The Freedonia Group estimated that worldwide sales in the Machine Tool Industry for 2019 were $181 billion. Most estimates for the Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) in the Machine Tool Industry range from 10% to 20% of total sales ($18 to $36 billion for 2019). Some believe it is even higher. COPQ comes in many forms and consequently is often undetected.  Typical COPQ includes but is not limited to increased Machine Tool design time, redesign, increased manufacturing time, remanufacture, increase onsite setup time, increase runoff testing time and field service calls. The root causes of COPQ occur throughout the Machine Tool lifecycle from definition of Customer requirements through to the usage, maintenance and sometimes disposal of the Machine Tool.

Although there are tools that exist that can be used to significantly reduce Machine Tool COPQ, most Machine Tool companies do not use them or use them ineffectively. The most common reasons for this are the companies do not know they exist, do not understand their purpose and/or understand how to use them. Most of the companies that are using the tools are doing so because they are being forced to by their customers who also don’t understand the tools. The Machine Tool company customer requires use of the tool because their QMS system requires their use by their Machine Tool suppliers. The Machinery FMEA (MFMEA) is one of the most popular tools currently being used incorrectly that if used correctly in combination with some other important tools could significantly reduce the billions of dollars in Machine Tool industry COPQ.

Machine Tool companies do not have unlimited resources to reduce COPQ. Consequently, they must target their resources at removing or reducing to an acceptable level the causes of COPQ that represent the greatest risk. To meet this need, Harpco Systems^® has created the Risk Based Machine Tool Life Cycle Management^™ System (Risk Based MTLM^™). Through the use of a group of integrated risk based tools, Risk Based MTLM^™ helps the user identify and remove the root causes of COPQ through the entire Machine Tool life cycle from the definition of customer requirements through to the usage, maintenance and the disposal of the Machine Tool if required. Risk Based MTLM^™ includes a variety of dynamically integrated risk based tools including the Requirements Risk Assessment^® (“RRA^®“), Machine Tool Design Validation Plan, Machinery FMEA, Machine Tool Design Verification Plan, Machine Tool Application FMEA (Customer Process FMEA), Machine Tool Usage/Preventative Maintenance Generator, Machine Tool Build Process FMEA and Machine Tool Build Process Control Plan.

An additional benefit of the Risk Based MTLM^™ is that it allows the Machine Tool company to meet the “Risk Based Thinking” requirements of ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 13485:2016.

For more information on the software, training and implementation assistance Harpco Systems^® provides in implementing Risk Based MTLM^™ .