Extrusion International 6-2017

24 Extrusion International 6/2017 Perfection in quality management as basis for highest reliability ISO 9001 is an international renowned standard in quality management. “The monitoring of theachievedproduct quality is theprerequisite tomeet our customers’ requirements regarding a product or service”, says Arne Heel, Quality Manager at SIKORA AG. In conjunction with the management and employees, he analyzes and records business processes within the company, identifies responsibilities and potential weaknesses. For the visualization of the availability as a key figure of the product quality, SIKORA creates event diagrams to present the device performance and to draw conclusions on the process quality. MESUAREMENT Visualization of availability by event diagrams Since 1993, SIKORA has been certified according to ISO 9001 and thereby, proves that the quality of the measur- ing, control, inspection, sorting and analysis technology is ensured by an efficient quality management system (QMS) and is continuously improving. SIKORA’s QMS com- prises defined performance indicators in order to monitor and control processes. The availability, for instance, is a figure of a technical system. It is the time value in which the machines and technical measuring devices can be in use without downtime or maintenance. Generally, the intention is to ensure high availability values of a system. For calculation of the availability, two factors are being considered: Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) and Mean Time To Repair (MTTR). The first factor, Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), describes the mean time in which a device can be in use without the need of a repair or downtime for maintenance. With the help of MTBF, the quality progress can be evaluated and it can be moni- tored how long devices operate without failure. MTBF is calculated by using the information from SIKORA CRM (Customer Relationship Management): This is where all devices are registered and their events are recorded.