VIDEO: HOW TO Increase ROI with Metrology

JACOB SANCHEZ: One of the things I love about the manufacturing business is this constant need to be better. If you're complacent, your business isn't going to go very far. So when you see a company, it's out in the world embracing change, R&D, new innovations. You know they move that needle. A lot of the times, though, when we're talking about innovation, it brings up new conversations around education, training, investments.

And that makes this whole idea of ROI a moving target for us. So, the MSC team led us here at HOW TO on an industry exploration, specifically in the world of metrology. It landed me right here at the Mitutoyo showroom in Aurora, Illinois, where I'm not just going over one product, one solution. We're showing you a multitude of technologies, innovations, that if you use them combined in your business, it's going to make you better.

So, with that, I'm going to put on my hat as the president of Sanchez Solutions International 2.0. so you and I can both learn HOW TO increase ROI with metrology.

I promised you all a multitude of innovations to help your business. And I meant it. Behind me you're seeing a shop floor CMM. We're going to be going over digital indicators. We're going to be going over data collection. And I brought the Mitutoyo team with me. Curtis, how's it going, brother. Pat, Hany. How's it going?

I wanted some knowledge, and that's why I had to bring you guys here to pick your brains. And, Curtis, I want to start off with you. If I'm el Presidente Sanchez Solutions, and I need to better understand all this noise out in the industry with new innovations and products, how can I better just, like, be a sponge and soak in new information and new knowledge?

CURTIS STUBBS: Well, as a business owner, you always want to be able to just ask not just the right questions, but sometimes ask the stupid questions, right? Because they also help us sometimes kind of relive some of this new intuitive and innovation that's going on in technology. Right. Would you say the same? Absolutely. Okay. So in some cases, such as you what what would that be?

I don't know. For me it'd be more of, hey, do I want to go out to get more throughput from data collections of handwriting? Or do I want to go and take my micrometer off doing ODs, but I want to streamline it. Let's talk about some laser mics. Right. So some of the dumb questions are also good questions. That's the way I look at it.

JACOB SANCHEZ: I love it. I think that needs to be put on a T-shirt. So Pat, where do I start moving forward though, as a small to medium sized business to start implementing new technologies? Do I got to start spending 100 grand? Do I spend money on one product and wait five years before I see an ROI?

PAT SULLIVAN: No, not really. I think it's a question of being purposeful and engaged in your process, not just taking a measurement and like, hey, okay, I checked it, it's good and moving on. But actually thinking about, hey, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? . And you could do simple things like, you know, hook up a tool to a USB cable and then hook it into a PC.

Boom. You're doing data collection and you're spending maybe 100 bucks on a cable, right? So just thinking about your process and thinking about why you're doing it.

JACOB SANCHEZ: And Hany that, that why. So if I'm el Presidente, I ask the dumb good question. I got more knowledge and I'm ready to start implementing. Where do I go from there? You're one of the experts here at Mitutoyo, like, how could you help me? What are some of your insights for somebody out in the field at that shop.

HANY ABDEL: You know, when you look at all of our metrology equipment and not even just our metrology equipment, metrology equipment in general, everything that MSC supports, we want to be able to collect the data from them. We want to use the information that's coming out of this precise, accurate equipment to generate process improvements in the manufacturing shop floor, right, to, basically improve on scrap rates, to improve on quality.

And so when we're able to get these measurement values and start to aggregate them, we can start to pinpoint and understand where we have room for improvement. Is it at the machine? Is it at the operator? Do they need more training? Is it fixturing? Is it tooling? It could be a myriad of different things. And so collecting data is really the key to doing that.

JACOB SANCHEZ: Fellas, I'm kind of a hands on guy. And if you're trying to make a sale to me, I gotta see it in action. Hany, do you mind if we get out of these guys way? Let them get back to work, and we move on.

CURTIS STUBBS: Let's do it. Y'all doing the fun, brother.

JACOB SANCHEZ: Get back to it! You ready?

HANY ABDEL: That’s good. Yeah, let’s do it.

