Hi All,
Thanks in advance for any suggestions/advice you can offer. I'm in a small (30 of us) all-CNC machine shop. We do no design work as we produce to customer samples or sketches/drawings. Post-delivery activities are also non-applicable. Often we generate drawings from samples, and sketches/drawings often have missing/incorrect specifications. We have ISO-9001:2008 at the request of one customer and are transitioning to 2015.
First piece inspections are performed and any out of tolerance or near the edge of tolerance dimensions are corrected by adjusting the CNC program. This corrects the condition and only once have I seen a third piece submitted for inspection. In-process rejections rarely happen, and as many of our customers will accept out-of-tolerance since the parts will function for their need. Often this is done verbally and undocumented.
As for customer complaints and returns (a rare occurrence), I don't always get to see them and have explained that these need to be documented so we have a baseline and can show improvement. Still an uphill battle.
I'm at a loss on how to show continuous improvement considering the extremely low rejection rate and any in-process rejections are brought to the GM who often OK's the parts in question, as he knows the application of the parts from the customer. NCR's are few and far between. Corrective Actions usually come from the CB or one customer when they were on-site before my arrival.
I was brought in (as the QM by title) primarily to be the Management Representative and ISO SME. We did well on the surveillance audit and I'm finding it difficult to determine manufacturing KPI's and opportunities for CI. Some will need to come from top management.
I currently track First Piece first-time pass rate, Internal and External NCR's and customer complaints as KPI's and with very low numbers, it's not going to be easy showing improvement. Has anyone any suggestions for opportunities for CI which I can run with on my own, as support in effecting the QMS is more infrequent than an NCR?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions/advice you can offer. I'm in a small (30 of us) all-CNC machine shop. We do no design work as we produce to customer samples or sketches/drawings. Post-delivery activities are also non-applicable. Often we generate drawings from samples, and sketches/drawings often have missing/incorrect specifications. We have ISO-9001:2008 at the request of one customer and are transitioning to 2015.
First piece inspections are performed and any out of tolerance or near the edge of tolerance dimensions are corrected by adjusting the CNC program. This corrects the condition and only once have I seen a third piece submitted for inspection. In-process rejections rarely happen, and as many of our customers will accept out-of-tolerance since the parts will function for their need. Often this is done verbally and undocumented.
As for customer complaints and returns (a rare occurrence), I don't always get to see them and have explained that these need to be documented so we have a baseline and can show improvement. Still an uphill battle.
I'm at a loss on how to show continuous improvement considering the extremely low rejection rate and any in-process rejections are brought to the GM who often OK's the parts in question, as he knows the application of the parts from the customer. NCR's are few and far between. Corrective Actions usually come from the CB or one customer when they were on-site before my arrival.
I was brought in (as the QM by title) primarily to be the Management Representative and ISO SME. We did well on the surveillance audit and I'm finding it difficult to determine manufacturing KPI's and opportunities for CI. Some will need to come from top management.
I currently track First Piece first-time pass rate, Internal and External NCR's and customer complaints as KPI's and with very low numbers, it's not going to be easy showing improvement. Has anyone any suggestions for opportunities for CI which I can run with on my own, as support in effecting the QMS is more infrequent than an NCR?
. But it's doable and you may be able to insert yourself into some things in the name of metrics, and that will help a lot. Look at what you and the others in your organization are doing and track it. Whatever "it" is. Maybe convince them to let you track out of tolerance acceptance on inspection forms for later use. Scrap and rework percentages are an easy way, if you can get into the process to start data for metrics later. Also don't be afraid to let the standard be the bad guy and drive some of what you need.
