Do you want to make changes in your, or your supplier's, factory? The question is, where to start? There are countless process improvement tools. Some lean purists say, draw a value stream map and strategize about what needs to be done first. Others will say, pick a really bad area and do a kaizen event, to show everyone that quick improvement is possible. And so on. If I had to choose one tool, it would be the process flow chart. It is usually the first tool we use when we have to make … [Read more...]

I have covered at length how to use statistics to accept/refuse a batch of product based on a random sample. Those statistics are usually the only ones the typical production manager has ever come in contact with! I have visited hundreds of Chinese factories. And, outside of the auto industry, I don't remember ever seeing any trace of statistical process control. Can statistical tools be used to improve production processes? Yes. Are they always useful? No. The difficulty is to know where … [Read more...]

In many companies, and in particular in many Chinese companies, the response to problems is often "let's invest in technology". Unfortunately, spending a lot of resourcing on engineering is seldom the best solution. I just read a great story that illustrates this. A toothpaste manufacturer had a regular quality issue that was generating bad publicity: some boxes didn't contain a tube of toothpaste. It was due to the way the production lines were setup. They spent 8 million dollars on a … [Read more...]

About 2 months ago, I posted a video about the steps to make a customized product in China. I noted that most of the steps outlined in that video don't apply when the importer is buying simple products that don't require serious customization. For what is generally called "standard" or "off the shelf" products, there are 3 steps and they are relatively simple: (It is on Youtube… Blocked behind the great firewall.) If I had to sum it up, it would be "get the basics right, and that … [Read more...]

A few days ago I introduced a basic statistical tool (the capability index) that is simple and can be represented visually, so that any Chinese factory can understand it and try to improve it. Today I want to introduce the p chart. It is quite simple, yet is seldom mentioned when control charts are mentioned. The most common type of control chart is not very appropriate The “classic” control chart tracks the average value and the amount of variation of a particular value of interest. They … [Read more...]

Whenever some product attributes can be measured, statistical tools can help understand the situation, prioritize improvement efforts, and even help those improvement efforts. For example, if you measure your product's size, thickness, or chemical concentration, statistics can help. You can set specification limits and measure products regularly.  Chinese manufacturers are not used to this. Truth be told, I have never seen a Chinese manufacturer, outside of car makers and their tier 1 … [Read more...]

A few months ago I asked Alexandre Godvin a few questions about the KPIs of purchasing departments. He listed 4 common types of KPIs: Margin % Time to market, or average delay Supplier quality Social/environmental compliance If you are just starting to set KPIs, these are good suggestions. If you want to go more in depth, I suggest you read this month's edition of Quality Progress. They just published an article entitled "Buying Into Quality - using quality tools to study and … [Read more...]

One thing that always amazes me is the lack of understanding of the average Chinese worker of his/her context. Let me give a few examples and it will become clear. In the West, the airline counter lady can pull a lot of information and take decisions. In China it seems she doesn’t know anything and she cannot decide anything. Most ERP systems developed in China show people only what is directly linked to their work. They give no information about related data -- just the exact data that … [Read more...]

A few weeks ago, I wrote How To Ensure Quality In Chinese Factories By Writing Work Instructions. (By the way, we have recently published a number of resources on the CMC website. If you are interested in good factory management, you should probably go have a look at them.) In that article, I listed 7 reasons why the work instructions (WIs) I see in Chinese factories are usually worthless. They are often way above the head of the operator, who would have a hard time referring to them … [Read more...]

I hear buyers talk about their "good suppliers" and their "bad suppliers", yet they are often unable to pinpoint what makes them "good" or "bad". Maybe one factory has better "systems". But few buyers actually take the time to look into those "systems". Maybe they have more progressive management. They tried approaches that are unusual in their industry. Maybe they simply have more recent equipment, which is easier to control and maintain. That's a lot of "maybes". At CMC we have … [Read more...]