From: IMAGING.CLUB@OFFICE.WANG.COM ("Imaging Club")
Newsgroups: biz.comp.software
Subject: Document imaging for Total Quality Management
Date: 27 Jul 92 23:33:42 GMT
Organization: Mail to News Gateway at Wang Labs


                     Wang Laboratories, Inc.
                      One Industrial Avenue
                        Lowell, MA 01851
                        Tel. 508-459-5000

  WINTHROP STEWART ASSOCIATES, INC.          (617) 331-8325
  A Wang Labs imaging application partner

                        Application Summary

                 Manufacturing -- Quality Control

THE PROBLEM...

A major pharmaceutical company that manufactures and distributes thousands of
products wordwide had the mammoth task of meeting stringent quality control
standards at its widely dispersed manufacturing plants throughout the United
States and Canada.  The quality control tracking procedure for products which
are manufactured at multiple sites was time consuming, inefficient, and
cumbersome.  The company's volumes of technical documentation generated at
each plant had to be reviewed by a central quality control staff including
senior level Ph.D. chemists and biologists.  The textual data which included
support documentation in the form of lab materials, lab results, charts and
graphs was faxed to a central location for review.

How was the pharmaceutical company going to ensure completeness of
documentation for FDA review and control of manufacturing standards at
geograpically scattered facilties without any duplication of effort and still
provide timely access to documentation?

THE SOLUTION...

The quality control staff was able to access tens of thousands of documents
almost instantaneously by implementing Winthrop Stewart Associates, Inc.
KWIC-FILE/KWIC-IMAGE software.  A central database was established
consolidating all the textual documentation as well as related support
information in the form of images.  This central repository provided the
ability to search for any manufacturing operation or procedure and find all
the documentation relating to the search criteria.

For example, if the company wanted to find out which manufacturing processes
used ascorbic acid, they would key in the search criteria "ascorbic acid" and
find all documents which mention the chemical.  Any issue or problem relating
to the topic would be found immediately by performing one search request.
Additionally, by viewing the images associated with those documents, they
could also review original test results, research chemists' notes, etc.

MAJOR FEATURES...

.   Ease of Use:  The simple menuing scheme and on-screen instructions of
    KWIC-FILE/KWIC-IMAGE provide a user-friendly system.  No knowledge of
    specific search criteria is needed.  Quality control staff achieves
    immediate productivity with a minimum of training.

.   Speed of Research: Since KWIC-FILE is a complete words-in-text
    indexing system, a search may be performed on any word which may appear
    anywhere in the documentation, allowing immediate access to any of the
    manufacturing or quality control documents or images.

.   Flexibility: WSA software was easily integrated with the manufacturer's
    present production environment.

BENEFITS...

.   Increased Productivity.  Use of KWIC-FILE/KWIC-IMAGE reduces paperwork
    processing and handling and at the same time increases research accuracy
    and integrity.

.   Efficient Use of "Knowledge" Workers:  Ph.D. quality control staff
    members greatly reduce clerical data searchess and increase time
    spent of research.

.   No Duplication of Effort:  Remote dial-in capability provides database
    access to all field personnel.