“Garbage in, garbage out.”
That’s the mantra commonly ascribed to computer scientists and software engineers to describe how low-quality data impacts the software development process.
The same concept applies to manufacturing in the context of layered process audit (LPA) questions. Layered process audits are a high-frequency audit strategy aimed at ensuring process inputs comply with work standards, as opposed to trying to identify defects after production.
When it comes to LPA questions, creating a generic plant-wide checklist and adopting a “set it and forget it” approach doesn’t deliver meaningful data. Instead, manufacturers must invest time in the process, collecting input from quality, engineering and plant leadership to ensure questions are relevant and provide real value.
In other words, the effort you put into writing LPA questions determines the quality of data they ultimately provide.
With that in mind, this post looks at 7 generic LPA questions that don’t work, and how to fix them for more meaningful results.
