Fussell Manufacturing, Metal Fabricators Fussell Manufacturing, Precision Metal Fabrication

Fussell Sheet Metal Quality Control Manual

This manual established the requirements for Fussell Sheet Metal, Inc. inspection system and process control. These requirements pertain to the inspections and tests necessary to substantiate product conformance as required by contract. This manual outlines the inspection system maintained by Fussell Sheet Metal, Inc.

The system has been designed to provide quality control coverage and insure conformance with purchase document requirements. The procedures contained herein shall be maintained on a current basis and revisions to the manual will be made as agreed upon between the company and the customer or Government representative.

Responsibilities

The manager of quality assurance reports directly to the V.P. Operations.

The quality assurance manager's responsibilities shall encompass the following:

  • Interpretation of conformance to customers quality requirements.
  • Review of customer drawings and specifications.
  • Determination of necessary inspection points.
  • Documentation of necessary inspection and test instructions and changes thereto.
  • Planning, developing, initiating, coordinating, implementing, and maintaining the most effective and efficient procedures for quality assurance.
  • Maintenance of adequate quality assurance records.
  • Review of quality assurance and corrective action follow-up.
  • Vendor quality assurance and corrective action follow-up.
  • Original and continuing periodic inspection of special and standard gages, test equipment, and tooling used to manufacture product. Assuring inspection and test equipment remain calibrated within established time.
  • Coordinate in plant corrective action on items rejected by the customer, notify customer of the action taken and evaluate the action for effectiveness.
  • Assure that inspection personnel are capable of rendering an unbiased decision to accept or reject material inspected.
  • Promote quality improvement projects.
  • Review Purchase Orders.
  • In house Surveys.
  • Vendor Surveys.
  • Assist in Customer Surveys.
  • Initiate concise written work instructions for the acceptance or rejection of a product.

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Purchase Order Control

Purchase orders to Fussell Sheet Metal, Inc. suppliers require authorization by the General Manager, and Quality or his authorized representative, as required.

Upon release of a purchase order, the Buyer will furnish Fussell Sheet Metal, Inc. required drawings, specification, and necessary customer requirements, such as material or process certification, physical and chemical analysis, or Source Inspection, with the Purchase Order.

In the event of a drawing or specification change, the Buyer will issue a Purchase Order Change, incorporating the latest Engineering change and latest drawings or other specifications.

Copies of Purchase Orders are on file and available for review by Fussell Sheet Metal, Inc. customers.

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Drawing and Specification change Control

Fussell Sheet Metal, Inc., fabricates and manufactures to customer drawings and/or specifications which are filed in job folders in production control files.

Engineering drawings and revisions by F.S.M. will require approval by the V.P. Operations prior to changes in the engineering file.

Production supervisor is responsible for the issuing and controlling of drawings and specifications in the plant.

The purchasing department receives engineering changes, drawings, and specification changes from F.S.M. customers, and is responsible to forward customer changes to engineering.

Engineering is responsible for issuing the latest engineering changes, drawings and specifications to the cognizant departments and voiding outdated engineering changes, drawings, and specifications.

A standard procedure to ensure that changes are controlled and will assure that change effectivity will be controlled by:

  • Effective date.
  • Serial number or job number.
  • Time interval (responsibility of the V.P. Operations).
  • Part number revision level; drawing number revision level.

Changes to job travelers, details, specifications, and operations are accomplished through engineering change reports (e.c.r.); notice of operation deviation (nod); and quality alert forms.

Receiving Inspection

Parts and materials are received and logged in by Shipping and Receiving. Receiving reports are stored in the job order file.

Parts and materials are presented to inspection after being logged in by Receiving.

Inspection will not accept parts and/or materials until it has been determined that the proper certification, physical and chemical test data, special process certification or certified vendor Source Inspection certification accompanies the parts and/or materials presented for inspection.

The inspector shall document the results of inspections and/or test.

Accepted lots are identified by inspection and shipped to customer or sent to stock.

Rejected lots are identified and are held segregated by Inspection until disposition is made by Q.A. MGR.

The Purchasing Manager and applicable vendors will receive a copy of rejection reports.

Corrective action to prevent recurrence of discrepancies discovered by Inspection is the responsibility of the Q.A. Manager.

Follow-up to ensure that corrective action taken by a vendor was effective is a Quality Manager responsibility.

Inspection instructions are issued in written form, as applicable with consideration given to complexity of the parts, material received, and customer requirements. If available, the material will be inspected to customer-furnished inspection instructions.

