Assessment of Human Capability, An Effective Tool to Obtain Confidence in the Visual Inspection Process

To consistently produce high quality products, a quality management system must be practically implemented in every organization. One of its core instrument is to ensure the capability of the measurement systems, which are the basis for decisions regarding the behavior of the product critical quality characteristics. Base on requirements of the quality management system, a Measurement System Analysis should be conducted for all measurement system which are mentioned in the organization quality plan. Most problematic measurement system issues come from measuring discrete data, which are usually the result of human judgment (subjective decision) when categorizing products such as good/bad (visual inspection). It was the aim of this paper to address such an issue presenting a case study made in a local company from the Sibiu region, in order to evaluate how capable are the appraisers to visually inspect steel chains. The results were analyzed using MINITAB statistical software with its module called Attribute Agreement Analysis. The conclusion was that the inspection process must be improved by operator training, developing visual aids/boundary samples, establishing standards and set-up procedures.