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.
