QMS Improvement - Where To Start?

[Kurt Smith]

I wanted to give an update on what I am doing here since this since it was a fairly active discussion.

I have gone back and created an Excel spreadsheet of all of the completed work order for this year. Including due dates, quantities, work start and completion dates, customer, and parts lost/defective. Now I have a dashboard of all of our work completion that can breakdown our on-time completion rate.

This revealed that our previous metric was being recorded incorrectly. Our actual on-time completion is well below our goal and we will most likely end up recording a formal corrective action. Going forward I will maintain this spreadsheet whenever work orders are completed, and as they are identified I will set aside late orders for evaluation. I pulled the last month of late orders and found that more than half of them are due to unrealistic due dates from drop in orders.

I picked this course of action because, while it doesn't provide any direct front end improvement, it allows me to track our progress without requiring the owners and other management to do anything yet. From the start my concern was them not understanding the value of an improvement effort and choosing to drop it before we could learn anything. This way I can build some momentum and showcase a tangible case for change before they are asked to learn a new system or break habits.

For now the immediate goal is to gather enough data about late work to establish our target and plan how to improve. It looks like it will be the drop in orders with unrealistic due dates. I know we won't turn down the work, so I am hoping for a way to establish with customers the difference between ASAP orders and orders with a specified due date. But I am not clear if that works with ISO 9001 Contract Review Requirements. Any advice on that would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Golfman25]

I wanted to give an update on what I am doing here since this since it was a fairly active discussion.

I have gone back and created an Excel spreadsheet of all of the completed work order for this year. Including due dates, quantities, work start and completion dates, customer, and parts lost/defective. Now I have a dashboard of all of our work completion that can breakdown our on-time completion rate.

This revealed that our previous metric was being recorded incorrectly. Our actual on-time completion is well below our goal and we will most likely end up recording a formal corrective action. Going forward I will maintain this spreadsheet whenever work orders are completed, and as they are identified I will set aside late orders for evaluation. I pulled the last month of late orders and found that more than half of them are due to unrealistic due dates from drop in orders.

I picked this course of action because, while it doesn't provide any direct front end improvement, it allows me to track our progress without requiring the owners and other management to do anything yet. From the start my concern was them not understanding the value of an improvement effort and choosing to drop it before we could learn anything. This way I can build some momentum and showcase a tangible case for change before they are asked to learn a new system or break habits.

For now the immediate goal is to gather enough data about late work to establish our target and plan how to improve. It looks like it will be the drop in orders with unrealistic due dates. I know we won't turn down the work, so I am hoping for a way to establish with customers the difference between ASAP orders and orders with a specified due date. But I am not clear if that works with ISO 9001 Contract Review Requirements. Any advice on that would be greatly appreciated.

Anything "works." ASAP means absolutely nothing. It means "as possible" which may be next week or next year, who knows. Agreeing on a date is more helpful because in job shop work everything is done by date. You're really going to have two options. Take the work at the customer's request date and ask for forgiveness. Or establish a realistic date and hold to that date despite the pressure to expedite it. Neither is ideal, but being reliable starts to pay dividends because they can trust your date's even though they don't like them. Eventually you'll want to dial down to where your capacity issues are. Good luck.

 

[Randy]

ASAP means absolutely nothing

Yep, totally meaningless. We're going to Mars ASAP.........Next month, next year, 10 years, 100 years, duh?

 

[Kurt Smith]

I get that. But we often have customers request parts who would set a due date of tomorrow if they had the choice. Is there a better option than ASAP?

 

[Bev D]

Of course there are better options. But your management needs to support them. This is really a strategic decision not a logistical decision…
For example you can refuse the business. (Many companies do)
You can provide a doable delivery date and then it’s the Customer’s decision.
If these are repeat Customers you can work with them to understand why they are in such a pickle. (I’ve seen Customers that chose bad suppliers because they were cheaper and then couldn’t get their parts in time due to quality or scheduling problems and then they woudl come to us because they knew we would deliver even tho we were more expensive…)
You can develop a “emergency ASAP only” production line and charge way more for Customers who really need it.
You can increase your existing line’s capacity to accommodate these late ASAP orders…excess capacity will help.

So many things you can do. The real question is what will your management support?

 

[Randy]

Is there a better option than ASAP?

Yep, not the best, but slightly better, NLT (No Later Than). From that point you can do backwards planning taking into consideration any obstacles that might come up. The military has been doing that hundreds of years...."The invasion day is XX and everything behind that day is XX-" Just watch a bunch of old movies, it isn't a new concept but it escapes fancy-dancy managers because it really is kind of simple. I do my travel planning, audit planning, personal planning for home, everything just like that.........I want to be done in the yard by X so I plan my yard stuff, any tasks for Judi, and so on by the time available to me.

 

[Johnnymo62]

I've seen companies charge a substantial expedite fee if the part is required before the normal lead time.

 

[Big Jim]

I wanted to give an update on what I am doing here since this since it was a fairly active discussion.

I have gone back and created an Excel spreadsheet of all of the completed work order for this year. Including due dates, quantities, work start and completion dates, customer, and parts lost/defective. Now I have a dashboard of all of our work completion that can breakdown our on-time completion rate.

This revealed that our previous metric was being recorded incorrectly. Our actual on-time completion is well below our goal and we will most likely end up recording a formal corrective action. Going forward I will maintain this spreadsheet whenever work orders are completed, and as they are identified I will set aside late orders for evaluation. I pulled the last month of late orders and found that more than half of them are due to unrealistic due dates from drop in orders.

I picked this course of action because, while it doesn't provide any direct front end improvement, it allows me to track our progress without requiring the owners and other management to do anything yet. From the start my concern was them not understanding the value of an improvement effort and choosing to drop it before we could learn anything. This way I can build some momentum and showcase a tangible case for change before they are asked to learn a new system or break habits.

For now the immediate goal is to gather enough data about late work to establish our target and plan how to improve. It looks like it will be the drop in orders with unrealistic due dates. I know we won't turn down the work, so I am hoping for a way to establish with customers the difference between ASAP orders and orders with a specified due date. But I am not clear if that works with ISO 9001 Contract Review Requirements. Any advice on that would be greatly appreciated.

Finally, something you can work with. Look for the most common failures and low hanging fruit to see improvements sooner which should start to get the rest of the group on board.

 

[Bev D]

Just remember you can’t put 10 gallons of Poo in a 5 gallon bag.

 

[Randy]

Just remember you can’t put 10 gallons of Poo in a 5 gallon bag.

You don't go to the same WalMart I do then.