How To Mistake Proof Your Plant

There is only one thing you need to know when researching how to mistake proof your plant:human error is the number one cause of defects, accidents and injuries in any manufacturing process.This does not mean that you should fire your employees now to avoid all errors.While it would be effective to do so, it would also end any sort of manufacturing processes that may have been going on in the plant.Even robots still need a human in order to do the job correctly.

That means that in order to mistake proof your plant, you need to provide better training and possible adopt a new program that limits mistakes.Mistakes come in two forms - ones that affect the consumer directly and ones that affect the business but may not directly affect the customer.

Mistakes that occur that affect the customer directly usually are the mistakes that cause defects.These types of mistakes can be taken care of with a Total Quality System or a Six Sigma program.There are hundreds of programs out there that can create a corporate culture of low tolerance for defective products.These programs teach managers and employees how to eliminate defects in the products that company makes.The program must be adopted across the entire corporation in order for it to be effective, and those employees who are not interested in changing to fit the program may need to consider other employment options.

The mistakes that affect the company but may not affect the consumer directly are usually those mistakes that result in injury or death.These types of mistakes can reduce the bottom line through crushing team morale and loss of work hours.When a team is trying to cover for someone who is in the hospital, they are reminded of the inherent dangers in their jobs.That can create tentative employees who do not want to get hurt.

When a company is interested in eliminating these types of mistakes, it needs to adopt a program that motivates employees to take the necessary steps to protect themselves from injury.That means that not only do employees need to buy in to the new program, but they also need to know that the company will back up the employee when it comes to safety issues.If an employee believes that he or she will be hindered by following safety regulations, he or she simply will not follow them and take his or her chances with the consequences.

For any good safety program, a daily reminder should be available.Among the best of the daily reminders available is a sign that indicates how many days have passed since the last injury in the plant.These types of signs count up the days as a plant goes through time without an employee getting hurt.As the number gets higher, people get more interested in being safety conscious because no one wants to be the person to break the streak.

Mistake proofing a plant takes work and most likely a corporate culture change.Anyone who is considering doing so needs to make sure that they get everyone to buy in to the new system.Any resistance from upper management because of costs will sabotage the entire effort in the same way that employee reluctance can sabotage a program.Making it clear why the program is needed and showing the benefits to everyone and the company itself will help, but it will not convert everyone to the new way of doing things.People fear change, and until something can be proven to work, policies may not be adopted or followed.