Seeking Best Practice of Parts Segregation

[QCNerd]

Does anyone have a Best Practices experience with parts segregation procedures at a metal stamping facility? Looking for ideas....we usually make 1 part stampings and out the door they go. But now we are going to make 19 different skus from the same die, just replacing some inserts, and we cannot have any of the 19 skus. And oh, they also go to a plater, come back and we finish assemble. We will have a vision system at the end of the assembly machine but we want to avoid any parts cross contamination issues before they get that far...
Looking for Best Practices in Cleveland...
QCNerd

[Wes Bucey]

Originally Posted by QCNerd

Does anyone have a Best Practices experience with parts segregation procedures at a metal stamping facility? Looking for ideas....we usually make 1 part stampings and out the door they go. But now we are going to make 19 different skus from the same die, just replacing some inserts, and we cannot have any of the 19 skus. And oh, they also go to a plater, come back and we finish assemble. We will have a vision system at the end of the assembly machine but we want to avoid any parts cross contamination issues before they get that far...
Looking for Best Practices in Cleveland...
QCNerd

Having dealt with similar situation in machining facility (10 variations in length of a turned part - practically identical without resort to micrometer, including trip to and from plater), I have two suggestions prior to return from plater:

1. manufacture each variation on different day or different shift (clear out all previous variation before beginning work on next)
2. maintain segregation at plater (different variations on different days)

For return from plater:

1. Create special packaging for each variation for return trip from plater

At assembly (depends upon whether all or only some of each variation go into final assembly):

1. Only provide assembler with pertinent parts, lined up in specialized packaging
2. Create assembly pattern which uses variations in correct order. (If same variation is used in two separate places on same finished assembly, assembled in different order, then provide TWO packages of the variation in the correct order of assembly)

The option open to us as machinists is not open to you. We created meaningless (except for identification) nonfunctional grooves on the different variations for easy visual ID without resort to micrometer. Even the plater could readily distinguish between parts in event of mixup (piece parts dropped into tank one day, retrieved the next, etc.)