Pitch Perfect Production: How To Strike Out Your Production Quality Concerns
In baseball, when a pitcher starts walking batters or giving up hits, commentators often attribute it to the pitcher’s poor mechanics. Much like a pitcher must improve his mechanics to strike hitters out, improving quality in your factory relies on repetition, using analytics and quickly diagnosing and correcting problems. To help you strike out any quality concerns in your plant, here are three ways to improve production quality.
STRIKE ONE: AUTOMATE PROCESSES TO REDUCE VARIATION
Just as pitchers must focus on repeating their throwing motion, manufacturers must focus on reducing variation (and repeating high quality performance) in their processes. Processes with a lot of variation can lead to a larger amount of scrap material, and producing bad product wastes time and resources. Automating those processes can help you reduce scrap rate, increase production and meet delivery dates.
One way to automate quality control checks is using smart machines and sensors to inspect objects and verify that picking and parts assembly are done correctly. Robots are another effective way to improve consistency for repetitive tasks. Unlike humans, once a robot is programmed to perform a task, it will perform that task the same way every time. Using these tools to automate processes reduces waste and improves efficiency.
STRIKE TWO: USE TECHNOLOGY AND ANALYTICS TO IMPROVE WORKFORCE QUALITY
Major league pitchers analyze the latest video technology and data to help increase their velocity and spin rate—improving the quality of their pitches. Using a Quality Management System (QMS), like Plex’s cloud-based module, makes workers more impactful by giving them the tools and insight they need to perform like an ace.
Many plants are making a wide variety of products that can all have different quality check procedures. With a QMS, an operator on the plant floor can view their next tasks on a monitor or tablet as they work. Plex also digitizes and automates record keeping, so workers can document and access quality checks and troubleshooting procedures. If workers can quickly view what they should do next, they can perform their tasks more quickly and confidently. Plex also continuously monitors plant production and performance, so workers can prioritize tasks. Additionally, if you are required to make production or quality data available for the FDA, or other regulated entities, the QMS can do that accurately and free up an employee to perform higher value-added work.
STRIKE THREE: MONITOR PERFORMANCE TO REMEDIATE ISSUES BEFORE THEY ARISE
A good pitching coach can quickly identify when their pitcher’s mechanics are off and visit the mound before he loses command. Using smart sensing and a QMS provides real-time feedback, so you can diagnose potential issues and perform preventative maintenance before they affect the quality of your production.
A QMS, like Plex, allows you to set quality parameters, so you can be alerted to issues and escalate them to your Production Supervisor or Quality Leads. For example, if a line produces five defective products in a row, you would be alerted. If machines have started to drift or certain parts are starting to wear down, you can replace parts or correct the problem before you begin to produce more scrap material. Even if there is no glaring issue, analyzing the quality data from your QMS allows you to make changes to further improve your production processes.
Improving your production quality makes your operations more efficient and productive. Call us at 712-247-1410 and ask to speak with one of our solutions consultants to learn how Van Meter can help you improve quality in your plant, and start performing like a pro.
