List 30 2014

Occupational Safety Management systems : OHSAS 18001:2007

A BS 18001 health and safety management system is a systematic and process driven approach to controlling and monitoring risks that can arise from the company’s day to day activities. This system is proven to enable the business to be pro-active rather then re-active, therefore more effectively protecting the health and welfare of your workforce on an on-going basis.

Why BS OHSAS 18001 Certification?

By obtaining the BS OHSAS 18001 Certification you can prove to your stakeholders, customers and staff that you are aware of your health and safety obligations and are looking to minimise the risks that are associated. The main benefit of obtaining BS OHSAS 18001 are:

Benefits to you:

Enhanced reputation as a health and safety conscious organisation.
Reduced risk of potential litigation cases, for example through reducing the number of accidents in the work place.
Improved productivity of the workforce as potential for absenteeism and sickness is reduced.

Benefits to your customers:

By conducting rigorous risk and hazard assessments customers are reassured that products / services are delivered within legal requirements.
Knowledge that heightened awareness of health and safety codes of practice is promoted throughout the supply chain.

Benefits to your staff:

Peace of mind that they are employed by a company that promotes health and safety in the workplace, and involvement from all staff to ensure it is a safe place to work.
Ability to take responsibility for hazard identification and risk assessment therefore contributing to accidents / incident reporting; consequently improving morale.
Job security improved through enhanced business performancepe your paragraph here

List 25 2014

Leader Standard Work?

Leader standard work? Is it valuable?

Leader standard work as being fundamental to any company that is committed to continuous improvement and culture change. Leader standard work is part of what is included in third principle of manufacturing excellence, i.e., it is the disciplined use of an authorized formal system.

Typically, manufacturing companies are meticulous about creating standard work for machine operators, e.g., job instructions. The job instructions for a particular process are very detailed and represent the required behavior to produce products that meet the customer specification. I hope we always collect the operators’ input before an engineer or technician retires to the office to formalize the instructions.

But once the job instructions have been committed to the formal system, then we don’t vote anymore about how to do this work. We expect the instructions to always be followed until and unless someone comes up with a better idea to be vetted and tested before changing the standard work and retraining the affected people.

On the other hand, the closest thing many companies have to leader standard work is the position description. Even a very well-thought-out and written position description is far too general to be used on the day-to-day responsibilities.

Leader standard work requires the commitment to detail the important responsibilities of a leader, some of which do not happen from the comfort of the office.

Leader standard work, in the case of the first line supervisor, involves having a daily plan of what the leader’s key duties are. Those might specify, for example, at least three gemba walks and dialog with each person in the area each day.

As we go up the ladder, the plan could become weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc., depending on the level in the organization. For example, a plant manager might commit to a daily gemba walk to touch base with the value stream managers, supervisors and a few hourly associates in each area just to understand how the plant is running each day, what the issues are and, yes, to be visible to everyone.

The plant manager also is behaving in a way that serves to coach people along the way. If the manager sees a potentially unsafe condition, does she walk on by or stop and engage the issue? The leader’s response will speak volumes to all those who are watching to see what happens next.

It’s a teachable moment if handled properly and helps to reinforce the new culture that would expect operators, material handlers, etc., to step up themselves rather than wait on a member of management to respond. Hourly folks typically see these things first, and we want to help them know what to do and feel confident enough to speak up and help keep their teammates safe as well as themselves.

The same kind of coaching opportunity could occur on a quality issue, schedule issue, maintenance, whatever. This important work cannot be done from the office.

The plant manager might also plan and execute a monthly “state of the business” meeting for everyone once a month. The VP of manufacturing/operations might do it quarterly along with a gemba walk. The CEO might do a video for companywide viewing on full-year results and expectations for the new year.

