Learn more about the entire 3D printing process from powder characterization to determining the best tests to qualify parts for the aerospace industry.
The aerospace industry is increasingly adopting metal additive manufacturing for both flight safety-critical aircraft parts and non-critical flight parts. The approach offers a shorter development cycle, which means products can be developed quicker and design changes easily incorporated.
I was a group quality manager for an engineering company that made aero-engine parts. As part of the culture change program, I gave a presentation on examples of aircraft crashes and causes. A poorly machined blisk that caused an in-flight turbine failure, an oil-pipe with a thin wall in one area that cracked and leaked causing a fire, and an incident I personally saw, the crash of a military helicopter in Germany which was due to a series of quality failures.
A few customers are requesting that reports show the actual lab humidity during calibration of their equipment. I realize that this can be a critical consideration for some types of calibration but when it comes to fixed limit gages, I have never heard the rationale for such a request other than it’s what their customer expects.
Klein’s journey as an employee started in Global Shop Solutions service department helping customers navigate our software, but she quickly transitioned into the role of chief software designer.
Quite often in manufacturing, an inspection department is treated primarily as a necessary overhead expense required to assure compliance to customer specifications. Sometimes an inspection department may also be treated as a profit center for compliance to a variety of test protocols dictated by external agencies, or perhaps internal procedures to demonstrate traceability to certain quality standards.
Almost 30 years ago the Construction Industry Institute (CII) researched the “Costs of Quality Deviations in Design and Construction,” and concluded that, “The average cost of rework on industrial projects exceeds 12%.” Design deviations accounted for about 80% of the increased cost and construction deviations only 20%.
What are the characteristics of a quality leader? For many, leadership comes down to each of us identifying and searching for the characteristics that are most appealing to us. For instance, I spent a career with a company that was mostly Juran-centered but also had a significant Deming slant.
Quality and job satisfaction seem to go hand in hand. Only 7% of respondents were not at all satisfied with their job, according to our 18th Annual State of the Profession Survey.