6 Effective Solutions to Improve Reliability

The most frequent cause of delay is sub-suppliers that don’t ship their components on time.

• Have they been paid late in the past?
• Is the relationship healthy?
• Are there several possible sources for each component?

It is also crucial to follow their production very closely. Delays should never be discovered at the last minute!

• When internal capacity is too low to respond to demand, is it possible to subcontract to reliable factories?
• Is it possible to buy processed (rather than unprocessed) components, to reduce the amount of work?

Most factories are organized around process families, rather than product families. It means a batch typically spends 95% of the time waiting, in the form of work-in-process.
Fortunately, there are solutions for compressing internal production lead times:

• A product-oriented organization.
• More flow and less queue.
• Stable processes.

Stopping a batch of finished products because its quality is substandard is the last thing you want to do if you are in a hurry. The staff must have the discipline to apply a sound quality system.

At the same time, mistake-proofing each process can prevent or catch human errors before they become mistakes. And procedures to look for the root cause immediately when new issues arise will reduce the occurrence of defects over time.

Machines are often very unstable, and can break down as often as once a day. It disrupts plannings and causes stoppages, and in the end it delays production.

Time-tested preventive / predictive maintenance can help increase the OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) ratio dramatically.

Why are Chinese suppliers too optimistic when they announce shipment dates?

Because they have no realistic planning to work with.

A simple Excel spreadsheet can often do the job. And, as the organization becomes more mature, a kanban system can gradually be put in place.