NWA Quality Analyst Web Server® provides exception reports displayed as web pages. The reports list product specification violations and SPC violations organized by Data Set and Variable. You display the relevant SPC chart for each set of exceptions with the click of a button.
Since Quality Analyst Web Server generates Exception Reports in XML (Extensible Markup Language), you can use XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) to create custom report formats. The tutorial that comes with Quality Analyst Web Server includes an example XSLT to create a list of exceptions in an XML format that conforms to the RSS 0.91 standard.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) is an XML-based standard for easily distributing and aggregating changes to Web content. While most commonly used for monitoring news services, RSS is increasingly being employed with manufacturing information systems as an alternative to complex and proprietary alarming and reporting applications.
An RSS feed is an XML list of changes to a web site and includes links to the pages that have changed. Quality Analyst Web Server creates an RSS feed based on the contents of an exception report. The user can subscribe to the feed using an RSS Reader (also called a news reader or aggregator). The RSS reader checks the RSS feed periodically for changes (at any desired frequency, from minutes to hours), and displays a list of new exceptions to the user. The user can view the actual exception report by clicking the link to the new item within the reader.
Figure 1
Why use an RSS feed instead of email for alarm notification?
Unburden your email system– Most companies already have large volumes of email on their network. An active alarm system can generate large numbers of notifications. Your system administrator will usually prefer not to handle the added traffic.
Bypass spam– Not only will you avoid conflicts with in-house spam filters, you will avoid having the alarm drowned in the useless noise of dubious pharmaceutical and refinance offers.
Better visibility for alert– Your Quality Analyst Web Server RSS feed is dedicated to process monitoring, so all the messages reaching your news reader are focused on your process performance.
What is an RSS feed?
An RSS feed is a list of web site content in a standard format. For example, Figure 2 shows some exception-report information in XML created by Quality Analyst Web Server.
Figure 2: Example RSS feed in XML generated by Quality Analyst Web Server
With RSS version 0.91, the XML consists of channels and items within a channel. In this case, an exception is listed as an item with a link to the exception report.
You can use the Quality Analyst Web Server scheduler to update the RSS feed at specific times (for example, at the end of the shift). This information can be cached to provide consistent information to all users and minimize the impact on Quality Analyst Web Server. Alternatively, you can configure Quality Analyst Web Server to update the RSS feed whenever an RSS reader checks for new content.
The RSS reader interprets the XML provided by Quality Analyst Web Server and summarizes the content in a user-friendly interface. For example, Figure 3 shows how the Pluck™ reader displays the feed shown in Figure 2.
Figure 3: Exception report generated by Quality Analyst Web Server and displayed in the Pluck RSS reader
As the figure shows, a list of feeds is displayed along with the number of unread items. This reader automatically downloads and displays the corresponding link when an item is highlighted. Pluck, like most RSS readers, can be configured to check for changes at specific intervals (from a few minutes to several hours or more).
What do I need to get started?
First, determine which charts you want to monitor for exceptions. Second, create an exception report within Quality Analyst. Third, create a reference to the exception report using the Quality Analyst Web Server configuration application, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Using Quality Analyst Web Server to create a reference to an exception report
As part of the configuration, you can specify the XSLT file named RSS.XSL provided by NWA to create an RSS compliant XML file. Finally, install an RSS reader and subscribe to the Quality Analyst Web Server RSS feed.
RSS News Readers
News Readers (also called news aggregators) will download and display RSS feeds for you. A number of free and commercial news aggregators are available for download including:
- RSS Bandit (stand-alone application)
- Pluck (integrates with Microsoft® Internet Explorer)
- intraVNews (integrates with Microsoft Outlook™)
Increase the value of shop-floor data and improve decision making
The Quality Analyst Web Server RSS feed lets you break through the wall that keeps process information locked on the shop floor. Often events that are out-of-control or violate specifications do not get appropriate supervisory or management attention. Much of this reporting is not well integrated into management systems and depends upon ad hoc communication by phone or email. A lot of information and a lot of time are lost.
By integrating the Quality Analyst Web Server RSS feed into the management reporting system, you can better integrate events on the shop floor into plant process management. This enables plant management to better meet corporate, customer, and regulatory requirements.