Futaba Industrial Co., Ltd.

The Solution

To solve this challenge, Futaba Industrial decided in 2001 to start using 3D measurement devices with the PolyWorks|Inspector™ software from InnovMetric, a Canadian company, to increase the efficiency of their measurement operations. Futaba was familiar with the software since it was being used by some of its customers. Futaba has continued to use PolyWorks|Inspector ever since. 

Recently, Futaba Industrial expanded its use of PolyWorks|Inspector with 3D measurement devices. In the beginning, they used a measurement device only at the Takahashi factory. Now, they use PolyWorks|Inspector with non-contact 3D measurement devices from three different manufacturers and with a CNC CMM, in 10 factories, including subsidiaries, in Japan. 

As the use of 3D measurement devices spread, a new need emerged to effectively leverage the measurement data obtained through the combined measurement and inspection process, since it contains valuable know-how and verification results. Mr. Kohei Mizuno, who is in charge of measurement operations at the Takahashi plant, explains, "We originally adopted PolyWorks|Inspector to provide data to our customers, including scans and inspection results. Afterward, we began to consider that we could also use the data, mainly the scans, to improve in-house manufacturing, such as tuning dies. In order to implement that, we had to make it possible for any factory to use the data that is stored on the local computers connected to the measurement devices. We initially copied the necessary Inspector projects to a USB stick or a server and shared it. However, that was complicated because each time we had to request from other parties the location to copy the files to. And as the number and size of the files increased, it became increasingly difficult to manage." 

To resolve this issue, Futaba Industrial decided to install the PolyWorks|DataLoop™ solution that enables the management of PolyWorks|Inspector projects in a centralized database and has a function to extract data attributes. Futaba installed the PolyWorks|DataLoop digital connectivity solution in 2019 and benefitted from the integrated use of Inspector projects, which tended to be scattered due to the expansion of the use of 3D measurement devices. 

Implementation plans with PolyWorks

Futaba Industry currently uses PolyWorks|Inspector and PolyWorks|DataLoop in their domestic factories only. But it plans to expand the scope of its use to multiple overseas facilities in order to increase operational efficiency throughout the group. If the efficiency of measurement operations with PolyWorks|Inspector and the use of data management with PolyWorks|DataLoop progress globally, Futaba expects the effectiveness of their solution to double. 

The company is also considering installing  PolyWorks|PMI+Loop™ , which provides a model-based definition (MBD) solution for CAD platforms that extends their PMI toolset to define a complete measurement plan required for a part inspection. Having PolyWorks|PMI+Loop directly in the CAD software allows the design team to enrich the measurement plan with requirements typically added by the quality control team in the PolyWorks|Inspector software. 

"The engineers who are in charge of the design process create various drawings in the process of their work. If a drawing is revised, all related downstream documents must also reflect that revision. We expect that if all files required for part inspection, including CAD geometry and the measurement plan, are centralized, then we will be able to eliminate inefficient operations," Mr. Kouhei Mizuno explains.