Caught in a LEAN organization with no benchmarks

[lovespikes]

Hi To All,
My name is Janice. I've worked in Quality Assurance for about 17 years as an inspector in the electronics field. I've recently been hired as an inspector at a Flashlight manufacturing plant in Southern Ca.
I've read some interesting stuff on this site and I hope I have some knowlegde I'm able to share with you all, as well as pick up some new stuff myself. What sets me apart from the rest? Well in my current job my experience is what sets me apart from the rest. I come from a plant who produced surveillance camera systems for the government, which required a dilegent QA department with ISO standards, and Quality Assurance principles followed closely. If I could change anything in quality it would have to be attitudes.
Which leads me to why I signed up at this forum. As a new hire in Quality Assurance I've found it very difficult within this company to do the job I was hired for. Any suggestions to my delima would be greatly appreciated.
My biggest problem is that there are no Quality Assurance Instructions in place, and there is a total lack of training being offered to me. There is no accept/reject criteria anywhere within this place and most of what people know is in their heads and not documented. They have a lean process in place which we've been told to audit throughout the day. No inspections are to be done, and inspection should not even be in our vocabulary. Inspection is done by the line personel. I was told recently by my boss that I haven't been producing to his standards, and he admitted it my be due to the lack of training I've had, but needless to say he still documented my lack of work. I've had to go to the different departments and ask my own questions for stuff I need to know, and I just have to hope that I'm given the right information. I'm not one to give up easily, but I'm almost to that point with this company. Has anyone else ever been through this situatiuon before, and if so how did you handle it?

Thanks for any input....Janice

 

[Wes Bucey]

Yep. Lots of organizations are nibbling around the edges of LEAN, but they don't quite have everything together.

See - part of what your organization is doing has the flavor of LEAN and some of the aroma, but none of the substance - leaving the folks in the organization starving for substance.

1. If there is a product, there should be specifications to assure it is consistent from day to day so a customer can be confident the product will function as expected.
2. If there are specifications, there should be a plan or protocol for confirming the product meets specifications. Everyone involved in confirming the specifications should be using the same protocol, with similar gages and measuring instruments to avoid confusion and conflict (a major goal of LEAN is to eliminate or substantially reduce confusion and conflict.)
3. part of that plan or protocol is to assure all the folks doing the confirming of the product specifications are competent in following the plan.
4. part of the conclusion personnel are competent to follow the plan is periodic evaluation of the validity of the confirmations (some folks call these "internal audits.")
5. top level managers review these evaluations or audits to determine if the plans are working and personnel are following them or if the plans or personnel need to be modified to achieve greater effectiveness.

Comment:
Many organizations have eliminated "final inspection" in favor of in-process inspection, but they are careful to assure all personnel are fully aware of how and what to do and in the order that is most efficient. If the organization has such a plan and training for its personnel - you need to determine why you have been left out of the loop. If they don't have it, you are in an ideal position to do a little research so you can make a persuasive presentation to the powers that be WHY they should have a consistent system to confirm their product meets all applicable specifications.

Part of that research can be done here in the Cove where you can learn about efficient LEAN (real LEAN, not partial) techniques to present in your meeting with the powers that be.

The second part of your research is a little more devious - BEFORE making the presentation, you need to learn the background of the current program or lack of a program in your organization so you can avoid making a political blunder and getting fired..

Above all, when you ultimately make the presentation, be sure to provide the answer to the question in EVERY manager's brain: "What's in it for me?" Secondarily, of course, they will be concerned with value (elimination of costs due to nonconforming product, saving on labor when all parties perform an activity according to the most efficient method.)

It's early inthe week - many folks will probably chime in as the week progresses with suggestion. Don't hesitate to ask questions if anything is unclear. We WANT to help you succeed, because when a quality professional advances the cause of Quality in a single location, it elevates all the rest of us wherever situated as manaers become more and more aware of the vlable role quality plays in any business.

 

[Wes Bucey]

Here are three of my old posts which describe how my organization used operators as in-process inspectors AND First Article inspectors.
http://elsmar.com/Forums/showpost.php?p=85248&postcount=78
http://elsmar.com/Forums/showpost.php?p=97017&postcount=2
http://elsmar.com/Forums/showpost.php?p=105469&postcount=18

 

[temujin]

...Responsibility without Authority...

a starting point could be to begin with the processes where your efforts are easily translated into $.

