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In December of 1998, NASA launched the Mars Climate Orbiter, a robotic space probe intended as the communications relay for the Mars Polar Lander. By September of 1999, the spacecraft had disintegrated after coming too close to Mars and passing into its upper atmosphere.
Layered process audits (LPAs) are a powerful strategy for helping auto and aerospace suppliers achieve their quality goals. At the same time, LPAs are also one of the most involved types of audits.
In an LPA program, different layers of the organization participate in daily checks of processes known to impact product quality. These checks catch process errors upstream, reducing variation to minimize scrap, rework and customer returns.
Because of the high frequency of audits, companies often find it difficult to leverage the full potential of LPA programs. How do you know if you’re ready for LPAs? It all depends on your motivation, leadership engagement and a willingness to automate your processes. Let’s look at these elements more in depth.
While it’s often thought to be much lower, multiple sources have measured quality-related costs at 10 to 20% or more of an organization’s annual revenue. Put simply, that means a company with $1 billion in annual revenue loses $100 million or more from its bottom line as a price for quality.
It’s a huge number, a fact recognized by companies heavily invested in Lean, Six Sigma and other operational excellence initiatives. And while results of these programs are often reported as savings over several years, layered process audit (LPA) programs are simple and effective enough to drive big results in a matter of months.
LPAs require checking high-risk processes as often as every shift, drawing auditors from every layer of the organization. Automation is key to achieving this frequency with minimal overhead, reducing quality costs, improving visibility and developing a culture of quality.
For decades, audit management has centered on paper checklists, with tracking moving to Excel spreadsheets in more recent years. Despite growing adoption of cloud-based manufacturing software, many auto suppliers still rely on paper checklists and spreadsheets to manage audit programs.
Companies with a robust culture of quality save an average of $350 million annually compared to low-performing companies, according to a survey by CEB. While the benefits are clear, getting there is no simple task. In fact, 6 in 10 companies struggle to create a culture where quality is a personal priority to employees, instead of just a management requirement.
So how do you achieve cultural change, an element that is both intangible and reliant on human behavior? Auto and aerospace suppliers are finding that layered process audits (LPAs), in addition to reducing defects, foster quality culture in several important ways.
In this post, we’ll look at how LPAs promote a culture of quality through standardization, leadership engagement, communication and customer satisfaction.
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Mobile Auditing Software
We’re reshaping the world of archaic paper-based processes like layered process audits (LPAs), 5s, health & safety, Gemba, and mitigation management, all through our intuitive mobile software, Beacon Quality.
