The value of ongoing maintenance and prevention is no secret. We know we can save a lot of anguish and money by taking preventive actions today and every day to avoid major problems later. This principle also applies to the quality of the products designed each day by engineers.

The “healthiest,” most successful automotive and aerospace companies use tools early and often to address dimensional engineering problems before they occur. This prevents problems that others may not discover until manufacturing or—worse—until their end-customer experiences them as quality issues.

Ask the right questions at the right time

When it comes to quality, everything starts in design. It’s important to ask the following questions as early as possible in the process:

• Is your quality process in control?

• Is it linked to your program objectives?

• Are your product and process requirements tightly defined and traceable?

• Are there any process considerations being made for dimensional objectives?

• Does your build strategy help you meet your design for Six Sigma (DFSS) objectives?

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