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The last two decades has seen an enormous increase in improving all factors effecting Quality Control and therefore, profitability.
No longer is it acceptable to check aspects of the product or of the process without having results which are repeatable and traceable to national standards.
The widespread use of statistical process control techniques to monitor a process to enable it to be corrected before it starts to produce out of tolerance products, has made massive improvements not just to quality but also to profitability.
The key that has made this possible has been the significant improvement in measuring and monitoring techniques over the last twenty years.
A prime example of the amount of change seen over
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the last ten years or more is in leak testing. Ten years ago it was not uncommon to see a product being pressurised and held under water to see if any bubbles were visible. Needless to say, this method was open to operator error and often resulted in either product wastage due to water ingress or a lengthy drying out period. The solution to this method of testing does not have to be expensive, in fact the cost of saved time and product wastage can easily pay for itself very quickly. As always there is a cost and accuracy trade-off, as figure 1) illustrates improving accuracy increases cost, so the first question we ask is "is this level of accuracy necessary or not?".
If you want an honest answer speak to us first!
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Okay, we all know that a perfect product is about as rare as reaching the speed of light. But the only way that can show how close we are to achieving it is to use ever more accurate and therefore expensive, see figure 1), measuring equipment.
Knowing where the optimum cost* versus performance lies is difficult, however, with our
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Figure 1) Hi Accuracy Lower
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experience we can advise you not just of cost and options but also cost of ownership and whether a custom solution is the best answer.
Also, I wonder, how many people have had a demonstration of the latest instrument which incorporates programmable operation, and have been impressed with it's flexibility but later either never use all of the functions or to have to sit down with the operator's manual to try to get it to do what you want!
When we design a piece of equipment we keep reminding ourselves of 'KISS', Keep It Simple Stupid! after all we want our efforts to be appreciated.
*NB We view 'cost' as used above as cost of purchase, maintenance and cost to operate which includes cost in terms of test time, operator's time, downtime and wastage (if known).
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March Designs & Measurements
Unit 11, Alfred Street
Dunstable
Beds LU5 4HZ England
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