Are you production oriented or quality oriented? Do you believe a
process should be monitored and controlled? If so, by what means? If
not, why? Does your company use control charts? Are you an engineer or
an operator? Are you responsible for production quotas?
This is the standard way of running a process without SPC. First, you
have the process running, second, it is inspected. Depending on what the
inspectors find, it is either reworked, scrapped, or ****pped. The
problem with this scenario is this, inspectors are human, they miss
things. How many inspection points does your inspectors look for
concerning your parts? How long do they have to look for them? There is
a good chance of defectives getting to your customer. Adding more
inspectors is not the solution, human nature being what it is. The first
inspector expects the second inspector to catch the defects, while the
second inspector assumes the first inspector caught them. Until the
process is pumping out defectives is it investigated and adjusted and
corrected. Now it is dependant on inspectors to find each and every
defective, your quality department to contain all suspect parts,
investigate repair methods, if possible. Rework. Scrap. The process has
produced defectives, this is the problem.
What SPC tries to accomplish is preventing the making of defectives.
How? By monitoring key areas within the process using statistical
methods. When certain statistical indicators are found, the process is
adjusted and corrected before defectives are produced. The goal is to
make quality parts, and quality parts only. Not wait until defectives
are being produced before action is taken.
There is always a chance of producing defectives, even with SPC in
place. When found, the process needs to be investigated and root cause
found. Real countermeasures need to be placed that 'prevent' more
defectives. It may even be more control charts for another area of the
process. Whatever it is, the key word is prevention. Not detection like
the first scenario.
To answer the questions I posed at the top of this post. I am
definately quality oriented. I believe processes should be monitored and
controlled using SPC. My company uses control chats in a limited
fa****on, I intend to expand on thier use, especially the processes I am
responsible for. I am a customer rep / quality engineer. I am not
responsible for production quotas, I catch the heat when defectives
reach the customer. I am the one who has to comunicate to the customer
what countermeasures have been emplaced to prevent the customer from
getting that specific defect again.
As for leader****p where I work. It has been replaced. For the better.
Those 10 hour days, 7 days a week BS is over. But the effects of it
still linger. They demand real investigations, analysis, and
countermeasuring. They aren't afraid to spend money to improve on
existing processes to make quality parts. Machines are being overhauled,
new machines are being purchased. Training of key sup****t personnel is
the norm now. One couldn't ask for better leader****p than what my
company has right now.
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