Metrology and the Industry challenge

Metrology is the science of measurement; industrial metrology is the application of metrology and its subsequent measurement in manufacturing. It is a keystone of manufacturing trade and productivity. No trade can take place without some form of measurement validation to say that the component part or batch of parts conforms to its design intent and specification. Effective sustainable trade comes from supplying quality parts on time and for a competitive cost. 

To meet this end even small companies on average, perform tens of thousands of measurements every day to not only show conformance, but also to control processes. Process control has the objective of reducing scrap, maintaining product flow rates. In addition, measurement provides investigative data to identify problems and in proving research and developments projects around process, product design and efficiency improvements. The challenges faced by those companies in applying the above are numerous 

Measurement is seen as a quantitative result, most measurement equipment these days is digital, commonly providing 2 or 3 decimal places of the Millimetre. But its process of application to get that digital single number is very qualitative. Awareness of the environment you measure in, the surface texture and form of geometry and surfaces, the traceability and accuracy of your measuring equipment, all of these and more require at least some consideration by the operator and potentially require some input prior to measurements taking place, denoting a qualitative process. Skills shortages, and the rampant advance in measurement technology in the last decade or two has left many companies with poor skills at the point of measurement and a disruption of traditional measurement process practices. On top of this more measurement is taking place, advanced manufacturing techniques and lean are both driving the need for more measurement to take place and more frequently at the point of manufacture in more challenging environments.

This shift which has taken place in less than a single generation of time, has left many companies under-skilled, unable to understand and therefore effectively introduce new technology and has both technicians and management struggling to recognise the issues as metrology related, let alone manage the change required. Leadership and support from outside the company is suffering from the same challenges. Education and skills organisations suffer from those same skills shortages and lack of comprehension of what is a new paradigm and so the expert base to support SME’s is not readily available. 

Coventry University has a well-established Metrology team, with a record of supporting industry and providing that leadership in applied industrial metrology. The need to both educate management in the technologies and business implementation of metrology and the need to upskill the technicians who apply the qualitative processes that support measurement is paramount to gain control of this key enabler of productivity and quality. The approach therefore has to be a two pronged, a top down and bottom up approach. Management enabled to provide leadership and strategic implementation based on sound knowledge, the technicians enabled by their developed skills providing right first time measurements and inputting towards the development of new and appropriate processes improvements.

 The outcome is effective and proportionate measurement processes, enabling measurements with a high confidence in the resultant data. Once you have control of your measurement and when married to lean and its process control, this would mean less measurement needs to happen and so a second windfall of productivity gains can happen.