Are your team following processes?
We are not robots, but many roles in industry require us to follow processes. In the hope that if we complete tasks the same way every time, how can anything go wrong? If you do the same thing every time, you should see the same result.
What are the effects of problems caused by people not doing their job properly? We have all been there when disaster strikes. There is a clean up operation. We start by containing the issue and acknowledging the problem with the customer. Then we look to the root cause to find that somebody was not following the process. You’ve now got to tell your customer that somebody was not following the process. You then look to identify a solution and implement it. Many of our readers will identify this process as an 8D.
What is the cost of this problem to businesses?
- Cost of time of the team to respond to the problem and put in fixes
- Damage to customer trust
- Annoyance within the team
- Complaint Report costs within Automotive Industry
- Ongoing costs to later effects of the problem, such as warranty, or honouring a bad agreement
What is the countermeasure to prevent this from happening again? How can you get people to follow the process? The Gateway System has 3 key features to help your team to follow processes.
Same Process Every Time
The Gateway System makes use of templates that are setup to help the team follow a set process every time. There is a degree of flexibility, which is controlled by the Gateway Approval process.
The templates have role ownership to help you to assign to the correct team members, so they know exactly what they are responsible for.
Easy Access to Resources
On Production Lines, it is common to see a Standard Operating Procedure at each station to show the operator how they should be accomplishing their tasks. Other areas of the business are not so simple. There is generally documentation filed to satisfy the ISO 9001 or IATF 16949 auditors, but how easy is this for a team member to get to, and then find the right page?
In the Gateway System, you can attach documents (or even better, link to the versioned Document Management System to get the latest approved revision every time). The user can instantly view the resources to help them do their job. There are lots of other benefits to this, such as training, sickness cover, and zero preparation for audits.
Gateway Approval
What if the processes are all in a system, but people still do not follow the process? The Gateway Approval will prevent the project/change from moving to the next Gateway until the approver has agreed that all actions have been completed satisfactorily, and it is the right decision to move forwards.
Conclusion
With the Gateway system, we have helped our customers to follow their processes, and avoid losing Time, money, and reputation. To find out how the Gateway System can improve your business, please get in touch with us
