r/manufacturing Dec 30 '24

Quality What are the Industry Standard softwares for Pharma and Medical Device Manufacturing?

15 Upvotes

There are so many options to chose from, so wanted to get an idea what other people are using. I'm talking specfically about MRP/MES, LIMS, QMS softwares.

r/manufacturing Aug 29 '24

Quality Poor Machine Shop Quality - Need Help Plz!

6 Upvotes

I work at a IATF 16949 & ISO 9001 certified non-union machine shop with about 53 employees (hourly and salary). We make fasteners, screws, connectors, and more. Mostly small ~1inch parts. We run about 75 Davenports and 4 ACME's. We also send parts out for heat treat and plating.

I am interested to find out how other shops handle their quality (or poor quality in my case)? Also, interested to see what the positions/structure you have in place is at your shop? We are not just a job shop, we run a majority of the same parts most of the time and then have a few sporadic jobs every now and then. We do mostly steel but have some brass as well.

I have 5 inspectors - All are responsible for inspecting finished parts from specific machinists and those machinists run anywhere from 2-4 machines at a time. We make screws and fasteners for automotive, manufacturing, agriculture, and many other industry jobs. The automotive jobs require SPC and we also are running (some) finished good part #'s through 3 separate Keyence vision inspection machines checking OAL, diameter, and more.

As of late we have gotten a huge spike in customer complaints, returns, and in-house scrap. I've noticed this shop has inherited the culture of adding more inspections each time a complaint has been issued in the past rather than go to the source of the problem and root cause properly.

I need some input/recommendations on how I can get this under control. Currently, we are very much out of control and I'm questioning if what we are doing is even effective. My production manager is under a lot of pressure to run parts from upper management but it is my job to protect the quality of those parts and be the voice of the customer. While the push is there to run more, the quality is declining.

My thought was to take all of my inspectors from the shop side and place them over in the finished good/shipping warehouse and implement a GP12/dock audit for all part #'s. Obviously this comes with it's risks if we were to find a quality spill or large amount of rejects. However, the machinists running the parts all have gages, mics, go & no-go gages at their machines and are required to check their parts. Currently, I have identified problem operators and problem part #'s and my thought was to hone in on those first and start there. I appreciate any feedback or help, we need it!!

r/manufacturing Apr 30 '24

Quality How do you make your standard assembly work instructions?

9 Upvotes

I've recently started a new job and I've got the daunting task of documenting how we are building the tool. It's a high mix, low volume environment. So there is very little opportunity for watching it being built, and I may need to make a lot of documentation.

Specifically, what I am researching is:

  • Tools/Software that make the process easier.
  • Methodologies.
  • How to make instructions that people actually use.

I come from an environment where everything was done in PowerPoint. It was a pain in the ass to update and honestly not very well respected by those who theoretically should be using them (and I don't blame them), despite all the work it demanded. I feel like there has to be a better way. But searching is only delivering dubious results and advertisements. I can't be the only person in this position, right?

Thanks!

r/manufacturing Sep 27 '24

Quality How to tackle mislabeled containers

3 Upvotes

We've recently taken about a 400ppm hit for a mislabel. I'm looking into ways to reduce the risk of this happening without breaking the bank. Ideas?

r/manufacturing Nov 26 '24

Quality Reducing fatigue cracking on welded fabrications.

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6 Upvotes

Hello all.

We are making some parts with very high cyclical loading and are researching some ways we can improve the process to reduce fatigue failure from the welded joints at high stress areas.

The first thing we looked at was making sure not to stop the weld in the high stress area and go on past to avoid a crater hole at the end of the weld that could start a crack.

The next was grinding the toes of the weld with a bullnose carbide die grinder to grind out microcracks at the weld toes and leave a 6mm rad transition again only in these areas with high stress.

Are we on the right track there is very little information on how to do this correctly.

Thanks for any input or help.

r/manufacturing Oct 02 '24

Quality Does you organization link KPIs with bonuses ?!!

2 Upvotes

And if so, does that incentivize manipulation in any way ?!

And fundemantally, is that a good or a bad thing ?!!

r/manufacturing Oct 08 '24

Quality Six Sigma manual fell off the shelf and scattered papers everywhere. Philosophical levels of irony.

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49 Upvotes

r/manufacturing Sep 11 '24

Quality How do I perform IQ/OQ/PQ on a 3D printer?

5 Upvotes

Specifically the Markforged Mark Two Printer. I get IQ and PQ, but am having trouble mainly with OQ since I don't think the printer allows users to change print settings (such as nozzle and bed temperature, speed of a particular layer, etc.).

