Beacon Quality Blog

A few things in life are required—we simply have no choice but to do them—like paying taxes. Some quality managers would compare the often-mandatory requirement of completing layered process audits (LPAs) to calculating taxes—both are cumbersome and are easily forgotten once the requirement is met. But what if there was an effective solution to simplifying your LPA process and at the same time adding value to your organization? 

LPAs are a sub-type of process audits; and they differ from generic process audits by requiring multiple people, including management, to conduct an ongoing chain of simple verifications to ensure that a defined process is followed correctly. LPAs provide an active view into operational process conformance and corrective actions as required by many end manufacturers (such as automakers) to maintain supplier quality. When implemented correctly, LPAs can help shape your organization’s culture into one that embraces continuous improvement. This powerful audit management methodology can:

Read More >

Who doesn’t like a clean workspace?

Your job is to deliver the correct parts to the correct place at the correct time—efficiently and consistently.

Cleaning, organizing and standardizing your plant and office helps you accomplish this because a clean, organized and standardized workplace builds efficiency and consistency. Picture in your mind the difference between a clean and a messy work place and you know what we mean.

Implementing 5S will improve your workplace and your profits. 5S stands for:

Read More >

U.S. auto sales are on pace to exceed 17 million units this year and could break the record of 17.4 million sold in 2000, according to Autodata Corporation. Backing these figures is the Automotive News Data Center, which reports that sales for the first eight months of 2015 outperformed sales for the same period in 2014. For example, Daimler AG posted a 6.4% increase in sales compared to 2014, Ford Motor was up 2.7% for the first eight months, and General Motors showed a 3.2% increase from the previous year.

Many automakers are running their U.S. plants with three shifts of workers and scheduling overtime, particularly factories that make pickup trucks, SUVs, and crossovers. Of course, the automakers’ success in extending this upswing depends on the ability of their suppliers to keep up with industry growth. For tier one automotive suppliers the pressure to meet demand must be carefully balanced with the ability to maintain and even improve quality. This is where lean manufacturing principles come into play.

Read More >

Research studies show that manufacturers estimate their cost of quality at approximately 10 percent of revenues, while, in reality, that figure is double that at 20 percent. While statistics like this are eye catching, it’s important to understand what is meant by the term, cost of quality. Unfortunately, it’s a widely misunderstood concept. Many organizations view the cost of quality solely in reference to failure costs. Common examples of activities related to this line of thinking include:

• Rework
• Scrap
• Returned materials
• Warranty recalls

Read More >

In a routine audit one of your auditors discovers that during a recent production shift a seasoned employee used fastener B, despite a work instruction for the process that calls for the use of fastener C. A typical investigation of this type of nonconformance would likely note operator error as the cause.

While concluding that this was a case of operator error is an accurate description of what happened and how it happened, if you accept this conclusion you probably haven’t probed deeply enough to understand the root cause. According to the American Society for Quality (ASQ), a root cause is "a factor that caused a nonconformance and should be permanently eliminated through process improvement."

Read More >

Too often the root cause of a process failure boils down to poor communication. Employees on the shop floor look to management for guidance on how to improve their production quality, yet open communication channels are rarely available in a manufacturing environment. Top managers may have the tools they need to effectively communicate to their team, such as regular meetings with middle management but their messages sometimes don’t reach the front-line workers that matter in day-to-day production. 

Read More >

Automationmedia.com recently featured an article focused on Layered Process Audits written by Thomas Cutler. See the original article here or read below.

Read More >

Understanding and applying key components of an LPA program are critical to success, but to maximize the short- and long-term effectiveness of an LPA, Ease has found that manufacturers should also integrate the following four key practices.

Read More >

In today’s competitive environment, manufacturers are more focused than ever on delivering high-quality products while reducing costs. Unfortunately, too often efforts are driven by a skewed perception of how best to achieve this goal. This is because many manufacturers pay greater attention to the cost of poor quality (CoPQ), comprising internal and external failure costs, over the cost of good quality (CoGQ), comprising proactive prevention and appraisal costs. As a result, they make reactive investments that yield less return and later prove to be insufficient.

Read More >