Every week I send and email to upper management and the subject is... "Making the Quality System Our Mission" and I ask a question;
Examples below per your request... I give them a few days to respond and then I tell them where the information is located in the manual and answer the question in my words.
Week 1 – What is the goal of the technical specification?
The answer is located in the front of the book; page R, section 0.5.
The goal of this Technical Specification is the development of a quality management system that provides for continual improvement, emphasizing defect prevention and the reduction of variation and waste in the supply chain.
This Technical Specification, coupled with applicable customer-specific requirements, defines the fundamental quality management system requirements for those subscribing to this Technical Specification.
This Technical Specification is intended to avoid multiple certification audits and provide a common approach to a quality management system for automotive production, and relevant service part organizations.
Thanks for playing!
Week 2 – What is the difference between preventive and predictive maintenance?
Answering this question is pretty tricky…
On page 3 of the standard; under Terms and Definitions, it defines the two terms as follows:
3.1.7 Predictive Maintenance: Activities based on process data aimed at the avoidance of maintenance problems by prediction of likely failure modes.
3.1.8 Preventive Maintenance: Planned action to eliminate causes of equipment failure and unscheduled interruptions to production, as an output of the manufacturing process design.
With the definitions from the standards in mind, I will take it a little farther and give you the interpretation from International Interpretations Sources.
Predictive maintenance is a condition based type of maintenance, including planned revision shut off and maintenance activities based on machine-aided diagnosis (e.g. vibration measurement, temperature monitoring, cooling water analysis)…
Preventive maintenance is time controlled type of maintenance; it’s based on statistical experience concerning the life expectancy of equipment parts, or based on manufactures’ recommendations.
And a simplified interpretation…
Predictive Maintenance (PdM) • An equipment maintenance strategy based on measuring the condition of equipment in order to assess whether it will fail during some future period, and then taking appropriate action to avoid the consequences of that failure. Equipment condition can be measured through a variety of methods, including condition monitoring technologies/techniques, statistical process control or through the human senses.
Preventive Maintenance (PM) • An equipment maintenance strategy that is based on replacing, overhauling, repairing or remanufacturing an item at a fixed interval, regardless of its condition at the time. The impetus is to perform the work as a way to avert mechanical failures and avoid unscheduled downtime.
I ask you… Is this something we are doing?
Thanks for playing!
Week 3 - Who is your management representative? What does the standard say are the roles and responsibilities? Why was he/she chosen for that role?
I hope that helped!! The are actually enjoying it and I have recently been asked to include other plants in the distribution. For me, I am enjoying holding everyone accountable and not letting anyone forget about the task at hand!
