You spend your days loading and unloading parts into the CMM and checking every dimension on the part. In orthopaedic joint and medical device manufacturing, this can be a time-consuming and sometimes necessary requirement for validated processes. Increasingly, though, manufacturers are looking at what the true value is to this, and if they should be inspecting only for the Critical to Quality (CTQ) dimensions, rather than 100% inspection of every dimension. This reduces the time needed for inspection, decreases the need for a costly individual CMM’s, and allows for multiple parts to be inspected on a single fixture at speed.
What is Critical to Quality?
Critical to quality (CTQ) is the quality of a product or service in the eyes of the voice of the customer (VOC). It is a useful to identify the critical to quality parameters as they relate to what is important to the customer overall. In general, the two most important factors are the very specific end-product parameters and the associated process parameters that determine the quality of the end-product. Once these parameters are identified, the quality department will want to monitor, control and continuously improve upon these CTQ parameters, but not necessarily every dimension on the product. Businesses may better understand and meet consumer wants and expectations – as well as improve the product quality and service they provide – by listening to the voice of the customer. To promote customer satisfaction and loyalty, these VOC programs recognise and respond to the voice of the consumer. Ultimately, the VOC leads down to the CTQ requirements in manufacturing.
Automating metrology inspection
CTQ dimensions can be specifically singled out, and vision metrology applied for automatic measurement and evaluation of components, rather than the traditional CMM route. Measurement programs for both roughness measurement and form measurement can be automated quickly and easily with vision systems. Vision inspection enables the automatic and user-independent measurement of micro-precision parts or smallest component features on large surfaces. Measurement of shape (distances, shape deviation, positional relationships…) and roughness parameters as well as of cutting edge parameters (radius, contour, angle…). This allows multiple nested products to be inspected at speed compared to the single CMM inspection route, allowing higher throughput and releasing engineers from the costly time for mounting and demounting products from a CMM. Machine vision measuring is used to autonomously confirm the dimensional accuracy of components, parts, and sub-assemblies without the need for operator intervention. Machine vision has the advantage of being non-contact, which means it does not contaminate or damage the part being inspected.
Factory information interfaces enable networking and communication with existing production and quality management systems according to the smart manufacturing production concept, thus all data and traceability is immediately available to engineering and quality. Allowing trends and spikes in quality to be seen quicker.
So in the future, don’t continue to mount a single product in a CMM and check products one by one – drill down on the CTQ and the VOC, and automate your metrology checks using automated vision inspection instead – to increase throughput, reduce overhead and ultimately be more productive.