Lynred case study

LYNRED and its American subsidiary LYNRED USA are world leaders in the development and production of high quality infrared technologies for the aerospace, military, industrial and consumer markets. Their vast catalogue of infrared detectors covers the entire electromagnetic spectrum from near to far infrared. Their products are at the heart of many military programs and applications. These IR detectors are key components of major commercial brands of thermal imaging equipment sold in Europe, Asia and North America. The company is the European leader in IR detectors deployed in space..

« This is why LYNRED (born from the merger between its two historical entities ULIS and Sofradir) chose to deploy the SPC methodology with the Qual@xy SPC tool. We chose this tool for 3 main reasons:

• • its flexibility of use,
  • the trust established with INFODREAM,
  • the geographical proximity between our two companies.

When the project started on the Sofradir side, the members of the project team made the choice of full integration within the information system, based on the experience gained by ULIS. This integration allowed the automatic transfer of data from the data generation systems (process equipment, measuring equipment or MES) to Qual@xy SPC, and vice versa the transfer of alerts to the MES (in case of out-of-control or drift), thus making it possible to block the incriminated process equipment, thus applying the Jidoka principle of Lean Manufacturing, i.e. shutting down as soon as a malfunction occurred.

In addition, Qual@xy SPC also allows us to monitor our production and metrology equipment through regular monitoring on standardised specimens adapted to our needs. This monitoring also guarantees our customers a production according to pre-established and rationalized quality rules. »

 

« The support/engineering teams were able to formalize their interventions and transfer part of them to production. They were also able to improve their control of manufacturing processes. Finally, this has enabled them to identify the strengths and weaknesses of production and to assign them priority treatment. The process development teams found ways to use the pre-series and ramp-up phases to perfect the monitoring plan for new processes and new products.

Today, all of the company’s production sectors are involved in the use and further deployment of the tool, regardless of its level of progress – Nobody would have imagined this 10 years ago. Continuous improvement is a never-ending road, and today we are seeking to deepen the interface between equipment, MES, SPC and data processing, in partnership with INFODREAM, with the aim of always reducing the variability of processes by improving their control ».