Whatever happened to a string tied around a finger...
- Thread starter ScottK
- Start date
this is why i still carry a planner. everything is in one place. Call me a dinosaur if you will, but I am not looking in a dozen places to figure out what is going on when.
J
justncredible
I prefer the surprise method.
"oh the ISO audit is today",,, SURPRISE!
"oh the ISO audit is today",,, SURPRISE!
I prefer the surprise method.
"oh the ISO audit is today",,, SURPRISE!
yeah, like that would go over well
Wes Bucey
Prophet of Profit
Originally Posted by justncredible
I prefer the surprise method.
"oh the ISO audit is today",,, SURPRISE!
Well . . .yeah, like that would go over well
nobody likes surprises, BUT we ran our high-tech contract machining business 24/7 (one shift "lights out") and invited ANYBODY to visit unannounced. Whoever was on hand was qualified to do "the tour" - from the janitor/maintenance man to the CEO.
We also sent notice to customers of the time window when their product would run, if they wanted to come and observe any or all of the process, we were happy to have them.
We had safeguards in place to protect trade secrets of both customers and us, so no security breaches occurred.
Some customers came often, for formal and informal audits. Most never came - one comment from our second biggest customer was, "If you have that much chutzpah to invite 24/7 scrutiny, we don't need to call your bluff; we believe you!"
we pretty much do that here, Wes, but if you want to do an audit, you best set up a time to make sure that the players will be here too. There is a lot of difference in what we call walk throughs, and true audits.
Wes Bucey
Prophet of Profit
The audit is of the process, not the individual. Even when the lights were out (turned on , of course, by the tour guide), the process continued. If in-process inspection was performed, it was done by automated probes, directly feeding data into programs which could shut down a process if a trend indicated an OOC condition. Since most personnel were cross-trained, we tried to assure a process didn't stop just because of the absence of an individual. We were relentless in seeking and removing bottlenecks.
When I say the janitor could conduct the tour, I meant it literally, right down to retrieving data or documents from the computer and presenting copies to authorized recipients. Obviously, we didn't give it to a customer's competitor. We had tracking to identify who retrieved documents and when with a failsafe (enter the customer code and software automatically denied info unauthorized for that customer.)
Heck! By the year 2000, customers were able to query our computer directly and draw down raw data or reports without ever physically coming to the site.
Our boast and followthrough was, "We do the impossible ROUTINELY!" We encouraged all personnel to work "smarter, not harder." I was happy to see an operator sitting at his desk in a soundproof room while his machine ran merrily along a hundred feet away, producing parts. That meant he had his process under control and was confident enough to let it run. I was confident enough in the operator that I knew he was working on something that would benefit the company and ultimately himself and not suspicious and paranoid that he was goofing off.
I've written on this theme before - we really walked the talk!
J
JaneB
Nah, the Palm Pilot works for me. Lost without it, synchonised with Outlook - string & words on hands is so last century..(remember that continuous improvement bit we keep hounding others about?)