Yield improvement of a key aerospace production line
Background
Our client was facing numerous quality issues on a critical production line. Because of the way Non Conformities (NC's) were documented, there was no insight into which process step was most at fault, making it difficult to improve yield.
Approach
When gathering data to gain insight in the process, it became clear that the existing measurement system was not able to distinguish between an appropriate product or a defective product in a reliable way. Together with the customer team we improved this measurement system to ensure reliable data was received. This enabled us to actually detect root causes for all those quality issues. As many root causes were closely linked, we decided to tackle these as clusters in so called 'mini-projects'.
Results
The yield improved dramatically and valuable additional insight into the production process was provided. We implemented a new measurement system that is key to making the improvement sustainable.
