Value Stream Piezo Systems Ensures Delivery Capability
In the piezo actuator production area of the Value Stream Piezo Systems, a project team identifies considerable and previously unknown problems with the product for the KLA drive units and makes sure that the delivery capability is quickly re-ensured
Dear Colleagues,
I want to tell you about a success story we experienced within our team in the piezo actuator production area of the Value Stream Piezo Systems.
The department had been experiencing considerable problems for quite some time with the assembly of the drive units for our customer KLA (components P-952.26 – P-952.25; unguided and not preloaded piezo ceramics on a carrier plate. The specifications stated by the customer (regarding linearity error; hysteresis; offset) were not achieved for the most part. In addition to the resulting high cost due to additional materials and postprocessing, the products could also not be delivered for the most part.
In order to remedy the problem at its roots instead of just carrying out repairs, we founded a project team in September 2021 which was lead by Dennis Lieb. The goal was that, after assembly, the actuators would reach their specifications in the end test and measuring technology and that the products could be delivered again. For this purpose, the project team carried out cause analyses (according to Ishikawa) and an MSA (Measurement System Analysis) and evaluated the data.
The project team found out that the general testing places react too sensitively to external physical disturbances, are too inaccurate for certain products, and the measurement resolution is not high enough. A new testing place with a higher measurement resolution and a lower sensitivity to external disturbances is now being planned. The team was also able to demonstrate that there is no direct problem with our products – the errors were found and immediately remedied!
I would like to thank Dennis Lieb, his team, and all other people involved for their exceptional performance and commitment!
The solution to the problem for the KLA units is just one example of many challenges in our area, which make it difficult to stably and repeatably qualify and manufacture our products. Our team is consistently working on these problems. However, it takes time to achieve the performance level for a stable production that we want to consider and have set ourselves as a goal, but we are well on our way.
Best regards
Jürgen Deutschmann
Head of Value Stream Piezo Systems