QuickCheck Monitor Program

Outlined below are five situations where the CEM Service QuickCheck MONITOR program either prevented or resolved instrument failures and/or customer downtime.

Situation #1
The customer received the monthly MONITOR sample from CEM. The next day the customer ran the 6 samples and entered the data on the CEM QuickCheck website. About 2 hours after the data was entered, a CEM representative analyzed that data and found that there was more variability than expected. The customer was contacted to advise that a service technician was being dispatched to check the instrument. When the technician performed maintenance checks on the instrument, a weakened component was detected - a potential for a complete instrument failure. The weakened component was replaced, and the customer did not experience any downtime.

Situation #2
The customer received the monthly MONITOR sample from CEM. The samples were tested and the results were entered on the CEM QuickCheck website. The customer contacted a sister plant, also using the MONITOR program, to compare results because the two plants had recently experienced some variability in results. As suspected, the results were different. The customer contacted CEM and requested that both sets of results be reviewed. Once results were reviewed, a service technician was dispatched to the customer with the most suspect results. The instrument was adjusted as required. Once this was completed, both customers rechecked their instruments using the MONITOR samples, and the variation of results was no longer detected.

Situation #3
During product testing from the main line, the customer found that results were not as expected. The question was: Are the results correct and the product suspect, or is the instrument malfunctioning? CEM provided this customer with a MONITOR sample kit. The MONITOR samples were run, and the standard deviation, variability of results and average solids results were all comparable to CEM's laboratory testing on the sample. Therefore, the customer knew that the product was the issue, not the instrument, allowing them to quickly take effective, corrective action.

Situation #4
The customer had both a CustomerCare Plus agreement and a QuickCheck MONITOR contract. When the CEM service technician visited the customer for a 6-month preventive maintenance visit, he explained to the customer that the MONITOR results, while acceptable, had been showing a slight increase in deviation over the past several months. During the maintenance check, a weakening component was identified and replaced. Once this was completed, without experiencing any downtime, the instrument was returned to its original manufactured specifications. The next month's QuickCheck MONITOR results returned to normal.

Situation #5
The customer was obtaining different results than a sister plant in Asia on the same sample. Sample had been repeatedly sent to outside laboratories in both locations, and both results had been verified. The customer contacted CEM and explained the situation. The CEM representative arranged shipment of MONITOR samples to the domestic customer and the CEM Distributor that represents the international sister plant. No issues were obvious from the data received at CEM from the domestic customer. Approximately two weeks later, the domestic customer received information from the sister plant that the CEM distributor, when using the MONITOR sample, had detected an issue with the methodology being used at that location. Once this was corrected, the results from the two locations compared favorable.

Not only is the QuickCheck MONITOR program an excellent stand-alone program for testing moisture analysis systems, but, when coupled with the CustomerCare Plus maintenance program, it provides the ultimate performance monitoring and repair system available in the industry.