Welding Process Control Design

The problem at Bristol Metals is that the welding process is out of control. Bristol Metals cannot determine what factors are contributing to weld defects. The client needs a way to be able to rule out certain factors and be able to pinpoint which factors they think are contributing to defects, and at that point they 11 be able to improve upon those factors. The key piece of literature for this project is "World Class Quality" by Keki Bhote. The significance of this literature is that it provides control techniques as well as ways to secure commitment from management in implementing quality procedures. The state of the art motivation for this project is based in SPC (Statistical Process Control). Bristol Metals wished to eventually implement an SPC system. The goal of the project is to get Bristol to the point where they can implement SPC. The developed approach is to create a formal procedure that will allow Bristol Metals to eventually implement an SPC system. The formal procedure will include a Calibration schedule (when to calibrate, who will calibrate, what instruments to use) and recommended data collection (what factors to collect data on, recommended data collecting equipment to buy). The formal procedure will also include recommendations about the specific welding process. The goal behind the formal procedure is to get Bristol to a point where they are keeping track of all important data so that it may be possible to trace defects back to the factor or factors that caused them. The second part of the approach is to give general recommendations about Bristol\´s entire manufacturing process. The hope behind this is to eliminate factors of the pre and post-welding process that the group feels may be contributing to weld dejects. These recommendations will also be aimed at getting the entire manufacturing process in more control (i.e. recommendations about keeping track pipes as they move through the facility, etc). Some preliminary results have been obtained f- rom data analysis. Some relationships have been identified between different weld defects and some chemical contents of pipe. After some further development of these relationships, this could lead to some key recommendations about what Bristol will ask for from suppliers in the future. Also, a process and function diagrams have been created to get a better feel for the entire manufacturing process and provide inspiration for possible recommendations at each step of the process.