Approaching the Devil in the Details; A Survey for Improving Tolerance Engineering Practice

This paper treats tolerance engineering from an organizational perspective. It examines the efforts an industrial company undertakes to understand their current Tolerance Engineering (TE) practice and its improvement potential. Organizational aspects of TE represent a scarcely researched area beyond the traditional focus on tolerancing tools and methods. A survey was conducted among industry professionals from design, Quality Assurance (QA), process and manufacturing within one company. The survey applied the principles of “Closed Loop Tolerance Engineering” (CLTE) yielding 102 answers on their practice on tolerancing, robustness and variation and other aspects of the TE. This empirical data describes similarities and differences in the engineering practice between Divisions and across seniority, education and functional discipline. The results from the survey provided a basis for collaborative discussions in the company and in this paper. Further research is proposed.