“Six major concerns” and “four basic principles” of on-site audit of plywood factory of plywood supplier
In the process of plywood supplier management, on-site audit of plywood factory is a very important link. In the evaluation of potential plywood suppliers, development of new products, approval of production parts, development of plywood supplier system, problem analysis and solution and other links, on-site audit of plywood manufacturers of plywood suppliers is required. However, the audit time is often limited, which requires that auditors with rich experience and skilled audit skills can effectively evaluate the site of the plywood manufacturer within a limited time.
1、 Why do we need to pay attention to the site of plywood factory?
The on-site observation of the plywood factory was carried out to the utmost. Even on the factory rest day, the management personnel were also brought to the plywood factory site, where they stood quietly in the workshop to observe for half an hour, and then pointed out the areas needing improvement. In China’s plywood factories, many managers of plywood factories either ignore many problems, or think it is harmless, or that it cannot be changed. There are also many managers who tend to turn a blind eye to intuitive information and prefer only digital information.
Plywood factory operation is a large system, and all links are closely related and affect each other. For the production plywood factory, any details on the site of the plywood factory can be seen. Any major problem can be found at the plywood factory site. Even in a limited time, as long as we grasp the key points, we can fully grasp the key information of the manufacturing process.
2、 Focus 1: on-site atmosphere of plywood factory
At the plywood factory site, you can directly see the most authentic employees’ mental outlook. Employees with high morale will form a sharp contrast with those who are sloppy and indifferent. Talk with the on-site workers of the plywood factory for a few words, and you can also get an important first impression from the facial expressions and body language of the workers, because these directly reflect the workers’ emotions and satisfaction with the factory. In one factory, most of the workshops are playing happy music. At first glance, the workers are very enthusiastic about their work. Working in such a relaxed and pleasant environment, the efficiency is relatively high, and the quality of products will make people more confident.
When walking around the workshop, you can pay attention to whether there is an uneven busy time. For example, when the machine is in automatic processing, workers spend a long time sitting around doing nothing, or workers in some stations wait for veneer or glue and other materials for a long time. This phenomenon indicates that the factory lacks lean management, and the utilization rate of personnel is low. Idle employees will also affect the working atmosphere of others. The overall working efficiency is low, and the cost is bound to be higher.
In addition, attention should be paid to whether the light in the workshop is sufficient, whether the air circulation is smooth, whether the plywood factory site has peculiar smell, whether the noise is too loud, and whether the workshop is clean, because these will also directly affect the mood of workers, thereby affecting production efficiency and product quality. It is hard to imagine that a plywood factory with a lazy, low and indifferent atmosphere on the site and employees who are angry or idle can do a good job of products and create benefits.
3、 Focus 2: space utilization and layout
Many factories in China enjoy great success. The bigger the production workshop, the better. As a result, the utilization rate is often low, and the layout of equipment and processes is scattered. In addition to wasting space, veneer or glue and other materials are also carried out in the factory in a large amount of meaningless transportation. Most factories in Japan look less spectacular, even a little cramped, but they have high space utilization and high circulation efficiency.
The production workshop is large, and the design of the logistics line is unreasonable, which will occur: the same batch of parts in the manufacturing process are moved from Area A to Area B for processing, then moved back to Area A for subsequent processing, then moved to Area C for processing, and finally moved back to Area B, causing serious logistics waste.
In principle, the production veneer or glue and other materials used on the day should be stored along the production line, rather than separated in several inventory areas. Tools and tooling shall be placed as close to the machine as possible. The factory layout shall ensure the smooth flow of products and avoid any partition as far as possible. If materials such as veneer or glue are transported in a factory for a long distance, with repeated transportation routes, or for many times, it indicates that the layout is unreasonable and there is a problem in space utilization.
4、 Focus 3: standardized management
Standards are the best status and unified implementation reference. Without standards, there is no way to implement and no focus for improvement. There should be many standards on the site of plywood production plant, including operation and quality standards, 5S and safety standards, operation and maintenance standards, process and rework standards, safety stock standards, etc.
Many plywood factories have SOPs (standardized operation procedures) on the site. We can observe whether these standards have omissions, are easy to implement, and whether there are breakpoints in the middle. Check whether the writing, speaking and doing are consistent, and whether the quality control points are highlighted with eye-catching signs or colors.
By observing the specific operation process of different employees in the same process, we can find out whether there are differences, including the sequence of actions, operation strength, and whether there are omissions. The difference indicates that employees lack standardized operation training, and the possibility of product variation is greatly increased. During the review of plywood suppliers, it was found that different workers tightened the four bolts in different order, and there was no standard torque reference. It was felt that some workers would tighten the four bolts twice, and some workers only operated once, which was very easy to cause the bolts to fall off due to insufficient tightening torque, or the bolts to slip due to excessive tightening torque.
