Understanding Machine vs. Plastic Variables

摘要

In our business, an extraordinary amount of time, money, and effort is spent to develop, check, and document reproducible 24/7 processes for making parts and assemblies. The automotive market has its Production Part Approval Process (PPAP), medical OEMs have the FDA Validations, and most of us are familiar with Design of Experiments (DOEs). All of these are performed with the best of intentions. Yet despite all this effort, bad parts are still molded and the struggle continues to transfer a process from one machine to another and make identical parts. The time and expense involved are huge—in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Perhaps worse is the acceptance by many that we need to go through the above exercises just for the sake of doing so. Many times I've heard, "It is the price of doing business, it is required." I disagree. Spending this human, financial, and other resources must yield appropriate benefits and dollar value if our critical manufacturing base is to remain competitive, survive, and grow. If we are going to spend these resources we need to maximize their impact and value. How do we get on track to get the desired results?