Manufacturing Solutions for Consistent Quality & Reliability: The Nine-Step Problem-Solving Process

This key variable isolation approach looks at each quality and reliability problem from the standpoint of patterns of variation, and each successive test brings the investigator closer to a solution. It's a dynamic process that will locate even obscure causes of variability, as well as variability created by unforeseen interaction of materials or manufacturing methods. And because The Traver Nine-Step Problem-Solving Process can isolate multivariable causes - unlike most engineering methods, which point only to single causes - even the most randomly occurring problems affecting consistent production standards can be found and fixed.
Twenty-one fast-moving, fascinating case histories covering a wide range of manufactured products provide the bulk of the information in the book, and show how the generic Traver Nine-Step Problem-Solving Process can be applied successfully in a variety of situations. These are difficult, sometimes maddening product quality and reliability problems that take the most thorough analysis to solve. The approach the author outlines is akin to detective work: Participants gather clues and zero in on "what dunnit." The result is a very effective learning vehicle, showing readers how real problems are solved, with all the blind alleys, loose ends, and contradictory information found in life, rather than in books!

Robert W. Traver is vice-president of Reddy, Traver, and Woods, Inc.