How do you overcome knee jerk reactions from upper management on CA?

[qualitytrec]

I have had a couple of quality issues recently. I need to know how do you fine bunch of people overcome directives for CA that you know will be both/either ineffective or unobserved.
A practical example: Our customer began running product today that we shipped in January. As they dumped the bottles into the hopper a tape gun from one of our lines fell in also. Okay, so they were understandably upset and asked for corrective and preventive measures to be put in place. The response of management was chain the tape guns to the tables and write a procedure immediately, and get it to our sales man before he leaves the customer today. My objection to this was that a chained tape gun poses a safety issue. I was over ruled. So here I set trying to figure out a procedure for Tape Gun Management thinking this is not a procedural issue it is a 5S issue and needs a new system implemented that accounts for things and assigns them a home.
What are your thoughts? Oh and by the way if anyone has a Tape Gun Management Procedure or the like I would simply love to see it today.

Mark

[SteelMaiden]

Well, gosh, if management truly intends to chain the little devils down, do you really need a management procedure? I really do not mean to be sarcastic with this answer, but it kinda sounded that way, didn't it? I'm with you, this sounds like it could be a safety issue, but I really cannot justify writing up documentation for something that is chained in place.

Personally, I cannot see that whatever final disposition is chosen that a new procedure would be required.

[Grizz1345]

Marc,

It seems like you have an employee whose name is "I don't know". I am sure that it is his fault that the tape gun got shipped. When anything comes into calibration here and is broken or misused the standard response is "I don't know". I have been searching for this employee and have others looking for this individual. Isn't it amazing that common sense gets lost and knee jerk reactions take over in the decision making process. Good luck in finding the solution.

[ScottK]

I'm with steelmaiden. I don't think it warrants a procedure.
I also agree that if you have a 5s program then you shouldn't need to chain the tape gun to the table either.

just a side story... I worked in plastic bottle place. One day we got a complaint that a customer found one of out packer's ID badge in box.
They were nice enough to send it back. Then the packer tried to deny he lost his badge.
Bottom line we had to create a policy that nothing could be kept in shirt pockets.

[fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Markasmith

...The response of management was chain the tape guns to the tables and write a procedure immediately, and get it to our sales man before he leaves the customer today. ..What are your thoughts? Oh and by the way if anyone has a Tape Gun Management Procedure or the like I would simply love to see it today.

Mark

Of Tape Gun procedures but I would (as my sarcastic self ) run that "chain it" solution out to it's ridiculous logical limits. Why not chain the pen? The stapler? The screwdriver? The micrometer? To paraphrase Bob D. "Tangled Up In ...Chains" or should that be Aretha???

[Mike S.]

Has this ever happened before, with any item? Sometimes it truly is an "isolated case" and implementation of a formal CA is simply not economically and/or practically feasible. This isn't an excuse for a poor CA system, and it should be the rare exception, but there are cases where I believe the best action is no action.

If ya go the procedure route, I'd love to see that procedure...

[Wes Bucey]

Solutions I have seen which I consider "workable" include a tooling check sheet each shift to assure all tools are in place and in working order before the next shift begins.

The problem in my opinion was not knowing the tool was missing for the period it was in the shipment waiting for customer's use.

One missing tool would trigger a "root cause" and might even narrow the options to "in a shipment" OR "in the trash" OR "stolen."

[Jim Wynne]

I think Wes is on the right track here, but I'll take it a step further. What happened was that whomever it was that decided to chain the tool down was trying to provide a preventive cure without understanding the implications. He saw the problem as, "How can I make sure that tape guns don't get into customer shipments" rather than looking at why the tape gun was where it was when something bad happened.
What probably happened: The shipping person was working on packing the shipment and got distracted, which is always happening on busy (often understaffed) shipping docks. He put the tape gun down and went to attend to something else, and perhaps someone else came along and finished what he had started, not knowing that the tape gun was there.

Having some experience in shipping/receiving, I know that due to distractions and multi-tasking, a lot of steps are wasted due to not having the needed tools--tape guns, markers, box cutters, stencils, etc.--at the moment they're needed. You're on one end of a dock or warehouse and realize that you left your tape gun at the other end, and while retrieving it a truck driver comes in the door and needs your attention, and you momentarily forget where you were going before being interrupted and get halfway back to where you were working and realize you still don't have your tape gun...

So what's the solution? There isn't a comprehensive fix, but a very simple expedient is a tool belt designed to hold shipping tools. Where do you get one of those? Right here. Using one of those, dock and warehouse workers can keep their tools with them, saving steps and bringing a touch of Lean to the operation, and they have a place to put the tape gun other than in the customer's cartons.

Use of the belts should be accompanied with some training, emphasizing the reasons they've been implemented.

So the customer's concerns have been met, and a few problems you probably didn't know you had have also been addressed.