We are a company that recently got our ISO/TS 16949 certification. I am the Production Manager. We are having problems with our people to mantain the discipline in filling completely the reports. I think that LPA (Layered Process Audit) could help us with this. Anybody there can tell me if this is OK, do you have any recommendations for me? Thanks a lot in advance.:confused:

We are a company that recently got our ISO/TS 16949 certification. I am the Production Manager. We are having problems with our people to mantain the discipline in filling completely the reports. I think that LPA could help us with this. Anybody there can tell me if this is OK, do you have any recommendations for me? Thanks a lot in advance.:confused:When I did a research project a couple of years ago I learned a lot about getting people to fill in paperwork. I found out it can be very difficult.

I don't know what your forms look like (are they complicated or unclear? A lot of data to enter--how long does it take?), and I don't know the literacy level of those who should be filling them out.

I don't know what tasks the people are not doing when they are filling out these reports or what sort of preessure they are under to return to those tasks.

I can't imagine the previous level of commitment to the filling out of these forms--is it a new thing that they may feel is a burden or valueless exersize?

Please notice how I have approached all three of the process elements: Man, Material, Machine, and arguably even the fourth element Environment, in asking questions besides what the LPA could do that you, or apparently no one else, seems to have succeeded with thus far. Please do a "5-Why" exersize and analyze the true reason(s) before taking any other action.

I will now refer you to the Reading Room, where I have written on this subject. http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=12122

I hope this helps!

Sometimes, the process simply needs some thought and maybe a little mistake proofing.


Do the employees have sufficient time to complete the report or are they pressured to "produce product" (because they get bonuses for high production or they are paid on piecework)?
If they have sufficient time to complete the report, what do they do during the time they could complete the report? Do they goof off? Take a break? Make more product?
Is the report easy for ALL to complete? Are there any tricky parts which a confused employee would rather avoid thinking about?
Have you ASKED the folks WHY they don't complete the reports? What answers do they give? Are they valid?In my experience (bolstered by Deming's Red Bead Experiment), the failure by employees to complete a task as laid out by management is because the task is difficult or impossible to complete in the time given, using the instructions given. Rarely have I EVER encountered a wholesale discipline problem. When I discover an INDIVIDUAL with a discipline problem, he is dealt with because of the discipline problem, NOT because of the "symptom" of refusal to perform a task.

In nearly forty years, I can't recall one instance where I ever had an employee REFUSE to do a task, although I did have some who deliberately slowed the process for a reason that had nothing to do with the difficulty of the task or the time allotted to perform the task. Almost always, the "root cause" was something which had nothing to do with the task, itself.

We are a company that recently got our ISO/TS 16949 certification. I am the Production Manager. We are having problems with our people to mantain the discipline in filling completely the reports. I think that LPA (Layered Process Audit) could help us with this. Anybody there can tell me if this is OK, do you have any recommendations for me? Thanks a lot in advance.:confused:

Sir,
Your thinking is right. we are also using this tool. But as I think, people's interest is above all. any tool could not nothing without user's ineterst