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Inspection Standard Opinions

Hey All,
I'm struggling with a new company with different ideas on quality. Biggest struggle has been with Inspection Standards. I've created one for Toyota and have had to make many revisions and was several months late in submitting because of it. I was taught to include nearly every machined dimension and state how often you will check it and how you will check it. This includes dimensions that may only be checked at N=1, test tooling and annual line audits. Most of the N=1 checks I've seen conducted here are visual, same with test tools and annual line audits don't exist. I had production running up front telling on me because the 1st N=1 part they had me inspecting was already taking me over an hour to complete and I wasn't but halfway through with it (No CMM Program). There are lots of different directions or complaints I could rant about in this but my main question to everyone is how you or your company determines what is on an inspection standard? With no other tool to do a full layout with an N=1 part, I feel this is the tool that fits the purpose. Even the examples Toyota provides states N=1 for some dimensions in the frequency column. This company only wants the dimensions that are checked on daily line checks included on the inspection standard with a generic statement that states : Any item not covered by this inspection standard is per the drawing. I'm at a loss as to how I can begin to ask the QA Lab to start doing annual audits without a tool that specifically tells them what to check and what to check it with. I've over heard other engineers complaining about my beliefs with statements like - "that's stupid, we shouldn't check that radius because it's only going to be what the tool is set up to be". I agree, but who is cutting the part into a section to verify that the tool is meeting the customer requirements? There are many other issues regarding quality assurance here that I don't agree with but this seems to be the most controversial for me here. If it weren't for the company's re-occurances to customers, I'd tend to relax and agree to some point. Am I being too anal? What do you or you company do?

Thank you for any input. Not a whole lot of action on this forum anymore so I hope I can get a few responses. Slight smile
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  • Djane,
    Be careful. What you are getting into is an uphill battle: trying to change the quality culture of an established company.

    It's not going to happen if it's you against them, it will only happen if it's you with them.

    It all boils down to mgmt. If they get on board with your more thorough Inspection Standard (which I applaud you for, BTW) then they will mandate the changes and you will implement them with everybody. You may have to create a risk assement cost/benefit presentation showing how skipping little things for convenience now can lead to costly recalls and potential loss of bidding rights in the future.

    If they don't, then you have to decide: live with it... or move on and find a company who doesn't consider quality an irksome impediment to shoving product out the door.
Reply
  • Djane,
    Be careful. What you are getting into is an uphill battle: trying to change the quality culture of an established company.

    It's not going to happen if it's you against them, it will only happen if it's you with them.

    It all boils down to mgmt. If they get on board with your more thorough Inspection Standard (which I applaud you for, BTW) then they will mandate the changes and you will implement them with everybody. You may have to create a risk assement cost/benefit presentation showing how skipping little things for convenience now can lead to costly recalls and potential loss of bidding rights in the future.

    If they don't, then you have to decide: live with it... or move on and find a company who doesn't consider quality an irksome impediment to shoving product out the door.
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