Best Quality Key Process Indicators for manufacturing companies?

[Randy]

I work in the UK I have been tracking on time delivery for my suppliers for well over a decade and it's been stable right up until Brexit, and the wheels have fallen off for every material supplier and subcontract plating, heat treatment etc company. We supply some automotive and that's also stop start where it uses to be a constant, so as a measurement now it is useless other than showing no one can get their raw materials when they want them any more.

Yep, boats sink, planes crash, trains derail and people can say "not today"....OTD is a BS measure at best.

 

[Bev D]

Yep, boats sink, planes crash, trains derail and people can say "not today"....OTD is a BS measure at best.

So this is one thing we disagree on (although maybe once you see my response you will see my point).
Please note that I am responding about metrics in general and NOT any standard's requirement to have whatever a "KPI" is or a "quality objective" is...

OTD is absolutely crucial to many businesses. How else can we plan? How else can we keep our employees employed each and everyday? How else can we keep our inventories from ballooning out of control? Or having too much inventory that has short shelf lives?

Yes there are a few factors that are out of the supplier's control: weather, pandemics, plane crashes, wars, terrorists, etc. but that is why contract lawyers invented force majeure clauses.

Is it really the metric or the idiots who punish suppliers for uncontrollable events? Is it the idiotic auditors who issue NCs for not meeting a goal (talk about pushing people away from continual improvement!). Isn't it more important that we look for areas to improve when a goal is missed? Isn't more important to look for effective ways to mitigate the effect of a missed goal? Isn't it more important to look for ways to respond to missed goals?

Now we can all say that some high level goals like profit, sales, Perfect Order, on time delivery etc. could - and should -be broken down into the smaller factors that effect these organization wide measures so that each functional area can focus on their effect on the overall Company success. BUT that doesn't mean that the company as a whole shouldn't be looking at these measures and trying to continually improve them.

What are really angry about? the innocent metric or the idiot people who misuse the metric to abuse others? Business isn't a game and auditors and leaders shouldn't treat it as such...

 

[Randy]

So this is one thing we disagree on (although maybe once you see my response you will see my point).
Please note that I am responding about metrics in general and NOT any standard's requirement to have whatever a "KPI" is or a "quality objective" is...

OTD is absolutely crucial to many businesses. How else can we plan? How else can we keep our employees employed each and everyday? How else can we keep our inventories from ballooning out of control? Or having too much inventory that has short shelf lives?

Yes there are a few factors that are out of the supplier's control: weather, pandemics, plane crashes, wars, terrorists, etc. but that is why contract lawyers invented force majeure clauses.

Is it really the metric or the idiots who punish suppliers for uncontrollable events? Is it the idiotic auditors who issue NCs for not meeting a goal (talk about pushing people away from continual improvement!). Isn't it more important that we look for areas to improve when a goal is missed? Isn't more important to look for effective ways to mitigate the effect of a missed goal? Isn't it more important to look for ways to respond to missed goals?

Now we can all say that some high level goals like profit, sales, Perfect Order, on time delivery etc. could - and should -be broken down into the smaller factors that effect these organization wide measures so that each functional area can focus on their effect on the overall Company success. BUT that doesn't mean that the company as a whole shouldn't be looking at these measures and trying to continually improve them.

What are really angry about? the innocent metric or the idiot people who misuse the metric to abuse others? Business isn't a game and auditors and leaders shouldn't treat it as such...

I was agreeing with our friend

 

[Quality-Nation]

All organizations should embrace 2 basics for most work. Do it right first time and do it on time… Most processes of an organization can turn these into “SMART“ goals.

 

[Scanton]

Just for your information Bev D (and I do agree with what you are saying), I haven't stopped recording "on time delivery in full", it just seems to have very little value now when (because of influences outside of their control) none of my key suppliers can deliver on time, even the one's who you could previously set your clock by.

There are obviously things that can be done like hold more inventory in the first place, but in these financially difficult times who is going to get that plan past their bean counters?

 

[Randy]

Just for your information Bev D (and I do agree with what you are saying), I haven't stopped recording "on time delivery in full", it just seems to have very little value now when (because of influences outside of their control) none of my key suppliers can deliver on time, even the one's who you could previously set your clock by.

Yep, sho nuff what I said.

"Oh my gosh, solar flares and ice storms have knocked out all IT and internet"....