ECTIVE 4 xercise Bill Christensen the production manager was

ECTIVE 4 xercise Bill Christensen, the production manager, was grumbling about the new quality cost system the plant controller wanted to put into place. \"If we start trying to track every bit of spoiled mate- rial, we\'ll never get any work done. Everybody knows when they ruin something. Why bother to keep track? This is a waste of time. Besides, this isn\'t the first time scrap reduction has been emphasized. You tell my workers to reduce scrap, and I\'ll guarantee it will go away, but not in the way you would like. Required: 1. Why do you suppose that the controller wants a written record of spoiled material? If \"every- body knows\" what the spoilage rate is, what benefits can come from keeping a written record?

Solution

A written record can help in tracking losses over a period of time. Data can be used in many ways and can answer important questions: Do night shifts generates more \"scrap\" than they? Are there \"individual differences\" as far as scrap generation is concerned? Which are the products whose manufacturing generates most scrap?

Answer to all such questions open new ways to reduce scrap. Everyone knows \"scrap rate\" and hence, no record needs to be submitted is a weak argument. If everyone knows scrap rate, then let\'s verify it with a written record.

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Bill can be correct in many ways. (1) Scrap quantity is negligible (2) They are meeting stiff deadlines on product deliveries and may not have additional resources to track wastages (3)