by Jennifer Ralston, Drew Butler, and Gerhard Plenert, HKPO Change for the Better

“Assure Quality at the Source” is a principle in the Continuous Improvement dimension of the Shingo Model. Perfect quality can only be achieved when every element of work is done right the first time. If an error should occur, it must be detected and corrected at the point and time of its creation. This is done through error proofing and taking countermeasures to prevent quality problems from occurring again. Everyone in an organization is responsible for assuring quality at the source. In this article we will discuss this and the ideal behaviors that go with assuring quality at the source. These include:

• Organizing places of work so potential problems become immediately visible and,
• Stopping work to fix errors before continuing.

Quality at the Source has many benefits:

1. Creating quality at the source is a leading indicator that products are going to be right and ready to ship on time to the customer.
2. It is also a leading indicator that quality will not be a cause of your margin erosion because you are doing it right the first time.
3. Assuring Quality at the Source is one of the principles that will help you create a stable, predictable, and repeatable process that, besides the financial benefits, helps reduce worker stress and allows workers to focus on improvement activities instead of firefighting and workarounds.

Drew explains an experience that illustrates the critical need for assuring quality at the source: “Early in my career as a machine operator, it was exceedingly difficult to be successful doing the process I was doing or, honestly, any process that I was working on. We were working on aerospace parts on older machines, and we had variables such as machine condition and tool wear. Even the management system of an operator having to make a certain number of pieces per hour was not a recipe for success. We had measurement tools at the machine, quality auditors, and a final inspection station, but bad parts made it through. The joke was that you never really retired from the company because all the retirees came back to pick out the bad parts! There was also the attitude of ‘do not worry if you make a bad part because they will catch it at the final inspection.’ Again, these were aerospace parts!

“Looking back at this process, I see that it was incredibly wasteful and I always remember thinking there had to be a better way. Years later, I came across the Shingo Model and it was my “ah-ha” moment. It made so much sense to me. It was intuitive and easy to follow and understand. One of the principles that I have always believed was critical was Assure Quality at the Source. I saw firsthand the waste associated with not living this principle and I immediately saw the benefits of living it. Repeatable, predictable processes where you had good quality the first time made so much sense that it was hard to believe that people could think otherwise. But they did, and most businesses were run to this outdated model of final inspection.”

So how would we have assured quality at the source of this process? Here are a few ways to approach it:

• Preventative Maintenance: By conducting preventative maintenance and making sure the machines were in optimal condition, you would start to create some stability in the process by assuring that the machine variable was reduced. Most equipment, if properly maintained, will produce the intended results.
• Training: All of the training was on-the-job training. This meant that there was variability in the training, which translated into getting different results for each person who was trained. Creating a standardized training program using a best-practice approach, such as TWI (Training Within Industry), would ensure that the training variability was reduced.
• Accountability: By switching the accountability from the inspection department to the operator, you would ensure that the person with the most control over the process was responsible for the outcome.
• Leadership Support/Respect for the Individual: Having leadership involved and emphasizing the right thing—quality—would send a clear message of what the expectations are and would increase the operator’s engagement.
• Mistake Proofing: Is there a creative way to ensure that the right tolerances would be achieved each time? This could be a mistake-proofing device on the machine, a mistake-proofing device on the measuring system, or a mistake-proofing device on the way the tool is sharpened. All of these are low-cost ideas that only require imagination.
• Quality System: Are the gages capable of measuring what needs to be measured? As you build a quality system and make sure it is interdependent with other systems, you start changing the culture (ideal behavior) so you get the ideal results.

These are just a few examples of how we can use the principle of Assure Quality at the Source to identify what systems and tools we need to put in place to ensure the ideal results, every time. It's a simple example of a manufacturing problem, but if you understand the process, it can be used in any setting from office, banking, healthcare, or manufacturing. If we got together as a group, we could also come up with many more ideas of how to improve this process very quickly. That's Kaizen! Every day, everywhere, everyone!

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