Replying to LO30344 --
Dear Jason, I suggest there are two ways engineering companies work, one
is 'continuous' as in repetition engineering, the other is 'project
based'.
Statistical process control is easily applicable in the first, and drift
in the process machinery can be corrected by adjusting half the shift in
the opposite direction.
Where project management is the norm, it is difficult to correct errors,
as they usually only occur once in a relatively long time.
In both cases it is possible to flowchart the process.
In the project management case, we can use a similar optimised procedure
for all projects. The chart is generic and usually not detailed, however
there are usually several critical components, such as 'job releases',
which must always be specified.
In one company I worked for, which made aluminium melting furnaces,there
was a 'release' between tne sales section and the engineering section, (so
that design work wasn't undertaken until we had actually 'got the job').
The second release was the drawings being given to the manufacturing
section,( so that work didn't begin with incomplete concept). The third
release was the manufactured equipment released to the customer. (To
ensure it didn't leave the factory incomplete or untested.) The final
release was sign-off by customer and installation technicians.
This approach is achieved by use of good management system documentation.
By keeping to the system we minimised loss, and picked up many of the
'extras'.
Best Regards,
Alan Cotterell
--Alan Cotterell <acottere@bigpond.net.au>
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