These opportunities to be visible and interactive provide the means to ensure that leadership’s expectations are clear for the results and behaviors that we seek.

source: http://www.industryweek.com

List 20 2014

Tips for Improvement of Quality in your company

No doubt, we live in an imperfect world: People make mistakes and machines break. The goal is to minimize this so that the client is enchanted and reorders. You can do that through a relentless focus on quality. Improving quality will save your firm money because you won’t need to do things to cover up old mistakes. Improving quality will raise your employees’ engagement because people like being on a high performance team.

How do you make sure quality is exceptional at your firm? Here are tips to improve quality fast.

Measure and Measure Some More

Two key performance indicators (KPIs) you should deploy today are quality escapes and quality captured. Determine which bucket quality mistakes fall into. The first bucket is comprised of mistakes that were internally „captured” by your team so the client was never aware of them. Captured quality errors aren’t as bad because the client never knew — maybe they suffered a delayed delivery, but that’s it. Your client is not injured by the stumble.

The second bucket consists of quality issues that „escaped” your operation and were discovered by the client. These escaped quality defects are horrific. Your client is exposed to your firm’s failure, which undermines the long term vendor relationship. But measuring these mistakes transparently will bring your team’s attention to these issues and you’ll see improvement from the spotlight effect: The team will understand they are important.

Focus on Process, Not People

Every employee comes to work to do a good job. In most cases, the defect is the process, not the person you trust. Remember that, and fix it by adding process steps or new checks to the system. Don’t make it a game of „who screwed this up?” That will deflate the team. Everyone will cower in fear and point fingers without ever getting to the root cause.

Meet Weekly

Initially the meetings will be long and tedious. You need to discuss with all the players each quality issue that occurred, and get to the root cause. Over time–less time than you think–the meetings will get shorter, as processes are strengthened and systems get more robust. Confidence will build as people see the systems are catching errors and eliminating heartburn.

Create a Quality Chart

Sort the biggest quality issues by category and focus in on the big issues. Work them till they get to be small issues. Don’t focus as much time on the unusual quality issues; spend your time in the places with the most frequent problems.

Make It Public

Place your quality results in your lunchroom. Everyone should see this is a company emphasis and you want to improve in a transparent way. The daily, visible reminder will demonstrate your commitment to quality to the people who impact it every day: your team.

source: http://www.inc.com

List 18 2014

Continuous Improvement – Way of Developing New Products

Many companies pursuing lean transformation and continuous improvement are focusing on the customer fulfillment operations to improve quality and delivery while reducing costs.

Organizations are working to reduce lead time, improve quality, and make their manufacturing and distribution operations more efficient in an effort to cut costs. While these improvements are important, they are not sufficient in today’s globally competitive manufacturing world.

In many companies today, direct labor is a single-digit percentage of the cost of goods sold (COGS), with purchased materials and overhead burden making up over 90% of their COGS. Even with these cost breakdowns, many continuous improvement efforts still focus on trying to eliminate waste in the manufacturing process to use labor more efficiently to reduce labor content. These efforts will produce some small incremental improvements in the COGS, but a much better opportunity exists early in the new product design cycle.

It is estimated by some product development experts that 80% of the final cost of a new product is determined in the first 20% of the design cycle where the product concept and initial design philosophy are chosen. If you involve your manufacturing organization and your suppliers at these very early stages of the cycle and form a concurrent engineering design team, you have the opportunity to design products for manufacturing and assembly, both at your suppliers and in your own operations as well as using their expertise in your designs. Using such design-for-manufacturing techniques as reduced parts count, substitution of molded plastics or pressed and sintered powdered metal parts for machined metal and poka-yoke designs to eliminate assembly errors, your new products can be developed with a radically lower final cost of goods sold.

People from your manufacturing operations are a great resource to use with your product design teams to offer suggestions on how designs can be manufactured and how costs can be reduced by making products easier to assemble, with less chance for quality issues and their resultant scrap and rework costs. Manufacturing engineers can plan how to produce a new product while it’s still in design when options for processing methods and equipment are still available. Operators can evaluate their ability to assemble new products and can offer suggestions on visibility and accessibility of components before designs are frozen.

