Q: What sort of companies and/or products do you most often work with on print reading and GD&T?
A: Most of my print reading and GD&T clients are small to medium size contract manufacturers (10 – 500 employees) in the aerospace industry. However, I have also trained companies in a variety of different industries, including automotive and biomedical.
Q: Are there specific triggers or situations that would serve as a good indication that a company should send their team to these workshops?
A: Because of our current low unemployment, many companies in these industries have turned to other industries such as retail and food service in order to meet their labor needs. Many of these new employees have little to no experience in the aerospace industry, so it is beneficial for these companies to offer training in print reading in order to help the new employees perform their duties.
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Increasing number of new hires with limited experience in the manufacturing industry.
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Having employees regularly seek more experienced employees with questions about prints or work instructions.
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Increased number of quality issues related to missed callouts or incorrectly read prints.
- Components that do not assemble correctly all the time, even if the individual components pass inspection.
- Customer rejection of components using geometric tolerancing, even after your own inspectors have passed the part.
- Excessive wait time in the inspection department because only a limited number of inspectors are familiar and comfortable inspecting components with geometric tolerances.
Q: Can you give us an example or two of the benefits you have seen from this type of training?
A: Several years ago, a client was working on setting up a new part that had a geometric callout. The part had an eight hour run time, and the inspector had rejected the first two parts because they did not pass a geometric tolerance specified on the part. One of my old students remembered that there was a special way that the specific control had to be measured, and although he could not remember what the exact way was, he knew the inspector was inspecting it incorrectly. After reporting this to the quality director, they investigated and realized that indeed the part was being inspected incorrectly. Upon employing the correct inspection procedure, they realized the parts were good. What I like about this case is that the student did not have to remember how to do it correctly, he just pointed out that they were not doing it the right way and that further investigation was needed.
Second case study: a frequent mistake when reading prints is understanding “near side” and “far side” on a part when looking at a print and identifying the correct side on an actual part. This is especially important if one of the sides will be marked, painted or will receive a special treatment such as adhesive spray, grinding, polishing, or plating. When parts are not fully symmetrical, it is a common mistake to treat or process the incorrect side of the part. Understanding the relationship of the views in a drawing helps operators correctly identify the side to be processed. I have encountered this problem in many instances.
Angel De Sevilla | Trainer Bio
Mr. De Sevilla is a workforce development consultant and trainer specializing in manufacturing technologies such as lean manufacturing, print reading, geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, shop math and inspection techniques. His industry experience includes designing machine tools for Big 3 Automakers, manufacturing engineering manager for a division of a Fortune 1000 company, and operations manager for a division of a Fortune 500 company. His Lean Manufacturing work has been featured in the New York Times Business Section.
He delivers training in California and Colorado for organizations such as: College of the Canyons Employee Training Institute, Los Angeles Valley College Job Training, Glendale Community College Professional Development Center, Chaffey College Workforce Training Institute, California Manufacturing Technology Consulting, and Manufacturer’s Edge, among other firms.
Angel has an MBA from Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA and a BS in mechanical engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.
