10 replies to this topic

[Skyhaze]

Hi all

 

I am QA manager for a smallish cardboard packaging company and have been tasked by my manager to start implementing improvements both in QA (myself and one other) and in the company as a whole. I have basically been given free reign as to where I take this and what I do but I don't really know where to start. Reduction of average time taken to respond to customer complaints from ** days to ** days is one suggestion I have. It also doesn't necessarily have to be quality related. We are looking at working towards B Corp certification so creating the documentation required for that would also count towards improvements made.

 

Do you have any ideas for other improvements I can make? In terms of certifications we have ISO9001/14001, BRC and FSC.

[Scampi]

You could target a removal of a customer complaint TYPE.............i would choose one of the smallest groups first, say wrong colour ink or the like a figure out ways to eliminate that complaint altogether....you'd have to run full root cause analysis to determine why they happen in the first place which would be helpful in the big ones

 

Any ideas to improve quality and reduce cost at the same time?

 

Eco friendly ink, adhesive

 

removal of any allergens you may have (don't know your industry just a shot in the dark)

 

contact customers to see what they are looking for in the way of improvements?  Maybe your getting too many seam failures but your not hearing about them

[Skyhaze]

Thank you for your reply Scampi.

 

I don't think there has been any particular trend in complaints for over the last few years, we average about 1-1.5 per month but I think they are generally in a few different areas. I will have a look into it though.

 

I believe we already use ink and adhesive that is as eco-friendly as is financially feasible, especially the ink.

 

We produce cardboard packaging for many different industries, some of this is food packaging (hence BRC) but that is not really our main focus. 

 

Contacting customers is a good suggestion. There are probably a few instances where customers have to dispose of products but in small enough quantities that it wouldn't cause them to complain. It may be worth hearing about them to see what we can do better. I am looking at using Trustpilot as part of the B Corp improvements so can link that in to any comments we may receive through there.

 

Short customer surveys are something we have been considering on and off for a little while but not done as of yet. Would you say it is worthwhile sending out a 3 or 4 question survey to our customers or do things like that not generally get much of a response?

[Scampi]

If you can email or fax, I would do it....you're probably only going to get a 50% response, but still worth it, if nothing else it shows you tried!

 

People like being asked their opinion 

[Bo16]

 I would recommend improving the communication and quality buy-in from the sales team, production personnel, QA/QC and Management.  Happy employees with a culture of quality who are empowered to share their ideas and concerns is the best improvement I can recommend.  Quality comes from within, not by audit or testing.

 

 

[Brendan Triplett]

Skyhaze,

 

How do you currently check the product for conformance to your standard?  You mentioned that the company is smaller but there may be room for automation to ensure that all of the product that you send out is within your approved tolerances.

[Skyhaze]

We have a small amount of inline testing - one of the printing presses can automatically control colour, some of the folder gluers can check for missing windows or the correct amount of glue. Most of the checking is done by the minder on the machine or the person packing the finished product into shipping boxes. I don't think there is much in the way of automatic checks that we can use and to be honest, even if there was it would be unlikely that there would be any budget available to purchase it.

 

Final checks are all carried out by the person packing the finished product, they know what to look out for in terms of quality issues and to speak to the machine minder if they don't think it's good enough. The minder will then decide whether to let it go or whether it needs to go to a manager to pass as ok. We have a form that is signed if a manager passes a job, it's very rare that one of these jobs has ever had a complaint from the customer. 

[Brendan Triplett]

Skyhaze,

 

It sounds like you have a good process that is set up for the size of your company.  You could always consider a scheduled calibration schedule for your machines as a proactive way of controlling errors that might occur in the future.  Also standardizing your review process would make it more sustainable in the event that you lose a minder or two to check for quality.  Scampi has a great idea in asking for survey responses, maybe you can reach out through customer service phone calls or visits from your sales representatives for some candid input.  Good luck!

 

Cheers!

[Konstantinos]

I like your post/question: challenging task but rewarding and huge benefit for the company.

Improvements in your Quality Assurance system mean improvement in a service called QA (which is a system operating already within the borders of your company)

Improvement for the improvement does not work, as neither improvements ''to satisfy a manager'' do,  

Important question:

''Why you have been asked to do so'', as not knowing the root cause of such deep approach will lead to temporary improvements which will never ever stick when you turn your back (Is it a Company strategy or top manager agenda?).

Any improvement areas identified should be approached based on ''impact-effort'' matrix (time is a factor that should not be ignored at all) and taking into account that food safety and legality is above anything!

Quick wins feed you fuel to continue! 

I would suggest to read a few books prior to doing any improvements as I think you need to deeply understand a few terms (see below) but above all the philosophy.

Terms to know - Value added, non value added and non necessary process. The first should be enhanced while the latter must be eliminated.  

 

Books to read:

Staying lean: by Hines

Lean toolbox: by John Bicheno

Kaizen: by Imai

Lean toolbox for Service Systems  by John Bicheno

One of the tools in the books above is called 5S (sort, straighten, shine, standarise, sustain) a well known tool for making a place extremely clean and standardised on everything (everything in place and a place for everything)

I am here to help more if you would like!

[012117]

If I understand your question properly, this is what I recommend.

 

First, if I have data of what are the issues that I have may it be customer complaint or product defects then I will use that data to improve my current situation especially if I experience recurring ones.

 

2nd, I will check the "pulse" of my company on how they view quality, on how they think quality should be communicated to everyone and how everyone wanted to be recognized if they have initiaives pertaining to quality, then I'll work on that survey or whatever to improve further from my current situation.

 

3rd, I may improve my releasing process, for example, if currently I am inspecting 100 cartons a day, I will launch project to reduce it to increase checks in process that finished products.

 

4th, If I dont have any issue, I will understand where I generate quality waste then possibly challenge status quo to improve it or further reduce analysis based on may confidence (statistically).

 

5th, I'll ask top management why do they ask me to do such, what are their objectives then I may start from there.

 

Good luck with the Journey. It is good that they ask you to improve, this means that the management is committed to further improve quality :)

 

Thanks

[Skyhaze]

Thank you very much everyone for your responses. 

 

I think the main reason for me being asked to do this is that quality is generally quite reactive here. We have an issue then correct it. Instead the company wants to be more proactive and hopefully reduce the number of issues that we have.