USER STORY - FARO Asia

USER STORY
PROTON Holdings Berhad
PROTON Chooses FARO ® for Inspection Needs -
Investment Recouped in Half the Time Expected
A common advice that many would dish out
in the business world is “Dream Big, Start
Small”. Indeed, it is a useful maxim that is
tried, tested and true. One such company
that followed this path to success is PROTON
Holdings Berhad (Malaysia), part of the
PROTON Group.
Back in 1979, the former Deputy Prime
Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir
Mohamad, proposed the idea of an automotive
manufacturing industry for the country.
Known as the ‘National Car Project’, it led
to the birth of PROTON in May 1983. In
just nearly 3 decades, PROTON has already
become a global automotive player that is a
force to be reckoned with. Today, PROTON
Group has closed to 12,000 staffs worldwide
engaged in manufacturing, sales, service and
other operations. Geographic coverage spans
across domestic and international markets.
This includes Australia, China, Indonesia,
Singapore, Thailand and the United Kingdom.
Certainly, PROTON’s success has to do with
the emphasis placed on pursuing its core
values. It should not come as a surprise
that ‘quality’ is listed as the first building
block of the company’s ability to achieve
business excellence. While PROTON believes
in going beyond the traditional approach of
quality control, the company still ensures
that its foundations are firmly established.
Zulhasni Bin Abdul Rahim, Senior Executive
(Group Quality - Head of Project for Quality
Digitization and Quality Metrology Innovation
Program) of PROTON in the Shah Alam plant
shared, “Our quality control procedures calls
for precise metrology in applications such as
alignment, calibration, installation and most
importantly, the inspection process. We are
glad that with portable solutions from FARO,
we have been able to perform our quality
checks with much more ease and efficiency.”
■ Variety in an Assembly
The automotive manufacturing process
typically takes the form of an assembly
line, whereby auto parts of a large variety
— different in size, shape and nature — are
fixed together to create the end product,
a commercial car. In ensuring product
quality, PROTON performs routine checks by
measuring the assortment of parts used. This
includes car parts, stamping parts, plastic
parts, as well as jigs that hold pieces in place
while they are being worked on. These parts
range from a mere 200mm to a full-sized car
body approximately 3m x 1.5m x 2m, with
corresponding weights as light as few grams
and as heavy as a few hundred kilograms.
The 9-ft FaroArm ®
offers portability and versatility
to PROTON’s QC team, making the inspection
process much simpler.
It is not difficult to imagine how tedious and
complicated the inspection process could get
on the shop floor of an assembly line. In an
interview with a Group Quality staff, the team
revealed, “In the past, our inspectors used to
rely on a host of conventional measuring tools.
This ranged from steel rulers and measuring
tapes to taper gauges, micrometers, vernier
calipers, and also a fixed coordinate measuring
machine (CMM).”
While these tools fulfilled PROTON’s
measurement needs early on, customers’
growing expectations required the company
to search for more advanced technology to
meet new and higher requirements, especially
on results consistency, accuracy, and time.
As demands for precision increased, PROTON