Manufacturing personnel who are familiar with existing products can suggest part substitutions to increase commonality of parts rather than having all unique components. A unique fastener that is out of stock will shut down a product operation just as surely as a custom casting or machined component, but common fasteners can often be designed in from the start.

Your suppliers, working with your product development teams, can suggest design alternatives that often reduce a product’s material cost by up to 50%. Rather than just giving them a component specification to quote, use their expertise to suggest alternate materials, design options, different fabrication techniques, and tolerances that really matter to reduce your product’s component costs. Too often, suppliers are not trusted and not involved until the design is complete and your organization has lost the opportunity to exploit the supplier’s expertise to minimize component costs by being involved with the design team from the very beginning.

There are a number of organizations utilizing concurrent engineering design teams today to incorporate the knowledge and unique experience of suppliers, manufacturing engineers, quality professionals, production and distribution personnel, accounting/finance folks and marketing/sales people to bring increased knowledge and expertise to the team to get better designs at a lower product cost. These teams are part of the design process from the very beginning, at the ideation phase, to develop new products that are better quality and lower cost than those designed exclusively behind the curtain of new-product engineering. Don’t forget to involve your suppliers and operations organization in your new product-development process at the very start.

source: http://www.industryweek.com

List 17 2014

Manufacturing Trends in 2015

Manufacturing Trends that will Shape the Market in 2015

Greater automation and investment driven by accelerated production cycles, advanced technology and changing labor demographics will continue to revolutionize the industry

As 2015 approaches it’s time to look ahead at emerging trends that will impact 21^stcentury manufacturing around the globe.

The entire supply chain ecosystem — encompassing manufacturers, distributors and retailers — is undergoing a business transformation. This is in response to changing dynamics involving shifting consumer expectations, time to market and intense global competition that is being dictated by the rising Internet and mobile economies.

Advances in technology — coupled with changing labor demographics — are proving to be the lynchpin shaping this new business model. To remain economically viable, retailers must sell products faster and at competitive prices which sends a ripple effect down the supply chain. For example, manufacturers must accelerate production cycles and distributors must shorten delivery times.

Stakeholders throughout the supply chain have no choice but to adjust their business models to meet consumer demand and increase profits. However, technology is helping businesses stay relevant in these changing times. Let’s take a look at five manufacturing trends that will impact the industry in 2015:

‚SMAC Stack’ adoption to gain speed.A manufacturing comeback is being driven by SMAC — social, mobile, analytics and cloud. The SMAC Stack is becoming an essential technology tool kit for enterprises and represents the next wave for driving higher customer engagement and growth opportunities. The need to innovate is forcing cultural change within a historically conservative „if it’s not broke don’t fix it” industry, and SMAC is helping early adopters in the manufacturing market increase efficiencies and change.
Social media to further impact business model innovation. According to an IDC white paper, „The Future of Manufacturing,” sponsored by Infor, social media is forcing manufacturers to become more customer-centric. The traditional business-to-business model is becoming outdated because today’s connected consumers are better informed and expect products on-demand. Consumers compare, select or buy multiple products with a tap of their smartphone or tablet, and social media has become their preferred communication platform. This consumer purchasing style is not only having an impact on brand-oriented value chains, but is transforming traditional B2B to B2B2C models.
Internet of Things (IoT) will increase automation and job opportunities.A renewed focus on science and engineering education is cultivating a manufacturing workforce that can manage highly technical systems and allow for greater automation. This frees up employees to put their talents to work on R&D which is helping to redefine what it means to have a career in manufacturing. In addition, IoT allows for condition-based maintenance which is driving efficiencies as businesses save on labor and service costs.
Greater capital investment.Though the slow economic recovery continues to hinder expansion and growth opportunities, recent government and industry reports show an uptick in capital investment funding. As manufacturers become focused on capturing value through innovation, original design and speed to market, they are increasing spend for upgrading plant, equipment and technologies.
The emergence of „Next-Shoring.”The rise of a more technical labor force to manage supply chain operations — combined with rising wages in Asia, higher shipping costs and the need to accelerate time to market to meet retailer and consumer demands — has led to more companies shifting their manufacturing strategies from outsourcing overseas to developing products closer to where they will be sold. „Next-shoring,” as this tactic has been dubbed, allows manufacturers to increase the speed at which product is replenished on store shelves. The faster inventory can be moved to the consumer, the sooner the costs to warehouse, ship and dock goods can be freed up.

