“No longer focusing on tolerances is a different way of thinking”, say testers Eskil and Dan. “An ordinary test report just shows how the measured components have turned out, whereas SPC also shows what has been produced between measurements. This has made many operators much more aware of what they are doing, compared to previously when they just thought they knew how things were going. It’s a bit like discovering a whole new world, and we now have much better input for making improvements in the process!”
Janos Topcov uses SPC in his capacity as operator. Dan Karlsson and Eskil Johanson are testers who support and assist with the introduction of SPC at SAPA Komponenter.
“We have tried to introduce SPC on several occasions but have not succeeded in achieving continuity in the work”, says Kjell Björklund, who is quality assurance manager at SAPA Komponenter AB in Vetlanda, Sweden. “We usually chose a few key users to handle the introduction, and everything then revolved around them. The result, after a while, was that measurements were recorded in the statistical program we had then, but there was no follow-up evaluation.
“At the end of 2007 we called in Nielsen Consulting to help with the introduction. All the operators received training, and computers with operator-friendly software were installed at each workplace. The operators also received tutoring on the SPC computer, while the testers became the key users, helping the operators to analyse the X & R charts.”
The commitment was further expanded during the spring of 2008:
