson says the facility profits from the customizable features of GAGEpack, as well as its barcode scanning feature. “Basically the user fields can be anything you want them to be; they’re searchable and filterable. Plus there is a part section; certain gages are common to certain parts, so that kind of customization facilitates our processes.”
Gages need to be calibrated yearly, every six months or in intervals of less than six months. After a gage has been calibrated, the software allows the operator to generate a printed barcode, which also includes a due date for the subsequent calibration and a record number. The advantage of this is the facilitation of an operator’s access to gage information.
“The operator just goes out on the floor and scans the bar code with a hand scanner, which gives him all the information about the gage right there on the computer screen.” With this feature, time is not wasted in searching through the system for a particular gage’s information.
While Simpson has been able to exploit a number of GAGEpack’s features, he says the software contains capabilities that he has yet been unable to pursue. “It has so many features that we would like to use; it’s just a time-permitting thing,” he says. “There is a lot that I’d like to do with it and it is there ready for me. Despite this, the software has helped us.”
Benefits
- GAGEpackEZ has simplified the procurement of calibration data for approximately 2,900 gages at Honeywell’s PSE plant in Waterford, Ireland.
- Operators at the plant benefit from the software’s intuitive and customizable operator interface.
- The software’s barcode function allows the generation of a printout that comprises a barcode, subsequent calibration date and record number.
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