Short observations on manufacturing excellence, quality systems and project delivery — drawn from current engagements and a 35-year career in heavy engineering.
A shop is not audit-ready when the paperwork is in order. It is audit-ready when the welder on the night shift can articulate why the WPS reads the way it does — and feels safe stopping work when it does not.
Read on LinkedInMost plants do not need new bays. They need an honest conversation about decision rights between production, planning and quality — and a supervisor cadre that has been told what 'good' looks like.
Read on LinkedInDesign-for-manufacture reviews are routinely skipped under schedule pressure. The bill arrives at site, in rework hours, twelve months later. The math has not changed in three decades.
Read on LinkedInA great MES on top of an undisciplined shop floor produces beautiful charts of an unreliable reality. Fix the process first; instrument it second. In that order.
Read on LinkedInWalk the line with the operators, not the managers. Ask what they would change if they could change one thing. Then go back next month and tell them what you did about it. That is the entire program.
Read on LinkedInPlants in trouble rarely need another deck. They need a known pair of hands on the floor for ninety days, with the authority to make decisions that stick — and then leave.
Read on LinkedInMore notes published periodically
Discuss any of these for your plant