These are a few of the game-changing trends expected to impact manufacturing in 2015 and it will be exciting to watch which take off as the industry continues to evolve.

source: http://www.industryweek.com

List 17 2014

Revised ISO 9001 Standard Moves Closer to Completion

The revised standard will retain its strong focus on a process-based approach to quality management systems.

There is change afoot with respect to the ISO 9001 standard on quality management systems.

It is not unexpected change. All ISO standards are reviewed every three to five years to determine whether revisions are needed to keep the standards current and relevant in the marketplace, according to the International Organization for Standardization.

ISO 9001 is in the late stages of the revision process, with a new edition expected in 2015.

There are several changes outlined in the ISO 9001: 2015 edition, although the standard will retain its strong focus on a process-based approach to produce desired outcomes, explained Nigel Croft, chair of the ISO subcommittee revising the standard, in a Web update. „…which in the case of a quality management systems means, of course, consistent products and services consistently meeting customer needs and expectations.”

The changes focus on three concepts:

The process approach will strongly emphasize that the quality management system has to be woven into and fully aligned with an organization’s strategic direction.
Superimposed on the system of processes is the PDCA (plan-do-check-act) methodology, which will apply both to individual processes as well as the quality management system as a whole.
An overall focus on risk-based thinking aimed at „preventing undesirable outcomes,” such as non-conforming products and services.

A recent vote approved the latest draft of the revised ISO 9001 standard, which has since moved to the next stage – Final Draft International Standard. In his update, Croft explained that the subcommittee will review comments that came in during the last vote and produce a final draft, which then will be voted on.

While ISO itself does not certify organizations to ISO standards, Croft noted that there would be a three-year transition period for companies to migrate to the updated standard once the new edition is published.

He also suggested that organizations may want to review the draft rather than wait until the new edition of the standard is published.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JIMyvpP0tw#t=319

Source: http://www.industryweek.com

List 17 2014

Importance of Paperless Document Control for ISO9001

The Importance of Document Control for ISO9001

There are many different areas where reaching the standards of ISO9001 can boost your business and it is fair to say that proper document control is a key factor. Having good document control will help you to meet ISO9001 standards through good business practice. Knowing that your employees and departments are working to the same standards will be of considerable benefit to businesses and it should make your organisation run more efficiently and be a general better fit. It is good to have these elements in place to ensure you comply with all legal requirements but for many businesses, good document control is worthwhile because of the way it improves the business.

One of the best things about the IS09001 is that it clearly sets out the expectations for document control, so firms should be in no doubt as to the standard they should look to achieve. The standards expected include:

To review and approve all documents before they are issued
To undertake, reviews, updates and then re-approval
Ensure that all changes and revisions can be identified clearly
Ensuring all relevant versions of a document be located and accessed
Ensuring documents remain identifiable and legible
Clearly state if documents originate externally and that there is proper control of its distribution
Ensure documents are only used for their proper use

It is apparent that undertaking these steps is more difficult and problematic with manual paper documents in cabinets, which is why many firms have switched over to a paperless document management systems.

There are many benefits to be obtained from switching to a paperless office or workplace environment, including:

-Reduce costs

Most businesses will sit up and take notice when there is an opportunity to reduce their costs. Switching to a paperless office, even at its most basic level will allow a firm to significantly reduce a great number of costs.

