| Why Every Company Needs Special Processes to Manage Peak Service and Production Times |
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By Paul Scicchitano Does your company experience production surges? Of course it does. Any company that's in business has its peak periods. Just visit your local McDonald's at lunch time. All companies have their lunch crowds to deal with, acknowledges Craig Williams, corporate director of quality and performance improvement for Eaton Corporation, a diversified power management company with 81,000 employees and a manufacturing presence in 29 countries. Your production line might look a little different depending on whether you manage a fast-food business or a $13 billion multinational, but the bottom line is essentially the same: Customers expect their all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions on a sesame seed bun — regardless of how busy you get, or how many other customers are milling around the counter. “How do we deal with incidents better than in the past? Where are risk points in the process? How do you put in quality gates?” asks Williams, whose company has facilities that produce fewer than 10 bad parts per million (PPM). Some Eaton facilities have even begun measuring defects in parts per billion to provide greater visibility for improvement. Once you achieve such lofty quality levels, it’s difficult to improve further, Williams concedes.Join for FREE!
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