MODULE 3 CASE: TIGHTENING STANDARDS

Alfred Jackson, manufacturing manager at Warner Manufacturing, was troubled that the two manufacturing lines he managed were lagging badly in certain measures of performance. Products produced on his lines were failing more frequently than other lines after they reached the customer. He had analyzed the cause and now knew that employees on his lines were letting minor flaws through that would likely be rejected on other manufacturing lines. He worried that his employees just did not care, and were looking the other way and ignoring the defects in order to meet the weekly production quotas which were prominently posted throughout the plant. He doubted they had any idea what trouble failed products created for the companys customers, nor how high failure rates affected the companys profit margins.

Alfred asked himself two questions:

1. What kind of a problem did he have? Was this a values problem, a laziness problem, a human resources problem, or what?
2. What methods did he have from the 10 tools discussed in one of your exercises which might help turn things around? Which two might help most?