Measurement System Analysis for improved manufacturing processes in a Job-shop

Important decisions in the manufacturing sector are heavily reliant on the capabilities of the measurement system in place because faulty data collection can make it difficult to detect an out-of-control manufacturing process and also, to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable products. Therefore, the objective of this study is to conduct a measurement system analysis (MSA), to improve manufacturing processes in a Job-shop. Deploying standardized methods for a Gage Repeatability and Reproducibility (Gage R&R) study and with the support of the Minitab Statistical software package, the Gage Repeatability and Reproducibility (GR&R) was found to be 19.56% (required GR&R < 30%) with the number of distinct categories (ndc) obtained to be 7 (required ndc ≥ 5), indicating that the manufacturing process can rely on data accuracy from the measuring system put in place. This shows that a Gage R&R study has the potential to improve data reliability, improve manufacturing processes and also, reduce cost associated with rework or scrap, and we strongly recommend the MSA study using Gage R&R to every manufacturing organization for its many benefits.