Radical Process Improvement by Systematic Approach to Overcome Problems on Custom Glass Eyes Manufacturing

Abstract

This paper deals with resolving problems with special orders of glass eyes by innovating the process step where the problem occurs. The problem is that when only a few complex eyes are ordered, many prototypes must be made to find glass that fits together and a suitable technique to get the demanded coloring of the iris. The Innovation by Increasing Ideality method based on TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) principles was used to radically improve the process in a way to overcome this problem. A solution was proposed from ideas and proposals generated by the use of the method and TRIZ tools. A new technique of layering resin with paint on the basic crystal eye was found as a possible solution. The technique was tested on several samples and compared with already known and used production methods. The comparison showed that the proposed solution could be used on very complex eyes with better results and lower costs. Also, this proposed technique can be easily improved to get even better results in the future.