| A web enabled, user friendly calibration control system that automates workflow, improves productivity and leads to cost savings |
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| The customer |
| One of the largest automobile manufacturers in Japan. The Measurement and Calibration Center is a separate profit center within the company. It is certified for calibrating gauges and devices used in the manufacturing industry. This unit also caters to the device calibration needs of other divisions of the automotive company. |
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| The challenge |
The Measurement and Calibration Center handles a wide variety of gauges and devices used in the manufacturing industry for measuring mechanical dimensions, temperature, electrical parameters etc. The calibration process is performed across five different locations by specialists in the area of device calibration, who are not necessarily computer professionals. The customer had developed an in-house application for capturing the calibration details.
The application had certain drawbacks such as:
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It had to be installed on each and every workstation in the Measurement and Calibration Center |
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There were problems achieving a distributed database and distributed application deployment over the five locations. Moreover, the job of bulk data entry could not be shared by contract data entry operators. |
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Work allocation process and complete workflow for approvals was manual and not part of the existing system |
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Evaluating calibration data and arriving at the results was a manual process in the current system. Furthermore, the results had to be entered into the system. |
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Addition of new device types was cumbersome |
In order to address these problem areas the client turned to Wipro to re-engineer and enhance the existing system.
The challenges to be addressed included:
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Understanding the diverse business logic and evaluation criteria for different devices and designing a template addressing all of them |
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Creating a design flexible enough to allow addition of new devices and their associated business logic without any program changes |
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A user-friendly method to judge the work load of each specialist and assign the work accordingly. This also needed to accommodate the practice of specialists being sent on loan to other locations. |
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| The solution |
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Calibration Control System (CCS) was proposed based on a new workflow and centrally hosted web application, which the other locations can access through the client's intranet. |
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Considering the extensive use of MS Office components like Excel in the customer's location, Microsoft Web Technology was chosen as the technology to implement the solution. |
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Excel spreadsheets are used to capture calibration data for devices with a highly visual work load display and allocation module. The choice of web technology and the centralized database makes it possible for the customer to deploy contract data entry operators and improve the speed of bulk data entry. |
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| Key benefits |
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Flexibility to add new devices with ease |
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One Excel sheet per device is used to capture calibration data. The Excel sheet contains the designated cells for data entry and the necessary formulas. This ensures that: |
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The calibration specialists can design their own Excel templates without any help from an IS specialist |
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Each Excel sheet is self-contained with its own data ranges, format and formulae |
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The system administrator can add any number of devices any time without having to change the application code |
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Work load functionality allowing better resource utilization
Keeping in mind Japanese preferences, the work load module is designed to be highly visual and packed with information. |
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Complete automation of the calibration workflow
The Calibration workflow is completely automated right from estimate creation and order creation to dispatch and delivery after calibration. This eliminates the need for manual tracking. |
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| Business benefits delivered |
Increased productivity
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The database forms a centralized repository of calibration data for all five locations of the customer. This data can be used by the company in any analysis and common improvement initiatives. |
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Application enhancements are available immediately in all the locations resulting in productivity gains and savings in administrative expenses |
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The complete calibration process including the work allocation and approvals is automated eliminating the need for manual tracking |
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The system provides information about manpower availability for calibrating the devices leading to better utilization of human resources |
Continuity
Unlike the old system the solution does not need to be brought down each time a new device is added.
Improved usability and scalability
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The use of Excel sheets in place of HTML forms allows calibration specialists to design the data entry templates in Excel even if they are not computer professionals |
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Additional devices can also be added without modifying the application. The users do not need extensive training for each new device added since they are already familiar with Excel. |
Cost savings
The web-enabled solution eliminates the need to install and configure the application on each desktop. Hence, high-end systems are not required for client desktops to achieve the desired performance. |
Case studies 
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