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Quality checks: Operator vs Inspector

sarajo
Our company is going to start having a quality inspector do all the IN-PROCESS checks on all parts on all machines. Operators have been doing their own IN-PROCESS checks and a quality inspector doing 1st, middle, LP or a different variations, but always 1st and LP. We are being told its because the machines need to keep running so we can make more parts. They got a new system that shows machine run times and why the machine is not running, which is apparently is only for IN-PROCESS quality checks. One of the biggest problems we have is operators taken breaks outside of break time. So if one operator leaves the machine, then they all take a break until the operator returns. With QC doing their checks, they are now paging QC and waiting until QC comes to do the check, watches them do the check, gets the ok that the part is good, then continues to run. Management has informed the operators that they are to continue running, don't wait for QC.

My question is, who should be doing IN-PROCESS checks and why?

Btw, we are unstaffed in the quality department already. If the quality inspector is off we have no backup....oh yeah we do, manufacturing engineers.
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  • The shop I used to work at had what I think was a good system. Operators had to do their own in-process checks so that they could be held accountable for product coming off the machines they operated. Everything had to be signed off on the traveler for set quantities during a production of parts. The inspector would than have to double check their parts. The way it worked with a CMM was the operator was trained to load the part onto the established fixtures (this depends on what your shop can handle, and what the operators can be trained to do) and would start the program. If the operator wasn't able to load a part onto the CMM for any reason (operator incompetence, not trained, or the fixture wasn't set up) they would set the part on a table after doing some initial gauge checks and notify QA that there was a part that needed to be inspected. They would than have to leave the QA area, and go back to operating their machines. The Inspector would take the part off the CMM when the program finished, look over the report (red = bad, green = good on the report) and would take the part back out to the operator to let them know if the part passed or failed. Management could go back at anytime and review CMM reports from the shift. Each step made sure that people could be held accountable for what was going on with the machine. If the operator was making bad parts, they knew about it quickly. If QA had a backlog of checks, the operator wasn't slowed down by it because they did their own check and could quickly get back to work.

    TLDR: Both operators and Inspectors should be looking over the part. Sounds like more work, but the its called QA because inspectors should be giving assurance that the parts are passing. Which means operators need to already be confident.

    And tell those ME's to not mess with the gages without supervision. They're like children who saw how the car was driven, steal the keys to dads car and end up in a ditch. Said with love and the utmost respect, of course Wink
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