Beacon Quality Blog

To achieve continuous process improvement, your organization needs a proven method for uncovering the root cause of nonconformances. A root cause analysis (RCA) can incorporate a wide range of quality methods that ultimately help identify what, how, and why an event occurred so that you can take the necessary steps to ensure that it does not repeat. The RCA process includes four basic steps:

• Collecting relevant information about the nonconformance
• Charting the causal factors
• Pinpointing root causes
• Developing and recommending solutions or corrective actions to address the root cause

If your organization has embraced lean manufacturing principles, then you are likely ahead of the curve in producing what is needed, when it is needed. You have learned that lean techniques, when successfully implemented, can help your organization reduce waste and improve process efficiency.

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It all boils down to ensuring quality. Conducting audits helps do this.  

Popular and effective approaches to achieving quality are: conducting process audits and conducting layered process audits (LPAs). We will examine both, pointing out the differences between these two methods and revealing why layered process audits can be more effective and thorough.

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For some organizations one of the first steps in their lean journey is the use of a quality management method known as 5S. This basic, introductory technique helps an organization become familiar and comfortable with the building blocks of continuous improvement by engaging workers in activities that better the workplace and the organization as a whole.  

With its origins in Japan, this method focuses on establishing a quality environment within an organization and ensuring follow through on work standards. The method, which helps foster a culture of continuous improvement, includes the following five elements:

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Does your organization use process failure modes and effects analysis (PFMEA) on a routine basis to identify potential failures in product design, manufacturing or assembly processes? If so, this practice could do double duty by also serving as an effective technique for identifying at-risk processes on which to focus your layered process audits (LPAs).

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Founded more than 100 years ago, Aston Martin has built a global brand known for producing exceptionally designed, high-quality cars through handcrafted production methods.

After more than a century of excellence, few can understand better that delivering market defining quality and craftsmanship requires superior tools, techniques, and technology. As Aston Martin looked to increase production levels and launch new models, they quickly realized many of their traditional manufacturing processes would limit growth and competitiveness. Aston Martin needed an innovative solution that would create new manufacturing efficiencies without compromising their ability to deliver a truly bespoke product to their customers, built to the highest quality standards.   

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To be the best at something requires patience, determination, focus, and constant improvement.  Toyota aimed to be the best when they developed practical methods of applying the lean methodology to manufacturing after World War II. Benefits of lean include:

• Reduced waste and rework
• Reduced costs
• Faster production time
• Faster changeover times
• Improved overall efficiency
• A bigger bottom line

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Not too long ago, the Harvard Business Review published an article suggesting what companies should do in order to institute a culture of quality. The article is based in large part on a two-year study that CEB, Inc. conducted on the subject. The research and the article promote a number of provocative ideas:

• Social media marketing has made it easy for consumers and customers to compare products and register complaints, which drives companies to emphasise quality more than ever.
• Since the Great Recession in 2008-2009, cycle times have decreased, and output gains have increased faster than employment levels, with employees often struggling to keep up and maintain quality.
• The traditional approach to instituting quality—monetary incentives, sharing best practices, and training—does not alone produce a culture of quality.
• Employees and companies that live quality—in other words, when people are fervent about quality as a personal value, rather than a value ordered from the top down—best create a culture of quality.

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An article in the Harvard Business Review noted that organizations, including OEMs, are "... increasingly relying on their suppliers to reduce costs, improve quality, and develop new processes and products faster than their rivals’ vendors can ... The issue isn’t whether companies should turn arms-length relationships with suppliers into close partnerships, but how." One way that OEMs are working with their tier one suppliers to improve quality is through Layered Process Audits (LPAs).

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Going on a Gemba Walk helps you understand what is happening in a given area, how it happens, and why what is supposed to happen is or isn’t.

In general, a Gemba Walk (a “real place” walk; in manufacturing, this is the factory floor) means going to where the action is. Rather than sitting at your desk and using graphs, statistics, and charts to try to improve things, you can proceed to the factory to observe processes and interact with shop personnel.

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