Content By Ryan E. Day

If You’re Only Relying on Data From SPC, You’re Doing It Wrong

By: Ryan E. Day 08/08/2018

‘In God we trust; all others bring data.” “Follow the data.” “Let the data talk.” Nice clichés, but there’s one problem... data can’t talk. In fact, data don’t say a darn thing. Data are bits of raw information. If you want to reduce product variation, improve your manufacturing processes, and increase profits, you need to interrogate and analyze your data.

It is the data analysis that provides actionable insights, and the success of statistical process control (SPC) depends on data analytics. SPC is the cornerstone of quality control and quality assurance in manufacturing processes.

SPC and Six Sigma are nearly synonymous with improving quality consistency and reducing process variation and waste. Naturally, these methods begin with data monitoring and collection—it’s the analysis stage where things can get dicey. But that’s also where data can turn into increased profits.

Listen to Doug C. Fair of InfinityQS, as he reveals the way companies are using data analysis tools to take advantage of the data they are already collecting with their quality control programs.

By: Ryan E. Day 08/06/2018

Factory and industrial inspections are the backbones of robust quality assurance programs. Inspection is also an integral part of machine system installation and maintenance, as well as in-situ repairs and retrofits. This is why highly competent individuals who understand the metrology methods of industrial inspection are worth their weight in gold. What can such an individual do when there is a glaring need for his expertise? Do as Damian Josefsberg did in 2003: With a smile and a handshake, he started his own metrology services company.

“I was working for a company that sold a laser alignment product,” explains Josefsberg, founder and president of ACQUIP. “I was listening to the problems that plant engineers had that were more complicated than what they could routinely handle. I wanted to provide a specialized solution for these industrial users that was missing from the marketplace, so I started my own company on a Monday morning. At one in the afternoon, I was on a plane for my first job with ACQUIP.”

Josefsberg’s knowledge and drive were rewarded with success, and his company has continued growing.

By: Ryan E. Day 06/21/2018

Henry Ford is credited with the cheeky quote, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said, ‘A faster horse.’” But, people didn’t get a faster horse (which may indeed have been what they wanted). What we did get was a machine that literally—and irrevocably—changed the entire world. And it’s happening again with autonomous vehicles (AV).

We know that when “horseless carriages” hit the roads, not everyone greeted them with equanimity. I wonder, did people actually want something to replace their horses? Would we have been somehow underserved if we had just developed more efficient ways of juxtaposing urban development and the disposal of horse manure? Maybe we did just want faster horses.

We are once again being gifted with inescapable technology in the form of self-driving vehicles.

By: Ryan E. Day 06/18/2018

Business partnerships are nothing new. Partnerships that result in leaner manufacturing processes, more consistent quality, and lower manufacturing costs—that is worth talking about.

With global competition so fierce, manufacturers must always be keen to spot areas of muda (waste). Even seemingly minor waste can have repercussions to overall customer satisfaction down the line. In the case of Star Rapid, a global rapid prototyping, rapid tooling, and low-volume manufacturer, issues with milling tools were recognized as a potential area to reduce muda and improve customer satisfaction.

Star Rapid had been buying a number of cutters from reputable international brands through agents. But reports started to come in from the shop floor, to the effect that cutters were wearing out quickly, breaking, and not performing well. Star Rapid sent some of these branded cutters back to Europe and the United States to confirm their authenticity, and found out that they were, in fact, fake. Not the fault of the brands themselves, but an unscrupulous stockist.

By: Ryan E. Day 06/11/2018

Advanced Integration Technology (AIT) serves the world’s largest and most technologically advanced aerospace OEMs and tier one suppliers, including Boeing, Airbus, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, BAE, Embraer, Spirit AeroSystems, Triumph, and Bombardier. AIT has facilities in the United States, Canada, Germany, Spain, and Sweden. Boasting multimillion-dollar contracts and multiple supplier awards from prestigious aerospace OEMs, AIT is a bona fide manufacturing superstar. If you’re in manufacturing, you must ask yourself, “What does it take to build an organization like that?”

Requirements for business excellence

AIT takes a classic approach to excellence by combining customer satisfaction, innovation, and utter dedication to quality: “We work with customers to turn the impossible into the possible, create opportunities to lower costs, reduce risk, and deliver systems within limited time constraints,” the company says on its website.

The thing that sets AIT apart from other manufacturers is not a secret sauce but its execution of these tried-and-true principles.

By: Ryan E. Day 05/31/2018

With the threat of a trade war between China and the United States looming, business relations between Asia and the West have not been this hot a topic since the Japanese Economic Miracle that was birthed shortly after WW II. Today, it is China’s turn on center stage as its soaring economic growth and aggressive trade restructuring has set off alarms around the world, particularly in the United States. But how does the media furor compare to the perception of rank-and-file American manufacturing business owners?

By: Ryan E. Day 05/14/2018

You run a manufacturing business, so you know how it goes. The cost of doing business and manufacturing product never decreases. You know that your revenue must increase just to keep up. You also know that merely maintaining your revenue status quo will only ensure you get your lunch eaten by inflation. Or by your competition. If you aren’t growing your profits, you aren’t just standing still—you’re going backward. There is no such thing as “flat growth.” If your company’s revenue is not increasing year over year; it’s dying a slow death. Here are three ways investing in technology can help your business grow and increase your profit margins.

Minimize inspection time

Although QC and QA are indispensable, outdated measurement tools can create a bottleneck in production. Minimizing inspection time is crucial to improving your value chain. Because inspection has such great potential to play a pivotal role in value chain improvement, manufacturing organizations cannot afford to overlook the low-hanging opportunity that technology represents.

By: Ryan E. Day 05/09/2018

Unily is a leading digital workplace platform designed by BrightStarr to improve engagement, productivity, and efficiency for global enterprises. Unily is also a SaaS solution. That is, it’s served up via the cloud. Meaning that—with more than a million users, including the likes of Shell, Hershey’s, Microsoft, and many other leading brands—information security is of utmost importance for BrightStarr.

Quality Digest recently had the opportunity to speak with Sam Hassani, chief technology officer at BrightStarr, to discuss his company’s challenges and opportunities in securing its recent ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification. ISO/IEC 27001:2013 is an internationally recognized security standard that specifies requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and continually improving an information security management system (ISMS) within an organization. It also includes requirements for the assessment and treatment of information security risks.

Quality Digest: BrightStarr recently obtained ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification. Can you share some insight as to why this certification was important to the company?

By: Ryan E. Day 04/26/2018

So, the Quality Digest team is considering a transition to working remotely for the most part. I and two other associates already do. In part one of this series, I outlined my ad-hoc attempt at creating a computer work space at home. The result was not very pretty.

As I said in part one, my home office planning began with a Google search, but as Jennie Dustin managing consultant at Humantech Inc. says, “You can’t Google your way out of everything.”

Jennie may have a valid point, because even though I’ve had the freedom to set up my office work station, and now my home office, work related aches and pains continued. Again, Jennie sums it up succinctly;
“If people don’t know what good looks like, they may set up the way they like it, but that doesn’t mean it’s correct.”

Now, in Part 2, I’d like to share my adventures in rectifying the shortcomings of my area of operation (AO) with the help of Humantech’s office ergonomics self-assessment program called Ergopoint. Ergopoint tells me it’s all about relationships.

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Democratization of Laser Trackers

By: Ryan E. Day 04/17/2018

Invented in 1987 and commercially available since 1991, laser trackers have long been a mainstay of the aerospace industry. Automotive manufacturers have also adopted laser trackers for quality control (QC) and design. The fact is, any industry dealing with large-scale measurements—from small machine shops to medium-sized enterprises to major Tier 1 automotive and aerospace suppliers—all share the potential to realize tremendous benefits by adopting laser tracker technology. But, not all industries that could benefit from using laser trackers do use them.

Fortunately, advancements in ease of use and lower entry price-point have combined to bring about the democratization of laser trackers.

Not just for rocket scientists anymore

democratize: verb
1. to make (a country or organization) more democratic
2. to make (something) available to all people; to make it possible for all people to understand (something)

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