Chris Butterworth

I help manufacturing companies solve complex problems and provide advanced training to employees everywhere.

[Chris Butterworth @Belfieldlad]

@farman4x 144

[Chris Butterworth @Belfieldlad]

Check out my latest article: Quality in Manufacturing
https://t.co/mq8lc1c2pE via @LinkedIn

[Chris Butterworth @Belfieldlad]

Check out my latest article: Manufacturing companies need to develop a crack team of problem solvers. https://t.co/LLfH6RsHPN via @LinkedIn

[Chris Butterworth @Belfieldlad]

Below is a 'typical' distribution of the quality spend in a manufacturing company. You can ballpark it for yourself and see if this model approximates your company.

It is pretty clear that an increase in prevention is required to bring about a reduction in failure costs.

But an area that needs attention here, and urgently, is investing in the problem-solving capabilities of your people.

In a factory, there are a lot of moving parts and hundreds of things can go wrong. But, only a handful actually do go wrong and you will have a tough time predicting which ones, so you won't know how to prevent those failures.

Once observed, defects and test failures need to be acted on quickly and successfully. This requires advanced skills in problem solving. The basics will only help you with the simpler problems.

There are a lot of manufacturers that live with chronic quality problems. Every production run loses some percentage of yield due to an unresolved problem.

[Chris Butterworth @Belfieldlad]

Problem Solving in Manufacturing

In manufacturing, we take several raw materials and process them through various pieces of machinery. We either add, remove or deform materials on our way to producing an end product.

Along the way, we lose a few. Defects are found in all areas and there are failures at final test.

Through inspections, we think everything we ship is good. That no defects escaped detection.

These defects are huge losses to a company. The impact on profit is much greater than on production yield. A 5% yield issue could be a 20% profit hit.

Quality problems also introduce serious risk for a company. When defects are found by your customer, they question the relationship. And they look at your competitors more favourably.

So I think that problem solving is a critically important function in a manufacturing company. There's a clear link to production yields and profit.

But also, solving a problem is generating new knowledge about something in your process that doesn't quite work right. Something that wasn't known before and puts you in a more competitive position. Problem solving is learning the very things you need to learn.

Don't just assign new problems to people with available bandwidth. There's too much at stake. Create a position for a trained and qualified Problem Solver in your company.

[Chris Butterworth @Belfieldlad]

https://t.co/24Wfoeiamc

[Chris Butterworth @Belfieldlad]

Are your assumptions blinding you to causal structure in problem solving? Read more here: https://t.co/U1qgZlyUUj #ProblemSolving #Leadership

[Chris Butterworth @Belfieldlad]

Problem solving is the most important part of manufacturing.

But most manufacturers do not have a dedicated problem-solving team.

When a problem is serious and is hurting the business, the job of solving the problem is assigned to someone who already has a full plate.

No training provided. It is assumed that they'll figure it out.

The next problem gets assigned to someone else.

You end up with untrained and inexperienced problem solvers. Every new problem has a rookie team assigned.

But we can do better!

Decide on a group. Provide them with training in advanced techniques. Let 'em loose.

Imagine how advanced your problem solving team will be when they are tackling their fifth, or tenth problem.

Pretty soon, you'll have no big problems left.

https://t.co/rk26hFCq0G

[Chris Butterworth @Belfieldlad]

Quality problems eat up much of a manufacturers profit. Some of these problems prove too difficult to resolve and they become chronic.
Problem solving is a special skill and there's too much at stake to just assume your team will figure it out. And why waste time. Learn advanced techniques for industrial problem solving at Belfield Academy.

[Chris Butterworth @Belfieldlad]

A high-volume manufacturer was experiencing a high failure rate ( ~8.5%) at final testing and this was going on for months. I paid a visit and resolved this problem in one day. It's all in the method. Experience helps, probably saves a lot of time. But the approach is what helps find root causes. In hindsight, most quality problems are obvious. But until you solve them, there are dozens, perhaps a hundred or more candidates for root cause.

Manufacturing consists of many repeated actions and they all vary to some extent. When you have a defect that shows up at random, it just means you haven't found the structure yet.

In this particular case, the first clue for me was the failure rate. 8.5 % is very close to one in 12. So I kept an eye out for any process that had 12 stations. The very first station in the production line was a rotary table with 12 stations. Each station would either add a component or perform an operation. The product was built up on a nest (tray) that traversed each of the 12 stations and then the initial assembly was complete. The product was removed and the nest returned to station one to repeat the process.

We took each assembly from the end of this process and lined them up numbered one to 12 and repeated until we had five rows of 12. It was assembly #5 that was visibly different. Closer inspection revealed that the nest in station #5 was missing a shim. So the swaging operation bottomed out before deforming the assembly as it should have.

There will often be some structure that correlates with random failures. They only appear random at the test station if the order of production isn't maintained. Sometimes it is easy to spot and other times requires further digging. Keep looking for it.

There's too much at stake in manufacturing. Companies need to get better at problem solving.

Follow me for tips and ideas.

[Chris Butterworth @Belfieldlad]

Every manufacturer should have at least one person whose only job is to solve the most expensive problem in the factory. Once solved, there will be a new, most expensive problem. Repeat until the cost of poor quality is low.
https://t.co/rk26hFCq0G

[Chris Butterworth @Belfieldlad]

Industrial Problem Solving is the most valuable skill for any manufacturer.

It is also the least developed skill among employees.

Solving difficult problems in production does several things.

- directly increases profits
- generates new knowledge and innovation
- improves the problem-solving skills of your employees with each and every project
- engages your employees in actively improving product and process quality
- provides a powerful competitive edge

You really cannot depend on the tools that are thrown at you for solving quality problems. Five Whys, Fishbone Diagrams, Multi-voting and many more are just brainstorming tools with various structure. It's still guessing and that isn't a strategy.

Problem solving is an investigation, a scientific endeavour. Start with the facts, collect more evidence. Learn the right techniques and you'll increase your chances of success.

https://t.co/zjdCF3Fidb