Pet project: Mars finds an SPC legacy system successor in InfinityQS software

By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff July 17, 2008

Pet food products maker Mars Inc. will use InfinityQS ProFicient software from Infinity International in certain North American sites to systematically improve product quality.
Mars’ intended objective was to leverage a real-time statistical process control (SPC) solution that would provide the necessary tools for executing process improvement initiatives in a flexible and user-friendly format.
Mars chose InfinityQS software for greater depth and breadth of functionality than found in Mars’ legacy SPC system. Because ProFicient is built on a relational database structure, users can quickly manage thousands of parts in a single setup—or “project”—as opposed to the hundreds and thousands of data files that other systems require users to configure.
The database structure allows Mars to conduct comparative analysis of any part running across any process (machine). With ProFicient, Mars also benefits from additional versatility in reporting features and increased accuracy in data analysis—as well as easier administration and a more user-friendly interface than the previous system.
Mars quality professionals and plant managers will use InfinityQS analysis capabilities to make proactive process improvement decisions in real time.
“Mars’ commitment to implementing best practices is driving efficiency throughout our operations and is contributing to our aggressive growth objectives,” says Andrew Moore, quality services manager for Mars. “The InfinityQS system plays a vital role in our operational success by giving us the analysis tools to consistently deliver superior quality products to the market.”