|
|
Improving Quality, Efficiency
& Profitability
|
|
|
|
|
“Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design,
manufacturing, layout, processes, and procedures.”
Tom Peters
|
|
|
|
|
|
 This quote may seem a bit simplistic, but there’s real truth to it. To put it into context, let’s take fireworks. The 4th of July is full of fireworks, beautiful displays in the night sky, that have been around for two thousand years. Although there have been improvements in safety and in the diversity of how they explode in the sky, they are very similar to how they were a few hundred years ago. The principle is quite simple and the quality of what we look at improves seemingly every year.
Does your operation improve every year? Do you need a reminder in the KISS Principle? Give us a call . . . we won’t “KISS” you, but we can help improve your quality!
Have a wonderful – and safe – summer!
Sal Ganino
Manufacturing ETC
|
|
|
 Managing for Quality |
|
SPC and the Cost of Quality
by Sal Ganino
The Cost of Quality has been defined as the sum of 4 separate costs: the cost of prevention, the cost of appraisal, the cost of internal failure and the cost of external failure.
Cost of prevention is the cost of activities focused on preventing poor quality in the product or service. These costs can be things such as the design process, process capability studies, quality meetings and planning and a host of other activities having to do with preventing failures.
Costs of appraisal are those costs associated with measuring or evaluating conformance to your standards, specifications and quality measures. These include things such as inspections (incoming material and product testing); product, process and service audits; calibrations, as well as the cost of the equipment and materials to appraise the product or service. Click here to read the complete article.
|
|
Lean Manufacturing
|
|
Platypus?
by Sal Ganino
While thinking about this newsletter my mind wandered to the “Duck-billed Platypus”. Most of us are familiar with the anomaly of nature with its duck-bill and webbed feet, its body and tail resembling that of a beaver, but having the denser fur of an otter. It has several reptilian characteristics and even though the platypus’ body temperature is about five Celsius degrees below that of most mammals it is much more mammalian than reptilian.
Why bring this up for discussion? Because most manufacturing operations are a platypus, not totally a product environment (low variety, high volume) nor totally a process environment or job shop (low volume, high variety), yet they tend to gravitate toward the newest manufacturing management technique as if they were purely fowl, reptile, or mammal, and not easy to look at, but yet we continue to look for a single solution for all production woes. Click here to read the complete article.
|
|
MRP/ERP
|
|
Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP-II)
by Sal Ganino
So you have MRP but it’s not helping you manage and control inventory, it’s not doing a good job of production scheduling, you have inventory all over the place, and your promise dates are constantly moving out, and deliveries to customers has never been worse. Don’t blame the software; remember the old adage, garbage in-garbage out.
You probably have one to five employees working feverishly trying to scheduling production, plan purchases, control inventory levels, and satisfy customer demand. To help them out you have established some company or corporate objective: purchasing must reduce the cost of materials by X%, manufacturing’s goal is to improve labor utilization by Y%, and finally on-time delivery performance must improve by Q%. Click here to read the complete article.
|
|
|
|
For more information or to schedule training
call (518) 377-6107
|
|
|