CURTIS STUBBS: Appreciate it.

JACOB SANCHEZ: All right, brother, if I’m el Presidente of Sanchez Solutions International 2.0, I'm a tough sell. What do you got for me to show me some hands on real world innovation?

HANY ABDEL: Well, there's no secret that just about every shop out there is going to be taking measurements at almost every corner of the manufacturing shop—in the quality lab, at the machine, in the machine. Final inspection. First article inspection, everywhere right. So how does el Presidente manage all of this data and understand where they can make improvements?

JACOB SANCHEZ: So, do you, do you have something that can actually like engage with though and get to utilize. Like if I was in my own shop with my own part, you know what I mean?

HANY ABDEL: Well, let's take a look here with our coolant proof caliper. We have a wireless transmitter on the back of it. And go ahead and just measure this little, air fitting here that we can go ahead and take some measurements.

JACOB SANCHEZ: Okay, so what am I looking at here?

HANY ABDEL: Yeah. So first glance is a lot going on, but really, we can just focus on really what we're trying to do next. And here in this case, we're just going to measure the overall length. And so this is a view that we can customize. And we can simplify a variety of different ways. We can show the pictures of the part, the part print and all the inspector needs to do is follow along, measure what's next to do, hit the button, the data goes in and it's going to give live feedback as far as what the measurements were, what time.

JACOB SANCHEZ: I didn't see the time. Nice. So that shows how many measurements have been made. The value shows a timestamp, so that's green. I see this one just one yellow. I think that one was yellow before. Is that just transferring showing me what to go do next?

HANY ABDEL: Yeah. So the yellow border here is telling you what was the last measure. And so we can see our last measurement there was in the yellow. This could give an indication to the inspector, the operator that some adjustment maybe needs to be made on the machine. And so in this case we'll take the ID measurement, hit the measurement there.

And in this case that's a bad part. So now there's no question that you as an operator need to do something. This one out of tolerance. We can clear this prompt here. And then we can further add causes and corrective action. So now the operator knows why it went out. And then what they need to do to fix it.

JACOB SANCHEZ: So it's not just that I'm a bad machinist.

HANY ABDEL: No, definitely not right. It could be all sorts of things. When we talk about process improvement, it's not about necessarily the individuals. It's about is the training program good enough to make you, the operator, successful? Are the machines maintained well enough so that the shop can be successful? And this is what it's meant to identify.

JACOB SANCHEZ: See, that's the biggest thing about data, about this new age of smart manufacturing. When you see something like this, it is scary. It's supposed to be, but only because you don't understand it yet. At the end of the day, it's colors, it's numbers, the numbers we're trying to hit to get our good parts out the door to keep quality in our shop.

And if you can understand that, it becomes a lot less scary and you can start utilizing it to not just make good parts, but make your employees better. Dude. All right, I'll admit it. I'm sold a little bit. All right. I really appreciate your time, man. Do you mind if I hang around for a little bit more and just play around? There's a lot of stuff here.

HANY ABDEL: Yeah! Hey, measure away.

JACOB SANCHEZ: Sick. I appreciate your guys's time today. We really made sure that the audience, you all understand HOW TO increase ROI with metrology. If I'm being honest with you guys, though, like, I love, I love everything we've got to do today. I love the hands on work I got to experience. But like, I'm a machinist at heart. Like I want to get out there.

I think I found one of my colleagues that has a facility like 45, an hour away from you guys. If I can get us in there, will you bring like some product? And we can actually go use some Mitutoyo stuff on a shop floor?

PAT SULLIVAN: Absolutely. We’ll approve it for you.

JACOB SANCHEZ: Dude, I think that'd be the perfect way to learn how to conquer data collection.

Nice. You guys get the toys? I go to the shop.

PAT SULLIVAN: We'll see you there. Let's do it right.

Narrator: For more metalworking tips and industry best practices, stay tuned for the next How To episode and subscribe to the MSC Industrial Supply YouTube channel. A source of original manufacturing content Built to Make You Better.