Challenge
When Jason van de Laar first started at JTL Integrated Machine, they were printing part drawings and hand ballooning with a marker, then typing the characteristic data into Excel. JTL specializes in large complex parts for the power generation, mining, oil and gas, and metal industries. Their smallest parts are 6,000 lbs., and part drawings can be 29 pages long with 1,000 balloons. Characteristics have multiple instances, so Jason’s first articles frequently have 5,000+ lines of characteristic data.
After a few projects and weeks of manual ballooning and typing characteristic data, Jason could see that work was piling up, and there had to be a better way. “It’s not just that ballooning the part drawings by hand and creating a report takes a long time, but customers update their parts, so there’s a lot of time spent manually updating too,” says Jason.
How InspectionXpert Helped
Jason started looking for a tool that could make ballooning and creating reports faster. “We got the free trial, and I saw right away that it was going to help us save time, so we bought it,” says Jason.
Jason now balloons the part drawing in InspectionXpert, using pre-saved settings so that tolerances are automatically applied according to each customer’s requirements. Jason then exports the ballooned feature data to InspectionXpert’s default AS9102 Excel report, and inspectors take a laptop with them as they are inspecting, typing results into the report.
Results
“InspectionXpert has helped us save time and reduce the errors that come with manual data entry,” says Jason. Finding efficiency in ballooning and report creation has enabled Jason to spend more time in other areas: preventative actions, audits, communicating with customers, and more. “Inspection reports don’t add value to our product. With InspectionXpert I have more time for the activities that add value for our customers,” says Jason.
About JTL Integrated Machine Ltd.:
Established in 1964, JTL Integrated Machine LTD, offers full-service manufacturing capabilities including conventional and CNC machining, metal fabrication, welding, assembly, painting and sandblasting. JTL serves multi-national, Fortune 500 companies from the power generation (renewables and thermal), oil and gas, air compression, mining, and metal industries. JTL continues to expand and evolve its facility, equipment, and personnel to meet the changing needs of the various industries that we serve.
Resources:
Free AS9102 Template
Free Access to InspectionXpert
