QMS Improvement - Where To Start?

[Kurt Smith]

And please, don't proceed with the idea the TM is "stupid." Those guys probably put their house on the line to get the company going. They may be ignorant and/or resistant to change, or even worn out, but they ain't stupid. If you understand where they are coming from you'll have a lot more success. Good luck.

This 100%. I have no doubts about their intelligence or skill. The only problem here is that they have a different set of "Common Sense" than is needed here. The instincts to know how much to document and how much to standardize isn't a skill you need when a business first starts off with 2 or 3 people. It isn't until a business hits a certain critical mass that you have to do things like TPM or maintain quality metrics. And somewhere around 20 employees and a couple thousand part-numbers we hit that critical mass.

 

[Randy]

So what's your point? One instance doesn't establish any type of trend.

My point? It's an example of why OTD is a bogus at best KPI/Objective..........Once whatever leaves your property you have absolutely no control or influence over it, any number of 500 different things can keep it from getting from Point A to point B as planned, on time, including alien abduction. Prove the argument wrong!

 

[Bev D]

Well the OP has said that the real concern is getting product ready to ship in time. They are not concerned with the logistical delivery of product from their facility to the customer. So while your point about delivery has validity it ia not taking concern even if they do use the term OTD.

 

[Jen Kirley]

I can see I am in good company in my dislike of OTD as a performance metric. Unless the actual delivery process is the one being measured, this metric says nothing about what factors led up to it so it less than zero useful - it can be detrimental as people chase around and stab at imagined fixes.

Better to get a sense of what is going well in each of the processes and find what needs improving, one or two at a time at most so you can see the effect of what was done for better or worse. Like @Miner said, start small with areas people have already grown to appreciate improvements in.

Do what needs to be done to make these improvements, and do the right thing as you go and you may find you can take a step back to look at it and see the QMS is developing. Just don't call it that, for goodness sake because the term can bring with it the idea of some type of torture or evil experiment. It's just doing the right thing so matters will be better for all involved - unless people like doing rework or standing around with senseless delays they would likely be okay with do the right thing.

Stealth Quality vs No Quality

 

[Big Jim]

Whatever others may think of OTD (or whatever other name they use or slight modification they may use such as on-time shipment) it is valuable as the "canary in the coal mine" as it provides evidence that the organization is functioning well, or not. If the score is low, it cannot tell you what is wrong, but it does warn you that something is wrong and an investigation is needed.

 

[Bev D]

Whatever others may think of OTD (or whatever other name they use or slight modification they may use such as on-time shipment) it is valuable as the "canary in the coal mine" as it provides evidence that the organization is functioning well, or not. If the score is low, it cannot tell you what is wrong, but it does warn you that something is wrong and an investigation is needed.

Great point: This is true of every high level metric. (Delivery, profit, ‘quality) or medium level metric (OEE, Warranty, Complaint Rate…) Even many specific single characteristic dimensions often cannot tell you what is causing the problem only that something is a problem . We still need to investigate. Hands-on, boots on the ground observation and diagnostic experimentation (aka Problem Solving) Some of the current ‘revulsion’ and minimalism about metrics is driven by this misunderstanding that the ‘metric’ has to be perfect and/or it can tell you what is causing the miss….auditors and managers can both be victims of this…

Unfortunately too many people think only of perfection in the metric or think that every metric must meet the target every time or every metric not meeting the target must be worked on everyday. ‘Aspirational’ targets are set in hopes that even if the target won’t be met, the ‘efforts’ will at least be better than if a ‘realistic’ goal is set: Banners and exhortation! Deming was on point when he said that ‘goals’ without a method of monitoring them, understanding them and improving them were foolish.

