Reducing False Failures in Metrology

1. Reducing False Failures inMetrology TECH 581: Analyze Phase John R. Ulrich Fall 2013

2. Brief Review of Project: Reducing False failures in Metrology The purpose of this project is to help Tangent Labs reduce the number of false failures for calibration it routinely experiences. By reducing the number of false failures, the clients will have increased confidence in the service they pay for. The primary target is to get the percentage of failures under 10% as it is currently about 27%. With the national average of failures being around 5% for all calibrations, it is clear Tangent Labs is false failing too many pieces of equipment. The confidence a client has with a laboratory means everything in this industry. Improving the process of calibration from the moment the sales team takes an order to the final step of placing a calibration sticker on a gage is the focus of the project.

3. Customers are the management team as well as the technicians and myself. CTQ is definitely setting up the calibrations right with the proper information before the equipment even gets into the lab. KPOV’s are the number of failures per month KPIV’s how many sales did each salesman bring in and what percentage of those did we have all the right information to calibrate correctly. Another one is did the template team set up the template correctly once they got the information from the sales team. If the templates are set up correctly, the calibrations should be straightforward. If they are set up incorrectly they could cause a false failure.

4. Data Collection Plan • Number of failures per month • How many templates not set up correctly • How many times did sales team get wrong information leading to a failure • Was the technician signed off to perform calibration • Data collected over a couple weeks (10/14-10/26) • Sample size was to be around 30-35 failures….35 were sampled • Will graphically present: • Bar graph showing total number of failures per day vs number of good failures • Bar graph showing how many failures per day due to sales error, template error, or technician error

5. Data File used for Graphs:

7. Cause and Effect Matrix

10. Graphical Analysis Most failures happen on Wednesday. Most shipments arrive on Tuesday from major clients Sales team got their information incorrect 6 times out of 35 Technicians performing calibrations they are not signed off on should be zer0. That is a huge defect. The number was 7 out of 35 Number of failures that were bad was 14 false failures out of 35. That’s a 40% rate Template failure happened 10 out of 35 times, a little under 30% Over the course of a year this is an extremely small sample size and it wasn’t a very busy couple of weeks so it is not representative of the entire gamete of gages Tangent Labs sees. More data will allow for better patterns to emerge about where the discrepancies are. But the data shows there are some major holes that need plugged.

11. Information to Eliminate KPIVs Technicians must go through training before they are allowed to calibrate any equipment. They are not checking before they pick up a piece of equipment to calibrate it. There has to be some consequence imposed so they will check each time to see if they are signed off. Sales representatives have to get the proper information before we see a piece of equipment in the lab. If they have any question or are unfamiliar with a piece they have to get the Director of Metrology for the company involved so he can assist them and make sure we get good information to our receiving department If the template is entered incorrectly, even though the measurements may be good there is a potential for some false failures to exist. These have to be examined.

12. Conclusions For far too long the sales team has been left to fend for themselves without a lot of support and they have been trying to make as many sales as possible and they have been getting equipment sent in to boost their numbers even when they haven’t gotten the okay from the engineering staff Whenever a technician is found to be calibrating a piece of equipment they are not signed off on, they are sent home for a day without pay. Three offenses and they are terminated When a template is incorrect, a corrective action is generated and the Director of Metrology follows through on the failure of the template team

13. Voice of the Customer Analysis • Key stakeholders surveyed: • CEO • COO • Director of Metrology/Quality Manager • Service Manager • Clients

14. VoC – SWOT Analysis Strengths Have good enough equipment to ensure no false failures occur Have reputation in industry for being reliable Director of Metrology has been trained by a Doctored mentor in measurement and can offer good implementation techniques Support from CEO and COO Enough capital to make improvements should any be monetary in nature

15. VoC – SWOT Analysis Weaknesses Front end of office (sales) does not communicate with back end (technicians) Each department operates in a silo Not enough cross trained technicians Lack of meetings to address failures Lack of motivation among technicians to ensure calibration is correct

16. VoC – SWOT Analysis Opportunities • Improve overall communication between the front end and back end • Improve quality of training of technicians to provide quality calibrations • Build confidence with CEO and COO that calibrations are being done correctly • Restore the culture of the team being a family and all helping out

17. VoC – SWOT Analysis Threats Could possibly create a bigger division and resentment between front end and back end Could cost too much money if extra monitoring is needed Technician pushback is a possible issue Calibration turn around times could be slowed Decreased sales if sales reps have to learn new systems