LPA (Layered Process Audit) Program - Visual Shop Display

[Neil V.]

Hi All,

Our LPA program fizzled out a few months back. Top management lost interest (take out the head and the body will follow) and then indicated they wanted to change up our approach (which was a paper based system - picture the typical process based LPA form - with shop floor employees doing audits daily and a layer 2 manager following up weekly in x number of departments) to something that allowed the second layer auditors to become 'specialists' on one lpa topic which they would be responsible for throughout the org. Ok, I can work with that.....

Timewise, I was ok with maintaining the paper based system; had to print off new lpa sheets monthly, walk the shop, collect completed ones, scan them in, and update a compliance database. However, I thought it would be a good opportunity to try out something a little different.

Attached are pics of what I'm thinking of proposing to Top Management. Essentially it's a magnetic dry erase board that would be posted in all mfg departments/cells which uses magnets to indicate audits done/not done. At this point the only records created will be the CA running log of issues (which will be filled in by hand as CA's come up) and a monthly photo(?) of each board showing completion status. Will have to walk around and do this once a month. If I can skip or reduce frequency on this step I will, maybe looking at the layer 3 monthly score a couple times a year will suffice. Will also need some kind of compliance graph, believe that's a requirement, too.

What i'm hoping to achieve by putting this program in place is:

A) Reduce overall program maintenance
B) Increase compliance by layers 1 and 2
and
C) have more meaningful and better documented on the spot CA's

I haven't exactly figured out the fine details yet, but this is the direction i'm heading - so thought I'd share with the community. If you have any feedback would love to hear. If you've done something similar would love to hear how it worked out for you.

Neil

[Stijloor]

A Quick Bump!

Can someone help Neil?

Thank you very much!!

[Neil V.]

Update - After some discussion with co-workers I discovered a plan exists to place additional computer terminals on the shop floor. This makes it feasible to implement an electronic based LPA program as opposed to a physical one - such as the magentic done/not done board I was proposing.

As for software, some research online produced a couple leads. Both offer hosted solutions and are loaded up with features that can monitor/maintain other business programs, like safety, environmental, and corrective action. This is beyond what I percieve our needs to be. What I didn't see were any simple access templates (free or paid) that could be easily modified to suit our needs.

Next step is to review my requirements with a programmer we contract with and see if we can design/develop a database to collect audit responses and reactions to non-conformances.

Cost wise, here's what I've found to be involved in the methods looked into over the past few days:
(18 processes, 200 person company, three layers)

• Paper Based - in place, $400/month (6 hrs @$60/hr + supplies) - high level of admin work, scalable
  
• Magnet Boards - $8000 initial, $200/month - moderate-high level of admin work, not easily scalable.
  
• Hosted Software Package - $500 initial, $330/month - low level of upkeep, scalable.

[JaxQC]

Past life experience was a PDA, Access Database & wireless (easier to roam and check items than tied to terminal). Cheap and easy to update.

[Neil V.]

So it's the access database that I'm needing to get my hands on now. Since I don't want a hosted solution and don't need a feature laden program all signs point to us having to create from scratch.