Process Control at Polaroid
Introduction
Polaroid corporation has two major products in their instant film department: peel-apart and integral. In peel-apart technology, the user has to physically peel apart the two sides of the film envelope. The integral technology was much simpler with the camera automatically ejects the frame and development process starts instantaneously. R2 building is used to manufacture integral films. This particular building was showing signs of trouble, hence the company started to initialize a project called “Greenlight” to reduce cost and improve quality.
Process and the problems
Before the start of the project “Greenlight” QC auditors randomly sampled 15 cartridges pout of 5000 cartridges and if the sampled cartridges contained defects in excess of allowable limits, the lot was sent for further testing. But by 1984, QC auditors were rejecting just 1% of the production.
But prior to QC auditors, operators at each stage chose 32 random cartridges and take measurements of characteristics like placement of the positive on the mask, amount of reagent in the pods, tension of springs etc. Here also the rejection rate was about 1%. But the major problem was operators did not record their data. Also if the operators were unsure about the quality of the products, they would send them on to the next stage believing the QC people will take care of it.
Prior 1981, no one was responsible for the overall…