Eliminating Mislabeled Product

[Cari Spears]

...the operator then checks to ensure they were given the proper labels. ... The only reason I can find for mislabels at my company is operator's not following procedures.

(My bold in the quote above.) So - the operator has to have been given the incorrect label then. I do not think that operators not following procedures is your root cause - they might not catch the error - but the function providing them the labels is where I would direct my investigation.

Who gives the operator the label and how is it possible for them to give the operator the wrong label?

 

[Al Rosen]

(My bold in the quote above.) So - the operator has to have been given the incorrect label then. I do not think that operators not following procedures is your root cause - they might not catch the error - but the function providing them the labels is where I would direct my investigation.

Who gives the operator the label and how is it possible for them to give the operator the wrong label?

Exactly!

 

[qcman]

Believe me you are not the only one with miss labeling issues.When I came on it was one of the more up front problems not only to the customer but between departments.Compounding the problem here was that part *A* went to machine #2 as one piece/number and left as 2 different part numbers ( a left and right hand).Not only were they miss labeling them but were mixing the loads also.I put flag pole signs on each lay aside cart with the part number on each.Once done they moved to a staging area where a board was put up with certified part samples where the supervisor of that department had to physically verify the correct part/ label with the sample and sign off the move ticket on each box before it could move to the next department.Once finished in that department the parts again were verified using another sample board and a orange dot placed on the box by supervision before it was allowed to be taken to shipping.Once in shipping the clerk enters the information into the computer which creates the label then he is the one who puts the label on. Once labeled each box is scanned and the supervisor downloads the scan info which if not correct the main frame will alert him of a problem.This type of system may not work for you but the general idea is to have multiple verification points in the system.It still happens now and then but it has eliminated most of the problem for us.

 

[Miner]

We had a similar weldment process compounded with RH/LH product. We implemented the Best Practices document I provided earlier, color-coded all paperwork, and added pictures of the product that highlighted unique features.

The final improvement that completely eliminated the errors was to add a bar code to the part specific documentation. The operator scanned this barcode and a printer next to the pallet printed the exact quantity of labels needed to label the pallet.

 

[Al Rosen]

We had a similar weldment process compounded with RH/LH product. We implemented the Best Practices document I provided earlier, color-coded all paperwork, and added pictures of the product that highlighted unique features.

The final improvement that completely eliminated the errors was to add a bar code to the part specific documentation. The operator scanned this barcode and a printer next to the pallet printed the exact quantity of labels needed to label the pallet.

That's a beutiful thing! Beats all non value added inspections.