The results are in from the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress.

A lean tool won’t make you a lean thinker any more than a paintbrush or a sax will make you Rembrandt or John Coltrane.  

As with most endeavors where success can’t be measured by keeping score, a good job of engineering is often defined by not doing a bad job. In other words, the most direct measurement of successful joint design and assembly is a lack of joint problems. Here’s a brief look at the most common reasons why problems occur during joint design, joint assembly and troubleshooting.

The quality checks start before a single fastener is even produced.

Various sensors ensure that parts are present and correctly oriented. A leak tester checks the final assembly.

Engineers have had to figure out a way to adequately maintain the station given that the number of supply missions has been considerably reduced following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003.    

Recently, MPC upgraded its oil-cap assembly machine by substituting a machine-vision inspection system to take the place of the traditional tool and sensor technology it had been using previously.

On these and several other products, Buck Knives uses no other means of attaching the two pieces together: There is no adhesive, only the two or three rivets inserted and rolled by the Milford riveter.  

Among other improvements, Eaton wanted to incorporate a real-time test data system that could be fully integrated with its plant-control network to facilitate government tracking and record keeping.