Manufacturers Can Get Quality Through Process And Sourcing

America's rediscovery of its own manufacturing prophet, Edward Deming, was a long time coming. The Japanese car manufacturers, of course, get the credit for waking up the Detroit automobile men first. Now, more and more U.S. manufacturing executives are subscribing to the simple truth enshrined in the Deming philosophy of quality: do it right the first time.

Meanwhile, with all due respect to Deming, some of us manufacturing here in the U.S. have been producing quality products through process for years – without all the press hoopla.

At Deves, we sell piston rings in the automotive aftermarket. Since our rings are used consistently on the best engineered cars in the world, Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, etc., quality through process has always been our operating mode. There's never been a question of not doing it correctly the first time.

To be specific, we manufacture our special four part oil ring, and a spacer, here in California. We use only world-famous Swedish steel in all the components of this ring, so we start with dependable raw material.

The two rails that prevent oil from coming through into the cylinder are absolutely key. When we manufacture these rails, we check every single one of them against a "light microscope," in a die that is the exact size of the cylinder bore. We put the rail in there and check it, and if any light comes through, it's not perfectly round. It's then worked on until it is absolutely perfectly round. We feel that if no light can get through, no oil can get through either. That's probably why we have the best oil ring out there.

Before we get to the rounding stage, we check the rails on a special machine to determine that they are within over-all minimum and maximum tolerance, that is, we're checking their overall size. When they're gapped, they're done specifically on a die for cutting the gaps, and there's only one die per size. Since every rail is made to individual specifications, there's no variation whatsoever. Because we check at each step, we have very little waste.

The expander component of the oil ring is a blend of special steels, a little softer than that of the rails because it needs more spring. The spacers used between the two rails are also Swedish steel, and both the expander and spacers are each a specific size, with specifications for each size.

The two compression rings that complete our sets are manufactured for us to our specifications. Before we try a source, we check the composition of the metals they use, as well as the specifications. We make sure our vendors deliver what they say they will. If they don't, we can't use them as vendors.

Broken down into steps, then, any manufacturing — or service for that matter — regardless of how giant the scale, can achieve consistent quality. Start with proven materials, work with as many specifications as necessary, and then check adherence to standards at each stage of production.