Many of us tend to group companies that manufacture items in metal together under the banner of general 'engineering'. When you think about it however many components in aircraft engines, scientific or medical machinery for example are likely to be very small, specific, and vitally important in terms of what is at stake in terms of human health and suffering if they are not accurate or strong enough, or not of the right quality.
Engineering companies who manufacture these types of components are also likely to need to manufacture large numbers of these components with no room for error in any of them, and no variation in the specifications or the high-quality level that will be expected by the customer and needed by the user. This highlights the importance of some very important factors that help to define precision engineering:
Accuracy.
Although this is important in Precision Engineering this is something that's important to all engineering. CNC Milling and Turning Milling machines however have helped to maintain a good level of accuracy.
Precision.
It sounds obvious but it isn't the same as accuracy. Whereas accuracy is how closely you can get a measurement to a value, precision is all about having a system that can repeat or reproduce measurements in unchanged conditions so that you're able to get the same result.
Quality.
A Precision Engineering company needs to make sure that the quality is always high and that things are done right the first time every time. The use of modern milling machines can of course help but the quality is something that can't just be the responsibility of the machines. Quality needs to be built into every aspect of a company and working to achieve ISO Certification is one way that a Precision Engineering company can make sure that this happens.
Another way to help maintain and improve quality levels is to use a good software-based material requirements planning system to help manage and control quality in all areas of the company and production processes. Investing in machinery and in the people in the company can both help towards this aim.