NWA Focus EMI provides full integration of data sources

NWA Focus EMI supports all commercial databases. It delivers a new approach to data integration by directly accessing data where it "lives', combining data from multiple sources and applying analytics in real time to support and drive operational decisions. The system-wide KnowledgeBase module consolidates process, quality and problem-solving knowledge in a single, discoverable database, so that knowledge and best practices are easily shared across plant and global operations.

The cloud-based Collaboration module quickly communicates expertise and experience across the enterprise to solve critical production issues. Text, graphics, pictures, documents and video content can be seamlessly integrated for easier communication of complex issues. This ensures the right people have the right information and context to solve pressing manufacturing issues quickly, saving time, money and resources.

Peter Guilfoyle, Vice-President of Marketing for Northwest Analytics, says: "NWA Focus EMI delivers complete data integration with a ubiquitous analytics layer that delivers real-time process visibility across a single line or plant, or across the entire enterprise.

"This puts the power in the hands of the customer to derive meaningful value from data to reduce costs, increase yields and improve product quality. The KnowledgeBase and Collaboration Modules accelerate this value by capturing and proliferating best practices, quickly bringing together experts from around the enterprise to resolve pressing operational issues."

The Dow Chemical Company, an early adopter of NWA Focus EMI, has 14 plants using the system. Lloyd Colegrove, Director of Fundamental Problem Solving at Dow Chemical, comments: "We were looking for a better way to retrieve, join and analyse data and turn that information into real knowledge throughout the organisation. NWA EMI Focus, with its ability to access data directly from multiple databases and apply analytics in real time, is giving us immediate access to critical process information and focuses us on the information and best practices that most influence and improve our production output and quality."

Guilfoyle added that implementation of the EMI software averages only 1-3 weeks and output is often returned in just a few hours after the start of the implementation. "Based on customer feedback, NWA Focus EMI delivers a full system payback in two to six months. That is a direct result of the solution leveraging existing database investments, and eliminating data duplication and its movement to a separate system for analysis.

"Measurable soft returns include faster solution implementations, quick user adoption, and the surfacing of more meaningful information, which increases operational performance, profitability and bottom line," he affirms.

NWA Focus EMI, as well as the rest of NWA's range of products for statistical process control, quality management and manufacturing intelligence, is available from Adept Scientific in the UK, Ireland, Germany and the Nordic countries; go to www.adeptscience.com to find out more.