Fortunately the OP seems to understand at least part of this: focusing on ‘on time shipment’ and why there are misses to identify the causes and improve performance. They understand that the misses are driving customers away and this will not support growth (especially in the automotive industry). Unfortunately their management is stuck on ‘do better, try harder’…

 

[Big Jim]

Great point: This is true of every high level metric. (Delivery, profit, ‘quality) or medium level metric (OEE, Warranty, Complaint Rate…) Even many specific single characteristic dimensions often cannot tell you what is causing the problem only that something is a problem . We still need to investigate. Hands-on, boots on the ground observation and diagnostic experimentation (aka Problem Solving) Some of the current ‘revulsion’ and minimalism about metrics

Unfortunately too many people think only of perfection in the metric or think that every metric must meet the target every time or every metric not meeting the target must be worked on everyday. ‘Aspirational’ targets are set in hopes that even if the target won’t be met, the ‘efforts’ will at least better than if a ‘realistic’ goal is set: Banners and exhortation! Deming was on point when he said that ‘goals’ without a method of monitoring them, understanding them and improving them were foolish.

Fortunately the OP seems to understand at least part of this: focusing on ‘on time shipment’ and why there are misses to identify the causes and improve performance. They understand that the misses are driving customers away and this will not support growth (especially in the automotive industry). Unfortunately their management is stuck on ‘do better, try harder’…

Probably the biggest thing I learned from my statistics classes is that when you see something that is outside of the expected range, you don't just grab a hammer and knock it down into place. It's an indicator of something that is not doing well, and if a proper investigation is not part of the resolution, you are not really accomplishing anything.

A prime example I remember well from my service technician days in a Lincoln Mercury Dealership, we were hammered by Ford about our replacement of batteries was way over expectations based on all Ford and Lincoln Mercury Dealerships. We were beyond three standard deviations on the curve. Ford's response was that every battery we replaced had to be checked by the service representative before the warranty claim was paid. The testing device was a bit primitive so sometimes a battery that we knew had failed tested OK. Eventually, Ford realized that the out of expectations quantity of battery replacements were on the Capri, a German designed and built car sold in Lincoln Mercury Dealerships. Once the metric was split to identify that, Ford recognized that we sold many more Capris than any other Lincoln Mercury Dealership. Finally, it was recognized that the battery failure rate on the European made battery wasn't any worse than those sold in Europe. It took a while for Ford to realize it was their issue to own, not the technicians or service management in our dealership.

 

[Golfman25]

My point? It's an example of why OTD is a bogus at best KPI/Objective..........Once whatever leaves your property you have absolutely no control or influence over it, any number of 500 different things can keep it from getting from Point A to point B as planned, on time, including alien abduction. Prove the argument wrong!

Right, but as I already said most of us define "delivery" as when we put it on the truck (or in some instances when we call the truck, as they have been known not to show up from time to time). Technically, that is our legal obligation. And that gives us and idea how well our operation is running.

My customers measure when they physically receive the product. So there is up to a week gap between the two. And guess what, 99% there are no issues. We ship, they receive and our numbers match up. Every so often a truck gets "lost" and the delivery shows up "late." It's pretty obvious as there is a record of the shipment. We move on because it's a waste of everyone's time to worry about it, unless it is a chronic issue and then the trucking company is replaced. Your concern about OTD is misplaced.

 

[Golfman25]

This 100%. I have no doubts about their intelligence or skill. The only problem here is that they have a different set of "Common Sense" than is needed here. The instincts to know how much to document and how much to standardize isn't a skill you need when a business first starts off with 2 or 3 people. It isn't until a business hits a certain critical mass that you have to do things like TPM or maintain quality metrics. And somewhere around 20 employees and a couple thousand part-numbers we hit that critical mass.

We'll we are past that critical mass and don't even consider things like TPM. We have a simple maintenance program that works for us. And that is what I am talking about. You don't need big fancy programs and a lot of metrics to start. In fact, if you go that way the company quickly becomes overwhelmed. Keep it simple.

 

[sam1973]

Hi, I would suggest to develop KPIs for reducing visible factors affecting real time quality performance, and adapt PDCA approach. I have quite good experience in handling such situations, cheers