Incoming Inspection Reduces Production Delays
It’s really interesting to me (well, maybe I’m weird!) how improvements in procedures in one area of a company can have such a profound impact on another area, or on the entire organization.
Take company A, who implemented an effective incoming inspection procedure as part of their ISO9001:2000 quality system. Prior to implementing the quality standard, they did pretty much what a lot of companies do…..they have a guy doing receiving who’s been there a long time and “knows” everything about the job. They’ve been dealing with the same vendors for years, and they just accept the fact that a certain number of defective products will be received.
Of course, these defective products were often not discovered until something didn’t fit in production. The problems are usually too small to detect without using a micrometer or calipers. But when their vendor’s defective product was discovered, now the whole production line has to be stopped, and there are no good parts with which to make finished product.
After implementing ISO, an effective incoming inspection program was implemented, with a sample of 5 units inspected out of each 100 received. It takes one person an extra 4 to 5 minutes to receive each batch of parts from the vendor, once per day. But overall the company has saved about 2 hours per week, for their production crew of 4, for a total time savings of 8 man hours per week saved. Not to mention shipments are made quicker, and customers are happier.
There was a bit of resistance by the receiving guy at first, no one likes to be told to change his ways, but the company ended up saving time, money, and increasing their sales.
We'd like to hear your comments on this post (below).
- Receiving Inspection Pros and Cons
- Quality System Inspection Criteria
- Create a Segregated Area for Nonconforming Material
- ISO9001:2000 FAQ’s Part 2
- Control of Nonconforming Product in an ISO9001:2000 Quality
- To Calibrate or Not to Calibrate Devices in ISO9001:2000
- Using outside companies as part of your Production Process in ISO9001:2000
- How to satisfy section 8.4 Analysis of Data in ISO9001:2000
- The Importance of Shipping Inspection
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:36 am
A point not considered is the fact that the inspection made nothing better, the supplies remained unchanged, but the cost of procuring the parts increased.
The real solution to the organisation’s problem would have been to require the supplier to carry out the inspection to the same level, using a valid sampling plan and appropriate management activity to rectify failings. That would have led to an improvement because of the additional supplier overhead.
Ed.
http://www.rent-an-auditor.co.uk