S
Anyone have some ideas for efficient collection of SPC data – measuring and recording?
Let me provide some background: We are a precision machine shop. It’s basically a high mix production setup where a lot of parts (and scrap!) can be made in very short order. Staying on top of things without limiting production time of the machines is critical. We are committed to in-process inspection so we will make the necessary trade-offs but no need to give up something that a little forethought up front could minimize
We have a cell that can pull pallets of already set-up jobs and run them as time allows. Day shift typicall perform set-ups and swing and weekends run production. We often run just 1-2 parts of a larger qty job and then the next job comes in. Why I tell you this is we have run over 40 unique parts in a shift (4 machining centers in this cell). It also can provide variation as cutting tools will likely get used on other jobs before this job runs again – which could be in a week!
Each job also has a mobile cart on the production floor that contains raw material, a staging are for parts that are at different ops, a tote for good, finished parts, a place to hang a print and traveler and a place for the 1st article. There is also room to do inspection with hand tools. A large granite block and Height gage sit on one perimeter of the cell.We have 8 rows of these carts and, due to how the computer fills in time slots with partial runs, ANY of the set-up jobs could potentially run at any given time.
Needless to say our operators are kept quite busy. The operators have a limited amount of time that they can realistically spend on data collection.
We do use wireless tools at the one station. One possible way is to have tablet of some sort at each cart but that seems like a lot of overkill. I could also have a mobile station per operator but that would clog the aisles, though there may be a way we could make that idea viable. I could begin brainstorming all day/week …but I thought with your input I could narrow down a direction more quickly.
I realize I have left a lot of things open – I’ll try to provide more constraints as needed -but I didn’t want anyone to not propose something because they thought I couldn’t use it.
Thanks in advance!!
Let me provide some background: We are a precision machine shop. It’s basically a high mix production setup where a lot of parts (and scrap!) can be made in very short order. Staying on top of things without limiting production time of the machines is critical. We are committed to in-process inspection so we will make the necessary trade-offs but no need to give up something that a little forethought up front could minimize
We have a cell that can pull pallets of already set-up jobs and run them as time allows. Day shift typicall perform set-ups and swing and weekends run production. We often run just 1-2 parts of a larger qty job and then the next job comes in. Why I tell you this is we have run over 40 unique parts in a shift (4 machining centers in this cell). It also can provide variation as cutting tools will likely get used on other jobs before this job runs again – which could be in a week!
Each job also has a mobile cart on the production floor that contains raw material, a staging are for parts that are at different ops, a tote for good, finished parts, a place to hang a print and traveler and a place for the 1st article. There is also room to do inspection with hand tools. A large granite block and Height gage sit on one perimeter of the cell.We have 8 rows of these carts and, due to how the computer fills in time slots with partial runs, ANY of the set-up jobs could potentially run at any given time.
Needless to say our operators are kept quite busy. The operators have a limited amount of time that they can realistically spend on data collection.
We do use wireless tools at the one station. One possible way is to have tablet of some sort at each cart but that seems like a lot of overkill. I could also have a mobile station per operator but that would clog the aisles, though there may be a way we could make that idea viable. I could begin brainstorming all day/week …but I thought with your input I could narrow down a direction more quickly.
I realize I have left a lot of things open – I’ll try to provide more constraints as needed -but I didn’t want anyone to not propose something because they thought I couldn’t use it.
Thanks in advance!!
Last edited: