In my last post I gave you a snip-it of the 1970’s popular TV show “Kung Fu” starring a young David Carradine. Speaking of the 70’s, has anyone heard from my competition? From this blog going forward we’re going to refer to Fishman’s competition as “That 70’s Show” because most products they offer, the original design, was launched in the 1970’s! It’s a fact. Sitting on top for so long they’ve become fat, happy and complacent. Now “That 70’s Show” is facing a fall from grace to permanent reruns on the eventually flawed dispensing channel.
As we all know, one of the most important tasks in solving a manufacturing problem is to drill down to the root cause of the problem. If you don’t, you end up firefighting the problem’s root cause forever. Making the mistake of missing the root cause can cost a company’s millions of dollars and eventually their position in the marketplace will plummet once a competitor sees the weakness.
Take using air pressure to act as a drive system to dispense assembly fluid in a manufacturing process. A very popular concept in the 1970’s, it seemed like a good idea at the time but so didn’t afros, polyester suits and bell bottoms. Yikes! We’ve moved on from those 70’s gaffes, thank goodness, but for some reason manufacturers cling to air pressure. Let’s use a common tool Quality professionals around the world use to uncover the root cause of a manufacturing problem: “Ask Why Five Times”.
- Why is my air driven assembly fluid dispenser so erratic causing my product to fall apart?
- When the air leaves the compressor the pressure drops in the feed lines as they cross the facility causing uncontrollable erratic changes in air pressure
- Why is my air driven assembly fluid dispenser so erratic causing my product to fall apart?
- When multiple air driven production machines come online, the additional demand for air pressure from the facility feed lines, causes uncontrollable erratic changes in air pressure to all systems.
- Why is my air driven assembly fluid dispenser so erratic causing my product to fall apart?
- Air pressure is loaded with moisture and that moisture is shot into the syringe mixing with the assembly fluid affecting bond strength.
- Why is my air driven assembly fluid dispenser so erratic causing my product to fall apart?
- When the syringe is full it takes 2 seconds of injected air to move the piston the proper distance to dispense the proper fluid deposit. When the syringe is half full it takes 4 seconds, due to the increase air space in the syringe, to maintain the same fluid deposit and the air dispenser’s 1970’s design does not change air injection time. This gap continues to widen as the syringe empties
- Why is my air driven assembly fluid dispenser so erratic causing my product to fall apart?
- Every air dispenser provides different performance, even if late 20th century air compensation technology is added, because every air compressor and every feed line is different from production line to production line, plant to plant and country to country. Air simply cannot be controlled.
Clearly this time tested quality tool makes it clear; air pressure is the root cause of erratic assembly fluid dispensing. It must be replaced and eliminated!
Now lets examine “That 70’s Show’s” approach to the problem over the past 25 years using the same “Ask Why Five Times” root cause analysis tool. Condider this a historical performance review of their engineering department.
- Why is my air driven assembly fluid dispenser so erratic causing my product to fall apart?
- The rubber syringe piston sticks causing erratic dispensing so we should make a “precision” molded plastic piston eliminating the friction. Brilliant! That’ll solve the problem.
- Why is my air driven assembly fluid dispenser so erratic causing my product to fall apart?
- The problem still exists? Oh, ok the draft of the syringe barrel tapers causing the precision molded piston to stick so we’ll make that a “zero draft” syringe barrel and with the “precision” piston this will wrap the problem up with a nice tidy bow! Brilliant!!
- Why is my air driven assembly fluid dispenser so erratic causing my product to fall apart?
- Jesus, Mary and Joseph! The problem still exists. Ok, ok, ok here is what we do, we improve the dispense tip. We’ll remove pressure restrictions making a “precision tip”. The combination of the zero draft, precision piston and precision tip. This will kill the problem forever! Super Brilliant!!
- Why is my air driven assembly fluid dispenser so erratic causing my product to fall apart?
- What the!!! What do mean it hasn’t got better? Ok, the gloves are off. We’ll build a whole new set of syringe tools. We’ll use “mold flow software”, give the syringe a fancy name and declare it a “HIGH TECH SYRINGE!”. YES, SPARE NO EXPENSE! This has to be brilliant!
- Why is my air driven assembly fluid dispenser so erratic causing my product to fall apart?
- You’ve got to be kidding me!! Alright, all we’ve got left is to try putting air pressure compensation technology into the dispenser. Introduced to the market in the 1990’s at least it isn’t 1970’s technology! We’ll incorporate some fancy shmancy software to keep the customer’s eye off the fact we’re still using air. You know, distract like a magician! And give it a fancy name! Brilliant???
Clearly the root cause is air pressure and “That 70’s Show” has wasted millions of dollars fire fighting and wasting your precious time!
Lets verify the above results one more time using another time tested root cause analysis tool, the Ishikawa diagram! Click on this link to review the analysis. As you can see “That 70’s Show” is still firefighting the root cause after 25 years of trying. No more trying. Come to El Presidente! Come to Fishman®!
EL Presidente is calling for a revolt! All manufacturers unite! Lets dump those air pressure “fire fighting” dispensers into the harbor. Send a clear message to the dispensing royalty we are not going to take incompetence ANYMORE! AIRFREE! AIRFREE! WE WANT AIRFREE!! Fishman® FIXED THE ROOT CAUSE!!!
Well, El President is here to serve. Go to www.fishmancorp.com to view our full line of 21st century air free technology. Stop the madness! Upgrade now and never look back. There is nothing more important than the fluid binding your product together so make sure you use electro-mechanical air free equipment. Set one air free dispenser and every other dispenser worldwide performs exactly the same. Guaranteed! You’re focus should be on your product not solving underperforming air
pressure dispensers. Let El Presidente and Fishman® save you!
El Presidente Out~
For more information on the root cause analysis of fluid and adhesive dispensing systems, visit our RAC Dispensing Analysis web page.