Quality Engineering Solutions...

Imperial Consulting provides complete, focused solutions as well as customized training for organisational and individual learning in Quality Engineering in the following areas:


Experimental Deisgn & Analysis

Experiments are performed in virtually all fields of scientific enquiry to study the performance of processes and systems. They represent a series of tests in which purposeful changes are made in the input variables to identify associated changes in the output variables. Design of experiments is a body of knowledge based upon sound statistical and other scientific principles, which is used for planning of experiments and for making sound inferences from experimental data.
We assist our clients in the statistically sound and cost effective application of experimental design and analysis techniques in process/product design and development. In this regard, we have been at the forefront of the adoption and implementation of Computer Aided Design of Experimentation in the food and nutritional sciences. CADE is a statistical tool, which helps in the development of products that are easier and less costly to manufacture and have enhanced physicochemical and nutritional performance.



Robust Product & Process Design

Experimentation plays an important role in new product design, manufacturing process development, and process improvement. The objective in some cases may be to develop a robust process or product, that is, a process or product affected minimally by external sources of variability.
We assist our clients in the design and development of robust processes and products through the use of Response Surface Methods in which the variance and mean of a process or product output variable(s) is explicitly modeled as a function of noise and controlled input variables. In this regard, we have been at the forefront of assisting multinational companies achieve significant improvements in product and process robustness through the use of RSM.



Modeling Microbiological Safety

The quality and shelf life of foods are often determined by the growth of microorganisms. Predictive Food Microbiology is a field of study that combines elements of microbiology, mathematics, and statistics to develop models that describe and predict the behaviour of microorganisms under specified environmental conditions.
We assist our clients in the statistically sound and cost effective application of PFM to predict the stability of newly developed food products that have undergone formulation changes, to help estimate the shelf life and safety of foods, to find critical control points in a process, and to optimise production and distribution chains. In this regard, we have been at the forefront of the implementation of PFM in the food industry.



Process Monitoring & Control

Process control is that component of the overall quality measurement system responsible for maintaining existing quality standards by monitoring and analysing quality characteristics while the process is operating. In Statistical Process Control, variance reduction is accomplished by monitoring a process to detect and remove nonrandom root causes of variation by some hypothesis testing procedure, while in Automatic Process Control this is accomplished by counteracting the effects of root causes of variation by continual process adjustment. In Algorithmic Statistical Process Control, both improvement and adjustment optimisation approaches are combined for process improvement.
We have assisted a multinational client apply ASPC to a hydrolysis process and achieved a 20% reduction in quality variability and the virtual elimination of out-of-specification material.