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Product integrity occurs when performance, schedule, and affordability converge throughout the product life cycle. The first critical stage in realizing product integrity happens early in the product life cycle during design and development; a second and no less critical stage occurs later, during the transition from development to production. Early in the process, the relationship between design intent and process capability must be established and understood. As the design matures and transitions to production, it must be manufactured in a repeatable and affordable way by an extended supply chain. Achieving these seemingly intuitive objectives continues to be elusive for much of the aerospace and defense industry.
Welcome to Quality Digest’s 2009 3-D Measurement Equipment and Software Buyers Guide.
This directory includes the contact information. for 91 companies that offer 3-D measurement and analysis products. Further information, including detailed descriptions of these companies’ products and services, is available online at www.qualitydigest.com/content/buyers-guides.
Only those companies that responded to our requests for updated information have been included in this buyers guide. We don’t intend this directory as an endorsement of any organization; it’s merely a starting point in your data-gathering process. We encourage you to contact these companies directly for further information.
The last few years have provided ample evidence that control of food safety is critical. Recent media reports have clearly documented supply chain shortcomings that have threatened consumers’ health and safety. These ongoing problems and the need for consumer safety cry out for additional tools to dramatically reduce or eliminate risks.
Milestones in U.S. Food and Drug Law History
1883 Dr. Harvey W. Wiley becomes chief chemist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Campaigning for a federal law, Dr. Wiley is called the “Crusading Chemist” and “Father of the Pure Food and Drug Act.”
1906 The original Pure Food and Drug Act is passed by Congress on June 30 and signed by President Theodore Roosevelt. The Meat Inspection Act is passed the same day.
Optical measurement, when clearly understood and applied, can bring huge benefits. It can also be an investment disaster. To avoid the latter, we need to start with an understanding of the basics--the capabilities and limitations of optical measurement. Then, we can consider the applications where it might provide a better solution over current methods, such as touch probes, optical comparators, hand gauges, or microscopes. Digging deeper, we can discover the challenges that those applications present to optical measurement, the limitations, and the potentials for failure. In this article, we will investigate the optical tools and software strategies that have been developed to meet those challenges. With a deeper understanding, the right technology can be applied to the task, and the investment dollars will make sense.
The basics
The diagram in figure 1 below illustrates the basics of optical measurement: lighting, optics, XY Stage, and a Z axis that handles the focus.
The process potential index, or Cp, measures a process's potential
capability, which is defined as the allowable spread over the actual spread. The
allowable spread is the difference between the upper specification limit and the
lower specification limit. The actual spread is determined from the process data
collected and is calculated by multiplying six times the standard deviation, s.
The standard deviation quantifies a process's variability. As the standard
deviation increases in a process, the Cp decreases in value. As the standard
deviation decreases (i.e., as the process becomes less variable), the Cp
increases in value.
By convention, when a process has a Cp value less than 1.0, it is considered
potentially incapable of meeting specification requirements. Conversely, when a
process Cp is greater than or equal to 1.0, the process has the potential of
being capable.
Ideally, the Cp should be as high as possible. The higher the Cp, the lower
the variability with respect to the specification limits. In a process qualified
as a Six Sigma process (i.e., one that allows plus or minus six standard
deviations within the specifications limits), the Cp is greater than or equal to
2.0.
With multiple personal-technology devices morphing into a single product, the telecommunications industry is experiencing a quantum leap in technical evolution. The comparatively primitive cell phone of just a few years ago must now be a music-playing, video-recording, web-browsing, photo-taking, and e-mailing personal accessory that you can still use to make a phone call. Why is it, then, given all this innovation, that when you have a question about your bill it takes so long for customer service to answer?
The processes and technology found in many call centers define their customer service, and unfortunately they haven’t kept pace with the quickly changing industry and its customers’ expectations.
Cummins Inc. designs, manufactures, distributes, and services engines and related technologies, including fuel systems, controls, air handling, filtration, emission solutions, and electrical power generation systems. Cummins serves customers in more than 160 countries through its network of 550 company-owned and independent distributor facilities and more than 5,000 dealer locations. Cummins reported a net income of $739 million on sales of $13.05 billion in 2007.
Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series looking at how companies can share best practices such as Six Sigma across the supply chain. The first part of this series, which focused on heavy-duty truck manufacturer PACCAR, appeared in Quality Digest’s October 2008 issue. You can view that article online at www.qualitydigest.com/magazine/2008/oct/article/partnering-change-part-1.html.
Welcome to Quality Digest’s 2008 Calibration Software and Services Directory
On the following pages you’ll find nearly 200 companies that can help you properly calibrate your measurement equipment. Included in each listing is the company name, address, telephone and fax numbers, web address, and a key showing whether the company in question provides calibration software (SW), services (SVC), or both. Further information, including detailed descriptions of these companies’ products and/or services, can be found online at www.qualitydigest.com/content/buyers-guides.
Quality Digest hasn’t evaluated, nor do we endorse, any of the following calibration software and/or service providers. This directory is intended to be used as a guide; please contact the companies themselves for further information.
Good luck in your search for the right calibration software and/or services provider.
Most in the electronic manufacturing services industry are acutely aware of the growing problem of counterfeit and substandard electronic components within the supply chain, as well as the headaches that they cause.
Although industry and governments are working diligently in addressing counterfeit abatement, you may already have one of the most useful tools in combating phony parts in place right on your production floor.
What is quality? An academic definition of quality as it relates to business might be that quality is a product or service that consistently has zero defects, conforms to particular specifications, and is satisfactorily received by the customer. Another aspect of quality is that it is a thought process sought out by organizations to create an overall drive toward efficiency, the reduction of waste, and the continual creation of more streamlined management processes.
“Unlike twenty years ago, when the quality department was viewed as the creator of quality, now the whole concept is more ingrained into the culture of organizations,” says Ron Atkinson, past president of the American Society for Quality. “Quality is created by the people performing the function, whether it be assembling a Bluetooth device or filling out an intake form at a medical clinic. Therefore, a culture of quality is emerging in which the leadership of organizations is emphasizing that the functional areas are responsible for quality in the same way that they are responsible for manpower costs, etc.”
