Introduction example  Vol.2 “Inspection Control System„

Revolution of Inspection Management “Realizing the Eradication of Quality Defects DPA Coordination Did the Trick„

Articles from the July 15th, 2015 edition of the Japan Sewing Machine Times

No Inspection Sheet Necessary Instantaneous Work Via Tablet
Before sewn items can be shipped out from sewing factories, there are numerous strict “inspection items” to check whether the sewn clothes have been fabricated in accordance with the instruction sheet, or if there are any damages, broken ends, missing stitches, deformations, dirtiness, etc. There are some companies that station their own inspection staff, and others that station specialized inspection company staff to conduct thorough and strict inspections. This illustrates how the final “inspection process” directly relates to company trust, and how the inspection job is one of the most integral jobs to sewing factories precisely because it can affect company operations. It is not an exaggeration to say that the final “inspection process” is an aggregation of all the elements that could affect factory quality. In a certain cooperating factory of a big-name brand, emergency announcements are made throughout the offices while sewing. “Line A, stop. Line A, stop. Broken ends have occurred, broken ends have occurred.” This indicated that the “ICS (Inspection Control System)” software was in operation. That is what Pegasus Sewing Machine Manufacturing started selling on February of this year. Factories that have introduced ICS into their work are striving as a company to eliminate quality defects, and are subsequently raising results.

Problems that were identified during the daily inspection process used to be recorded on paper within the factory, and required time to gain a full understanding of them. ICS is a tool that can pick up on the problem points garnered from inspection results and swiftly convert them into data for a smooth transition into future improvement.

The most notable characteristic of ICS is that it can instantaneously aggregate inspection results and identify defective details. It allowed for the discontinuation of paper for conducting inspection processes. At inspection tables, inspection staff usually conducts work wherein they make records in pen for subdivided items. There have been cases where the sewn item has become dirtied or damaged from the pens. IT technology has been implemented so that all operators would have to do is touch their tablet PCs to instantaneously send inspection results to the office, where factory overseers can check them at any time. This is said to make it possible to know, immediately, at which line and during which work process the problem occurred. The software analyzes the cause of the problem– whether the problem was an adjustment failure, a problem with the work, etc. – and immediately operates to improve and solve it by cooperating with the factory support system, “DPA”.

Inspection results can be viewed anywhere, at any time, because the data is centrally managed. For the purpose of thorough management, repair specification stickers with barcodes are created for items that are discovered to have problems. Furthermore, another characteristic of ICS is its ability to make things apparent at a glance regarding factory item progress, such as the option to check all repair items on a list.

By creating reports from various perspectives, pursuing problems and taking countermeasures towards them can be easily conducted. Because these reports can be shared between all company employees, they contribute to quick improvements upon problem points through active opinion-sharing from the entire factory.

Repair specification stickers with barcodes can be created by touching the tablet PC that has been distributed to each inspection staff. Simultaneously, data has visualized through the display of repair item lists on monitors set at each line in the production site. The inspection result data is sent through connection to the wireless network (Wi-Fi), so there is no need for pesky wiring that is required for the Internet. The aforementioned flow of setup and work comprise the basic form of ICS. Once a problem occurs during the inspection process, then focus can be shifted to “DPA”, Pegasus’s factory support software/digital process analysis system, in order to find out what the main causes of the problem was and how to improve upon it. Joint use of ICS and DPA will make factories among the strongest in the world.

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