Four Main Goals Our Customers Have With Their GD&T Training
When you sign up for a GD&T training course, you aren’t just buying training -- you’re investing in a change to your business that will make it stronger, more efficient, and more profitable.
To get the most out of that investment, you first need to define what you’re after. Are you looking to increase quality? Improve your processes? Utilize budget effectively? Once you know the change you want to see, you can train the right people and enact policies and procedures to make it happen.
We’ve helped thousands of companies improve their organizations with GD&T training, and what follows are the 4 most common issues that those companies solved with Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (Note many companies have more than just one of these goals listed below):
- Onboarding new hires quickly and effectively
- Getting design, production, and inspection teams on the same page
- Solving production problems
- Meeting customer and certification requirements
Onboarding New Hires
Not long ago, a major aerospace defense client was bringing in a lot of new people -- they came to us after hiring 50 new engineers in the past quarter. The company uses GD&T in its processes and needed to get those folks up to speed so they could understand the company drawings and be effective in their roles.
The root of the problem is that engineers aren’t taught the current best practices or practical application of GD&T in school. Without that knowledge, communication with new team members suffers, lengthening the onboarding process.
The solution is making GD&T training a part of onboarding for your design engineers and quality inspectors. With a common vocabulary and understanding of GD&T, new hires can integrate into your organization and become effective contributors much more quickly.
Getting Design, Production, and Inspection on the Same Page
Effective communication throughout the manufacturing process enables teams to be proactive about increasing the quality of the end product and reduce costs by eliminating scrap. When design, production, and inspection teams aren’t on the same page, however, communication breaks down, disputes arise, and production suffers -- issues that can cause you to fail an ISO 9001 or TS16949 audit and lose your quality certification.
And whether you’re implementing new cost-down initiatives, standards, or design requirements, your people will be resistant to change, even if it ultimately serves them. First off, people know that change involves additional effort on their part. They also know the idea to change isn’t theirs, and they may feel like the demands of change infringe on their turf. Maybe they see implementation or operational risks in the plan.
The common language of GD&T puts every department on the same page and keeps everyone accountable. Otherwise, problems go unsolved and the blame game begins. Our clients who have standardized their communications with GD&T have found that needed adjustments happen much more quickly and smoothly, and their teams stop problems before they start.
Solving Production Issues
Deviations are wasteful and expensive in time and money.
You lose whether the part you made is red-tagged and rejected for being out of spec, or you sourced parts with values that aren’t within specified tolerances. Even if you can get an ECR to permanently change a print, held shipments still cost money and lost productivity.
We’ve had clients receive non-conformance reports for a variety of reasons. Maybe the tolerance is too tight, or inspection is measuring things improperly. Perhaps manufacturing just cannot create a stable part with the existing design.
These issues create friction internally and externally -- no matter if your suppliers don’t deliver the quality you need, your internal departments don’t get the root cause of a problem, or they simply don’t understand the goal of the drawings.
Deviations can be catastrophic. Imagine you have an overseas supplier that isn’t inspecting its parts correctly, so the assembly bolts don’t fit, and the entire production line has to shut down. Best case scenario? It only costs you time and money. Sometimes lowered performance costs your reputation, your customers, and eventually, your business.
Better communication and clearer drawings between you and your customers and suppliers are how you get it right the first time and avoid deviations entirely. Implementing best GD&T practices lets you spend your time refining processes and products instead of fighting fires.
Meeting Customer and Certification Requirements
Many clients come to us because outside forces dictate that they implement Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing.
We get it. We know that making the shift to GD&T is daunting. Rewards are worth the effort.
Have you gotten a new customer that uses GD&T? Maybe an old one is creating a new product line that requires you to start using it? Have you failed to meet your customer’s quality expectations? Did a customer update their design requirements and demand you implement GD&T? Did you fail an audit?
One of our clients is a Ford supplier, and they became design responsible for a new part. Their contract was contingent upon their use of GD&T to ensure proper communication between the supplier’s design team and Ford Design. If they didn’t start using GD&T, they would lose their contract with Ford.
The simple fact is that doors open for companies that use GD&T, and they close on those that don’t.
We’ve helped thousands of companies solve issues and improve their businesses through the implementation of GD&T, and we’re happy to share that knowledge with you, too. Contact us today if you want to discuss how GD&T can help you overcome the challenges you face or if you’re ready to move forward with training!
We want to help you figure out the best approach for getting your team using GD&T. We are here first to help - not sell, so let us know how we can assist your team to get started with GD&T Training.
