Factory Audits That Include Your CustomersPosted by Boysen Wulff on February 22nd, 2021 Factory Audits That Include Your Customers Do you have the confidence in your product to invite a client to your factory floor to participate in an audit of your product? There are three steps to develop the confidence to take this step: � Creation of a procedure with and a record of audit attributes and repeat demerit score of 5 or less. � Practicing for the audit � Customer participation on audit day Many companies perceive their products to be "best in class". Is management prepared to put their reputation on the line with the participation of a major customers in a factory product audit? If yes; read on to understand how the process evolved at a major HVAC manufacturing factory. Step 1 - Procedure and Audit Attribute Record Form A documented procedure and audit check sheet needs to be created. Selection of the product attributes to audit should combine customer perception, critical assembly activities and engineering specifications and sales/marketing attributes. The Procedure The procedure should follow current company procedure format: 1. An introduction that focuses on the process goals. 2. The audit frequency 3. The process owner. The audit process should be owned by the internal group responsible for Quality Assurance. It is important to walk before taking the leap to invite a client to participate in an audit. It may take several years of internal auditing, measurement and corrective action before offering an invitation to a customer. The internal audit trend will tell you when it is appropriate. 4. The corrective action process, charting and communication of audit results 5. The scoring strategy For the AUDIT process to be a valuable tool and measure of process improvement it must be based upon a demerit scoring system. The scoring is subjective. (Experience has shown that over time the auditors become tougher in their scoring). The audit attributes should be limited to what an audit team can accomplish in an hour. The audit attribute list should include current customer complaints, key assembly inspection repeat findings and engineering and sales and marketing specifications. A Finding is a condition which is not considered good practice or that would impact customer perceived quality or does not meet the documented specifications and product requirements 1. Incidental Finding - One (1) demerit for any finding not considered good practice or that would impact perceived quality but would not be noticed by the customer or affect the intended use of the product. 2. Minor Finding - Five (5) demerits for any finding which would probably be noticed by the installing technician but would not make the customer dissatisfied, could result in a minor warranty claim. 3. Significant Finding - Ten (10) demerits are to be taken for any finding which would be noticed by the installing technician and customer, causing concern and possible dissatisfaction and would result in a warranty claim. 4. Major Finding - Twenty-five (25) demerits for any finding which would definitely be noticed or reported to the customer and w9ould result ina unit malfunction during start-up or the warranty period. 5. Serious Finding - Fifty (50) demerit points for any finding that would generate a major service problem or a potential safety hazard. Ratings of 0-4 demerits, Excellent product; 5-14 demerits, Good product; 15-24 demerits, Fair product; 25 or more demerits, Unsatisfactory product. Step 2 - Practicing For the Day Communication The process must start with communicating the plan and strategy of ultimately involving customers who purchase the product. The communication should go to first the businesses management followed by the broad salary and hourly staff using the businesses normal in place communication vehicle. The communication should include factory leaders, the production staff and the union leadership (where applicable). It must stress that the ultimate objective is product improvement and customer exposure to the manufacturing team's pride in building a quality product, not finger pointing or grading of the production team's performance. Often, problems uncovered during an audit are not in the control of the factory staff. An audit finding may be tied to a supplier, a resource or and engineering issue. Audit Process Attaining the goal of client participation depends on continual practice, process refinement and corrective action. Each audit should begin with the selected auditors gathering to review the audit process and divide into 3 or 4 teams, each team with a leader/documenter. It is important to communicate to the group audit etiquette. Depending upon the findings, no action may be required. There may be a finding that warrants stopping of production to address the condition observed. In some cases it could require that all finished inventory be unpackaged and examined and reworked if the condition observed is serious. In other cases it may require contacting the owners or installers using a field alert to ensure the problem observed is corrected. Audit Participants; It may not seem obvious, but the first couple audits should be conducted by those responsible for leading the quality process within the business. The purpose of the first several audits should focus on developing the audit process, understand what tools, drawings and order copies that will be needed and where to locate them once an end of line unit is selected for examination. Each audit should include new faces from the support functions, Engineering, Marketing, Procurement, Production Control, Drafting, Finance, Technical Service, Union Leadership (where applicable). At some point Senior Management and Field Sales should be brought in to participate in an audit before an invitation is made to a customer. Step 3 - Customer Audit Participation Audit scores have been consistently below a total score of 5 demerit points. The day has arrived to invite a customer to participate in a factory product audit. Marketing should determine who the customer should be. A date is set, the staff and other personnel that will be involved are alerted and the invitation is officially extended. It may sound relatively easy as described in the short paragraph above but there is a substantial amount of work that must take place in preparation for a customer participation audit. 1. Don't pick a day that is near the end of the month or end of a quarter when the push is on to meet managements shipping goals. 2. The day's event should be planned with as much detail as possible. The audit has great potential to be used as a marketing and sales opportunity with the customer and beyond. 3. The audit activity preparation should be identical to those conducted prior to this special day. Take pictures. Share the events success internally, locally and in marketing materials as appropriate. Consider even a press release. Good Luck..It will be a rewarding and beneficial process for the business and the customer. emploi audit au marocLike it? Share it! |