Approach for improved production process planning by the application of quality gates and DRBFM

Optical components with complex surfaces, like aspherical or freeformed surfaces, can be considered as typical examples for complex products. In the Transregional Research Project SFB/TR4 the manufacturing of such optical components is analysed. One main aspect in the project is the question of how to improve the production process planning in order to ensure that the technical and financial objectives of the process chain are achieved. For that reason an approach has been developed that is based on the concept of Quality Gates and the method of Design Review bases on Failure Mode (DRBFM). The approach aims at comparing the capabilities of the single process steps and the manufacturing demands resulting from the design phase using the concept of Quality Gates. Therefore, the overall requirements on the whole process chain must be assigned to the single process steps in a systematic way. Further one, with the help of a modified DRBFM worksheet potential problems during production can be discovered and eliminated early in the design phase.