| Tuesday, January 31, 2006 |
| "The Man" Wears a Dunce Cap |
So, today, "The Man" -- and by "The Man" I mean the president of the company -- sent an email to the plant manager and his staff regarding a process error that came up this week. In the email he said that the person that made the error needs to be fired and anyone involved in it should be reprimanded.
The error went like this: We had lots of a particular part in inventory. We intended to discontinue using them when we ran out back in November, but our other supplier did not have the capacity to supply our needs. So, at the last minute the purchasing group directed me to order more -- 120,000 more. Because we waited until the last minute (and by "we" I mean "they"), I had to arrange the parts to be flown by commercial airlines to arrive in time to avoid production interruptions.
This one part is coupled with another part. If the two parts are not coupled together and this part is coupled with a third part, the finished automotive safety device is dangerous -- very dangerous. Yesterday, a production supervisor called and asked me if we were still using component two of the two-part assembly. I said, "Of course! You should have been using them all along!" You can imagine the stir this caused.
Since early January, production has not been marrying the two parts together, but have used the third component instead. We discovered that they have built and shipped about 35,000 of these parts. We have another 10,000 components in quarantine.
I know that sounds shocking and someone should be in trouble. But the problem is a system --or process -- error. Documentation was old; and there was nothing in the system to generate a warning. The initial change was done during the middle of the night back in January. People that should have been informed weren't. And, finally, there are two database systems used to track the bills of material. One was changed; the other wasn't.
Firing someone solves nothing. Reprimanding someone may help temporarily. But what keeps it from happening again? Old documentation written months ago and shoved into a folder does not trigger a mechanism that keeps this from happening again. It could happen again and that's the real issue. Fix the system. Don't "put a Band-Aid on it."
Now we'll have people walking around on edge that they'll lose their jobs if they mess up. That doesn't create a proactive, innovative environment.
Uh, oh. Here comes the galley slave driver. I have to go row... |
posted by Joe Napalm @ 4:53 PM   |
|
| 1 Comments: |
-
What you need is a large white board partionted off with thin black tape. You can write all of the changes on this then take a picture of the changes and email them to everyone to print and place on their desks in expensive decorative frames. That way they always have a reminder. If that doesn't work I suggest tattoos.
|
| |
| << Home |
| |
|
|
|
|
What you need is a large white board partionted off with thin black tape. You can write all of the changes on this then take a picture of the changes and email them to everyone to print and place on their desks in expensive decorative frames. That way they always have a reminder. If that doesn't work I suggest tattoos.