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| What Our Customers Are Saying |
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"Dr Greg Hetland's expertise and approach to teaching GD&T is
second to none. He has the ability to truly teach GD&T the way
it was originally intended in the Standard which is to simplify
the GD&T drawing requirements in a clear and concise manner.
Having been involved with inspection and GD&T drawing
interpretation for the past 30 years, I have found that there
has been a lot of confusion with drawing interpretation. This is
primarily because of a lack of proficient training (if any) by
designers, inspectors and production engineers. The cost to
industry is huge.
Dr. Hetland’s seminars have benefited my company’s relationship
with our customers by aiding them with their GD&T questions, and
many of them have gone on to attend Dr. Hetland’s seminars all
with very positive feedback and I have seen the results here as
an ISO 17025 third-party inspection lab, with increased
acceptance rates and positive growth within their companies.”
Gary Vale
Owner
Technical Measures Inc.
Oshawa Ontario, Canada
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"I have personally found Dr. Hetland’s approach and
communication skills in teaching GD&T down-to-earth and
practical, where workers grasp the meaning and usage better than
other GD&T training courses that are available.
In today's manufacturing environment, understanding print
requirements and being able to interpret the customer's intent
of those requirements is vital to the success of our
organization. Having competent personnel who are equally
knowledgeable, if not more, of GD&T rules than our customers is
a must. We have, over the years, been able to defend our product
quality by demonstrating our expertise in this area when a
customer has questioned how and why we inspected a part in the
manner we chose. We also take a proactive approach. This is why we use Dr. Greg Hetland and IIGDT to train our
workforce. Lake Air Companies will continue to partner with
IIGDT and Dr. Hetland on our continuous GD&T training
initiatives."
Keith Holdgrafer
Director of Corporate Quality
Lake Air Companies
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"Dr. Hetland has successfully aided Pioneer Surgical Technology
in getting our GD&T flywheel spinning at full tilt! His
training sessions are ‘in-demand,’ and his simplified approach
and discipline-specific delivery have revolutionized our
communication and fulfillment of design intent. The resulting
paradigm shift has bolstered our value stream and established a
more solid foundation for breakthrough development.”
Greg Bussone
Director of Quality Assurance
Pioneer Surgical Technology
Marquette, MI
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"In our business we rarely have multiple/repeat
projects. A high percentage of our work is in the arena of one-of-a-kind automated assembly machines and systems. Consequently,
many would suspect that GD&T would not be a high priority for us
as the benefits would seem to be limited. This is not the case.
We have three sources for completing details of our solid
models: in-house by our engineers, in-house by contract
designers, and out-sourced to a variety of companies. In July of
this year we mandated the use of GD&T by all of our
design/detailing resources. This has brought a level of
consistency to our documentation packages that we had not seen
before. The consistency has helped to streamline our detailing
efforts and has helped to convey design intent to our
machinists. Additionally, our designers and detailers now pay
more attention to the actual required tolerances for the parts
that are designed. We are not yet fully up to speed with
universal acceptance and/or understanding of GD&T across all of
our groups, both internal and external, but progress has been
made and it is significant.
One particular noteworthy incident
involved one of our off-site detailing companies. The owner
commented on how the standardization would help him complete
work for us. Many of the questions that he previously asked were
answered by the standard GD&T templates and descriptions that we
sent to him along with the detailing package. There have been
fewer changes and/or corrections to the work that he has
completed for us. Incidentally, our own shop personnel seem to
spend less time asking our design engineers questions about the
parts that they are fabricating. These benefits have not been
calculated so I don't really have a hard dollar figure for
you. I can say that time I now personally spend on checking and
fixing drawings has been reduced and there are definitely fewer
questions coming from both our own machine shop and from shops
to which we outsource fabrication.
In your addendum, part three, you
mention the lack of training for prospective engineers in formal
educational programs as a targeted area for improvement. I agree
and would go further and state that this is probably the most
significant area that could/should be targeted for universal
improvement."
