GM's Saturn subsidiary improves quality with Delcam's PowerINSPECT

Citation

(2003), "GM's Saturn subsidiary improves quality with Delcam's PowerINSPECT", Assembly Automation, Vol. 23 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/aa.2003.03323aaf.007

GM's Saturn subsidiary improves quality with Delcam's PowerINSPECT

GM's Saturn subsidiary improves quality with Delcam's PowerINSPECT

Keywords: CMM, Inspection

In its Spring Hill, Tennessee, plant, Saturn Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors Corp., spares no effort or expense to ensure the quality of the body panels for its vehicles. Portable CMMs from Cimcore and Delcam's PowerINSPECT perform crucial roles as they check the tooling and the way components fit into those tools. "Statistically speaking, we are doing significantly better since we began using the portable CMMs", said Frank McMahon, Body Systems maintenance team leader in fabrication maintenance (Plate 5).

Plate 5 Portable CMMs from Cimcore and Delcam's PowerINSPECT check the tooling and the way components fit into those tools

The portable CMMs "are used to check relationships among parts when clamped into a tool for welding," said Dave Schutte, inspection technician for the Underbody Resource Team. "We rely very much on these systems for checks of part surfaces against their CAD models. As needed, we check weld-assembly tools after they are installed", he continued. "We also check parts from stamping suppliers and weld-assemblers."

In the body sides and framing unit, "the portable CMMs are used to verify the true locations, in reference to the car's coordinates, of specific parts", said Bill Gilliam, framing and side quality technician. "We use them to check whether the part was made to its design specifications and to fine-tune the tools."

"For me the most important thing is the flexibility of being able to use the systems anywhere and to measure anything", Mr Schutte said. "Reaching inside, behind and underneath can usually be done only by a portable CMM."

To Mr Schutte and Mr Gilliam, the best thing about PowerINSPECT, aside from ease of use and fast set-up, is its graphics capabilities. "It can be very difficult to get people to understand what you mean when you just have lines of numbers for each of a long list of points", Mr Schutte explained. "PowerINSPECT shows us the CAD file with the inspection points circled and numbered. We can print out the inspection file or e-mail it. People can see what you are talking about." "It's more user friendly and a lot easier to print out charts so you can look at all your data at one time", Mr Gilliam added.

Rework is minimized because reaction time of portable CMMs to problems is nearly immediate. A big factor in the amount of rework done in a factory is the time taken to report defects. The shorter this lag time, the fewer questionable units are produced.

"The portable CMM has made my job a whole lot more interesting and kept me much more involved with what I am doing", said Mr Gilliam. "A check fixture tells you if something is fitting and where it is not, but never why. The portable CMM gives you all kinds of data for analysis and speeds up the resolution of problems."

For further information on Delcam's PowerINSPECT software, please contact:

Peter Dickin, Public Relations Manager, Delcam Plc. Small Heath Business Park, Birmingham, B10 0HJ, UK. Tel: 44 (0) 121 683 1081; E-mail: marketing@delcam.com; Web site: www.delcam.co.uk