Sampling plans utilized will maintain quality levels consistent with MIL-STD-105 latest revision, Hypergeometric sampling plan or customer requirements.

A periodic review is made of Inspection records by the Quality Manager to detect vendor process capability problems.

Inspection records will include the number inspected, number rejected, date of inspection, and positive identification of the inspector. Inspection records will include information as to the disposition of vendor-supplied records, data and hardware.

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Raw Material Control

Raw material, bar stock, sheet stock, and castings are identified to the proper certification as required and are stored in an area apart from the normal flow of in-process material.

Copies of certification are filed in the Job Order folder by job order number and are available for review at the customer's request.

Only Inspection accepted raw material is released for production.

Certified stock is issued from the raw material storage area to comply with the job number requirements.

Verification of supplier's certifications are accomplished by independent testing laboratories when deemed necessary by customer purchase order requirements accomplish verification of supplier's certifications.

Certifications will be identifiable to the applicable Purchase Order, date of receipt of the material, and the inspector who inspected the material. Periodic Inspection to verify that storage conditions are such as to guard against damage and deterioration.

In Process Inspection

First Piece Inspection will be performed and documented by the Quality office when part is first time run, or complexity of the part prescribes. Otherwise all operations shall have a first piece inspection documented by the operator at minimum.

No production runs shall begin until proper approval has been accomplished.

After first piece inspection acceptance in process inspections are performed by Quality at adequate intervals to provide early detection of processes producing nonconforming material.

Inspection records are stored in the Quality office and are available for customer review.

Rejected items are clearly identified by a tag or other applicable means and moved to an area apart from the normal flow of in-process materials.

Obtaining corrective action and performing follow-up action to prevent recurrence of discrepant materials is the responsibility of the Quality Manager.

Inspection records will include the number of pieces accepted, number rejected, nature of defects and basic causes of rejection, date of inspection and identification of inspector.

Inspections and controls over special processes are established as appropriate for qualifications and certification of equipment and personnel.

Assembly Inspection And/Or Functional Test

Assembly, inspection, and necessary functional testing are performed, as required.

Inspection performs surveillance inspection of the functional tests in accordance with a specified sampling procedure.

Inspection records are maintained by Quality personnel.

Inspection records are filed in the Q.A. office and will be available for customer review on request.

Non-conforming assemblies are identified and segregated to preclude any chance of accidentally being used.

Obtaining corrective action and performing follow-up action to prevent recurrence of discrepant material is the responsibility of Quality Manager.

Inspection records will include the number accepted, number rejected, date of inspection, and positive identification of the inspector.

Where contractually required, government representatives servicing this plant will be notified in advance of the time of assemblies and functional testing. Inspection records will be submitted to this representative for designation of mandatory government inspection characteristics.

Final Inspection And Test

Final inspections and tests are performed 100 percent or on a sample basis, as applicable to complexity of the items produced and/or customer requirements. Inspection will be in accordance with customer-supplied procedures, when available.

Each end-item is inspected/tested 100 percent or on a sample basis unless otherwise specified by the contract.

Final inspection and test reports are maintained by Quality.

Inspection and test records are filed in the Q.A. office and will be available for review at the request of the customer.

Corrective action and performing follow-up action to prevent recurrence of discrepant material is the responsibility of Quality Manager.

Non-conforming material is identified and segregated from the normal flow of finished material.

Non-conforming material is not released by shipment to the customer without specific instructions from the customer to submit the nonconforming material.

Rejected material which is subjected to any repair, or sorting is resubmitted to inspection for verification of the adequacy of the rework.

Inspection records will include the number of pieces accepted, number rejected, date of inspection, and positive identification of the inspector.

Final product acceptance shall be performed by authorized inspection personnel utilizing calibrated inspection equipment.

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Non-Conforming Materials

Nonconforming supplies, parts and/or material are placed in a segregated area. The items will be clearly identified to Job Number, Part Number, Lot Size, Discrepant Characteristic, Inspector's Name, and other identification as required.

The non-conforming characteristic(s) are clearly indicated on a rejection tag attached to each part or container.

No one is authorized to remove nonconforming items from the segregated area until a review is completed by a Material Review Board consisting of the V.P. Operations, Engineering, and a Quality representative. When there is a requirement for government or Customer Source Inspection, the applicable representative must be part of the review committee when the discrepancy is likely to affect form, fit, function, or safety.

Non-conforming material will not be shipped until concurrence from the customer buyer is received.

