Ways to reduce product defects

The number one goal of any manufacturer is to reduce product defects, and improve profitability. There are a number of ways that you can do this. It is important to realize that reducing product defects, needs to come from within the business that is creating the product. Utilizing Six Sigma or some other process improvement strategies can help you eliminate product defects. There are many ancillary benefits to reducing product defects, it will help to increase productivity; costs will lower and it will help the business save money.

It is also crucial to involve your employees, when you are trying to reduce product defects.When you keep your employees directly involved, you will see a vast improvement on product. There will be less errors and mistakes that will happen, which will then lead to lowering your product defects.

The first step when making a decision to reduce your product defects is to start with identifying what you need to change. You will need to take the time to look at from every angle, and ask your employees or other members of your organization, what they believe the problem is. This can be especially insightful since employees work first hand with your product, and may have ideas that you have not thought of. Keep in mind that you will need to use the resources you have, in order to make it cost effective. If you have not implemented Six Sigma or other another process improvement, you may want to consider hiring in a consulting company that does use Six Sigma to help you identify the changes you need to make.

Once you have identified what it is you need to change, you can then put a group together, that can help you analyze how you are going to approach the change. Be sure to document each way, you can attempt to reduce your product defects. Take the time to strategize all of your possibilities, and take the time to look at your machines you have running. A crucial step in this process is to make sure that your machines are running correctly, since it will save you a lot of money, and will also cut back on defects. When you have the appropriate information on your machines, you will know how to change it to benefit your company.

Remember that after you have implemented your change, you will still need to check up on it and see how it is doing. You will need to constantly be asking if you are getting the response, and outcome, you wanted to have. You should also ask your employees what they think, as well. This is because when they are working with the machines or equipment, they are seeing it on a first hand basis, and will be able to give you suggestions and ideas, to help improve the situation even more. If you are seeing the outcome you wanted, but still need to reduce defects, start from the beginning again and see how you can affect another change.

The bottom line is that when reducing product defects in a business, you will start seeing results for saving your company money. The more money you save, the more benefits your employees and company, will receive and the higher morale will be.
As a final note if you have made your changes, and you are seeing great results for reducing your defects, start making new goals to make sure you don't make the same errors again. Be sure to make your goals realistic, and have management and other employees involved. Reducing product defects should be ongoing process to help the business save money, and improve production.