If you purchase large amounts of products from supplier companies, you can have an influence on those companies. If you can get them to improve their performance using a supplier development process, for example, improve their quality or cut their costs, you will benefit greatly. The process of getting suppliers to improve is usually called supplier development. And most large companies have set up their own supplier development process, at least for their key relationships. The question is, … [Read more...]
Your Cost of Poor Quality Is Higher Than You Think
When one studies the literature around the Cost of Quality, the traditional breakdown of the costs is presented as follows: Source: ASQ TR2:2018. ISO 10014 and ASQ TR 2, two standards that provide guidelines (in other words, advice, rather than a set of requirements like ISO 9001), follow this logic. The problem is, it leaves a lot of extra costs unaccounted for. What makes up the cost of poor quality, in the traditional view? If something cannot be … [Read more...]
Two Preventive Maintenance Examples: Go for More Structure
As I wrote before, preventive maintenance helps cut costs and improves quality. That's an extremely important element of good manufacturing and it doesn't get much coverage. Simply put, it extends the lifetime of the equipment, it prevents downtime that prevents production from taking place, and it ensures the equipment is ready to make good products. … [Read more...]