During a recent search through the Quality Magazine archives, I found a copy of a 20-year-old letter from a service provider to one of its customers. After a long-term relationship with the manufacturer, the provider severed relations because the manufacturer had reduced what was once a partnership to that of a “commodity supplier.” Hats off to the service provider for having the courage to lose 25 years of business with that manufacturer rather than reduce the full range of his expertise available in his offerings.
Quality is a measure of excellence in manufacturing. A typical quality department in manufacturing is engaged in designing inspection plans, control plans and setting up control charts. Does it ensure quality? Does it help in achieving manufacturing excellence? Does it make the company more profitable? We need to challenge each department by asking its value proposition.
The Quality Measurement Conference and Quality NDT Conference, both held April 28-May 1, in Clearwater Beach, FL, featured an interesting panel discussion on developing the next generation of quality and nondestructive testing technicians and experts. The panel, made up of academia, association and industry personnel, addressed the recruitment and retainment crisis of qualified personnel the industry is facing.
Like many innovative products, the IPS-10 was in the works for a couple of years. As a result, the finished product offers a new way to do optical flaw detection.
The World Trade Organization announced in April its prediction that global export trade will approach $16.75 trillion this year. A key factor in the rampant evolution of global markets has been the acceptance of international standards and compliance programs that facilitate the movement of goods and services across national borders.
Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) and Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) activities can be likened to the Herculean task of cleaning the Aegean stables translated into the world of quality systems.
The advent of portable CMM technology has greatly reduced the difficulty of measuring GD&T properties, including the deviation from true position of features. In addition, it fits neatly into a lean manufacturing environment as part of a value-adding process chain.
A properly designed machine vision system can inspect products with speed and precision, increasing throughput on a production line. Getting such systems from the design lab to the factory, however, can sometimes be challenging.
Radiography, the use of ionizing electromagnetic radiation for object imaging, can be used for the nondestructive testing of subjects in many industries. Radiographic inspection methods are employed for flaw detection in castings, weldments, solid propellants, missile hardware and finished assemblies, as well as many other applications. Test subjects can range in size from microminiature electronic parts to large rocket motors.
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