IIGDT Consulting Services |
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Dr. Greg Hetland has
developed a unified approach to bridge the gap between Design, Manufacturing and
Metrology. The bottom-line goal is to build upon the concept of
proper Design and Intent to improve your cost of business through
greater efficiency in engineering, manufacturing, and improved
quality. |
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Design
Review...
Dr. Hetland has built a reputation identifying areas of
improvement throughout the design process. Working directly with
your engineers who are responsible for the creation or
interpretation of the product design can save your organization
many hours and dollars in correctly applying GD&T.
GD&T is not uniformly taught or applied throughout industry. The
Design and Intent of a drawing is typically not properly communicated
between the three independent-minded departments consisting of
Engineering, Manufacturing and Metrology. Dr. Hetland brings his
consulting experience into your organization and builds bridges
between these departments to develop communication links.
Design Engineers must not only be knowledgeable of the fundamental principles of geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, but also be proficient in advanced applications and analysis. These advanced capabilities are needed in order to apply the proper and optimum symbology to the design parameter and also to apply the correct (as well as optimum) tolerance that clearly reflects design function.
Manufacturing Engineers also need the fundamental knowledge to understand clearly what the designer is trying to say by the engineering drawing. To be efficient, they also must have a high level of competency in applications and analysis to establish process controls that will ensure conformance to engineering requirements, but do it at the least amount of cost. One must keep in mind, the engineering drawing should not state how to manufacture or to inspect the product, but should only state in a clear engineering language what it should look like when it is complete.
Metrology Engineers,
like the manufacturing engineers, need the same broad base of
knowledge, except in this case, the metrology engineers need to
have a clear understanding of how to approach the dimensional
metrology aspects. This is necessary to ensure the product
produced in fact conforms to the defined requirements, or more
to fact, must understand the true magnitude of product and
feature variation.
The little time devoted to teaching geometric dimensioning and
tolerancing in educational institutions makes all disciplines in
the mechanical arena today have a higher negative impact to the
financial loss within companies than is necessary. It is also
the single most needed focus area for all disciplines for
reaching significant gains in today's mechanical
industries. |
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Manufacturing...
Dr. Hetland has worked in virtually every manufacturing
environment throughout the world. This experience brings to your
manufacturing department knowledge on spotting areas for
improvement in interpreting and applying GD&T.
The financial benefits to your business can be realized almost
immediately. By just reviewing your manufacturing process with
an objective approach to interpreting and applying GD&T, the
benefits become obvious: improved quality, reduced expensive
rework and satisfied customers.
By working directly with your manufacturing personnel, Dr.
Hetland first observes the current process to better understand
its strengths and weaknesses. Once this evaluation period is
completed, Dr. Hetland then develops a target list of areas that
could use improvement. These suggested improvements are often
based on the Design and Intent of the work piece and will
involve consulting with the engineering staff who designed the
part. Bringing together these separate departments is just one
way to build that communication bridge.
Reviewing the manufacturing process can lead to suggestions to
change operation sequence, work piece holding and material
handling.
Often overlooked, but holding the work piece anchored to
surfaces that are not members of the Datum Reference Frame can
lead to erroneous results. Applying GD&T correctly at the point
of manufacture leads to improved cost effectiveness and a better
educated workforce. |
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Metrology...
Dr. Hetland brings to your organization 30+ years of metrology
experience. Tolerances are becoming tighter throughout the world
as products evolve into smaller and more complex designs.
Maintaining the training level of your Metrologists is as
critical to your organization as design and manufacturing.
The Metrologist must interpret the correct meaning of GD&T when
validating your manufactured products. Understanding how to
extract the correct measurement values in practice leads to a
sound and reliable understanding if the products meet the
Design and Intent of the designer.
Metrology is an evolving science. Simple point-to-point and hard
gauged practices so widely prevalent in today's inspection
departments do not sufficiently explain the question "Is it in
spec?" When working on complex components with tolerance being
reduced we must now evaluate the product and our process at the
same time. Standards such as ASME B89.7, Measurement
Uncertainty are just one of the tools in which the
Metrologist must be proficient.
Dr. Hetland has been instrumental in bringing standards, such as
B89.7, into practice in companies throughout the world. Currently
Dr. Hetland is the Chairman of the B89.7 Committee and was
instrumental in the development of the standard
(see Affiliations). |
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In
Summary...
Every department (Design, Manufacturing and Metrology) influences
the success of your company. When each introduces method biases
to the process it directly increases the cost of doing business.
In order to achieve the greatest return on your investment, each
company must integrate common practices that bridge the divide
between all departments. Dr. Hetland calls this
Business
Transformation, a corporate "Way of Life."
Understanding Precision GD&T allows everyone involved to have
fundamental competencies at all levels to efficiently perform
their job and to effectively communicate across departments.
With this knowledge equally applied, you have success. |