Darren Talbot
Head of Sales & Service, Industrial Quality Solutions, ZEISS Industrial Metrology
Most manufacturers struggle to use data as a live, actionable part of their production strategies. Yet when implemented properly, the benefits can be revolutionary.
The UK is home to world class manufacturing companies,” says Darren Talbot. “The problem is, some of them are working as though it’s still the 1980s.” The result? Their operations aren’t as efficient or as cost effective as they could be.
However, according to Talbot, if manufacturing organisations fully integrate metrology — the science of precision measuring — into their real-time production processes, they’d be able to make faster, more accurate and informed data-led decisions that could alleviate risk, help address skills gaps and generally improve quality assurance.
Using data to improve overall manufacturing processes
Talbot is Head of Sales & Service, Industrial Quality Solutions at ZEISS Industrial Metrology — a business unit of technology enterprise Carl ZEISS UK& IE — which provides metrology solutions to medical, aerospace, defence and automotive manufacturers, among others. He points out that many manufacturing companies have end of-line quality inspections to identify defects in finished products before they leave the factory. But instead, if these businesses used metrology software to capture data in-line — such as between stages of production— they’d be able to influence the manufacturing process as it happens. This could help detect variation early, reduce scrap and rework, analyse performance, identify bottlenecks and automate corrective offsets.
Put simply, live measurement data can improve end-to-end manufacturing processes and save businesses a lot of pain. “Unfortunately, some manufacturers aren’t embracing these benefits,” says Talbot. “I think they’d rather buy more machine tools than measuring machines. What we’re saying is: ‘If you have access to real-time data on metrology systems, your processes will improve so much that you won’t have to spend money on buying more machine tools.’”
Being data-led is key
Challenges hampering metrology and inspection processes
Nevertheless, many manufacturing organisations struggle to use measurement data as a live, actionable part of their production strategies. A major issue is that the data is too fragmented because it’s dispersed across standalone machines, portable devices, legacy software, spreadsheets and manual records. Because it’s not ‘joined up,’ it makes it difficult to perform trend analysis, global reporting, automated tolerance adjustments or closed-loop process control.
That’s where a unified software solution comes into play, explains Talbot, because it turns isolated metrology activities into connected, enterprise-wide ecosystems. As a result, all measurement data can be consolidated into strategic manufacturing intelligence — not just inspection results — to maximise throughput. Another major challenge is a shortage of skills and labour. However, Talbot notes these can be alleviated with better deployment of existing talent and the introduction of easy-to-use solutions and automation.
Automation and support to reduce reliance on scarce expertise
“Automation in inspection — with the use of vision systems, sensors and advanced metrology software, for instance — will reduce reliance on scarce expertise, stabilise throughput, ensure repeatability and reduce rework,” he says. “All are critical for maintaining quality when skilled labour is difficult to hire or retain.” Skills shortages also underscore the importance of cross-skilling and upskilling to ensure staff can efficiently operate modern metrology tools.
Finally, Talbot adds that as internal technical capability becomes stretched, external partners — such as software and data-integration specialists — are playing an increasingly important role in supporting resilient production operations.
“For example, we offer our skills, systems, training and Quality Excellence Centre to customers, so they don’t have to build their own expertise,” he says. “With outside support, a manufacturer can accelerate innovation, reduce bottlenecks and its dependency on specialised skills and enable faster deployment of advanced solutions. And they can do all of this without the need for constant new hires. Being data-led is key.”
