Brennock Precision cut scrap 22% by taking QC off paper

Measurements on paper

Brennock machines parts to within 5 microns, and every batch is measured at the machine. Until 2025, every measurement went on a paper form. Inspectors wrote down the reading, compared it with the drawing and initialed the sheet. Scrap ran at 3.2% of machined parts, and most of it was caught only at final inspection. Customer audits meant days in the archive pulling paper records for a single batch.

A quality engineer typed the forms into a spreadsheet on Fridays. By then, a cutting tool that had started to drift on Tuesday could have produced three days of scrap.

One prompt, one day

Rhys Pendleton, Quality Manager, described what he wanted on the Bench: a log for each batch with the nominal size, the allowed deviation and the measured value, a pass or fail tag for every part, and a control chart that shows drift before a part fails.

Gauge results already flowed into BigQuery from the coordinate measuring machines, so the first QC Log was reading live data before the shift ended. The first draft took 20 minutes. Rhys spent the rest of the day with two inspectors, adjusting the layout for gloved hands and adding the gauge ID to every reading. Inspectors use it on a tablet mounted at each cell. When three readings in a row move toward a limit, the app posts an alert to the cell’s Slack channel and asks the setter to check the tool.

Signed records for every batch

Aerospace customers ask for a full inspection record with every shipment. The QC Log produces it from the Logbook: who measured each part, when, on which gauge, and who approved the batch. A batch can be released only after a quality engineer approves it in the app, and that step can’t be skipped or delegated.

Inspectors can record measurements but can’t change them afterward. A correction needs a second person, and both values stay on the record. The Logbook also shows every change to the app itself, which matters to customers who audit how a supplier controls its quality system.

“The customer audit used to mean a week in the archive,” Rhys says. “Now I send a link.”

IT approved the rollout after a single review of the roles, and every cell had a tablet within the month.

What changed

• Scrap rate down 22% in the first year

• 40 minutes of paperwork saved per batch

• Inspection records sent with every shipment, generated from the Logbook

Brennock’s two builders have since added a gauge calibration tracker and a customer returns queue, and the maintenance team is building a spindle-hours log next.