Hi,
I agree that professional-role accountability (QA, Process, Manufacturing, Materials, etc...) is of paramount importance.
in fact nothing yielding results, gets to be done without followup in continual improvement action unless individuals are held accountable for their department actions (or lack of action). Cheers for your remarkable powers of observation!
Just as a point, we get much better results in using a simple Excel tabulation format, used in conjunction with the fish-bone diagram and paerto charts (occassionally backed up by the process C-charts, etc...).
we yield faster "paper conceptulation into engineering action" turn around times. we spend less time in the conference room scribing words/numbers on the white boards, and more time working in the factory floor. time spent in the conference room is confined to reporting back what we did (based on last discussion action plan requirements) and what were the results.
A) Good results? implement and monitor for further improvements. we can alt. focus on next highest reject mode.
B) Lousy results? what went wrong? determine root cause, was it :
1) manpower understanding of instruction?
2) methodology of physical working condition?
3) method of data collection and conditions' monitoring?
4) direct/indirect materials flaws (eg. oxidized leads, or slumpy solder paste)?
5) machine conditions? (performance limit in machine capability?)
6) environment? (eg. plastic injection moulding find higher rejects during cold weathers). we also group method ergonomics here.
Feel free to add onto your list. the people to ask during brainstorm sessions are the folks directly doing the jobs everyday. dun just ask/focus on the folks who sit in the meetings all day. Many times we find something that is not theory-wise supposed to happen, just happens... *murphy's law*.
Bottom line, work smart not hard.(no shortcuts in process control).
quality *customer acceptance of delivery* results are what count; not how many hours we clock into the payroll system nor how well the documentation files looks. we learnt it all the hard way. good luck if you dun learn from others.
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