“You were sixteen . . . “ Barbershop chords rang out strong and true.
“The village queen . . .” Now the quartet had them on the edge of their seats.
“Down by the old, mill stream. . . The. . . old. . . mill . . . streammmmmmmm!!!”
The audience at the local high school stood and cheered as the quartet held its final note for a good long minute. Lead singer, E. M. Sleuth, carried the melody. Baritone Jerry Griggs blended in sublimely weird harmonic notes. Joe Abernathy’s steady bass held it all together, while Eddie Miller’s perfectly tuned high tenor cut through the crowd noise like a hot butter knife. It gave Sleuth a chill.
Minutes later, back stage, the Sleuth was still in a state of barbershop euphoria when Eddie pulled him aside and delivered the news that doused his mood like a fast dunk in a tub of ice water. Eddie wouldn’t be singing with them anymore. He was going to be too busy at work—for the rest of his life.
A big crunch was on again in the quality control department of Parts ‘R Us Manufacturing Company. It’s a rare guy who can program and operate five or six types of measurement systems for all they’re worth. That was Eddie. But Eddie was also a good tenor—an even rarer talent in Sleuth’s estimation. Something had to be done or the quartet was history.
Late that night at the Kozy Korner Coffee Shop, after everyone else had wilted and gone home, Eddie explained the situation to Sleuth.
“This isn’t the first time the work load has caught up with me. I almost had to quit barbershop a few years ago. But then you convinced the boss to put most of the measurement systems on the same programming software. That made the learning curve shorter, so more guys were better at programming all our different machines.
“We were getting the job, done, I thought. But then they hire this hot shot Vice President of Quality who comes up with an absolutely brilliant idea that’s going to ruin my life.”
“How so?” asked the Sleuth.
“Well, instead of buying more measurement equipment to keep up with the work, he is planning to put more of our devices in play at any one time. So, a part may be measured on any of several machines depending on priorities of the moment. Things I might measure on the bridge CMM I would also measure on the horizontal. Things I measure on horizontal I would also measure with the portable. He’s even throwing a multi-sensor system and NC probing into the mix,” complained Eddie.
“So start looking for another tenor. I’m going to be spending my spare time harmonizing all the new part programs so that they meet the unique hardware requirements of the machines they might run on.”
Sleuth slouched dejectedly in his chair. A good tenor is a terrible thing to waste.
“But wait,” he said, righting himself. There may be an answer to this problem. I’ll drop over to the shop later in the week.”
True to his word, Sleuth showed up at the Parts ‘R Us QC lab at the end of the shift on Thursday. “Men, I have something wonderful to show you.”
He brought Eddie, the veteran, and two younger guys over to the off-line measurement programming workstation where a fourth man was starting to write a new part program for the ultra-precision CMM. “Don’t mind us,” he said to the programmer. “Just do what you are doing.”
He consulted his notes and began to program using the CAD model of the part. Starting at the first hole, he instructed the software to measure it with 24 hits. This number of hits was necessary due to the tolerance of the feature. Next, he chose an appropriate probing angle based on the capabilities of the hardware. Finally, he created clearance moves so that the probe could get to the next hole without crashing. There were nearly a dozen more holes and many more features that he would have to program in this fashion.
“Enough,” shouted the Sleuth. “Step aside young man. With the permission of your boss, I worked the graveyard shift last night installing a new feature into your measurement program. It’s a little module that matches your measurement programs to the specific capabilities of each measurement device and then automatically optimizes them so they run efficiently.”
“Because of the upgrade I installed last night and the information I inputted, the software now knows what kind of sensor each machine has and the probing angles it has available. Even better, it also knows what the standard fixturing is for each part and how many hits it needs to take on each feature to meet specific tolerancing requirements. Here’s how it works.
Sleuth selected all the features he wanted to measure either by pointing and clicking on them or box selecting bunches of them. Then with just one mouse click, the new module went to work creating an entire measurement sequence based on the parameters, he’d previously entered.
The basic measurement program was done in a matter of minutes. With another click, the software automatically optimized the program so that the probe would travel along an efficient route and complete the measurement process substantially faster. This took a couple of minutes; done manually, it would have taken 30 minutes or more to do this work.
“Men, you may have your evenings back,” Sleuth concluded.
They cheered and applauded -- everyone but Eddie.
“What’s the matter, friend? I thought you would be delighted.”
“Last week I would have been. But this week the new QC VP gave a presentation to Major Motors. They liked what we are doing so much that they asked us to update our library of measurement programs for their parts with their latest standards for best measurement practices. And I’m the guy who will be doing it.”
This time the Sleuth did not seem surprised by the news. “Eddie, my boy, I have anticipated this. The next release of the software will let you update and optimize all of your old part programs just like your new ones. I’ve arranged for you to be a beta user. Not only will you be getting your work done by nightfall, you will also be getting a new version that will make short work of whatever Major Motors throws at you.”
“’Heart of My Heart’ will be the show stopper at our next concert,” Sleuth said as he winked at Eddie. I expect to see you at practice on Monday night.”
EM Sleuth is sponsored by Wilcox Associates Inc, (www.pcdmis-ems.com), part of the Hexagon Metrology Group and makers of PC-DMIS measurement software. Contributors to this article include: Ken Woodbine, Vice President, Wilcox Associates, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; Steve Logee, Director of Business Development, Wilcox Associates, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; Rob Fabiano, Sleuth iIlustrator, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and Joel Cassola, Writer, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.