-Access information quicker

Having to retrieve files from a cabinet can take time and if the file is not where it should be, it can take a considerable amount of time to uncover. An electronic file can be looked for on any computer and if it has not been saved where it should have been, it is easier to undertake a computer or network search for the file or document. Moving towards ISO9001 standards should minimise the likelihood of documents being lost but a computer network system provides a backup opportunity to ensure everything is where it should be.

-Create more space

Removing the need for storage cabinets with paper documents will free up the space a firm has. This means the firm can utilise their space more wisely or perhaps even reduce the amount of floor space they rent or use. This may allow a firm to be far more cost effective with their premises.

-Improve security

Ensuring documents are password protected and stored on protected networks will ensure that there is a higher level of security over certain documents. Firms with classified or important information should look to allow certain drives or access levels to certain key members of staff. This will help to ensure important information remains in the hands of those who have a right to access it.

-Can be accessed anywhere

Many firms are taking advantage of remote working opportunities to provide employees with more freedom and flexibility. This can improve employee morale, lower costs without compromising on quality, security or safety, so it is easy to see why firms are finding a switch to a paperless office to be of benefit.

-Make sharing easier

The fact that documents are stored electronically also makes it easier to share documents between different employees. This will speed up the working process and it should also ensure that proper evaluation and checking of work can be undertaken.

source: http://www.mark1systems.com

List 17 2014

Internal Auditing – How Often ?

Any organisation/business is required to conduct internal audits to maintain its ISO9001 standard. The audit involves testing out company processes and procedures to determine the standard at which they operate when compared to how they should work. Audits are designed to help employees but the mere mention of the word can see your staff sent into a panic, scrambling around to make everything look perfect. However, communicating yourself well to your staff on the benefit of the audits, and letting them know that this is not a finger pointing exercise, can serve well to make these audits more positive.

Internal audits should be viewed in a positive light, a chance to take a step back and have your process reviewed by a fresh set of objective eyes. They are an ideal way to prepare for external assessment too. In some ways internal assessments can be more thorough as processes are examined more closely, more frequently and in greater detail than external auditors.

ISO 9001 does not specify how often internal audits should be conducted. Instead, the requirements are that organisations audit based on how important a process is, the risks involved and whether there is an existing record of previous concerns. Consideration should also be given to quality objectives as these can dictate audit frequency. At the least, internal audits should be carried out annually. There are two ways around this – auditors may decide to review processes in one go, or they may portion off aspects and have a plan which details the schedule over a number of months. Complex processes may require more frequent assessment and this should be built into an internal audit plan.

The audit plan removes the need for panic and helps eliminate an atmosphere of mistrust. It lets everyone know what will be happening and when, as well as allowing process owners time to complete any improvements that may be taking place. Although the audit plan is made general knowledge, the detail relating to timings should be confirmed with respective process owners as soon as is possible.

The internal audit should not be seen as second string to an external audit and for that reason it needs to be as thorough as possible. Appointed auditors may benefit from some training and development to support them in getting the best out of the process. Auditors should apply a variety of methods to test the process including talking to employees, reviewing data and relevant documentation as well as and perhaps most importantly observing the process in practice. Part of being thorough is keeping accurate documentation that is a true reflection of the findings, for both management and future audits.

The aim of the audit should not be to purely report non-conformance, but auditors should also use the opportunity to highlight areas of a process which may benefit from change. Therefore as important as the audit is the follow up. Follow ups are critical to ensuring that the audit cycle is closed off, and they are also a great motivating factor for further improvements.

source: http://synergosconsultancy.co.uk

List 13 2014

Introduction to ISO 9001:2008

List 13 2014

Global management standards

The ISO 9001 family – Global management standards (International Organization for Standardization).

This video from the International Organization for Standardization, explores the worldwide impact on business of the ISO 9000 family of international management standards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq1Zi_V4KyE

Source Management

Quality Assurance & Control Services, ISO 9001, AS9100, ISO13485, Auditing, Inspections : Tel. (201) 701-0879

Monthly Archives: Listopad 2014

Occupational Safety Management systems : OHSAS 18001:2007

Leader Standard Work?