Special Characteristics

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“Special Characteristics” is the term coined by the
automotive industry.

It refers to characteristics that can not be measured as the

process is running, thus, requiring continuous process
monitoring. An example is welding.

You can not “measure” a weld quality real time. Therefore,

you have to continuously monitor the electrode quality, the
current, the voltage, the speed , etc.

One of the keys to the definition is that you can only evaluate
the quality of the parameter “after” the product is built. Such
methods may include destructive testing or edit current of
the weld after the fact.

Paint lines, nitride dip and gas systems, plating systems and
circuit boards built by automation and solder wave dipping
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Since the product can not be tested as it is built and
continuous process monitoring is required, it is
obvious that the quality of these products could
suffer if the processes making them are not
monitored closely.

For this reason, the automotive industry requires you

to identify such process in your FMEA’s, control
plans, design drawings, and on-line quality check
sheets by a special symbol.

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Ford requires the upside down triangle or “inverted
delta”.

GM will allow different symbols as long as your

documentation show the symbol and has a legend
defining what it is.

The symbol also has to be defined in your company

procedures and documented in your training
records informing employees what the symbol
means.

Chrysler uses the pentastar.

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From a product failure perspective customers will no longer
accept unreliable gear boxes and valve gear or electrical
systems that fail in wet weather.

Product characteristics that require special attention to

make sure these adverse conditions do not occur are called
Special Characteristics.

Here is how we use the FMEA to define them.

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Special characteristic is one which affect manufacturing
process and its function.

Special Characteristics are defined at product & component level

with regards to safety, functional and legal importance. These
are generally product characteristics that are to be maintained
by manufacturing process, or in some cases even our customer
need to maintain to fulfil our product function.

SC characteristic ensures Safety eg. Flammability, user

protection, steering control, brake system, emission, noise, RF
interference

Significant Characteristics mean to affect the end user.

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Critical characteristic is one which affects
the government regulations with respect to product
function.

Critical characteristics are defined at manufacturing level

where manufacturability is tough, subsequent process
impact matters. These can be product as well as process
characteristics.

Critical characteristics means to affect the next process.

Critical characteristics insures form, fit and function of 

any product.

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Severity =9 or 10 must be a Special Characteristic and are
designated Critical Characteristic (CC). Also included in this level
are processing points that require the operator to take special
safety precautions.

For Automotive applications the following applies;

Critical Characteristic is a product feature, dimension or 
note that reasonably anticipated variation could directly 
affect compliance with Government regulations or safe 
operation of the equipment.

Any of those characteristics  that affect a failure mode with a

severity of 9 or 10 must be reviewed to determine if they should
become a critical characteristic.

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Significant Characteristics SC are important for customer
satisfaction.

These will often be processes that are poorly understood and

need special attention.

Significant Characteristic is a feature, dimension, or note 

that reasonably anticipated variation could affect 
principal fit, function, durability, customer satisfaction, 
or manufacturability.

Any of those characteristics that affect a failure mode with a

severity of 5 to 8 and an occurrence of 4 or higher must be
reviewed to determine if they should become a significant
characteristic 
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•The characteristics of the product are the features that differentiate it from other
products on the market.

•When companies create a product they have specific features in mind. It can be
characteristics that improve on an existing product or ones that fill a currently
unfilled need. Promoting these features can be a successful approach.

•Characteristics of a product also help to determine the price of a product. Premium

features may be able to fetch a premium price.

•It is the combination of demand for a product and its price that help to determine

the marketing mix.

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Process Characteristics

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What are key process output variables?

Key process output variables (sometimes referred to as Key

Characteristics) are traits or features of a part, piece of material,
assembly, subsystem, or system whose variation has a significant
influence on fit, performance, reliability, manufacturability, or
assembly. 

In short, they are characteristics that have a big impact on

efficiency and/or customer satisfaction.  Variation in key process
output variables leads to lower levels of quality and reliability and,
ultimately, higher costs.

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Examples of key process output variables are:

- Slip torque of an actuator

- Gap between car body and rear quarter glass panel
- Cabin wind noise
- Fill volume for a bottled beverage
- Pressure, speed, rate, temperature
- Dimension, thickness, diameter, length, width, hardness, torque
- Chemical concentration, time
- Capacitance, current, voltage, illumination (lux)
- Production part, drawing, tool and fixtures

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What are key process input variables?

Key process input variables are process inputs that have a

significant impact on the variation found in a key process
output variable.
That is, if the key process input variables were controlled (e.g.
held constant), the process would produce predictable
and consistent outputs.

For example, if the flatness of a clutch disk has a significant

impact on the slip torque of an actuator, then clutch disk
flatness would be a key process input variable

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What are key process input variables?

As another example, the chef likes to experiment with

baking the healthiest cookies possible by substituting fat
free yogurt for butter. 

Clearly, the absence of butter has a large impact on the

consistency and taste of the cookies. 

By finding an acceptable butter/yogurt mix and then holding

this key process input variable constant, the chef should
expect consistent cookie consistency

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How are key process input variables identified?

Since everywhere have limited resources, the challenge is

determining which variables are important enough to control. 

While considerable effort is spent on trial-and-error

approaches, these are extremely inefficient and almost never
result in optimal solutions

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Fortunately, a tool exists that is perfect for this problem.  

Design of Experiments (DOE) is a tool that allows

everyone to conduct structured experimentation to
efficiently model process behaviour and understand the
cause-and-effect relationships present. 

Many types of experiments are available and their

appropriate use depends on the experiment objectives,
the number of factors to be investigated, the types of
factors, etc.

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 Design-of-Experiment
Most products and processes must satisfy multiple customer
requirements (and so there are multiple key process output
variables). 

For example, a part may need to possess a specific strength

and flexibility. 

Often, optimizing one performance metric will degrade

another. 

DOE can be used to jointly optimize systems where multiple

objectives are present--that is, find the sweet spot

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 Design-of-Experiment
Rigorous use of DOE is invaluable in determining not only which
input variables must be controlled to produce consistent outputs
but to what extent those variables must be controlled. 

That is, the user may quantify the sensitivity of the output variable
to changes in the input variable. 

And this is exactly the information that is needed to deploy

effective control charts

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 IMPORTANT !
Process Characteristics related to Special Product
Characteristics must be documented on process
control plans, process flow diagrams or
manufacturing and/or assembly work instructions.

A Process Characteristic is a Process Parameter for which

variation must be reduced or maintained/controlled around
a target value to ensure that customer requirements are
met.

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Process Characteristics are further classified as Key Control
Characteristics or Standard Control Characteristics.

A Key Control Characteristic (KCC) is a process parameter (such as

temperature, speed, pressure, viscosity, etc.) that has a strong causal
relationship to a Key Product Characteristic.

Variation must be reduced around some target value to ensure that

variation in a Key Product Characteristic is reduced around its target
value.

Variation must be maintained/controlled around some target value to

ensure that variation in a PQC is maintained/controlled around its target
value.
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