Chapter 16: Machine Acceptance Overview

Highlights

In SPC, one of the major issues and concerns is the notion of machines. In fact, if you recall from the discussion of process, one of its components is indeed the machine. The machine is something that takes input of some kind and adds value to it to result in some expected utility for the customer. Machines are bought and expected to perform, based on specifications given to the builder of the machine.

The question is, however, how does a customer know whether or not a supplier has delivered the right machine? In this chapter, we are going to address the process and will identify some of the most critical items that should be checked before and during delivery. To help our discussion, we have included an overview of the process in a pictorial format (see Figure 16.1). The reader will notice that some of the issues around the machine acceptance are issues of capability, stability, and control. All of these items, of course, have been covered in this volume in previous chapters (that is, Chapters 8 “12, 14, and 15). We hope that this chapter will bring everything together.

Figure 16.1: Machine acceptance overview.