Experts in solving problems through customer in-plant support
CASE STUDY - PENLON
17,000 ventilators need urgent quality assurance process
ISL drafted
to reduce
rejection rates
Inspection Services Ltd were requested at short notice to audit, support and assist with an ongoing production quality concern by global medical giant Penlon.
The issue was causing production shortages and concerns over quality in assembly.
In a short period of time, we were able to quickly identify the root cause and report our findings back to the engineering teams who were able to adjust their processes accordingly.
We were requested to visit 2 productions facilities making components for Ventilator assembly. Parts had been arriving at the assembly location that were defective and the team needed to isolate the root cause of the issue and address the concern.
At ISL we used secure, cloud-based reporting systems. We were quickly able to tailor what the inspectors were to look for and define a work instruction for the team. This enabled us to collate and review data which could then be analysed by the engineers at McClaren who were controlling this part of the assembly.
As the data was in real-time, this gave our customer 100% control of what was being accepted for production and what was to be rejected.
Not just on the quality inspection data, but also control of the hours and costs invested in us. This also gave them the flexibility to adjust the project as production increased or slowed down for other issues.
Our reporting methods were cited as being innovative for our industry and proved to be a resounding success.
By assisting with the flow of information back to McClaren, they were then able to extrapolate the data from our reports and subsequently implement minute adjustments to their design to allow the supplier to adapt their process within a 24-hour period, thus reducing the number of rejected parts and subsequently increasing production.
In this particular instance, a repeat gas bubble was the root cause of the problem. Once identified, we then monitored several trials as adjustments were made. The work continued in order to return to an acceptable level of defect-free production.
Consequences on increased costs and project delays was significantly reduced as ISL successfully tackled the issue at source, before parts reached assembly.
This project was the perfect example of how we do not simply look for and count rejects, we are able to identify, analyse and track for different types of rejects, allowing us to quickly identify patterns and remedy quality issues for our clients.
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