Beacon Quality Blog

According to a Deloitte study on the manufacturing skills gap, the U.S. will need to fill 4.6 million manufacturing jobs over the next decade, but over half of those are likely to sit vacant.

It’s a grim prospect for the manufacturing industry, where the average time to fill a position rose from 94 to 118 days from 2015 to 2018. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data show that as of September 2019, a full 500,000 manufacturing jobs remain open, a problem that affects nearly every company in the industry.

Quality departments are already feeling the pain, with a quick search of Indeed showing thousands of open positions for quality engineers nationwide.

What can companies do to adapt to the skills gap? And how can they ensure they’re bringing on the right hires?

To answer these questions and learn how to hire a great quality engineer, we talked to Craig Nowotny, general manager of Arthur Wright & Associates. The staffing firm focuses exclusively on filling positions in manufacturing, engineering and operations, an area where Nowotny has nearly 30 years of experience.

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Manufacturers open their doors to give students and the public an opportunity to visit and tour the facility and find out what it’s really like to work in manufacturing on October 5^th, 2018, during the 6^th annual Manufacturing Day.

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Why are so many quality terms in Japanese? Since the majority of quality management principles can be traced back to Japan’s automotive industry, it’s not entirely surprising. But what do these terms actually mean?

While many still debate the true origins of some of these Lean and Six Sigma terms, there's no question they play a major role from the plant floor on up to accounting.

If you’ve ever wondered about the translation and meaning behind these terms, here’s a list of eight terms underpinning common Lean principles.

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Imagine you’re a supplier seeing a troubling spike in returns over a component with high failure rates. After a lengthy investigation and millions in warranty costs, you discover certain workstations haven’t been heating a product element to the right temperature.

Having already distributed tens of thousands of faulty components, you realize the problem is far from over, putting your most important contracts at risk.

How does this happen, even with a robust system of product audits? The simple fact is that product inspections don’t always catch process issues responsible for defects. And while quality checks in manufacturing tend to center on product audits, process audits are just as (or even more) important to quality. Let’s look at the difference between product and process audits, and how they work together in the big picture of quality.

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Companies that implement a layered process audit (LPA) system must account for a wide variety of questions. Which process areas will you audit?  How often will you audit them? What will the process audits cover? How will you take action when you find non-conformances?

At the heart of these high-frequency checks, however, are the questions you include in your actual audit checklists to verify processes are being done right. We’ve discussed strategies for writing LPA questions, such as providing context on why and how to check individual items. Today, we’re examining 7 types of questions to consider for your process audit checklists, including:

• Safety
• Materials
• Motions
• Workstation design
• Process for reporting issues
• Documentation
• Follow-up

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Famous businessman Robert Half once said, “Asking the right questions takes as much skill as giving the right answers.”

It’s true whether we’re talking about interviewing and hiring—Half founded one of the largest global staffing firms—or whether we’re talking about quality management. The need to ask thoughtful questions to gain valuable information is especially critical when it comes to creating layered process audit (LPA) checklists.

In an LPA program, multiple layers of management audit high-risk processes at varying intervals, conducting daily checks that systematically reduce variation. These process audits are powerful because of their high frequency, and their ability to provide a real-time snapshot of shop floor processes critical to quality.

As for whether a company can achieve the biggest benefits from LPAs? That all depends on whether you have well-written questions—and how frequently you update them.

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Automotive and aerospace manufacturers continue to suffer from customer complaints, warranty claims and product recalls which result in high financial costs and damaged brand value.

Process related failures represent the largest component of the cost of quality. This presentation discusses the process errors involved and the difference between a standard audit, layered audit and using a layered audit platform to streamline deployment throughout the enterprise.

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The Ease Beacon assessment platform enables manufacturers and service providers to meet the increasingly complex demands of the connected world while also lowering their cost of quality.

We are excited to announce the newest Beacon updates designed to help teams improve global quality controls. The 1.8 release includes several enhancements to help managers better filter data, provides improved import/export capabilities, enhances group audit scheduling, and streamlines reporting requirements. Beacon 1.8 also includes more control features for audit administration with improved navigation for a more fluid experience within the application. 

Continue reading below to learn more about the specific feature enhancements. 

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Automotive and Aerospace manufacturing suppliers practice layered process audits to maintain quality control in increasingly demanding and challenging production environments. Learn the immediate ROI associated with LPA in this Linkedin Slideshare presentation.

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