5 Ways to Improve Manufacturing Quality
Examine the core values of any manufacturer, and you’re likely to find a few prevailing adjectives among them. The concept of “quality” often stands at the forefront. Every manufacturer wants to produce quality goods and meet expectations for excellence in everything it does. But to achieve this goal, manufacturers can’t just define quality — they must pursue it relentlessly.
Quality isn’t an end-of-the-line goal; it’s a living, breathing concept within the factory.
Quality reaches deeper than results
The concept of “quality” is central to the day-to-day operations of manufacturing facilities. It goes beyond providing customers with a product they trust.
Today’s producers must strive to ensure all activities and tasks involved in their manufacturing process achieve a desired level of excellence. Quality is also about continuous improvements — refining processes to create a better product — as well as improving the skills, abilities, and accountability of the people behind production.
Quality exists in every facet of operations, not just in the final product or deliverable. It must be part of every decision, process, task, and effort. It’s a holistic undertaking including risk management, workplace compliance, product assurance, consistency, and innovation.
Manufacturers can shine a spotlight on quality
In today’s competitive global market, quality is non-negotiable for manufacturers. Here are some effective ways producers can emphasize quality on a macro level:
- Encourage a culture of quality. Promote a company culture in which suggestions for improvements are welcomed and praised. Employees will feel empowered to offer ideas and suggestions, and your manufacturing quality will improve as a result of meaningful buy-in toward betterment.
- Define quality in every action. Across every stage of the value stream, quality relies on conformance and commitment to excellence. Be open to improvements in every facet of your facility’s day-to-day operations to ensure your processes deliver the highest level of excellence.
- Measure quality in outcomes. Today’s producers should leverage real-time and historical quality metrics to monitor trends. By examining data across lines, locations, and products, you can unlock new process efficiencies. Apply data against a continuous effort for excellence in all you do.
- Set quality KPIs and benchmarks. By leveraging KPIs like inspection results, defect tracking, and supplier quality, today’s producers can get an inside look at how well each process performs and where quality meets or exceeds expectations.
- Reward quality/address lack of quality. Quality is an achievement deserving of recognition. Take time to recognize and reward efforts leading to excellence and reinforce the idea of high standards. Likewise, address underperformance through a teaching lens. How does a better approach beget better results for everyone?
Quality requires company-wide buy-in
Quality is about more than producing a safe, durable, useful product. It’s a belief requiring buy-in from everyone in a manufacturing organization. From line operators to C-level executives, teaching what quality means and why it matters helps all parties focus on one goal: delivering excellence for consumers and the company.
Quality is a constantly rising bar. It’s up to manufacturers to drive continuous improvement for the competitive edge necessary to succeed in today’s global marketplace.