BAICO
(Bendix-Atlantic Inflator Co.)
| COMPANY/LOCATION: |
BAICO (Bendix-Atlantic Inflator Co.), a joint venture of Allied Signal
and Atlantic Research Company, Knoxville, Tennessee |
| PRODUCT: |
Hybrid inflator systems for automotive airbags |
| YEARS IN BUSINESS: |
7 |
| EMPLOYEES: |
283 |
| SITUATION: |
In 1995, BAICO was having a high internal-defect rate in the welding
process that is key to the manufacturing of airbag inflators. After numerous
experiments with process variables, the company hypothesized that the problem
was a contaminant on the outside of the pressure vessel. BAICO needed to
test the containment theory but lacked the proper equipment for cleaning
the parts involved. BAICO tried to find a source to contract clean the
parts but had a difficult time locating the necessary expertise. Since
ORCMT had helped them with a welding problem a couple of years earlier,
BAICO contacted ORCMT through the toll-free number for the Manufacturing
Technology Information Service. |
| PROJECT: |
ORCMT agreed to look at the parts. BAICO sent the parts to ORCMT, where
they were thoroughly cleaned using ORCMT's expertise and specialized equipment.
The steel pressure vessels were then returned to BAICO for an experiment
to determine if the cleaned parts worked. |
| RESULTS: |
Walt Tarpley, black belt engineer at BAICO, said the experiment clearly
showed that cleaning the parts was the "magic variable" for fixing the
problem. "Having ORCMT use their unique capabilities to clean the parts
allowed us to run a full-blown experiment that validated our hypothesis,"
said Tarpley. "At the beginning of this year, we began receiving parts
cleaned by a contract cleaning company. Since then, we have had a huge
reduction in the quality assurance cost of internal failures. Our defect
rate has decreased from 103,000 parts per million (ppm) to fewer than 7,000
ppm. The quality improvement alone has resulted in a bottom line improvement
of more than $800,000 per year."
"BAICO has also broken a manufacturing capacity constraint, increasing
productivity 37 percent, much of which is a result of this project,"
Tarpley continued. "This means that we can delight our customers with cost
containment and BAICO can provide security and growth opportunity for the
people who work here." |
Technical assistances provided to the private sector by the Oak Ridge
Centers for Manufacturing Technology (ORCMT) and its manufacturing extension
partners throughout the United States.
|
