Recreating a Metrology System - What will you recommend me to start with?

S

Slavik

#1
My company has a problem with the metrology system. Almost 70% of all equipment is not calibrated (It is hard to believe, but we just passed ISO90001 certification!). Management asked me to fix this problem. Right now I have at my hand the out-of-dated database of measurement equipment: some of equipment is not available anymore (lost, etc); from the other hand some of new equipment are not in the database. We have more then fifteen hundreds units of equipment according the database. It will be difficult to make walk around to audit all of this equipment.

What will you recommend me to start with?
 
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Adriane

Involved - Posts
#2
Been there,

done that.
Kind of like the old saying goes, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." :bonk: I've been right where you are at. I had the best results taking one department at a time. It took me nearly 3 months to get the entire shop done but the effort that it took was worth it.
Kindest Regards,
Adriane
 

Jerry Eldred

Forum Moderator
Super Moderator
#3
The first step I would take is inventory. I've started a number of labs, even created recall databases from scratch. First you need to know what you have to work on. If you have a database, make a print out of the database (manufacturer, model, serial number, identification number (if you use a separate one), last calibration date, next due date, location, owner.

Using the database printout (or electronic version if that works for you), divide it into logical sections either by department, location, equipment type, or what ever makes sense for you. Then ask people from each area to inventory their equipment. Ask them to check off everything they find, and ask them to verify the information (make sure you have all correct information on each instrument). Ask them to add any additional instruments not on the list, and ask them to identify any instruments already on the list that they can not locate.

You may actually find that some instruments have moved to other locations. So cross-check between lists to make sure that missing items from one list are not on another list as added instruments. Once you have a final list (including missing instruments), make sure that the appropriate management is aware of missing items. Perhaps they are locked in a cabinet somewhere.

Once you have an accurate list of what you really have, then you need an action plan for how to get everything calibrated.

The following steps are not necessarily in order of priority, just as my brain thinks of them:

1. What needs to be sent to outside vendors for calibration. Take that list and determine where you are going to send those items.

2. What do you have to comply to? Sounds like ISO9001. Are there instruments that are the most critical to conforming to ISO9001? Prioritize those.

3. Are there instruments that directly impact product quality or whether it will meet specifications? Those instruments should take a high priority.

4. Are there instruments that impact safety or environmental hazards? Those should be given a priority.

5. Your lab standards. Before you can calibrate anything internally (if you do in-house calibrations) you will need to get your lab standards calibrated.

6. If there is a pressing need to get everything calibrated very quickly, you could also consider hiring an appropriate lab to either come in-house to calibrate everything (or most of it), or get bulk, expedited pick-up service from an appropriate lab.

7. If you can not afford to have everything gone or calibrated at once, consider making strategic decisions about which items to be sent out at a given time.

8. Try to identify broken instruments, if possible. There is the possibility that some items are inoperative, and may not be worth the cost to repair.

I came into a company of 200 employees with about 1000 un-calibrated instruments. There were about 125 broken instruments. I self-taught myself how to do a particular repair in-house (the attenuator assembly on an H-P 8640B RF Signal Generator), so that it met mfr's specs. It would have cost the company $2500 each, and there were 60 of them. I saved the company >$100,000 over the course of the six months it took me to repair them, and used that to justify purchasing an H-P 8902A Measuring Receiver for about $35K. Think about strategic decisions, such as, what can you calibrate in-house more cost effectively (if you have the right skills) than sending out. Use these cost savings to justify expanding your lab capabilities.

If you don't have automated software to perform calibrations using GPIB, consider whether your workload may justify that. I won't include any brand names, as this is a non-commercial site.

There are probably plenty of additional ideas to help you get started with this. Hopefully I have given you some starting ideas.
 

Hershal

Metrologist-Auditor
Staff member
Super Moderator
#5
Good points Jerry.

I might add a few ideas. Like Adriane, i have been there and had approximately 3000 items for cal in several plants and departments.

First, the inventory is a good starting point. Record the item name, serial or assest number, location, what it is, last known cal date (if any).

Then cross that to your existing list, weed out the duplicates.

Invest in a good calibration management package, like GAGETrack or Blue Mountain. Put all the items into the package, and keep the other list for historical purposes only. You are basically starting with a clean slate.

Find an accredited calibration provider that can service on-site as much as possible. Remember there are SIX accrediting bodies operating in North America that are recognized (IAS, A2LA, NVLAP, SCC/CLAS, L-A-B, ACLASS). Make sure their scope covers what you need, and that they provide the uncertainty information to you.

