Human Resources and Health & Safety professionals enjoyed a value-added presentation from Glen Brannen of Focus Workplace, part of EMC's 360 Environmental, Health & Safety program. Glen's presentation was informative and informal so lots of questions and discussion took place as members increased their knowledge and understanding of how to best deal with health care professionals when managing return to work programs.

Glen's presentation is attached.

The Continuous Improvement focus was on tracking quality checks during production process:

Context

Instead of having lots of QC Inspectors, quality responsibilities are incorporated into each job function.  It is our line workers' responsibility to ensure the ongoing quality level they are producing.  When they find non-conforming product, they either scrap it on the spot, or tag the skid to show it requires sorting (depending on where it is found).  The system works well over-all.

 Problem

• There is no record that the inspections were actually performed (including what inspection frequency, exactly which attributes they looked for, any non-conforming product identified, etc). 
• Workers perform inspections 'on-the-fly' so they cannot simply stop to fill out yet another form (we are trying to stream-line the paperwork as it is).  
• If a certain amount of scrap is identified, a form is filled out (and trended in a database) to document that.  If the form isn't completed, we (and customer's auditors) can only guess if the inspections were actually performed or not. 
• Visual factory cues will help Supervisors and QC identify if an inspection wasn't done, but we also need 'positive' proof of what was done after-the-fact if there is a complaint or audit.

 Question: How to enable line-workers track inspections they perform, without making them stop to fill out more paperwork?

The following are some discussion points from the group:

• Automation opportunities and ROI analysis
• Electronic tracking systems/ sensors and advantages and disadvantages
• Sampling frequency strategies
• Justifying cos/effort vs. return on time and effort
• Standardization of processes: strategies- product should look after itself with good standardization

Many thanks to all members who participated and provided their ideas!

See you all Nov 23 at Tenneco Automotive in Owen Sound!

Mike Baker, EMC