How to have fewer defective finished products

Introduction

No one likes defective products, especially the manufacturers of those defective products. Making a product that no one is willing to buy means wasting precious resources of time, effort, and money with absolutely no prospect of return. Defective products can quite literally take a business with great ideas and turn it into a business that has no hope of making money (or recovering lost costs) and must ultimately close its doors. A defective finished product is a detrimental error that can fortunately be eliminated.

Instructions

It takes time and resources to perfect your production line. So although occasional defects are to be expected, all must be done to prevent the same defect from happening twice. Recognizing and learning from points in the production process that consistently yield unsatisfactory results is a good place to start when working towards having fewer defective finished products.

Steps to having fewer defective finished products

Have quality control checks throughout the manufacturing process. Quality control has the sole purpose of ensuring that a product or process is seen from beginning to end without any significant errors. It is the responsibility of your quality control team to identify and eliminate defective products at the earliest stage possible. Individuals with the responsibility of quality control should be well trained and have an eye for the details that are important to their particular step in the quality assurance process.

Use computer equipment to automatically eliminate defective products from the production line as soon as possible. As computers and machines become more sophisticated, they are being entrusted with some of the most important quality control responsibilities that a company has. The use of computers minimizes human error and is much more affordable in the long run (not to mention that there are no labor laws dictating how hard a machine can work). Many of the most high-yield manufacturers have already turned to computers to help them in identifying and properly handling defective products long before they reach the finishing stage of production.

Have a system of recycling that allows for defective products to be re-integrated back into the manufacturing system or redirected to a different operation for immediate use. It is not enough to simply identify defective products early, something then needs to be done to turn these defective products into products that can ultimately be sold to the consumer. Whether the defective product is melted down and reintegrated into the process, or if it is used for an entirely different product all together, you must devise a way to integrate waste reduction into your system of defective product reduction.

Make changes. Change could very well be the most difficult hurdle to overcome in the way of progress. There are many who do not welcome change but see it as intimidating and insulting. Others welcome change but simply cannot see how something that has always been done one way could possibly be done any differently. Research and development teams are given the responsibility of finding answers to the hard questions of what kinds of changes are necessary in order to improve a process. Ultimately, anything that will be done to reduce the number of defective products in a manufacturing process is going to have to go back to somehow making a change. Research new technology and welcome new ideas. Attend seminars and training events. Welcome the sales pitches of equipment designers and engineers. Never dismiss the possibility that there could be a better way of doing things out there.

Conclusion

It is the most prosperous manufacturers in the world that have mastered the ability to have a production line with few, if any, defective products. But this is not to say that every other manufacturer could not do the same.

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Manufacturing Info

How to have fewer defective finished products