Non-conforming material shipped to the customer on Quality or other departments authorized concurrence shall have the discrepancy clearly indicated on the shipping documents.

The integrity of lots submitted to inspection is maintained under the control of Production Supervisor, and will be segregated from normal material flow.

During the processing of material, a system will be used to assure proper sequence and completion of production and inspection activities.

A system of inspection status will be used to identify the status of inspected material.

Unidentified material is segregated from the normal flow of production material until conformance of material to specifications is established.

Reworked material is segregated from other material until conformance of material to specifications is established by Quality.

Tool and Gage Control

Special tools, jigs, fixtures, gages and measuring equipment are identified.

New, or re-worked tools, jigs, fixtures, gages, and items of measuring equipment are inspected prior to being issued for use.

Gages, measuring and test equipment are checked to standards which are calibrated by standards traceable to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

A schedule of frequencies for calibrating gages, measuring and test equipment is maintained and is strictly adhered to. The schedule is based on type, purpose and severity of usage.

Measuring and test equipment found to be significantly out of tolerance will be reported to the Quality Manager who will determine need and extent of actions necessary to eliminate or minimize any quality impact.

Special gauging supplied by a customer is inspected in accordance to the schedule supplied by the customer. If no schedule is supplied, a schedule will be assigned based on type, purpose and severity of usage.

Calibration is performed in accordance with written procedures maintained in the inspection area.

Obsolete or out-of-service tools and gages are identified by tags. Decals or stickers are applied to tools and gages or their storage containers. The decals or stickers show the date of calibration and the due date for the next calibrations.

Calibration of company-owned production and inspection tools is strongly enforced.

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Overrun Stock Control

The Quality Manager shall have the responsibility of surveillance of any overrun stock.

The Quality Manager will assure that any overrun parts presented for stock are properly identified as to inspection status (acceptance), part number, latest drawing number and specification revision, date of inspection, acceptance, job number, quality of parts and that the parts are adequately packaged to prevent deterioration or damage.

No overrun parts are shipped to a customer until re-inspection is accomplished to assure they are in an acceptable condition, and meet the latest drawing and specification revisions, if not otherwise stated by the contract.

Packaging and Shipping

No order will be shipped to a customer until indication of approval of final inspection by the inspector's acceptance stamp, or inspector's signature and date of inspection acceptance.

No material will be shipped until required certification, test reports, special samples, etc., have been packed with the material in accordance with customer requirements.

Items shall be packaged in a manner that prevents damage, deterioration, or substitution.

Adequate marking shall appear on the packaging and parts to provide positive identification to the applicable customer.

Required special packaging will be controlled and will be as specified by the applicable contract.

Identification

Materials and articles are identified by a job number and a basic part number.

Materials and articles which have a critical application are also identified by a serial number or lot number.

Fussell Sheet Metal Calibration System Description

The Fussell Sheet Metal calibration system is maintained by QA Inspection and its management.

The overall purpose of the system is to control the accuracy of measuring and test equipment (M&TE) and measurement standards used to insure that supplies and services delivered to the customer comply with prescribed technical requirements.

M&TE employed by Fussell are selected to possess the accuracy, stability, range and resolution required for their intended use.

Fussell subcontracts all Calibration functions to suppliers of calibration services which:

  • Provide traceability to acceptable national standards. Perform calibrations in controlled environments consistent with functions calibrated.
  • Perform calibrations by procedures which suppliers are willing to release to Fussell.
  • Notify Fussell of out-of-tolerance and other conditions encountered upon suppliers receipt of the M%TE
  • Provide certificates, reports or data sheets contracted for.
  • Provide decals on items calibrated including source, date of calibration and projected recalibration due date.

Fussell performs the following functions to maintain controlled accuracies of the M&TE:

  • Submits to calibration service suppliers at regular intervals to maintain M&TE. The basic interval is every two years, unless an extension is documented.
  • Maintains records of calibration actions for each item of M&TE.
  • Performs reviews of in and out-of-tolerance conditions of calibrated M&TE to determine the reliability of each item of M&TE and the appropriate actions for correcting potential hardware deficiencies arising from use of significantly out-of-tolerance items.
  • Adjusts calibration intervals on the basis of individual item reliability. Items experiencing out-of-tolerance conditions three (3) straight recalibrations will have their current calibration interval halved. Items experiencing in-tolerance conditions three (3) straight recalibrations may have their current calibration interval doubled.
  • Stores, handles and transports M&TE in a manner which does not adversely affect the condition of the.

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