Process Variation Monitors – Focus on the process

Continual Process Improvement

The process monitor provides an alert when the process changes, for example, a chipped tooth on CNC tap creating quality issue. System flaw caught immediately, and the process was stopped before bad parts were produced.

Process Stability

 • Establish that a process is stable and capable of producing only good parts with little or no variance between parts

 

Capture a signature reflecting process quality

 • Find the “Pulse of the Process”. (Example: The force over time graph is recorded for a good part.

 • Learn what makes a good part

 

Monitor the Process

 • Learned graph is automatically compared to each new graph (each new part) = 100% monitoring

 • Provide an alert of variance before equipment fault or quality issue

 • Flag or automatically reject bad parts for scrap or inspection

 

Enhancing quality and reducing scrap

 • In-process monitoring of 100% of parts

 • Capture defects at the source before adding additional value to that part

 • Detect worn or broken tooling at earliest possible stage

 • Catch hidden defects undetectable by visual or dimensional inspection

 • Puts the focus on the process for sustainable gains in efficiency

 • Documented history of production is a possible option