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Building a process for CMM inspections

A short preface:
I recently got a CMM programmer job at a company that has never utilized their (Romer) CMM before. There is no process behind when to measure parts on the CMM or what to do with the reports/information from it (other than one customer that requires the CMM be used for their parts.)
Currently, inspections are primarily done with a caliper. Bubble prints aren't created until PPAP, so when an inspection is done the technician references and uses the print as the "inspection check sheet." Meaning they would write their measured results on the print next to the basic or toleranced dimension they measure. After the inspection is complete the technician writes the work order, date, and revision, & initial on the print and scan it to PDF in a part & work order specific folder. There is no inspection database that inspections can be entered to. It's all individually stored PDFs.

Personally I find it a bit ridiculous. It is excruciatingly inconvenient to get any SPC data to monitor parts or processes.

Where I worked previously, order numbers and total quantity of manufactured parts was pretty astronomical. Upwards of a million parts a year for some part numbers.
At the new job there are usually order quantities of between 5 and 200 parts. Before it made sense to do a ton of meticulous planning for everything. Here is very different.

Onto the purpose of this post:
I need to make a process for the CMM. When to inspect, where to save reports, what parts actually need to be measured, what tells an operator that the CMM is required for inspection.

Some thoughts that I've had.
  • Engineering creates a bubble print during APQP. From that print, inspection sheets can be made for each part/process. Also give the opportunity to save inspection history in a database by referencing a bubble print number, rather than a basic number or brief description of feature/dimension. And makes CMM report formatting & labeling easier to interpret for the same reason.
  • Less convenient for quality, but we make a bubble print during PPAP. An inspection history database is still an option from this, but would be limited to the quality department and inspections that are done by the quality team. Inspections done by operators would not be recorded.
Please share your ideas and anecdotes for your company's process behind the CMM and inspections!
  • First we develop the FMEA. This points out areas of concern that may have higher issues than others. The FMEA dictates how the control plan will be setup. The Control Plan will then tell the operator when to inspect and what to inspect with. This is all developed in the APQP process. Typically here, there is a team (Quality, R&D, Engineering, Production Management) that will help determine how the parts will be measured and the Quality Engineer sets it up. If it is a common part that we normally make, the QE will just create the CP from a similar part. The FMEA and CP can be created in Excel.

    As for inspection data, it sounds like you do not have an ERP system, so utilizing an electronic database to enter data into would be a good start. Probably invest into an SPC program.

    As for where to save reports, is there a network drive that it can be stored on? Our reports automatically save to a network drive. I have the data exported into a CSV to be imported into our ERP system by the operators.
  • Out of curiosity, what industry are you making parts for? Is your company AS9100 or ISO certified or is your company a job shop that does not require any certifications?

    Reason I ask this is cause there are data collection programs that you can import prints, bubble them then import your CMM/arm report into and it will automatically populate those fields for you. You can also hand enter your manual dimensions into it as well. We use such a program for our parts because we are an AS9100 certified shop making flying parts for the aerospace/defense industry. These programs are extremely helpful if you are a certified shop and can be very handy even if you are not a certified shop.

    I read over your post a few times to make sure I wasn't posting something you already knew about but I may have missed it so apologies if this is repeated information. My mind is on the fritz today.
  • Mostly sheet metal forming & welding. i.e., electrical cabinets, brackets, housings.
    We are ISO certified. I will have to look into one of those programs for bubbling and exporting CMM dimensions to.

  • Mostly sheet metal forming & welding. i.e., electrical cabinets, brackets, housings.
    We are ISO certified. I will have to look into one of those programs for bubbling and exporting CMM dimensions to.


    The program we use is Visual FAIR from Ideagen but there are others like InspectionXpert and one other that I can't remember the name of at the moment but I am sure there are more.

  • I did some digging into our network drives and I found very few FMEAs. A little bit disturbing..
    We do have an ERP system. I don't know why it isn't set up to record inspection history or if it is capable to do so. That's something I will look into.
    I was anticipating exporting CMM reports to PDF and excel into a designated report folder for the part number.
  • I've heard of InspectionXpert. I will check out Visual FAIR and any others I can find. If there's some inspection record keeping software that I can manage for the quality department, I think it would be a good investment.