In-house or Outsourced Metrology?

Metrology providers can measure large parts or welded assemblies on site. Here a Mitutoyo spin arm performs noncontact scanning of a car body. Photo courtesy of Mitutoyo.

Rigors of precision manufacturing are doing their best to turn companies—from two-man shops to Fortune 500® OEMs—into measurement experts. Two routes can satisfy dimensional inspection needs: establish in-house services or outsource. For many companies, both come into play.

“Interestingly enough, probably 90 percent of companies metrology houses deal with have internal systems,” said Elliott Foster, owner of Canadian Measurement-Metrology Inc., Mississauga, Ont. “Companies call on an outside source for many services, from writing programs for their machines to running equipment to augmenting their own capabilities.”

Peter Detmers, vice president of sales, Mitutoyo Canada, Mississuaga, said, “I’ve seen customers who will outsource some of the hardest measurements that they just don’t have the capacity to do in-house.”

Foster and Detmers offered perspectives on outsourcing and in-house departments from companies that sell metrology equipment and also provide services.

The Case for Outsourcing

A multitude of scenarios can make outsourcing the logical—and economically wise—option:

1. Contract bidding. “Nobody wants to invest in new equipment and training in advance of earning business,” said Detmers. “Companies can outsource metrology without an upfront investment to prove they are capable of doing the job.”
2. Short or low production runs. It doesn’t make sense to invest in equipment and training when there is no guarantee that they will be fully utilized for future contracts. “I’ve seen situations where expensive, highly sophisticated equipment is utilized only 10 to 20 hours a week,” said Foster.
3. Bottlenecks. When business picks up, inspection departments can back up. “You have so much product that must pass through your quality department. It can be easier to outsource the excess than slow the production process,” said Foster.
4. Shortage of metrology-trained employees. Whether dealing with new equipment that requires training personnel or vacations and sick leave, a company can be caught short-handed. “Equipment can do a lot of things,” said Detmers, “but you need somebody who understands how the equipment works and can use that equipment to provide the answers you need.”
5. Capacity or alternate technologies. “Say you have received a component that doesn’t fit within the measuring volume on the equipment you have,” Foster said, “or you have an overly complex part that your equipment can’t cope with, or a part has features too small to be verified with in-house equipment. With an outside source, you have state-of-the-art metrology equipment and experts to use on an as-needed basis.”
6. Software requirements. “Sometimes a customer will specify the need for a certain quality report and the software is not available in-house. A metrology house can help with that,” said Detmers.
7. Manufacturing glitch. “There might be problems in manufacturing that a company’s metrology equipment or expertise can’t identify—parts that don’t fit, fixtures that don’t work; an outside source can solve those issues,” said Foster.

“The biggest reasons I see for outsourcing are when a company has been awarded a large contract with many parts, fixtures, and tooling that need to be inspected, and when a robotic line needs to be certified and the internal staff just does not have the technical, equipment, training, or time capability,” said Foster.

Bring Outsourcing In-house

Foster said that his company’s on-site business is growing steadily, and that seems to hold true throughout the industry.

Most of the new measurement devices compensate for temperature and humidity changes, so the shop floor environment isn’t a deterrent. “If a nearby machine tool is creating vibrations, we use either white light or laser, where the refresh rate is so quick that the vibrations don’t affect the performance of the device,” Foster said.

On-site outsourcing can assist with:

• Large parts or weldments. “On-site often involves large-part applications,” said Detmers. “The metrology house brings in articulating arm-type or optical systems to measure the big stuff.”
• On-machine inspection. Foster said, “A factory that has huge machine tools may not want to dechuck the machine to send the part to a lab for inspection. So inspection is done on the machine tool.”
• Additional, short-term capacity. “Outsourcing could mean putting a CMM and an operator in your facility to handle a specific contract,” said Foster.

When In-house Is Best

In-house metrology departments can be worth the investment to keep control of project timelines, sidestep the expense involved with transportation, and handle daily inspection needs.

• Rework. “There can be a lot of back and forth between if inspection results are not as expected and rework is required,” said Detmers. “That all takes time and adds expense.”
• Critical timing. “Most measurement services are emergency-related. Transporting parts can create a time lag,” said Foster.
• First-off inspection. “If you don’t have in-house resources to perform first-off inspection, you are on the timeline of the outside source,” said Detmers. “So the job may not continue on to the next cut or build part of the process until you get the OK.”

According to Detmers, “If you are considering establishing in-house metrology, analyze your needs to determine the size of equipment, degree of accuracy, and repeatability you are looking for. You have to have a little bit of foresight as to what you anticipate coming into the quality room. You have to anticipate what your customers are going to need next and what the next customer may need. I recommend people cover the majority of their day-to-day needs in-house.”

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