The hidden rainbow in 7 manufacturing process inputs - how to find it

There are many factors which could impact each process input and result in variation even if the product is well designed. The table below shows the potential problem in each process input.  This is only a fraction of the problem, and there could be more. 

 

Process input	Potential source of variation
Man	Emotion, absent from work, fatigue, no proper training process
Machine	Wear and tear, natural shift or drift of machine
Method	No written work instruction, unclear work instruction, complicated work instruction
Material	Material from multiple suppliers, not able to control supplier process input
Measure	Measure process not set up properly, operator not train to measurement, natural shift of measuring equipment
Environment	Product sensitive to changes in temperature and not proper control in place

If one of the areas is not appropriately planned during the setup,  it could results in dire consequences in the final product and end as a reject at the customer site.  A proactive approach would be to set up and control each process input properly to minimize the risk of the quality issue in the end product.  This had to be coupled with correct process output monitoring which enables early warning if there is potential in the process input.    With that say I have prepared a blue print on process input which will guide you on what are the areas to control in each process inputs and  would like to share with my audience on this website.   It will help you to uncover the hidden rainbow which leads to your pot of gold.   Please click on the image below to claim your free gift 

The hidden rainbow in 7 manufacturing process inputs

The manufacturing process is a series of work which transform materials in a repetitive large-scale environment to a finished product that customer is willing to pay for.   All man-made product we use every day from the simplest product such as a toothbrush to a sophisticated high technology product will go through many manufacturing processes in multiple factories.  Multiple manufacturing entities, together with transportation and logistic form a long supply chain. 

A process must consist of a series of actions that transform process input into the process output per figure below:- 

Figure 1. Process input vs process output

The process output can be, in turn, become a process input in the subsequent process. Typical manufacturing process inputs are materials, man, methods, machine, measure and environment known as 5Ms and 1E.  Product design is one more process input which will impact the process output. The process output can be, in turn, become a process input in the subsequent process.

Each process input must be set up and control properly to achieve the desired process output either as a finished good or a process input to a subsequent process. Remember garbage in garbage out.  An end consumer product could go through hundreds if not thousands of transformation process per figure below from one manufacturing entity to another per the figure above.   A product which had gone through 100  transformation processes with seven process input would have 700 opportunities for error which impact the product quality.   There could be a potential of scrap or rework cost, which of quality cost if the process input is not setup correctly.

Even a simple toothbrush will consist of multi-tier supplier’s product transformation.

Therefore setting up process input properly is critical to all production process.  The next question is, what does it take to set up the manufacturing process inputs correctly to get to the end of the rainbow🌈 .  More in the next article.

Book Release with two free gifts : -7 Essentials in Supplier Quality Management

Click on the photo below!!👇

I have decided to start my first book base on my subject matter of expertise in supplier quality management.  Two decades of my experience in systematically managing supplier quality to achieve consistently good quality products is shared in this book.

Company success relies heavily on the quality of material received from the supplier along the supply chain. Many organizations had been struggling with low-quality incoming part from suppliers and pay way above the actual material cost to manage those inferior quality parts.   Imagine an organization have a customer who is ready to buy the product; however, there is no material to transform the product into sales. Almost all supplier delivery problem is associated with the supplier having quality issues which had caused limited supply or inferior quality product. It is nearly impossible to turn defective materials into good quality products.  

Organizations are paying way above the actual material cost due to poor quality as additional cost are incurred in the following areas:-

1.  Defective material inventory cost
2.  Transportation of poor quality material
3.  Storage space to store poor quality material
4.  Hire more workers to screen inferior quality parts
5.  Compensation cost to customer due to late delivery

This book focuses on a systematic approach in 7 essentials of area supplier quality to achieve defect-free product from supplier process. This single system would help to reduce variation in managing different suppliers which also leads to consistent results.  In turn, this will enable an organization to receive consistent good quality part to feed the manufacturing process can convert the product into sales and revenue. There are a total of 16 figures and five tables to summarize a large amount of information which enhance the reading experience of this book.   This book is written by a supplier quality practitioner like me for a supplier quality practitioner. 

Two exclusive gifts are included on

• Guide on how to build a supplier audit checklist and
• Excel format sample checklist.  The reader can directly use the excel checklist to create final quality audit checklist. 

Finally appreciate the support for this book from audiences in this website.  

The book is available through this link:.  You can also click on the photo above to get the link.

https://www.amazon.com/author/evelyntan