Quality’s 18th Annual Spending Survey reports budget increases for a range of product categories.
January 1, 2018
January is not typically considered a season of growth, but Quality’s research reports a lot of it. It’s spending survey season and quality professionals are starting to invest in new equipment.
The basic concept of a thread plug is to provide a quick inspection for machinists and quality inspectors to verify that the threads are within the accepted tolerance so that it interacts with the mating part correctly.
Recently, I walked through the premier U.S. exposition featuring world class manufacturers of measuring systems in Chicago and modular fixturing is now even more popular than ever. I guess the concept is now a proven “missing link” and wrestling with parts and work holding challenges are nearly a thing of the past.
Today it is a vacant plot. Back in the early 1990s, a stamping plant was there, with three main buildings supplying North American automotive final assembly operations. I was an inspector working the second shift, assigned to a stamping line producing outer panels for an automotive door.
We are frequently asked to quote on gage blocks made to non-standard dimensions. Requests like this leads to a number of questions, the first question being why they are needed in the first place.
In 2017, much of the ISO standards user community, as well as the supporting third party certification industry, was left with the same question. What standards/specifications aren’t changing right now?
Manufacturing professionals in quality assurance and process improvement are not new to understanding the importance of quality. However, do they know the difference to be made in creating a culture of quality with regards to driving the policies, practices, and processes needed to accomplish an organization’s work?
Ask a quality engineer how they were introduced to metrology or inspection, and they’ll often answer that it wasn’t during their coursework, but in the field. It reflects the manufacturing world’s problem with visibility and messaging, and an important insight into why the term “skills gap” has been a buzzword for several years.
New computer vision applications are obtaining maximum image quality by combining high resolution, low-flare lenses with large format, high resolution global shutter sensors.