Continuous Improvement

[tim banic]

Hello folks...

We are assembling our Continuous Improvement team and I would like some advice on what we should be doing, what direction we should be heading & how we can make it work & be beneficial to us.

Thanks ahead of time for your ideas.

Tim

 

[energy]

The Standard

Do you have a copy of 9004-2000? It's all about Continuous Improvement. It would be a good place to start.

 

[Al Dyer]

One thing to take into consideration is team dynamic. If the proper balance of members are not chosen for the team the activities are doomed. It may be awhile to get a really team or two together but the up-front work in setting up the teams will make up for any early lapses.

People that are defensive, confrontation, or overbearing might work on some teams but not others. Also consider the a team needs a facilitator or leader to keep things moving in a positive direction.

There are many good books out there and there maybe something in the search engine or archives at the cove. Try doing some searches for project management on the web.

Good Luck!!

 

[MrPhish]

How Much Improvement Will Be Enough?

Last night I was having a nice quite dream about the world class process improvement system (hey ... it's a dream) I had put together, but suddenly it turned into a nightmare because the third party auditor was writing me a nonconformance for not improving my QMS enough since the last visit. Not improving enough? Is this possible? I wonder ... are we (all ISO registered companies) faced with this issue of "how much improvement is judged to be enough by the auditor?" I've seen some strange auditor behavior reported here at the Cove ... so what do the regulars think?

 

[Al Dyer]

I would have to agree. If I had evidence of the required improvements and the auditor questioned theem, I would be on the phone to the registrar asking them to come to the facility at once if they wanted to keep the contract.

One good thing about the standards is that they mainly do not dictate how much, how many, how far etc... just that there is evidence of some level of completion. An auditor may put in a suggestion that improvement levels need to be improved, but even that is iffy, and I would not sign off on it as a management rep.

Just an opinion.

Al...

 

[tim banic]

Thanks for the good input...yes I have the 9004:2000.

I will be reading it this weekend in detail.

thanks again

tim

 

[db]

Find your pain

Find out where your pain is. Many do not call this continuous improvement because continuous improvement is for processes that are stable. I look for areas that might be compliant, but still cause a certain amount of pain. For example; one shop had a problem with manufacturing scrap. Not rejects, just the stuff left over from the process. Their quality was good, and their profit margin was decent, but there was pain in the amount of waste materials. The team suggested looking at ways to reduce the scrap. The result was a 25% decrease in the amount of wasted material.

Take a look at the Cause-and-effect diagram. Look at the headings, and determine what areas you could/should improve on. Here is a page that lists some potential metrics to use for continuous improvement measurement.
Metrics