Need

The stator manufacturing line needed to reduce the number of items going to reprocessing and scrap. To achieve this goal, they were looking for a solution in which it would be possible to identify the most recurrent defects and record them while still on the production line, by the operators themselves. With this data, it would be possible to anticipate the discovery of defects, corrective actions could be taken to deal with the situation momentarily and preventive actions could be taken to avoid the same defects happening in the future.

Another need was to keep a history of the classification of the number and types of defects, so that the company could monitor the evolution of solutions and use them as a guide to solve the most recurrent and important cases. The goal was to reduce the occurrence of product reprocessing and scrap by around 80%.

Existing situation

The production line in question has a lot of manual work, where variation between the various people working on it is inherent. There was already a way of calculating defects, but they were only checked after the product was finished, which meant that the rate of reprocessing and scrapping was high.

In addition, the mechanism for computing defects did not take into account SPC methodology, which would have helped them not only to identify defects, but also to predict their possible occurrence before they happened, so defects occurred, and in the check the product was reprocessed or scrapped.

Solution implemented

A SPC (Statistical Process Control) solution was implemented, the SPC modality in question was Attribute SPC, i.e. counting defects and presenting the statistical results in Pareto Charts.

The solution implemented was modeled on 2 integrated systems, the RDE System (Defect Tracking in Stators) and the InfinityQS SPC System (Statistical Process Control) (click here to learn more about InfinityQS).

The RDE System is a system developed by HarboR to collect information on defects on the line and send this information to the InfinityQS database. This system manages the collection flow, allowing the operator to report defects without having to leave their workstation.

The InfinityQS system is a SPC system distributed in Latin America exclusively by HarboR. One of the features of this system is Statistical Process Control by Attributes, i.e. you can define Specification Limit ranges (maximum and minimum defect limits) for visual analysis by operators, as the data on the number of parts produced (sent by the RDE based on the presence sensors) and the number/type of defects was added to the InfinityQS database, it performed the statistical calculations to generate the Pareto Chart and alarms (when there was some kind of violation).

The scope of this solution included:

• Modeling and design of the complete solution
• Supply and installation of hardware (sensors, terminals, boards, PCs, etc.)
• Supply of InfinityQS System Licenses
• RDE System Development
• Implementation of InfinityQS
• Implementation of the RDE
• Registration of all the information required for project start-up
• Training and documentation
• Monitoring the start of use