People definitely can follow processes, but do they always understand them? Or, were they written properly and does the end result agree with the customer's documentation / specification? Is that documentation clear enough to get the desired result? When I ran my own shop, we instituted incentives based on hitting standards that were set with mutual involvement from the group doing them and engineering. Each operator was to inspect the work coming to them from the previous operation, so they had to know and understand not only their part, but those prior to and following as well. The benefit was very measurable because the incentive was spread across the entire floor's output, not just a particular group. It also had the benefit of improved attendance. Like Steve says, it made people accountable. Flawed operations or absent operators directly translated into reduced incentives in the paycheck - much faster feedback than the yearly review. Employee turnover dropped in the first year alone from 153% to 17% and we returned to profitability. Despite all that, we still required the quality manager to do first articles on every operation and the finished product simply to check the "understanding" part of the process. It was amazing to find that what seemed to be a very clearly written operation to one person was completely taken differently by the next. These were all people who had a financial stake in the result and were doing exactly what they thought was right. All the first article did was verify the effectiveness of the operation. Did the right things happen and did they happen right? Wouldn't be without it. Bob Croslin Nielsen Media Research -----Original Message----- From: Steve Thomas [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2002 5:18 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] First Article Buy-off Process for SMT & Wave Solder This kind of behavior only continues if you (not you, necessarily, but the management directly responsible for the performance of the people performing the work) don't hold people accountable for doing the work the way it's documented. You write a procedure, train the people on the procedure, get their signature on the training record, and then hold them accountable for performing the operation per procedure. If they don't they get a talking to, or a ding on their review, or a paltry increase when it comes time for a raise if they're prone to poor performance. Termination is always an option too. I worked for a company that went from very few proceduralized operations to documenting every move, and verifying every move with a second operator. You'd be surprised how people get used to it as standard ops. after doing it for a while. This was in medical device mfg., too, so non-compliance was a precursor to a line stop. People CAN follow procedures, and it CAN make for a very efficiently run operation, but you have to demand compliance. I've seen it work, and work very well. Maybe if the management and tech. support staff believes it can work, it will? I just know it's far from impossible. Whether or not it costs you more than it saves you in a Class 1 or 2 operation, I don't know. In Class 3 it's mandatory, at least in med. products. -----Original Message----- From: rgrant [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2002 1:02 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] First Article Buy-off Process for SMT & Wave Solder Poh, I have read all the other replies, and in spite of them I agree with you. Unless an operator has a reputation for fouling things up, his peers will usually rubber stamp the buy-off with out actually thoroughly checking the machine set up. As I'm sure you have seen, thoroughly checking and buying off can often take up to a half hour or more. With pressure to get the line running, people will either just spot check or just buy-off without checking at all. There are lots of reasons why this doesn't work. However, like you said, EVERY company I have been to uses this fallacy. We collectively seem to believe that humans will follow a procedure like a machine, totally ignoring human psychology. The question is, what is the alternative? I have seen it where a production line will drop the buy-off procedure because it wasn't working, only to put it back in place after a major misbuild. I guess its like a car alarm, you get this sense of *security* that really isn't real. Pick and place machine manufactures and AOI manufactures have been working this problem for years. I think we are very close to a solution. Ryan Grant -----Original Message----- From: Poh Kong Hui [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2002 9:54 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] First Article Buy-off Process for SMT & Wave Solder Hi Technetters, I would to share some experience with you all. I have been working for 5 companies. I realize that every company that I worked for, has a buy-off system; so called the first article buy-off before releasing the either a SMT or wave soldering line for mass production. I am rather curious why the people who are managing the lines cannot perform their own self check, but rather depends upon someone to check their work and to ensure they loaded the right to the machine or to the boards. I would like to hear your opinion about this system as I find it rather stupid and it is wasting time. Poh ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------