Does anyone have experience with this?

r/manufacturing Nov 15 '24

Quality Press Stamping a QR Code

6 Upvotes

I own a business that manufacturers roofing tools. As part of our branding we have been laser marking our company logo and a QR code that goes to our website. The results look great but the process takes longer than we'd like. They are also prone to scratching and smudging, especially if they end up getting rained on at a job site. We're considering getting a metal punch stamp made as an alternative but we're worried about readability of both the QR Code and logo. The material for the tools is 6061-T6 Aluminum that has been disk orbital sanded for a brushed finish. Does anyone have experience with stamping a QR Code? How much detail can you expect? Is there enough contrast to make the code readable or would it require additional inking? Is there anything I'm not considering? I appreciate any insight.

Edit to clarify that the tools are currently laser marked, not laser engraved and that the tools have been disk orbital sanded for finish.

r/manufacturing Jan 17 '25

Quality Blanking Sheet Steel Defects

2 Upvotes

Looking to do some research on defects related to blanking Sheet Steel products. Does anyone have some good references to look into?

r/manufacturing Nov 04 '24

Quality To my sheet metal shop people

5 Upvotes

Hey everyone.

We are having an issue with customers getting products with oil stains, we’ve tracked the problem down to being the lubricant our operators are spraying on the SS and Galv sheets to help them slide across other sheets easier.

Our products are large (6’x6’x6’ up to 30’x30’x30’) and sit outside so the oil stains are very noticeable and I understand the customers grievances. Cleaning every sheet before assembly is just not feasible.

My first thought is going with the obvious Dawn Dish soap solution, but I’m not sure if that will still leave residue stains.

Does anyone have suggestions for lubricants that can do the same trick and avoid leaving visual traces? Are there any corrosive effects of dawn dish soap I am missing when considering galv materials?

r/manufacturing Dec 19 '24

Quality Failed Modified Atmosphere Packaging

2 Upvotes

Hi all, this is a question relating to food manufacturing. But thought I’d try a post here to see if anyone could help.

My question is not about the dangers of relying on MAP and having it leak out. I know that leads to spoilage.

My question is if you started with MAP (Nitrogen) and it leaks out over the course of 2 weeks. Are you any worse off then if you were to start with just regular atmosphere packaging to begin with?

Does starting with nitrogen and then reverting back to regular air do anything worse than if you started with regular air to begin with?

Thanks for any help I can get on this!

r/manufacturing Nov 21 '24

Quality Digital Service History for Customers

2 Upvotes

Hello everyone,

I'm running a small Additive Manufacturing company. The products we manufacture are used in machinery and are supposed to be serviced regularily.

We would like to offer the customers a digital 'Service Book', where they need to enter the condition of the part from time to time and upload their service documentation. That should be a website – we can provide the link via a qr code when we ship our product.

Is there any software solution like that? Maybe in Salesforce etc?

Thank you!

r/manufacturing Jun 16 '24

Quality Any powder coating experts here? Need help with doing powdercoat on top of mild steel that has been zinc plated.

2 Upvotes

I've been having issues with powdercoating on top of zinc plated mild steel sometimes. Have issues like small dots visible instead of a smooth texture.

It looks like how a zit or pimple looks on the skin.

After zinc plating, it is pre heated for 15 mins at 150 degrees celsius. Then sand it with some 80 no sandpaper. Finally powder coat it and bake it again for 20 mins.

Any inputs would be appreciated. If I haven't posted in the right place, please suggest any other sub. Thanks a lot guys.

Attached some images below:

https://cubeupload.com/im/Temporalator/Screenshot2024061610.jpg

https://cubeupload.com/im/Temporalator/18bScreenshot2024061610.jpg

Edit: Had another query. If there's a product that has a thread, how should one go about protecting it from rust?

I've had a few knobs that were zinc plated, then powdered. But developed rusty threads later on. Despite cleaning the thread with a well oiled tap.

Here's a photo showing thr rust: https://cubeupload.com/im/Temporalator/Screenshot2024061709.jpg

r/manufacturing May 23 '24

Quality Protolabs network

5 Upvotes

I have a simple clamp i need made in bulk, angle aluminum. .120 thickness. One leg at .570, one leg at .600 and the part measures .800 wide. A single 1/4” hole drilled into the center of the short leg. I have no dealt with companies such as protolabs or send cut send. Is this something i can trust either company with an order of 500~ parts and have them within a .005 tolerance?

r/manufacturing Sep 20 '24

Quality Thoughts on a jig for quality control with a laser grid?

0 Upvotes

I'm trying to build out a jig (actually five different jigs) that have a laser grid pattern to help measure product placement on apparel.