I recommend using a competitive bid process to select the calibration provider. Quality Digest, Feb 2005 issue has an article that will help there. In or Out is the name of the article. You have enough items to obtain a decent price, especially if you specify a multi-year contract (one year base and renewable options). Remember too, calibration done properly is not cheap, so don't select just on price.

I generally recommend against internal cal, unless you have a metrology professional available to you.....like Quality, Metrology is not as simple as it appears to others. It is a science and done properly requires dedicated facilities and for enough equipment, dedicated personnel.

Still, if you do internal cal, then I suggest getting a copy of ISO/IEC 17025 and operate the internal lab to that Standard, regardless of whether you seek accreditation or not.

Hope this helps.

Hershal
 

Adriane

Involved - Posts
#6
GAGETrack

Hershal said:
Invest in a good calibration management package, like GAGETrack or Blue Mountain. Put all the items into the package, and keep the other list for historical purposes only. You are basically starting with a clean slate.
Again, from first hand experience, I would go with GAGETrack - hands down.
Adriane
 
G

Graeme

#7
more suggestions

Hershal said:
Invest in a good calibration management package, like GAGETrack or Blue Mountain. Put all the items into the package, and keep the other list for historical purposes only. You are basically starting with a clean slate.
Another excellent package is Gage InSite from IndySoft.


Another Suggestion

I would add to the other suggestions with this: get a copy of ISO 10012:2003 and study that. This standard is a supplement to ISO 9001:2000 (the obsolete earlier version is mentioned in the note at the end of 7.6) and contains requirements and guidelines for your measurement management process. Applying that process to the production processes (one at a time, to keep it easier) will give you an idea of
  • what measurements are required on the products,
  • whether the measuring instruments are appropriate and capable,
  • which instruments need to be calibrated to assure that the product remains within tolerances,
  • and a lot more.
This thread contains a document with more information on the standard.
 

Miner

Forum Moderator
Staff member
Admin
#8
All excellent advice.

However, don't overlook another part of your QMS. Your calibration records are going to show a great gaping hole in the history that any decent auditor will fall headfirst into. Your best bet is to identify this as a Major nonconformance in your internal audit system, and document a recovery plan along the lines suggest by the contributors above.

This also warrants special coverage in your Management Review, particularly how it got into this condition, and how to prevent it from recurring.

As if you didn't have enough to do, right?
 
S

Super20G

#9
Graeme said:
Another excellent package is Gage InSite from IndySoft.
How have you utilized their software and what editions do you use?

Small 1 or 2 man shows seem to do good with the basics of Gage Insite, while larger more commercial labs seem to gripe at some of the software modules that are not completely up to par at the present time.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
G

Graeme

#10
Super20G said:
How have you utilized their software and what editions do you use?

Small 1 or 2 man shows seem to do good with the basics of Gage Insite, while larger more commercial labs seem to gripe at some of the software modules that are not completely up to par at the present time.
At the time I wrote the post you are replying to I was working with the electronic calibration lab of a major US airline. Here is some information about their implementation.
  • Their cal lab had 8 techs and 3 other people. (I was one of the others, the metrology engineer. That position was eliminated at the end of March due to ongoing corporate financial difficulty.)
  • They have been using Gage InSite for more than 5 years (currently the Enterprise edition).
  • It is used on a network that is totally internal to the lab - contact with the rest of the corporate network or the outside world is forbidden by the corporate IT demons. One server is dedicated to Gage InSite. Every calibration workstation has a laptop computer, there is another computer in the lab that is dedicated to the temperature-humidity sensors, and there are three other computers outside the lab. One of those computers has three calibration label printers connected to it.
  • They have a worldwide inventory of over 4000 calibratable items and there are probably more than 6000 calibrations per year.
  • Of course there have been problems over the years. However, they have all (as far as I know) been very quickly fixed by IndySoft. In the early years, we were, quite frankly, stretching the capabilities of the product - but it has vastly improved in capability over that time. I also know that a lot of the problems went away after the computers were upgraded to the point where all of them are on Windows 2000 or newer operating systems. And I know the lab supervisor spent a fair amount of time tweaking profiles to remove the chance for some of the human errors, and making sure that daily system backups were done consistently.
In the interest of full diclosure, I do need to first remind you that I am no longer with that airline lab, and state that in fact I am now (after a brief period of unemployment) working with IndySoft. If you wish, contact me by private message and I can give you contacts for independent verification of the information above.
 
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