Quality 4.0: Trend inside trend (Part 3)

The rapid growth of technology has led to a serious shortage of workers who are both able to operate the technology and have high professional capacity. Often, manufacturers find themselves hiring people with no manufacturing experience just to fill in the missing positions and this also leads to unsatisfactory product quality.

New quality concerns across the business may justify introducing better systems to keep businesses producing quality assurance products. By implementing control enforcement systems for quality needs, operators need less time for on-site training and employees can go to work right away.

For example, metal stamping at Ralco Industries uses ERP cloud production software (enterprise resource planning system) to strictly control the initial work setup, not allowing production to begin for until all the necessary details are given. This not only gives the company the inherent quality control, but also provides the production team with the tools to help the employee’s work be completed and they will stay with the business.

Integrated quality management systems also lead to greater automation in production environments.

MFC Netform, a supplier of highly automated transmission components, uses an automated quality control system with lasers and air pressure tools to perform multiple measurements on a fixed object. This helps businesses identify errors and potential errors in their quality processes. The test data is immediately compared to the specifications and if these numbers are outside the control limits, a warning will be issued and a notice sent to the supervisor. The system can even start upstream shutdowns to prevent non-compliant parts from continuing production.

Value of quality predicted

This increase in automation, coupled with the principles of Quality 4.0 and significantly reduced sensor prices, has led manufacturers to deploy extensive sensor networks throughout their factories to collect additional data. about the operation. This helps to monitor the full range of potential factors that can cause quality problems and analyze detailed data on risk situations throughout the manufacturing process. From here, businesses can take appropriate actions to optimize product quality.

One use case is vibrators, heat monitors or energy graphs – all of which can signal an imminent incident.

When a data stream begins to tend to go beyond the normal range, a maintenance engineer may be alerted. Even greater values ​​from advanced analytics can correlate data with future failures after the product is put into use.

Device manufacturers are beginning to monitor the machines they sell to identify normal and unusual behavioral patterns that can then be used to improve understanding of failure modes. By identifying the root cause of product defects with traceability for their individual operations, operators and machines related to their production, companies can identify product failures. The output may be repaired to reduce or eliminate future warranty claims.

Industry 4.0 and the original benefits realized with Quality 4.0 show that manufacturing companies can benefit from using technology to support improved quality performance. The potential for cost reduction for quality control activities is huge as manufacturers embark on investment in management systems, software and technologies.

Productivity and Quality Office