First, a broad definition: A Certificate of Analysis is a document (electronic or paper) issued by Quality Assurance that confirms that a product meets its product specification. They commonly contain the actual results obtained from testing performed as part of quality control of an individual batch of a product.
A Certificate of Analysis, or commonly called a C of A, is an important component in the manufacturing process of a product or service. It is important to understand the inputs and outputs from every stage of the manufacturing process. Precision with little or no variation is the key to maintaining high efficiencies and low waste in any manufacturing process that brings multiple components or raw materials together to produce a product. A good example is a transmission or gear box for an automobile. It is made up of hundreds of parts and if they all are not made to exacting tolerances the results would first, be very noisy and then probably quite disastrous. Think of a product like a baby diaper where 10-16 materials have to come together at very high speed. Any variation in just one of the materials will increase waste, downtime and decrease production.
So a good C of A should be made up of detail data that accurately demonstrates the product, lot, batch meets the exact requirements expected. To accomplish this detail data must be collected for performance variables at such a representative time frame that ensure the product meets the requirements. Add to that summary statistical data that focus on variation, targeting and defects actual and speculative with the purpose of providing the customer of the product confidence that it will meet their exacting needs.
QW5 to the rescue!
Create a custom Product/Customer Application using QW5 to record and measure results of product/customer specific criteria collected right on the production line, in the lab or both.
Then use those results to generate CofA’s in a format of your choosing. Output forms can be created using scripting or combined with MS Word or MS Excel forms to create the tailored outputs that can be used to accompany shipments to customers.
You can refer to this link on our website for more details on creating Certificates of Analysis using Quality Window 5. Creating a Certificate of Analysis (COA)