Zero defect manufacturing strategies for reduction of scrap and inspection effort in multi-stage production systems

Multi-stage production systems offer a huge potential for defect compensation and defect propagation avoidance on system level, in contrast to current single-stage solutions, in order to reduce scrap and to minimize time-consuming and cost-intensive quality control. Integration of additional sensor systems and sophisticated analysis of the acquired signals enable strategies in the field of downstream compensation, inline rework and enhanced process control without including additional process and inspection stages. The presented strategies are validated in three emerging European industrial sectors (aerospace, railway and medical) yielding a universal solution for zero defect manufacturing in multi-stage production systems. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.