USER STORY
was gradually faced with issues concerning
measurement consistencies. The company
wanted to reduce the amount of time spent on
inspection, as well as eliminate factors such as
human and equipment error that was inherent
with the usage of traditional hand tools.
PROTON achieved higher accuracy levels and
repeatability in its inspection checks using the FaroArm.
Fueled by a personal commitment to improve
on quality, Zulhasni and his team went in
search for a viable solution at the Malaysia
MetalTech tradeshow. The exhibition allowed
PROTON the opportunity to see, touch and
witness the technical prowess of all available
measurement equipment in the market.
The PROTON team first considered a handful
of brands, and then with PROTON’s stringent
procurement process, they narrowed the
options down to 2 brands, of which FARO was
one of them. “In a final accuracy test using a
step gauge master tool, we found that FARO
gave us better repeatability and accuracy,”
mentioned the PROTON team. “Comparatively,
FARO offered lower variation than the
competing brand, yet the systems were rather
closely priced. We concluded it was a better
investment to purchase the FaroArm, and
decisively made our investment.”
■ Enhanced Efficiency and Capability
In late 2008, PROTON purchased a set of
FARO Laser ScanArm V3 and a set of FaroArm
Platinum, for the QC Body and Jig Shop
departments respectively. These are portable
CMMs that enable operators the liberty to
perform high-accuracy measurements right
on the assembly line. The FaroArm Platinum
performs contact measurement by means of
probing, while the FARO Laser ScanArm ® has
the additional ability to obtain scans of objects
without making contact.
With FARO solutions, PROTON achieved higher
accuracy levels and repeatability during its
inspection checks. PROTON managed to
achieve tighter tolerances, with an accuracy
of 0.02mm to 1mm, for the entire range
of measurement volume. The device offers
portability and versatility, on top of its efficient
and accurate scanning capabilities.
PROTON also enjoyed significant time- and
manpower-savings with the implementation
of the FaroArm, which greatly boosted the
company’s efficiency. “1 portable CMM now
replaces the multitude of conventional hand
tools we used in the past,” continued the
Project Head. “Coupled with the arm’s user
friendliness, we have saved plenty of time.
On average, it used to take us up to 4 days to
properly inspect 1 car unit — from measuring,
to inspecting and producing reports. Now,
we only need 2 days to complete the entire
task!”
In addition, PROTON also managed to
have substantial manpower-savings on its
inspection checks. The company was able to
deploy the FaroArm anywhere on the shop
floor, whenever required. This eliminated the
need to move objects to a fixed machine,
which saved PROTON time and labor. In fact,
PROTON managed to free some staff members
for other tasks, requiring only 1 inspector
for quality checks, instead of 3 or 4 in the past.
■ Exceeding Expectations on Return On
Investment
Due to an extremely high frequency of use in
the first 2 years, PROTON managed to achieve
full returns on investment (ROI) in just half the
time that was originally expected. “Based on
our conservative calculations, we targeted to
reach ROI at the end of 3 years,” indicated the
Project Head. “However, requests to utilize the
FaroArm were coming from other departments
in PROTON, as well as from external parties
such as research units of the local universities.
So with the FaroArm in operation for 75% of
the time, we promptly realized a positive ROI
within the first 18 months.”

USER STORY
At present, PROTON owns a total of 3 portable
measurement arms from FARO — one of which
is of the latest generation, FARO Edge. When
asked if he would recommend FARO to other
similar businesses, the Project Head declared,
“Yes, having seen the technical capabilities
of the product, we are fully confident that it
truly delivers what it promises. The numbers
do not lie, and it is a sound investment. Our
partnership with FARO has enabled PROTON to
improve our quality checks tremendously, both
in accuracy and efficiency. We look forward
to more advanced technology from FARO in
future to further enhance our capabilities.”
■ About PROTON Holdings Berhad
PROTON is Malaysia's leading automotive
manufacturer with 27 years of innovation and
exports to over 27 countries. Today, it has
over a dozen models in its stable with more
than 3 million units sold.
Incorporated in 1983, PROTON has a
significant international presence in 27
countries across South-East Asia to the Middle-
East, China, South Africa, Australia and the
United Kingdom.
With FARO, 3D measurement and
documentation needs can be fulfilled
confidently. As a pioneer and market leader
in portable computer-aided measurement,
FARO consistently applies the latest advances
in technology to make its industry-leading
product offerings more accurate, reliable,
and easy to use. The focus is on simplifying
workflow with tools that empower customers,
thereby dramatically reducing the on-site
measuring time and lowering overall costs.
Worldwide, approximately 13,000 customers
are operating more than 26,000 installations
of FARO’s systems. The company’s global
headquarters are located in Lake Mary,
Florida, with its European head office in
Stuttgart, Germany and its Asia-Pacific head
office in Singapore. FARO has branch locations
in Japan, China, India, South Korea, Thailand,
Malaysia, Vietnam, Canada, Mexico, United
Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, and
The Netherlands.
For more information, please visit
www.faroasia.com
For more information, please visit
www.proton.com
■ About FARO
FARO is a global technology company
that develops and markets computeraided
coordinate measurement devices and
software. Portable equipment from FARO
permits high-precision 3D measurement and
comparison of parts and compound structures
within production and quality assurance
processes. The devices are used for inspecting
components and assemblies, production
planning, inventory documentation, as well as
for investigation and reconstruction of accident
sites or crime scenes. They are also employed
to generate digital scans of historic sites.
To find out more, visit www.faroasia.com
FARO, THE MEASURE OF SUCCESS, FaroArm, CAM2, XtremeADM and FARO Laser ScanArm are registered trademarks
and trademarks of FARO Technologies Inc.
©2012 FARO Technologies Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This customer's results depend upon its unique business and environment, the way it used FARO products and
services and other factors. These results that you read from the article may not be typical; your results may vary.
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