Engineering news
Is the stamp “Made in the UK” synonymous with world-leading quality and craftsmanship? In today’s world of mass production and automation, how can the UK manufacturing sector maintain its global reputation for quality?
To an engineer, the term “quality” typically means conformance to specification, but to the end user, it can have a very different meaning - “does it look right, does it feel right, does it perform its function, is it reliable….?” The list can go on and on, and ultimately it can be the customers’ satisfaction that determines the reputation of a company.
But are these definitions of quality actually that different? Arguably there is more to the customers’ perception of quality than simply conformance to specification, but without consistent conformance to specification, achieving quality in the eyes of the customer is highly unlikely.
There is, however, a very important function that sits between a potentially non-conforming product and the customer. It’s called “product verification” – a term used in industry and by the National Physical Laboratory, to describe the part of the manufacturing process whose job it is to identify and remove non-conforming products before they reach the customer.
Product verification can encompass a range of different inspection processes and will be specific to any given product, verifying that it conforms to its specification. The backbone of product verification, is in many cases, geometrical measurement, and is an area that both NPL and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult centres are heavily engaged in, from the developments of standards and traceable calibration, to the trialling of new technologies and optimisation of measurement procedures.
The HVM Catapult has seven centres across the UK, working directly with industry partners to address product verification and measurement challenges, utilising some of the latest metrology technologies coupled with expertise across a range of industry sectors, whilst NPL delivers a range of industry-focused training courses and is rolling out its National Product Verification Programme across the UK.
The HVM Catapult, in association with the National Physical Laboratory, is holding an event to look at the quality challenges facing our manufacturing sector, and how the application of good measurement practice can address many of these challenges:
“Improving Quality through Good Measurement Practice”
24th June 2015 at WMG, the University of Warwick
This event offers an excellent opportunity to hear about the work being done by NPL and the HVM Catapult, to engage with experts from industry and academia, and to find out how your business could benefit from getting involved in the National Product Verification Programme. The event is free to attend but places are limited. Please follow this link to register at our Eventbrite page.