Tom Reich
Design Engineering Supervisor
Remmele
Engineering, Inc. |
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”Dr. Hetland’s GD&T training at Hutchinson Technology has been
strategic to our global initiatives.
We continue to utilize GD&T as our universal design dimensioning
language for our product as well as our packaging equipment and
tooling used to manufacture our product.
GD&T provides the ongoing benefit of continuous improvement. It
is truly the "gift that keeps giving.” We recognize cost
reduction in our equipment, packaging and design for
manufacturability benefits for our products almost on a daily
basis. We continue to wring out dimensioning issues as we
transition all of our legacy from 2D to 3D design that impact
the bottom line of the corporation.
GD&T has been an investment that we completely received our
projected return. As we integrate with our suppliers it
provides the common ground from which to start and aids in the
specification and requirement phase.”
Dwight Bordson
Director of Materials
Hutchinson Technology Inc.
Hutchinson, MN |
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"Every mechanical designer has at least once in his life been
confronted with the following question: Why do the parts I received
from the manufacturer, that have been correctly inspected and
which are within my specifications, not fit together? Where is
my mistake?
If you use the classical plus/minus tolerancing, most probably the
answer is: You have induced unwilling design errors. The
drawings you released might not even represent your true design
intent.
GD&T will allow you to avoid such embarrassing situations. No
more unfounded assumptions will be done on your drawings. No
more endless phone calls with your manufacturer trying to
explain exactly what you want or what you need. Your design
intent will become crystal clear to people handling your
drawings.
Before the training by Dr. Hetland, my colleagues and I were
suspicious about the real need or possible benefits in implementing
GD&T in our drawings. After the course, no more doubts
subsisted in our group–the only remaining question was:
Why didn’t we learn that before?
In my opinion, the big challenge is to convince people of the
necessity to use GD&T. But unfortunately, not everybody is
trained to GD&T principles and standards. So the challenge
we have right now is to have everybody aware of the possible
problems you induce using plus/minus tolerancing and to solve this
issue as soon as possible."
“If you have any doubts regarding GD&T, take a course by
Dr. Hetland and then you will clearly understand what will be
your benefits.”
Stéphane Salerno
Tool Design Engineer |
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"It was a real pleasure attending Dr. Hetland’s GD&T workshops!
Being a lecturer myself I can appreciate the quality of the
course. Some of the subjects covered, particularly in the
advanced course, are not easy, but with Dr. Hetland’s excellent
visual support, booklets and explanations they were a breeze.
I really like to way Dr. Hetland presented the material making
the course equally relevant to both designers and quality
control people. This is a great value when a designer
understands what he is asking for and the current limitations
and trouble quality people have verifying his parts and the
other way around, the quality guy understands what exactly the
designer wants and the reasoning behind. In my experience at
least 50% of the people do not know the real goal of the
measurements they do. They simply measure for the sake of
measurements. Listening to Dr. Hetland’s course is a must! I
will strongly recommend it to others."
Kostadin Doytchinov
Senior Research Officer
National Research Council Canada
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"The GD&T courses offered by the International Institute of GD&T
have started our company down the path of training the employees
who use and interpret our product drawings.
In my ten years of engineering experience, I have taken several
training courses in GD&T, taught by various companies, in which
none of the previous courses compare to the courses taught by
Dr. Hetland at the International Institute of GD&T. Dr. Hetland
teaches the courses in a manner that are easy to understand,
comprehend, and enables you to retain the information for future
use. The examples he uses and the training booklets that are
provided are a great resource to use for a refresher if it has
been awhile since your last training.
One of the benefits in this training is the simplification of
the symbols from 14 down to only 3, in which our company is
adopting as general practice going forward. GD&T can be
extremely confusing to remember all the different symbols so
with only 3, it is much more manageable to remember and use
effectively. Our company is training engineers, drafters,
machinists, quality personnel, sales, estimators and related
managers on the GD&T principles and simplification of symbols.
