A product failure analysis is an activity manufacturers hope they'll NEVER need to do. If something has gone wrong enough to warrant doing one, you're probably experiencing product quality or safety issues that are so severe that … [Read more...]
Want To Prevent Assembly Problems? Use This Checklist.
Pilots follow a checklist before they fly. Same thing for doctors & nurses. But, for some reason, I see very few Chinese factories follow a checklist that can help them avoid assembly problems before they make a new product (for the … [Read more...]
An Introduction to Root Cause Analysis (Not Just for Manufacturing)
One of the most frustrating aspects of working with Chinese suppliers is that, for the most part, they don't want to (or cannot) conduct a root cause analysis. Let's say you found a serious issue in one of your productions and you don't … [Read more...]
Fixing Problems at the Root: ‘Upstream Thinking’
I have been enjoying the book Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath. It is not really a business book, as it covers many examples outside of business, but it does a great job of arguing in favor addressing … [Read more...]