Just in time mfg.

Can this just in time mfg. be a good thing?
Saw this one recently.

Specification: Stress relieve per engineering note: xxxxx

Defective condition: xxxx-x detail and xxxx-y detail of xxxx-z assembly were not stress relieved per engineering requirement.

Root Cause: The Operations Manager errored in judgment as a result of pressure to deliver the product on time and directed personnel to omit the stress relief operation without written authorization from the customer engineering dept. (reported just like that)

Corrective Action:
Impounded parts
Operations Manager suspended
Personnel instructed not to skip operations and report any instances to the General Manager

This is an aircraft part. Critical. We would have never known the parts were not properly processed. Some one at the supplier felt guilty about certifying this and reported this non-conforming material and it was stopped. Happens all the time. Little mistakes here and there. Dimensional ones are allot more obvious because of fit, form, function. Special processing is a bit trickier to catch. My Question is, Is what is good for Toyota and Deere good for all? What happens when all the parts go dock to stock and nothing goes to inspection for audit? If the big guys are saving Mega bucks on inspection and testing then why are not the savings passed on to the taxpayer? Black Hawks are falling out of the sky at a much more frequent rate lately, but seldom make page one when compared to a V22 with 20 on board. Does the Harvard Grad understand enough about manufacturing to dictate Quality? The trend to employ third party inspection companies, with no doubt knowledgeable professional people, but with limited product knowledge and no real accountability or loyalty to any one particular organization is in my opinion trouble that is going to happen. I can clearly see why some might have trouble with nuclear plants wanting to locate in their town. Most of the statistical QC programs are pure dog and pony shows in the aerospace industry. The one that I saw that was really good was a manufacturer of computer hardware, a commercial product with huge volume were 3 sigma actually meant something. They had janitors that new more about statistical quality than most of the big shots at some of the bigger fortune 500 companies. They trained people, and trained them good, in real classrooms with real teachers and real books. What I have seen the last few years is a very poor cheaply run program to say they are doing it because it is imposed by someone else, or is the requirement of some ISO banner they want to fly. A major tire company even proudly displays their certifications in front of their plant after having one of the biggest recalls I can remember. Just in time again? Just my opinion, and it is humble.

Thank goodness someone was uncomfortable with the shortcut in that story.
Part of the problem with "Just In Time" is when the purchasing agents think they can order it JIT.
We just ran an order of aircraft parts and experienced a 2 month delay in getting foreign steel approved as none of this alloy was available made in the USA. Customer was screaming for parts and it would have been very easy to have skipped one process to save time. Instead, we followed all called out procedures and delivered parts when fully ready. We will do everything within our abilities to expedite an order but we will not compromise our perfect QC record in an effort to please somebody.
After all, my family, you or I maybe aboard the airplane those parts are in.
Now it's time to get to work on that ASAP order that just came in. As soon as we can get 57 sheets of 1/4" A36 we will be going to it.
Les

As we are beginning to see, some modern practices just don't get it. The major problem is, just like after WWII when quality control was offered to the general American manufacturing concerns and they said pissonit, Japan took it with open arms and now, a long time later, everyone adheres to the QC principles. EVERYONE, IF YOU DON'T YOU WON'T SURVIVE AND EVEN IF YOU DO YOU MAY NOT. It was an incremental process and it included greed and avarice on the part of the worker, the general public, the corporation heads, the colleges and universities that taught the classes, every one who wanted a piece of that tasty pie.

Pointing the finger and gripping, without offering a solution is a waste of time and just so much bullshit. They should have suspended ALL of the management from the top down because they spoke out of both sides of their faces, as you and I well know, and had a hand in ALL the events leading up to the problem. It is a problem of the complete system, not just one or two events. I have worked on both sides of the process, having been both a worker and a bossman and having a degree in QC. I made a lot of money on both sides, tried to make a few changes but the union bosses AND upper management didn't want to hear. You know human inertia, if it ain't broke now, don't fix the things you see about to break. NO ONE WANTS TO CHANGE, ANYTHING, ANYWHERE, ANYTIME. Think about it.

Just in time offers a multitude of good things all up and down the line, BUT, just like candy, steak, beer and pizza and baseball, too much of a good thing can make you sick, and one hick-up anywhere up or down the line can make for a total F****P.

The system was designed with a built in false pre-supposition that everyone all up and down the line will do an excellent job. Anyone who has lived past highschool, that lookes beyond the mundane, understands the problem. BUT, AGAIN, 75% of the humans on this planet are only average and can't see beyond the end of their noses or the end of the day or the end of the week, it doesn't matter where on this planet you live or what race, color, ethnic background or all the other bullshit, you live.

We, in America and in the other developed contries, live well because of the progression in the industrial miliue and, philosophically speaking, will die because of it. I, for one, doen't want to see it come to an end, but of course it will and we may be seeing the beginnings of that death throe now. YOU ARE NOW, WILL CONTINUE TO BE AND WERE IN THE PAST, A PART OF THE PROBLEM. EVERY ONE LIVING TODAY IS IN THE SAME BOAT. YOU WANT CHEAP THINGS, HIGH WAGES, EASY DAYS, SHORTER HOURS, FREE MEDICAL, DENTAL AND VISION, A NEW CAR, HOUSE, RETIREMENT, THE GOVERNMENT TO TAKE CARE OF EVERYTHING. HOW ABOUT SOCIALIZED EVERYTHING. HEY, IT CAN'T ALL HAPPEN WITHOUT SOMETHING BREAKING. LIVE WITH IT, THE FREE LUNCH IS ENDING.

I was thinking maybe they could do away with the inventory tax, so a place could have a couple of parts on hand. Seems like the only reason for JIT is to reduce inventory so it won't be taxed and a company will not have to have so much property to store parts that is also taxed. Maybe we should look at the little things that drive some of these decisions. Why should company X pay the state of CA. xx dollars because at the end of a cycle they had a few bolts left over? I can not believe the amount of purging and scraping of good hardware that we do, just to order the same part a month latter and when we order, it is always a big rush and crisis situation for someone. Even when complex software is controling every thing. Parts pimps outnumber skilled workers 3 to 1 were I work. Heck even the engineers they hire turn into parts pimps. They even have people assigned to harrras suppliers to get it here faster. I got to wonder what is going on, and can somthing, anything be fixed?

Seems to me that where we are is the result of letting the bean counters run the show. It just stands to reason that manufacturing people were better at managing manufacturing, but the introduction of the
" generic " management graduate about 60 years ago started a trend toward management people who don't really understand the workings of what they manage. It only stands to reason that this would breed some wonderful sounding ideas that just plain won't work in reality or are universally applied with no regard for common sense or practicality. This has to change or we are S.O.L.
Regards,
Tom

[This message has been edited by ObsoleteTom (edited 03-06-2003).]

some interesting observations about inventory, and I fully agree with the last post as I just went through teh same eaxatc bs costing me my job. Stupid management ran the shop down to 1/2 hald earnings and even fewer employees in no time after the shop was sold to a new owner. We are talking rather large corporations here with several hundred amployees taken over by one with sevral thousand employees, and the stupid bastards even bought their own foundry to make their own aerospace billets when Boeing etc. provide their own. Looks to me like central planning is the cause. managers can not evne function normally and make decisions as some rich ass hippy on the top with a mac computer runs the show from his bedroom. Vive La Amercia!

The communists gave us ample examples where central planning leads. At least the commies were serious, to our "elite" of sh..heads its just a computer game and fame.

Nobody on the ground floor can even begin to do his job because some a on the top has already everything figure out before the worker even gets out of bed and encounters his daily problem to be solved.

Na was is den das fuer ein dep a damscher