5、 Focus 4: quality control
The on-site observation of plywood factory should pay attention to the treatment of defective products in the workshop. Good factories will expose problems rather than cover up defective products and waste products. For example, focus the waste with a light or use a red label to highlight it, so that you can immediately know whether the waste is increasing or whether a section of the production process is producing defective products.
There are many defective products stored in the corners of some factories. It can be seen from the dust on them that they have accumulated for a long time, but there is no sign to explain the cause and problem of the defective products. Asked the field workers of the plywood factory, they said that they had been working on those things for several months. No one knew what the problem was and no one dealt with it. When asked how to deal with the defective products, the answer was that there was a specially assigned person to rework, and no one went to investigate the causes of the defective products. Who dares to cooperate with factories with such chaotic quality management?
The traceability of in-process products and semi-finished products can also be easily seen at the plywood factory site. Each component shall have a card or a document to follow the flow, indicating the source, the personnel handling the processing, the equipment used and other information. Problems found in any process can be easily traced back to the source, and also facilitate improvement.
Plywood factory site can judge the fineness of quality management by the degree of protection of workers for parts. In one motor factory, the rotor was randomly placed on the cement floor without any protective measures, while the stator was vertically placed on the wooden workbench. The workers reshaped the upper part, and the enamelled copper wire at the lower part was easy to damage the insulating paint due to friction, so the quality of the finished motor can be imagined.
By observing the quantity and proportion of defective products, we can also preliminarily judge whether the quality control process of a factory is qualified. When reviewing plywood suppliers, a large number of unqualified products were found. After asking the workers, the average daily output of this assembly line is 1000 pieces. According to this estimate, the daily defective products are about 50 pieces, and the defective rate of finished products is as high as 5%. This shows that a large number of quality problems have not been found in the previous processes, and the defective products have been flowing to the end. The quality control is weak, and the cost of manufacturing defective products must be high.
6、 Focus 5: Visual management
Visual management is the basis of many advanced management means, and it is the visual communication of the management level of a plywood factory. Visual tools can be found everywhere in a well managed factory. Including the organization and standardization of the workplace, visualization of outcome indicators, visualization of standard operations, visualization of control indicators, visualization of automatic error prevention and correction, alarm mechanism, etc. During the audit, attention should be paid to finding various visual tools.
Visual management kanban can be divided into static and dynamic management kanban. The static kanban mainly conveys the long-term management concept of the organization, while the dynamic kanban is the management information that managers need to grasp at any time, which can better reflect the management level and ability of a factory.
5S is the embodiment of the on-site organization and standardization of the plywood factory, and is the visual underlying application.
7、 Focus 6: Tool and equipment status
In the production and manufacturing process with quality control in place, the equipment is clean and well maintained, and the equipment related information is clear at a glance and updated immediately. In the machining workshop of a foundry, although all kinds of lathes are not very advanced, or even have a long history, they operate in good condition. There is a card on the side of each machine, which records the model, purchase date, price, plywood supplier, maintenance record, maintenance record, etc. of the equipment. In addition, the daily spot check sheet is also very complete. Some spot check sheets clearly record the hidden dangers found by operators, as well as the signature and handling plan of the equipment department. This shows that a sound system has been formed for equipment management and maintenance.
In a factory, the automation level is very high, but the equipment is often in the state of being repaired, and there is no maintenance record on these equipment. Although there is a daily spot check table, it can only be found when the equipment stops running due to failure, indicating that the spot check is not in place or is perfunctory. Equipment failure could have generated early warning and made corresponding preparations to avoid long time downtime and seriously affect product delivery.
At the plywood factory site, you can also learn from the employees whether the operators and product developers have participated in the equipment procurement decisions. Front line workers and personnel involved in product development and production know the advantages and disadvantages of the new equipment best, and also know the actual needs of the production line best. In many factories, the purchase of equipment is decided by the senior management or the equipment department, and the opinions of front-line personnel are rarely sought, resulting in a large number of subsequent problems.
8、 Precautions for on-site audit of plywood factory
The on-site audit of the plywood factory of the plywood supplier is the most direct means to find problems. Most of the problems will appear on the site of the plywood factory. It can quickly make a preliminary assessment on the site of the plywood factory of the plywood supplier, so as to trace back to the source and reduce the blindness of much work. This paper only discusses a small part of the many contents of on-site observation in plywood factories. There are many methods and methods for on-site audit in plywood factories, but the basic principles and matters needing attention are consistent:
- It is not allowed to look at the plywood factory site with colored glasses, nor to look for evidence at the plywood factory site with conclusions in mind, which is often biased.
- Plywood factory site can not only look at the surface, but also need to check whether what is said, written and done is consistent, and need to ask more why.
- Both macro and micro perspectives should be used to focus on details in a narrow way and the whole in a big way.
- Try not to take notes, which will affect the continuity of observation and thinking, and also make the on-site personnel of the plywood factory nervous.
