Operation Improvement Inc.

Early in my consulting work, we were doing a series of Quality training classes at a plant in Tennessee. My associate, James, asked the class about “scrap”. The class said we don’t have a scrap problem, and James held up a little tip of rubber – a trimming from a finished product that amounted to a significant quantity every month.

Every process has a product and a by-product. The “product” of an operation is often subjected to inspections, reporting and analysis that we call “burnt biscuit reports.”. Even if a facility is fortunate and has no “burnt biscuits”, there are still opportunities to learn and improve by, for example, examining the by-products of production.

Of course, Statistical Process Control looks at the processes that -make- the biscuits. It moves the focus from biscuits to baking. When we are “baking”, “mixing”, “pouring”, “cooling”; we want metrics that we can quantify critical aspects of those actions in addition to those of the product.

Finally, the input of every process is the output of a predecessor. A “Walkabout” style visualization pulls together the important relationships between incoming product, process, outgoing product metrics, and by-product!. We describe it as a way to “learn, share, teach and improve”.

Some call this style of documentation, a “functional block diagram”. Our use of the technique began by understanding its traditional use for “divide and conquer” signal tracing in the electronics industry. We then adapted it to latex form and mold manufacturing, hydraulic valve machining and assembly, chemical baths and plating, IT support processes, call center/telephony processes, and more.

If you find this approach helpful, check out these books: The Abbott Walkabout Series & Thirtysevenideas.com

What is It? Where is It? What Does It Do?

How Does It Work?

Process automation can and does mean anything from data collection, repetitive manufacturing or maintenance task execution, service organization reporting, software testing and deployment and more.

For operations monitoring in particular, and for automation in general, there are three principles that should be followed as a guide to success.

1. To successfully automate a task, you must understand in principle how to perform the work manually. With data collection, you need to have a clear picture of the thing or activity, its attribute, the type and units of measure, and the measurement method. Automation is a tool that allows one to perform the work of many.
2. You must keep the focus on the ‘why’ of automating a manual process. In the case of data collection, does automation produce information that is more timely, more accurate and less expensive than other means?
3. You must periodically audit the automated process from the ground up. With data collection, you need to audit the flow of data from the point measurement takes place, up through any rollups, summary statistics and reporting. (See #1)

Finally, with operations monitoring automation, remember that the goal is conceptual understanding and ideas that are useful/actionable. Don’t ‘bury the lead’ in pages and pages of unnecessary reporting, data analysis and out-of-context graphics.

Check out the Keyence.com case studies library for more on Automation Tech: https://www.keyence.com/solutions/case-studies/

See Also:

Operation Improvement Inc. » Learn, Share, Teach, Improve

At the highest level, a business is defined by its goals and strategies. (Ends and Means) Within that context, a process is a plan for creating a capability, a potential to produce. When executed, a good process plan delivers the correct product, consistently with measurable results.

The product could be that “widget” every book mentions – “we can produce 1000 widgets an hour from iron castings”. Product could even be an intangible like electric power or bandwidth – “we can provide energy for a 100 Kilowatt demand for up to 8 hours out of 24 from sunlight”.

Note the words “can” and “from”. Process improvement simply means improving our ability to make more with less. The “less” could mean less raw material, less expensive equipment, less time, less risk or less waste. (Every process has a product and a by-product.) Improvement only happens by accident, or when we learn something. The reverse is also true. Process performance worsens sometimes by accident or when we forget. Accidental improvements are temporary. Knowledge is the key.

So, the question of most important process takes us in three directions.

First: It is good advice to “play to one’s strengths.” What are our strengths? What are the core competencies that we can develop and improve? What are those processes that should never be outsourced? Those are most certainly highest in importance.

Second: The Sustainment process. An important component of operations management is continually training, reviewing methods, correct use of tools and technology, safety protocols, and so on. Professional athletes, performers and musicians never stop practicing and rehearsing.

Third: The Learning process. Since accidents do happen, an incident should trigger a learning process. Was the consequence of the accident a good thing or a bad thing? Why did the accident happen? I like a simple classic approach to causal analysis.

A. Identify the immediate cause. – (The roadway nail that caused a flat tire.)

B. Look for a causal chain of events. – (The carpentry truck ahead with the open toolbox. The speed bump. The speed at which the carpenter drives.)

C. Examine human action. What choices and decisions could have been, and will be different? – (Lock the toolbox. Slow down for speed bumps.)

Finally, don’t wait for accidents to happen. A fire drill is sustainment. An experiment-day is a controlled and managed “accident”, a way for us to learn what makes a process better or worse.