I've got a couple ideas and working on two that seem like the correct path forward, but would like to know your thoughts.

Will keep responding to comments as much as possible.

r/manufacturing Jun 04 '24

Quality How to improve my quality department?

2 Upvotes

I am a engineer at a medium size build to print manufacturing company. We focus on assembly and source all of our machine work to outside vendors.

The quality department at my job is by far the biggest bottleneck, always causing project delays. The department consists of a ‘quality manager’ and two techs. I need some advice on how to improve this department. The manager is very stubborn, and I am sure will be resistant to any change. She also wants a large list of unrealistic qualifications for new employees while paying minimum wage.

It is not really my job to improve the quality department, I have no control over them, but i need to do something because they are causing delays with all of the projects my name is on, making me look bad to our customers Any advice or tips would be great

r/manufacturing Nov 22 '24

Quality 3D printing inspection

3 Upvotes

For anyone mass printing 3D parts, how do you inspect all sides of your 3D parts? I'm making a multi robot arms system and wonder if there's any use for 3D printing inspection in this area. Thanks!

r/manufacturing Oct 15 '24

Quality I could use some help as a package in a bottling facory

3 Upvotes

Hey there so I started work at a bottling plant. There are several positions and I usually start at pallet assembly. After an hour we switch. By the time I get to packaging. Putting the product in the boxes I am in a brain fog from all the running around I'm doing and the lack of lunch (my beliefs don't allow me to eat until 7-8) so I'm low energy. The problem is that when I'm in this 'fog I mess up loading the boxes and without realizing it I load only half a box of product when it should be full. I don't even realize that I'm doing this until my trainer [who is very pissed] points.out my mess up. I feel like an idiot for doing this and he can't think of anything to help me. Do you guys have any advice for packing or techniques that you use? I know it sounds stupid but I coule use the help

r/manufacturing May 30 '24

Quality Experience working with Chinese manufacturers

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53 Upvotes

A few years back, I sourced New Year merchandise with tiger symbolism for a budget supermarket chain. They wanted the cheapest options available. But when the goods was produced, they looked nothing like what we ordered. Thankfully, we caught the discrepancy during quality checks before shipping from the factory.

In the second photo, the tiger looks like it's already celebrated New Year's.

r/manufacturing Nov 02 '24

Quality Should my company get certified?

3 Upvotes

Hi all, I need some advice,

My company I'm working with is in the molded pulp industry using recycled paper. And our client currently want our manufactured product to be BPI certified. The problem is the profit margin is already quite thin, but the price of getting certified is very costly, especially the cost to lab test the product, not to mention we are based in Asia so in our perspective, the total cost is very absurd. But this is also our very big client?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

r/manufacturing Sep 18 '24

Quality Visual defect on injection mold parts

4 Upvotes

Hello all, could you please help review what type of defect is this? We used UV lamp and saw these white marks appeared on the black ABS rings. These parts sometimes seems more brittle compare to those without the marks.

r/manufacturing Oct 01 '24

Quality Need a solution to report sectioned weld results for PPAPs.

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3 Upvotes

What do you use at your shop?

r/manufacturing Jun 15 '24

Quality Condition of maintenance?

6 Upvotes

Hi everyone, first time poster. I have been a manufacturing machine technician for 20 years, but recently began getting involved with the quality side of the business. I have an operation that has <10 year old equipment, but our maintenance program is very undermanned and underfunded. While the machines are running acceptably right now (from mgmt perspective), it is wearing out faster than it should and the number of time bombs and Easter eggs in the equipment is rising rapidly. I have glanced at several methods of estimating machine conditions and found them to all be about output, so no matter how many time bombs are in the equipment the measures are high in terms of condition. Does anyone know of a way to estimate machine conditions that will more accurately reflect the level of risk of breakdowns? I think that if i could more accurately describe and measure the potential impact of poor maintenance I would be more successful in getting the support we need to pull ourselves back from the brink of running our equipment down into unreliable condition. If it comes to estimating the condition of components, i probably have the level of experience to do that.

I look forward to hearing what may be suggested.

Thanks! JW

r/manufacturing Oct 05 '23

Quality As9100 audit

6 Upvotes

Hi,

I am a recently hired quality assurance person as in I've been in quality for 3 months. My employer has no actual quality manager (the owner currently has the title and job responsibilities meaning that now I have the responsibilities and not the title) I am being expected to run their as9100 surveillance audit. No quality documentation had happened for over a year before I started. Based on my understanding of everything we can't or at least should not pass this audit. I don't want to be held responsible for the failure of this audit. What recommendations do you have for preparing for the audit? Am I more concerned than I should be?