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News & Events EM Sleuth Sleuth the Slasher
News & Events EM Sleuth Sleuth the Slasher
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Using Enterprise Metrology to trim time from an already lean product development cycle It was a time of celebration, but it didn’t last long. The ZipChem Metering Pump folks had just introduced an exceptional new product with greatly improved accuracy. Even better, it included a number of plastic components that dramatically reduced its selling price. And, best of all, the company had reduced its product development cycle from its previous best of 33 months to 25. The ZipChemmers were a force to be reckoned with in their industry. Sleuth, who joined the festivities, had made a big contribution to the concurrent engineering team’s effort to reduce the programming logjam at the CMM, so that prototype parts could speed through evaluation as soon as they came from the manufacturing source. They did this by moving to an almost total reliance on off-line CMM part programming and using a direct-to-CAD interface that eliminated any ambiguity that might be introduced by using CAD model file translations. The frugal celebration consisted of pizza and cokes served at noon in a small conference room in the engineering department. The levity lasted all of ten minutes when a dark cloud descended over the gathering in the form of none other than the CEO himself. “Hey guys, listen up,” said the VP of Engineering. “Mr. Beaker has a few words he would like to say to us.” The dozen or so people who had joined the celebration quickly took seats and fixed their gaze upon their leader.  “Gentlemen,” he said (even though there were several women present), “I want you to know that I have just talked with our national sales manager and he tells me that early feedback from our customers indicates that this new product is a real winner. However,” he held out his hands and lowered his eyebrows in a gesture precisely calculated to stifle any cheers, “had we introduced it seven months earlier, which our plans called for, we’d be sitting pretty with twelve months of stronger sales and an improved market share. “Now we’ll have maybe a 5-month opportunity to take advantage of our unique product. That means we have to accelerate our efforts to bring out ZipChem Generation II. If it doesn’t launch 15 months from today — or better, there will be hell to pay. Enjoy your party.” Later that afternoon, Sleuth got a call on his cell from the Quality Lab Manager. “You’ve got to help me. They’re very serious about slashing the development cycle by 44 weeks and they want my department to contribute at least 12 of those weeks. Otherwise, I may be looking for another job. And I’m not allowed to hire any more people. What can you do for me?” “Well,” said Sleuth “Your lab is already pretty efficient. We took care of that on the last go round. But there are places where we can find some pretty impressive metrology efficiencies, if we are allowed to go there.” “And where might that be,” asked the Manager. “Up and down the Enterprise. I’ll bring you a shopping list in the morning.” True to his word, Sleuth arrived the next morning with a list of metrology labor reducing opportunities for slashing weeks from ZipChem’s product development cycle. The Quality Lab Manager listened intently as Sleuth ran down existing opportunities to use Enterprise Metrology to trim weeks from the product development cycle. • Leveraging Design Intent. “Make sure the GD&T data is added to the CAD model before the Quality Lab people have to start programming measurement systems. This eliminates the inefficiency and inaccuracy of working with marked up prints and results in measurement programs that truly reflect the design intent for the particular product components.” • Inspection Programming Automation. “Use automated features within measurement system programming software that allow for the automated generation of machine-specific programs. This can allow one programmer to create four times as many measurement programs in the same amount of time.” • Common Software. “As much as possible, use cross platform software so that you develop only one program per part no matter what system you measure it on. This gives you the greatest amount of flexibility to use all of your equipment, all of the time. If the DCC CMM is tied up— you can then measure the part on a manual or even a vision system when it makes sense.” • Inspection Database: “Get all your metrology data into a single database so that those who need to know can locate the information themselves without having to wait or log-jam inspection staffers with report requests.” • Remote Run-Offs: “You spend a lot of time waiting for parts to come back from job shops and then measuring them. Your vendors can measure parts too. Then, they can share the inspection information with you as soon as it becomes available, and you can tell them immediately whether to ship the parts of rework them. This alone can save you weeks, especially if they are using the same metrology software as you since there won’t be any questions about ambiguities in the measurement results.” • Parametric Programming: “You sell many different models of the ZipChem metering pump, but they are all based on the same basic design. Instead of spending weeks writing dozens of programs for similar parts you can write one parametric program for measuring families of components. The parametric program provides you with a table of variables you can change. So in minutes you can create a new program for measuring a somewhat different part within the family. This can also save you weeks.” As the Sleuth ran down his list, worry wrinkles on the Quality Lab Manager’s face began to relax. “Got anything else?” he asked sheepishly. “Yes,” said Sleuth, “something that could easily put you over the top.” • On Machine Gaging. “Precision plastic components are a major part of your new design philosophy. A big reason you did not meet your ambitious product development goals last time was all the time it took manufacturing, production testing and reworking your prototype and production tooling for these parts. If you measure your tool components on the CNC machine as you make them, you can weed out a lot of these problems before components leave the machining area. This can eliminate days and weeks worth of back-and-forth time. You can help the manufacturing guys implement this using the same measurement software you use right here in the Quality Lab. “This could save us months,” said the quality manager with a sigh of relief. “Bingo.” said Sleuth with a wink. “But only if you get started now. Time, as always, is of the essence.” # # # # # |
