The Situation
The program engineer for a well-known bicycle component manufacturer was contemplating a product recall. A critical seal was exhibiting a high instance of failure Our customer performed a quality control audit and determined the seal was measuring out of spec, triggering an immediate production halt.
The Ask
The customer told us they needed:
- QC audit of the seal manufacturing plant and associated control processes.
- Gland design review. Seal design review.
The Solution
Our investigation concluded that the suspect seals had been deformed and damaged by incorrect installation rather than manufactured incorrectly. Batch traceability had bee lost, providing an opportunity to refresh the customer on best practices.
The Success
- Assembly process improvements eliminated the occurrence of seal failure
- Adoption of our traceability processes allowed our customer to establish containment parameters eliminating the need for a general product recall.
