I just read the book Measures of Success by Mark Graban, and I found it does a great job of covering the basics of how managers should work with data. His whole approach is largely based on concepts from Don Wheeler's books. If you are not familiar with Don Wheeler, he is the most respected manufacturing-focused statistician of the past 30 years. Graban covers what to do in two cases managers don't like to see. Case 1: an unstable process leading to a widely fluctuating … [Read more...]
Does ISO 9001 Actually Prevent Process Improvements?
As I wrote before, I believe that a good implementation of ISO 9001 does help a manufacturer quite a bit, while a bad one will only create issues. And the reason is simple. ISO 9001 allows an organization to set any system it wants, as long as they make sense and they respect a set of minimum requirements. The problem is, many factories think "we would get more customers if we had that certificate", so they go out and find templates and make it all look like it is alive in their company... … [Read more...]
How Quality Planning Drives QC and Process Improvement
What does quality management consist of? Juran wrote about this first in 1986, and he suggested 3 types of activities that make up the "Juran trilogy": Planning Quality control Improvement … [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...]
11 Steps To Set Up a Process Control Plan
About 2 years ago, I wrote about the 3 process improvement tools we use most often. And today I'd like to do a deep dive into one of them -- the process control plan. … [Read more...]
3 Basic Process Improvement Tools: Flow Chart, FMEA, Control Plan
Do you wonder why you still suffer from quality issues, even though the process is quite mature and seems to be well understood? Or are you preparing to launch the production of a new product... or production of an existing product in a new factory? And you want to plan ahead to avoid missteps that might be quite costly? There are 3 basic process improvement tools that you can use: The Process flow chart The Process FMEA (Failure Mode & Effects Analysis) The control plan … [Read more...]