Is the Launch Team asking the right questions to ensure a successful new factory launch?

During my career as a Manager of Quality Assurance and Operations Director I have had the pleasure and responsibility to launch eleven (11) new automotive assembly and part production plants. I have some key learning, best practices and considerations that I wish to share with new production launch team members.

It is crucial that the launch team ensure that all the big tasks get done, but it is all the little things that eventually kill a launch. It is death by a thousand paper-cuts. Is the launch (APQP) team asking all the right questions? Are they truly managing all the potential risks and lessor issues? Has the launch team developed a comprehensive new production launch checklist? A proper checklist that includes 1000 plus items for Top Management, and the launch team to consider before breaking ground?  

A flawless launch with a quality product results from the environment created by the organizations leadership in the earliest days of the construction project. The developing environment is the basis for the culture that will materialize after the first three years of factory operation. In the initial phase of plant design and construction is when the launch team begins to create the mindset, processes and expectations for what will become the culture in the facility. Consider that the design and layout of the new factory (environment) has both direct and indirect impact on the psychology and the motivation of the employee team members that operate within the facility.

Over the entire life cycle of the new assembly plant, 70% of the overall cost to operate and maintain it will result from its design and layout. If the company wants to truly save money, then we all need to do a better job designing the building, its layout, and the processes that operate within it. Saving real money starts with design and layout. The average life of a production facility is 50 to 70 years. Can we afford to burn money for 50 years?

Everything begins with the process flow. Estimation of costs, resources, bottlenecks, constraints, dominate sources for variation, making visual the (9) wastes and non-value add activities, number of team members needed, special control points, test and confirmation stations, and preventive actions.     

Quality is never by accident. It requires competent people with an awareness of standards and clear expectations. It is no secret, that even great people will eventually fail to meet their objectives (intended outcomes) when they are given poor processes to work with. Before an effective plant stress test can be done, all processes must be capable including the information to operate those processes, and the competence of team members needs to in place. Launches do fail because the plant, its processes and its people are not properly prepared. Individual competence and the capability of all key processes must be known.

There are at least nine categories defining how errors and mistakes occur. Has the process been designed, tested and capable to ensure that preventive measures are in place, so that errors and potential mistakes do not occur?

Prevention is the only sure way to eliminate or reduce the occurrence rate of failure and defects. Stop inspecting. Embrace prevention. Prevention (against failure) is best implemented in the design of the product and process. The organization best have deep pockets, full of cash to throw away if they believe prevention is something that is added after the equipment and processes are bolted to the plant floor. Prevention spending saves us money.

Without effective prevention designed into the process, we have no right to blame humans for making a mistake. When errors and mistakes occur, we must find the weakness in the process and not look to blame the person.

Inspection is a non-value-added activity (waste). Inspection alone does not make the product any better. It is much more effective to control the process at the point of manufacture. If we understand the dominant sources of variation (5Ms+E), then we must put the (preventive) controls in place to guarantee the resulting product meets the requirements and the expectations that we subscribe to. Inspection and test can be helpful when we use them to determine the capability of our processes and special product characteristics.

Good communication between team members is a key success factor to a flawless launch. Determining the most effective and efficient ways to communicate is a mandatory exercise. Consider there are over 70 different ways in which leaders can communicate with each other and staff. What is the best way to communicate? How do we leverage technology to improve communication? By the way, email is considered one the worst and least efficient forms of communication. Email was specifically intended to share information only in one direction. Exchanging emails is a form of process waste.

The most effective plant leadership teams typically communicate in just two places, 1) At the daily stand up meetings in the war (Obeya) room, 2) On the factory floor where the work occurs, and most problems reside.

Plant stress tests and process readiness reviews shall be conducted to check for weaknesses in system and individual processes. The entire production system is tested end to end, at full production line rate if at all possible. Stress tests are typically planned to last up to 7 consecutive days. Too few days and we run the risk of not locating a system breakdown.

Process readiness reviews are much shorter and focus on specific cells and workstations. Did the APQP team provide all tools, inspection methods, test equipment, process documentation and controls for each cell to operate as intended. Are persons closest to process competent to do the work as planned and expected? It is an opportunity to all fix the little things that will impact the launch and ramp-up to full production. Readiness review are done as early as possible; well before production ramp-up is planned.

Done correctly, audits are a powerful management tool used to identify systemic issues, breakdown of, and weaknesses in the process, opportunities for improvement, effectiveness of corrective actions implemented and to determine if all requirements including safety and legal are being met. Audit, audit and audit some more. Audit both product and process.

I had the pleasure of working for several global award winning (top tier 1 suppliers) in my career. One of the things that the top suppliers recognize is that they never want to be the supplier that forces a shutdown or line stoppage at their customers assembly plant. As a best-in-class global supplier we did everything possible to ensure that the products we supplied met every single requirement and agreed upon expectation. The reliability of the supply chain to deliver acceptable product is one of the biggest risks to a successful and flawless production launch. Managing high-risk suppliers is a must. Validation of supplied product (quality) and verification of the supplier’s ability to deliver on time and in enough quantity needs to be well planned and properly resourced by SCM/SQA.

Suppler PPAP and Process Capability is used to ensure that the supplier fully understands all the product requirements. Early submission and early approval are a best practice to reducing launch risks. Has the supplier done and passed all their testing? Did they use qualified, accredited laboratories? Have all measurement and test systems passed an MSA study? Is the process capable of meeting all the product dimensional requirements?

Process capability (Cp/Cpk) best represent a stable (in-control) and predictable process. Often, early production (small) runs do not include all the potential sources of variation that will creep in over time. Best practice to is look at Pp and Ppk results first to see if the product/process can indeed meet the stated requirements for each special characteristic. Ensure to focus on all safety and critical characteristics first, tackle the others soon after.    

An integrated management system should be implemented as soon as possible. We do this to save money and to reduce process waste. At a minimum, we want to see a QMS to ISO 9001, or AS9001 for Aerospace, or IATF 16949 for Automotive. An EMS to ISO 14001, a HSMS to ISO 45001, an ISMS to ISO 27001, and Social Responsibility management system to ISO 26000. Customers may also require others such and ISO 26262 for functional safety.

Setting up a new assembly/production line is only 20% of the effort needed for a flawless launch. There is so much more work to do to ensure the new facility is successful in achieving its intended outcomes. With more than 1000 considerations before breaking ground on a greenfield production facility. Are we our asking ourselves the right questions to ensure a successful and flawless new factory launch?

Follow me here on LinkedIn I am happy to discuss new production and assembly plant launch topics and core tools such as APQP/PPAP and AIAG VDA FMEA.

Key words: culture, competence, capability, controls, communications, readiness and prevention.

Martin Hettwer PMP CMQOE CQE CQA – Lead Auditor, PSCR. – Location Berlin DE.