Manufacturing Process Capability and Specification Limits

In modern electronics, specifications for products have constantly been tightened due to performance competition. The processes for product development and manufacturing have been developed to meet the tighter specifications and quality requirements. The development of test methods and measurement devices have not been as fast, and as a consequence, the relative impact of measurement errors has increased. Traditionally, the measurement inaccuracies have been compensated by tightening the acceptance limits. This study concentrates on analysing, through simulation, how companies should minimise the failure costs by adjusting acceptance limits. The study shows, in contrast to the conventional thinking, that widening the acceptance limits makes business sense in some cases.