Case Study 1: Precision Machine Shop Moving from Paper & Excel to 1factory
About the Company
Manufactures a wide range of precision components (over 800 unique part numbers) for the medical device, aerospace, and semiconductor capital equipment industries.
Before 1factory
Drawings were being manually ballooned, and Inspection Plans were being created and maintained in excel. For each work-order, data-entry sheets had to be printed and delivered to each work center. When revisions changed (which happened frequently), the data-entry sheets had to be re-printed and re-distributed. Revision control problems were common.
Data was collected on paper at each work-center for in-process inspections. Certain dimensions (GD&T) were inspected on a CMM in the QC lab, and the results were printed before being transcribed to excel. Similarly, a final inspection was performed in the QC lab with data again being collected on paper and transcribed to excel. Sample sizes were manually calculated, and the large variety of sampling plans are rules often led to sampling errors.
Each customer had their own report format, and reports were created manually in excel. Data entry problems were common, and customers would reject batches for data-entry errors or missing documentation. Process Capability analysis took too long to do, and was therefore almost never done.
After Implementing 1factory
With 1factory's PDF ballooning capability, the company has seen an 80% reduction in Inspection Plan creation time. Inspection Plans are now automatically revision controlled, and the latest plan is instantly available at each work-center.
Data is collected directly in 1factory at each machine as a combination of manual entry, digital-gage entry, and CMM file imports. 1factory's run-charts provide real-time visual feedback to operator about how well centered and in-control the process is. And, Cp, Cpk, Pp, Ppk are automatically calculated and are being refreshed in real-time.
Further, 1factory automates sample size calculation at the feature-level (based on each feature's AQL), saving the inspector a lot of time, and eliminating sample size errors.
And finally, 1factory creates the Inspection Report in the required format at the click of a button. As an example 45 critical dimensions are checked for a single part. From a batch of 100 of these parts, 13 parts are inspected. Using 1factory's import capability 13 x 45 dimensions are imported in less than one second, and summarized into the customer-specific report format in less than a second, eliminating data-entry errors and saving an hour of time per batch. In addition, 1factory ensures that all attachments are captured and delivered to teh customer along with the inspection data.
Results
The 1factory implementation has resulted in a 50% reduction in time spent on QC paperwork. More importantly, the manufacturer has improved customer confidence in shipment quality, resulting in a significant increase in business.
Case Study 2: High-Tech OEM Improves Supplier Quality Management
About the Company
Develops and delivers high-value specialty solutions for aerospace, defense, consumer high-tech, and medical applications, with global supply chain and manufacturing operations.
Before 1factory
The company engineers and delivers custom solutions requiring the procurement of a wide-range of custom components. Prior to implementing 1factory, the company had no visibility into its suppliers Inspection Plans, Inspection Frequencies, Data, and Analysis. Every single batch of parts had to be re-inspected on receipt and inspection backlogs averaged 4 days.
After Implementing 1factory
The OEM implemented 1factory's supply chain collaboration capability. 1factory is now being used by both the OEM and its suppliers. Suppliers set up Inspection Plans in 1factory, and share them with the OEM for review before production begins. By aligning expectations early, a number of problems are avoided.
As each batch of parts is produced, inspection data is collected by the supplier in 1factory, and shared with the OEM over 1factory. This eliminates a lot of paperwork being sent back and forth over email, and ensures that the OEM has visibility to quality levels before parts leave the supplier.
An integrated supplier dashboard allows Supply Chain Managers to easily manage supplier quality, and automated scorecards ensure that the supplier and the buyer are aligned on performance. In addition, the automated scorecards save 240 man-hours per quarter
Results
With increasing confidence in the quality of incoming material, the OEM was able to reduce incoming inspections. Incoming inspection cycle-times have dropped by 50%, and supplier non-conformances have dropped by nearly 80%.