How To Eat an Elephant

When you are hit with a tough manufacturing problem that needs a timely solution in a calm, cool, and collected manner, take the following steps:

1. Determine the extent of the problem. If it is very serious, immediately notify your supervisor. If you don't, you will be in trouble for not doing so.
2. Is it a technical problem that must be resolved by technical people? If so, who can best solve it? If there is a technical director of some sort, make sure that he or she is on top of the situation. If you feel confident that the technical people will resolve the problem, be considerate of their time. They can't solve the problem sitting in endless meetings that make you feel that you are doing something but only makes them upset that they have been taken away from the problem.
3. Has the problem been definitely identified? The cause of a problem must be identified before it can be solved. It is best to let your technical people identify the cause, not every Tom, Dick, and Harry that does not have the technical knowledge to do so. However, don't ignore the suggestions of experienced production supervisors. If outside analysis is required, then make sure that your technical people get what they need. It is false economy to allow a problem to continue because you decide that an important outside test is not needed because of the expense involved. Don't put a sample in the mail if it is faster to put a technical person on an airplane with the sample. He or she can watch the test, help interpret the results, and call the results in to the factory.
4. What alternative operations can be put into place to help alleviate the problem? Have meetings with your production people but don't interrupt the efforts of technical people. Define your meetings before time. Decide what you want to accomplish and don't permit extraneous problems to be inserted into the proceedings.

   A factory has production schedules to meet. Can some product be reprocessed to make it suitable for sell? You will have to do this later, so can you do it sooner?

5. Is the problem related to raw materials? As soon as you suspect this, your technical people should contact each raw material supplier about the problem. If you blame each supplier for the problem, each one will immediately want to prove you right or wrong. Don't be bashful about this. It's a good way to get results. In the final analysis, you may have to prove yourself that a particular raw material is faulty. I've seen this both ways. Once a supplier asked me what a technical measurement was on my specification sheet for my last shipment. He immediately saw the problem and resolved it. Other times, extensive testing was needed to identify the problem ever before the supplier could identify it. Working together is the thing that must occur.
6. When the problem is identified and resolved, don't let it ever to happen again. Immediately review your raw material specifications and your manufacturing procedures. Review raw material and product testing procedures thoroughly. Correct them. Make sure that your suppliers have added new testing and procedures so that materials will be correct before they ship them.

   Yes, you need to visit your suppliers with your technical people.

7. Review your quality control manuals and make sure that they include any new technical information and procedures to prevent loss. Quality must be a way of life in industry. It is important in the office, in the laboratory, and on the factory floor. How do you stack up?
8. Remember that problems are always lurking in the factory. Keep your factory and technical people alert. Employees should be on the alert too, to suggest a solution to a factory problem.

   When you get a solution suggested, what do you do? You should do this: Have a committee review the suggestion with the person making the suggestion present. Determine the cost of the problem every month. Incorporate the solution and track savings. Pay the employee for three months of savings and put her or his name on a plaque in the lunchroom. After one year, you may want to give an additional award to the employee which does not have to be cash. Give him or her a couple of baseball tickets where they can sit in the company box and chew the fat with the owner.

   Do you pay technical people for making suggestions? Why discriminate? Our philosophy was to pay where due.