What’s New in the SPC Office Buddy 3.4?
Named Factors in Excel Jobs
In previous versions of the Buddy, Excel Jobs were more generic and you could place lists of factors on your Excel report using the ordinal position (i.e. Text Factor 1). In 3.4, you can now also use the name of the factor (i.e. Text Factor Named Operator) regardless as to its position. When you run the Excel Job, the Buddy will look for the factor with the name specified. If found, it will use it. If not, it is skipped.
Non-Normal Data Management
This important new feature allows you to manage non-normal (single sided) dimensions in Minitab. Based on your preferences, you can tell the Buddy to automatically fit your non-normal data to a series of distributions and choose the highest P-Value for use in your final report. For instance, you highlight several dimensions of data and ask to run Sixpacks. The Buddy automatically fits them to the best distribution in Minitab (if they are non-normal), memorizes the correct distribution for each dimension, and then runs the Sixpacks with the appropriate distributions.
More Report Options
In addition to the existing available reports, we have added the Boxplot,
1-Sample T, 2-Sample T, and Individual Distribution Identification reports.
New Filter Governors for Improved Performance
The new Buddy allows you to govern the number of results returned in your record filter so your query doesn't continue to run after a set of results has been returned. This helps with performance when filtering large QCC files.
New Column Selector
A new column selector was added to the main data screen to allow users to filter what is shown on screen (in addition to dimension filters).
Prolink Charting Now Included in Regular License
Rather than offer two versions of the Office Buddy (with and without Prolink Charting), we have decided to offer it as one product that includes Prolink Charting. You can also choose Minitab as the charting tool.
Ability to be Leased
The new Office Buddy can optionally be leased for a monthly charge rather than purchased.