Integrative Technology and Inspection Planning—A Case Study in Medical Industry

Abstract

In most trendsetting industries like the aerospace, automotive and medical industry functionally critical parts are of highest importance. Due to strict legal requirements regarding the securing of the functionality of high-risk parts, both production costs and quality costs contribute significantly to the manufacturing costs. Thus, both types of costs have to be taken into consideration during the stage of technology planning. Due to the high variety of potential interactions between individual component properties as well as between component properties and manufacturing processes, the analysis of the influence of the manufacturing history on an efficient design of inspection processes and inspection strategies is extremely complex. Furthermore, the effects of inspection strategies and quality costs on the planning of manufacturing process sequences cannot be modeled to date. As a consequence, manufacturing and inspection processes are designed separately and thus a high cost reduction potential remains untapped. In this paper, a new approach for an integrative technology and inspection planning is presented and applied to a case study in medical industry. At first, existing approaches with regard to technology and inspection planning are reviewed. After a definition of relevant terms, the case study is introduced. Following, an approach for an integrative technology and inspection planning is presented and applied to the case study. In the presented approach, the complex causalities between technology planning, manufacturing history, and inspection planning are considered to enable a cost-effective production process and inspection sequence design.