From our past experience, the majority of current employees and
new employees have very little experience with GD&T training,
especially if you have little experience in industry such as
fresh out of college or university. I personally was not taught
in-depth GD&T principles besides a brief overview of the 14
symbols during my four-year Manufacturing Engineering training at a
State University in Minnesota. I did not feel adequately
prepared at my first job out of college when I had to review a
product drawing that contained GD&T symbols. All of my previous
training was based on plus/minus tolerancing. Dr. Hetland
shows examples how using GD&T actually provides additional
tolerance versus using plus/minus tolerancing scheme.
The benefits we are expecting are having all affected employees
speaking the same language who use and interpret our product
drawings. We are also now able to effectively place "real"
tolerances on drawings that show the design intent versus
historically placing or changing tolerances to match internal
and external supplier capabilities. This training will have a
global impact including our U.S. and European manufacturing
sites.
I would definitely recommend Dr. Hetland's GD&T training courses
to anyone in your company that needs to use or interpret product
drawings. Overall, I give these courses two thumbs up!"
Aaron Thiesfeld
Quality Engineer
Horton, Inc.
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"In today’s manufacturing industry, being competitive has become
the major focus for ‘Success’ or, more rightfully put,
‘Survival.’ Although it seems that the issues industry faces are
out of our control, there has never been a more perfect time to
reflect on quality.
With a little over five years’ experience in the Metrology
world, some might say it’s just the tip of the ‘metrology
iceberg’ for me. There are many subject areas surrounding the
word metrology and GD&T is one of them. With the aid of Dr.
Hetland’s knowledge in GD&T, he has been able to shed light on
key areas that have greatly opened my eyes to the importance of
the subject. The confidence that is gained from attending any
course that Dr. Hetland lectures is proof enough that he is
doing his job right. In fact, now being certified as a
senior-level GD&T Professional (GDTP-S) since attending his
courses is yet more proof that his teaching was an inspiration.
It is no secret that quality is key to a more organized,
sophisticated, and successful business. Knowledge of GD&T is a
tool that is of utmost importance for quality, not only for
design, but also manufacturing and inspection processes. I
encourage anyone to learn about GD&T and its benefits, and there
is no one better to learn from than Dr. Hetland.”
Brendan Esler
Lab Technician–GDTP (S-0479)
Technical Measures Inc.
Oshawa Ontario, Canada
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"Our success at Gage-Lab is dependant on the success of our
customers. As such, in today’s globally competitive
environment, it is imperative to take advantage of every
opportunity to lower costs and improve product quality. Dr.
Hetland’s GD&T seminar provides valuable understanding and
methodologies to our customers to help them do exactly that –
lower costs and improve quality.
The information is relayed in
a clear, concise and engaging manner that keeps the room at
attention for the full two days. Dr. Hetland relates how recent
technological advances in coordinate metrology equipment and
analysis software make adopting GD&T throughout an organization
the easiest and lowest cost solution to many manufacturing and
assembly quality problems. New challenges require new thinking
and new tools.
Everyone I spoke with at our Salt Lake Seminar
said they found value in the two days they attended and many
were recommending it to their professional peers. In fact, the
response has been so positive that we have scheduled another
Introductory seminar as well as an Advanced GD&T seminar with
Dr. Hetland for the spring.
By helping our customers succeed,
we are building our success as a Metrology Solutions Provider."
Tim Zimmerman
Owner
Gage-lab Products, Inc.
Salt Lake City, Utah
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"Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing has made the process of
understanding manufacturing blueprint requirements relatively
simple throughout the world. This tool not only created a common
language between manufacturers on a global level, it also enhanced
the relationship of dimensional requirements to the actual
function of the part.
From my personal experience, I cannot relate to any other
process/tool that would parallel the significance of Geometric
Dimensioning & Tolerancing when it comes to understanding the
requirements stated on a blueprint in the world of
manufacturing."
Mike O'Brien
Quality Manager
Winegar, Inc.
