Importance of proper quality control in precision machining

Poka-yoke, fail-safeing, mistake-proofing, any way that you call it, quality control is critical to running a precision machine shop.  Quality control comes in many different flavors.  All machine shops will have an inspection or metrology department to check for quality before any parts leave the facility.  It is often less expensive and more efficient to create quality at the source.

At CNC Industries, we focus on creating advanced fixtures to prevent many of the common problems that might occur in the machining process.  Our Pre-Flight meetings are an opportunity to talk through any and all issues that might affect a new custom machined part.   This process is critical when running difficult aerospace precision machined parts or military parts.  With the complexities of the aerospace components that we make, it is vital that all potential pitfalls in production are identified early in the process.  It is at this time we are also determining the type and design of the fixture that we will use to prevent problems in production.

No matter how good the fixtures and the production router are, there is still a chance of problems occurring throughout the process.  At CNC Industries, we have well trained personnel on all machines that are capable of running their own in-process inspections to detect any problems throughout the manufacturing process.  All of our parts are assigned frequent in-process inspections to ensure that no problems creep in undetected.

With several of our aerospace customers performing no incoming inspection it is critical to have adequate inspection processes throughout our production.  Our final inspection process is thorough and performed on best-in-class equipment to provide our customers with the utmost confidence that they are receiving quality parts with each delivery.   At CNC Industries we take full accountability for all of our parts – from the initial purchase order to the final delivery of the machined parts to the customer.

Addressing Precision Aerospace Machining Difficulties

In the last post I talked about the difficulties of precision machining aerospace parts.  I would like to address these issues and specifically talk about how CNC Industries handles each of them.

The first issue, namely tight tolerances, is addressed in a few different ways.  The first step is to make sure that the equipment being used is capable of the types and quality of machining necessary.  Proper maintenance is also an important step, many companies lay-off their maintenance staff at the first sign of a downturn.  Maintenance is a key aspect of CNC Industries’ strategy.  The second step of ensuring that tolerances are met happens in engineering.  Engineering staff creates fixtures, work drawings, and machine code to run the part correctly.  Engineering is another key area that CNC Industries believes should not be cut too early.  The third step is to ensure that information about the part flows correctly.  To aid in this we have written our own ERP system.  Job Manager 2 is a real time system that enables information to be updated and transferred throughout the facility so that any changes made are implemented immediately.

The second issue, the amount of material removed, is a prime engineering problem.  The fixture created for each part must take into account the changes in strength that the material will go through during the machining process.  With fixturing being such an important aspect of creating a good custom machined part, we go through a process we call the Pre-Flight Meeting.  In this meeting our top management, quality assurance, engineers, and shop floor supervisors meet to discuss any issues that we see as important to the manufacturing of the part.

The third issue, external quality standards, is again addressed through information management.  Our ERP system allows each part to have an unlimited amount of quality standards.  The part routers created in Job Manager 2 allow for any and all detailed information to be added to an individual operation.  The amount of detail contained in each router, in addition to the real-time ERP system allows us to ensure that all of the information needed to complete a job to the full satisfaction of our customer is accessible at all times.

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CNC Industries is a Fort Wayne, Indiana based machine shop specializing in precision CNC machining, fabrication and assembly of application-critical and custom machined parts for the Aerospace, Defense, Medical, Industrial and Transportation  markets.   The company presently employs approximately 55 people.

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