Shoe-String Automation

摘要

Faced with a downsizing organization, serious budget reductions and retirement of key metrology personnel, maintaining capabilities to provide necessary services to our customers was becoming increasingly difficult. It appeared that the only solution was to automate some of our more personnel-intensive processes; however, it was crucial that the most personnel-intensive candidate process be automated, at the lowest price possible and with the lowest risk of failure. This discussion relates factors in the selection of the Standard Leak Calibration System for automation, the methods of automation used to provide the lowest-cost solution and the benefits realized as a result of the automation. The Oak Ridge Metrology Center (ORMC) provides a wide spectrum of calibration services to the Y-12 National Security Complex, as well as, to extra-company customers.