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"Dr. Greg Hetland has taught many GD&T classes at Boston
Scientific along with consulting on many component
specifications. He has been instrumental in advancing the
knowledge of GD&T. His teaching has empowered people in many
functional areas with the capability to interpret and express
design intent through GD&T. Several people have gone on to get
the GD&T certification. His teaching method and knowledge of
GD&T have enlightened many people who had never even heard of
GD&T.
GD&T (re: ASME Y14.5) is the language of engineering. It is
used to express ideas and intents as well as to assure
producible products. When not used or used improperly we insert
ambiguity into our product specifications.
I have found, through my 25+ years of engineering, that when we
attempt to shortcut GD&T use we send an incomplete message
to the vendor and manufacturing. This causes confusion, scrap,
rework, non-compliant parts and build-line downtime. This
affects the profitability of the company.
It is important for engineers to learn, understand and use
proper GD&T methods. Universities should require the teaching of
GD&T just like any other language. Manufacturers must understand
the language and should request its use. Companies should
require nothing less than proper GD&T use.
In one example, on one component, I can show where the proper
use of GD&T would have saved a company over $10 million spent on resolving a part tolerance problem. I suspect that if a
company takes a good look at their manufacturing and field
issues they would find many would be eliminated by speaking the
right language."
Michael Knipfer
Fellow, Mechanical Engineer
Research Engineering
Boston Scientific Corporation
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"Dr. Hetland’s GD&T approach used to quantify dimensional
requirements using three symbols [Profile of a Surface, Position,
and Profile of a Line] is able to capture all design and
functional intent, and makes the complex task of using GD&T
easier to understand. This simplification improves communication
between engineers, manufacturing, vendors and quality inspectors—providing dialog to make the product design and manufacturing
yields more robust.
Industry of the future cannot avoid the benefits of using GD&T
as information technology migrates to a Product Lifecycle
Management framework. The use of a Math-Based Product
Development Process (per ASME Y14.41-2003 Digital Product
Definition Data Practices) controls product information from a
single database. The master model provides data to all
manufacturing, inspection and validation/verification processes.
Using GD&T properly up front, in conjunction with modern CAE
Finite Element and tolerance analysis software during the
development cycle, speeds the product to market. It provides a
better understanding of the design, avoids excessive
prototyping, allows manufacturing flexibility, and reduces scrap
during the integration process.
The savings from the use of GD&T carries over into production.
In this competitive world it is imperative that products get to
market faster with better manufacturing capabilities. GD&T
tools, when properly used, give a company an advantage, reduce
costs and benefit all stakeholders ."
Randall Michalicek
International Design
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"Attending Dr. Hetland’s GD&T courses has been critical in
putting our technical team all on the same page and has allowed
us to envision a global simplification of a complex subject.
Here at Graco Inc., we are a 2,200 employee company. Parts
meeting, correct prints is how the Big “G” can generate the
best return for the shareholders.
Machinists are required to have completed a GD&T course, as well
as a two-year degree. Quality technicians are required to be
trained to a higher level and be able to assist others with
understanding the prints and tolerances.
As a result of adding new engineers and quality technicians to
support the Lubriquip product line, Graco sent the group to Dr.
Greg Hetland's classes. Engineering classes seem to lack the key
training on the potential savings of using GD&T. For some this was the first
formal training and for others a refresher. This put everyone on the
same level of training.
We stand to save millions with the new addition of the Lubriquip
product line and the transforming of those products to the Graco
Quality System. Our management team realizes the benefits and
cost savings of GD&T."
Bob Reyna
Mechanical & Dimensional Metrology
Graco Inc. |
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"We will not realize the full benefit of advanced mechanical
design and control techniques using the so-called linear
dimensioning or plus/minus tolerance scheme on our mechanical
parts and assemblies. The plus/minus dimensioning and
tolerancing lacks the needed precision for meaningful mechanical
component and assembly specifications. In many cases, error
associated with plus/minus tolerancing ultimately overwhelms any
benefit from 3D statistical tolerance analysis, capability
monitoring and quality projections based on assumed incoming
distributions; these are all advanced tools we hope to use to
get to shorter development times, higher quality and lower cost.
