When faced with most problems dealing with processes, products, or service, quality professionals typically implement two types of remedial actions which were handed down to us by experts like Dr. Joseph M. Juran, Dr. Frank Gryna, et al. “Control of nonconforming product” and “root cause analysis with corrective action” are two separate and essential processes.
Quality at the source (QATS) has been used well before lean manufacturing became so popular. Many people in the quality function have applied the principles especially at critical work areas to detect nonconforming items and prevent them from moving forward in the process.
Winona PVD Coatings takes quality so seriously that out of the almost 1.5 million wheels shipped in the past ten years, the company has seen the number of returns in the single digits.
With the acquisition, Carl Zeiss Industrial Metrology (IMT) is strengthening its presence in the market for process control and inspection in car making.
Image-processing in the near infrared spectrum is already well established in the photovoltaic industry where it is used in demanding optical inspection procedures that check solar cells for micro-cracks, which can occur during crystal growth and wafer sawing. But this technology has much more to offer and it is gaining in importance in other areas, as this article shows.