The Problem
A manufacturer of critical components for Aerospace & Defense applications was experiencing a defect on the surface of their parts. They didn’t know what it was, where it came from, or how it could affect the performance of a flight system. The manufacturing processes are under NADCAP governance. The product could not ship. The client spent months investigating this anomaly with no progress. That’s when they decided to call in Advanced Process Optimization.
Our Approach
Advanced Process Optimization, Inc. went to work using a fast stratification approach to problem solving akin to a Shainin Red X approach of problem isolation. We call it “boxing it in”. We look at the sources of influence on the process that can contribute to the variation. Where we see no possibility of influence, we eliminate it. When combined with the timeline of production, it is easy for us to “box it in” or isolate the problem. We did it in 72 hours.
The Results
We identified and recreated the anomaly in 72 hours… we only worked about 10 hours on the problem, the rest of the time was replicating it in process. This was a heat treating problem. These are particularly hard to find as it is considered a “black art” by those in the biz. This is an example of why you need Advanced Process Optimization. We get it done. Period.
The scrap cost avoidance annualized is $143,000. The OTD issue went away and they went back to production, NADCAP compliant.