ISO Certified or not,procedures for handling and analyzing customer complaints and manufacturing defects are essential. Locating the weak links would definitely improve quality, and it would not be difficult to justify in front of the manager.

Why were you hired in the first place?

regards t.

 

[lovespikes]

Thanks Wes and Temujin for your great replys. It helped to have you understand my problem.
The fact of the matter is that there are specifications to assure consistance of product from day to day, but it isn't documented. It's all in everyone's head. In my first few weeks on the job I was taken station to station and shown what each cell or department does. On the production floor Work orders are what govern the operators and a work order is nothing more than a Bill Of Materials. They have the parts on the BOM at their stations and it gets built according to the BOM. In the molding dept. I was shown what each machine does with little training on defective molded parts. The QA dept goes from station to station checking BOM's and making sure the processes are being followed. The company has always had Quality problems and the return rate has been high. In my second month the CEO came by and wanted me to take him through a daily audit and show him how we do an inspection. Needless to say it was a flop. It was then that my boss was told to revamp the process and that's where I'm at now. I was written up for not knowing my job. I explained that I needed some training in their accept/reject criteria but I have yet to get that. I was told to go out on the line and start asking questions both in production and in the moding areas. I've recently learned that there was no QA manager until a few years ago when they made the tool room manager the QA manager. There is such a lack of any direction there for a new hire to learn the ropes. I feel like I'm walking on egg hells all day because I'm not sure what they expect of me. I can walk around all day and watch people follow their processes, but it seeems so useless. We had a meeting yesterday concerning custom orders and when I asked them to attach some sort of instruction defining what it was the customer wanted and it never got discussed. They can't even decide on how to identify the order through the manufacturing process. It really is a mess.

Janice

 

[Helmut Jilling]

If it makes you feel better, your dilemna is fairly common. But it is difficult. As Wes said, your firm is clearly not a "Lean" organization, but at least the accept the program.

What seems to be missing to me is a proper structure on which to build that Lean program. Underneath it, you need a solid, well organized quality system.

I would recommend you read or reread through the ISO 9001 standard. The ISO 9004 standard would be even better. I think you will see many of the problems you are wrestling with described in those pages.

When that is properly established, you have a framework to build Lean, or Toyota, or any of the others on top of it. Without that, your Lean is trying to build on a sandy foundation. It cannot be stable.

A good consultant would also be beneficial to help you get started on a solid and proper direction. I, and a number of other consultants regularly post on this forum, and you can get a flavor for our advice.

 

[temujin]

I bet there are lots of people that have been in a similar situation.

(...) there are specifications to assure consistence of product from day to day, but it isn't documented. It's all in everyone's head.(...)

An undocumented specification is no specification.

Is your company designing, developing, manufacturing flashlights ?
Are the quality problems related to the design or production/assembly?

I think a solid review of the complaints / defects should be a starting point.
You need to have an idea about where defects are "created" ?

As I understand, the commitment from the management to actually do something is minimal.

What about the guys on the floor? You might ask them what they think can be done in order to improve quality. Hard to do this job if you have everyone against you...

t.

 

[wmarhel]

Check out the Lean.org website. Registration is free and you'll plenty of articles, case studies, presentations and even some webinars.

Wayne

 

[Wes Bucey]

Thanks for the help from other Covers. Even though LEAN is an area I consider myself very knowledgeable about, I don't think I need to add much about LEAN at this point.

As I see it, the organization and its management have good intentions, but seem a little adrift in how to implement LEAN in an efficient and effective manner.

It might be beneficial for all at the organization who may be concerned with making LEAN work (instead of confusing things) if they, too, were to join the Cove and use us as a free sounding board for getting off to a better start than they appear to be at present.

The quickest way to get off to a running start, of course, is to follow Helmut's advice and have the top managers interview a few consultants to select one who can give down-to-earth advice about the ABCs of implementing LEAN.

 

[lovespikes]

Thanks to everyone for their input. It has helped me out alot and I feel alot more secure. I will be reading the ISO 9001 and 9004. I need to learn as much as possible about lean manufacturing, as the places I have worked for are all just so so on the subject. I may suggest the company send us to some lean classes so we have a better understanding of what can and needs to be put in place.

Again... Thanks to you all!!