Commercial Printing Spoilage - Automotive Industry Graphics

[rickmel]

Hi Guys

We currently have a major problem with spoilage within our manufacturing site.
We are a printing company producing graphics for the Automotive Industry.
We have 4 Major processes : ie : Sheeting, Screens, Printing and Die-cutiing.
Most of our spoilage eminates from the printing area. Our spoilage ranks from 8% - 10%.Our target is 5%. We use SPC to control our process. We have green-area meetings to discuss failures and have Pareto's on a daily basis.
We have a tracking ticket, that follows the jobs, and SPC charts at each machine, this info we are using to monitor the process.The problem is that the tracking ticket and chart is not being completed honestly. All actuall printing defects are being picked up at the back-end(Finishing).

What can I put in place / do to eliminate the high spoilage.

[jmp4429]

Just my opinion, but I think you need to address why the tracking documents are not being filled out honestly. Are people afraid they will be punished or lose their jobs when scrap is found? If so, you need to correct that or they will continue to fill out the forms inaccurately.

I don't know much about your process, do you have an idea what specifically is causing the defects?

[SteelMaiden]

OK, please don't take this question the wrong way...you say that you are monitoring and tracking, and that is all good. But, are you doing anything with the data you are gathering? You need to collect the data and then use it to help find the root cause of the problems. And, if the information you need is not being filled out honestly, then someone higher up the food chain than you needs to set the offending party or parties straight. If it is not a priority for your management, it will never become a priority for the hourly people.

[QChas]

Open up a CAR to identify the root cause and fix it.

[Wes Bucey]

From a practical standpoint, there is only one reason for an employee to willfully fill out the traveler incorrectly - FEAR. Is there a penalty involved with being the worker responsible for spoilage? (I am making a leap of faith that competitors have NOT planted "moles" to sabotage your business and intentionally CAUSE the spoilage.)

There are several reasons an employee can miss nonconformances (spoilage) and thus enter erroneous data on the traveler. Primary among those reasons is inadequate time or tools (lighting, surface area to spread the product for examination, etc.) to do a thorough in-process inspection at each stage of the production.

If you eliminate reasons for intentional fudging of data, then you are left with a normal "root cause analysis" task. This consists of examining the specific spoilages for common or special causes to get a clue WHERE in the production process the spoilage "could" have occurred. If the spoilages seem to occur at one stage of production more than another, you can simply add in a temporary inspection station at that point to confirm or deny your hypothesis. If yes, then you can narrow your search to the process itself to determine what causes the spoilage and change the process to eliminate the cause.

The key is to determine if one or more stages in the process is contributing to the "bump" in your spoilage rate.