The only language that exists, in an international standard that
has the ability to relate specifications with the needed
precision, is GD&T.
A minimum level of understanding is required to both reach and
understand this conclusion. It is impossible to have a
meaningful debate without understanding the subject matter.
Effective training of a core group of cross-functional
individual contributors and managers is critical to
understanding how GD&T fits into any given product development
and manufacturing environment.
The training that Dr. Hetland has been,
without a doubt, the most effective GD&T training session I have
attended in my 12 years as a mechanical engineer. The training
clarifies the dependence of quality and operational efficiency
on the precise definition and interpretation of design intent.
The training also highlights the glaring holes in plus/minus
tolerancing and arms you with new tools and techniques to close
those gaps."
Michael Fletcher
Engineering Manager
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"As a Quality Professional, I knew the 14 GD&T symbols, but
never saw the full potential of GD&T to leverage tolerances,
reduce scrap, rework, and misunderstandings with suppliers and
to reduce costs.
Dr. Hetland made me aware of the costs involved with a less than
optimum choice of a datum and tolerance and inspection method. His
expertise extends to most equipment and software being used
today and its impact on the data accuracy.
Dr. Hetland is an engaging educator with an extensive background
in manufacturing. He often answered students' questions by
challenging the class to use the best application of GD&T to
resolve the problem. His use of training aids, handout
resources, practical exercises and animated PowerPoint
presentations ensures student understanding. I wish that I had
received this training years ago, and I’m coordinating training
for all key staff involved with GD&T from across the company."
Clayton “Woodie” Cousins
Quality Manager
Arctic Cat Inc.
Thief River Falls, MN
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Our company is involved with contract dimensional measurement and the sale of measurement systems like CMMs, video measurement systems and surface and form instruments. Assuring the GD&T capability of our inspectors, application engineers, sales people and managers is critical to their ability to effectively communicate with our customers in the language of their part design and manufacturing documents. Basic print reading and GD&T is the basis for this language. All of our employees in these functions have attended Dr. Hetland’s classes: L1, L2 and L3.
The mark of great training is when people get back on the job and things actually change. We have worked with the product design documents from over 1500 companies and on several occasions we have sat down with a customer and their parts and prints for the first time and told them:
“I see you have attended Dr. Hetland’s GD&T training”
In response to their surprise, we tell them that their prints show an understanding and application of what Dr. Hetland taught them. GD&T Application is far more than memorizing 14 symbols on a poster: that is the easy part. It’s applying those symbols in a meaningful way that conveys a part’s true functional requirements through clearly defined tolerance boundaries that is the key to application success. It is a formidable challenge to accomplish this and I can think of no instructor that meets this challenge better then Dr. Hetland.
Keith Summers, President
Productivity Quality Inc.
Plymouth, Minnesota
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"ASME Y14.5M-1994 is the basis for the drawing system at my company. As an independent assessor of high-consequence systems, I am called upon from time to time to assess hardware designs and determine whether they will meet performance and safety requirements. One important aspect of this job is determining whether the drawings are formally compliant with standards (i.e., do they mean anything?) and with design intent (i.e., do they mean anything sensible?). Most of the eventual reliability and safety of systems is locked in during the design phase; we can’t inspect in safety or reliability. A detailed understanding of ASME Y14.5M-1994 has proven to be a valuable tool for the assessments I perform."
Dr. William C. Moffatt, PE
GDTP (S-0405)as proven to be a valuable tool for the asAlbuquerque, NM
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"I have found Dr. Hetland's wealth of knowledge and
ability to present GD&T related topics second to none. His
understanding of GD&T and the benefits gained from a proper GD&T
drawing will help gain compliancy and control, resulting in
improved throughput, reduced waste and an overall improved
product and process."
Dan Connelly
Chairman
Association for Coordinate Metrology Canada (ACMC)
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