The methods, explained the way they get used on the floor
Four tools almost every plant knows by name and very few use well. Here is how I run them.
Each of these pages answers what the tool is first, then how it is done well, and finally the mistakes I see most often. These are the same tools I work in the workshop, on real cases from your operation.
Fishbone diagram
It exists to organize hypotheses before you spend money testing them. It does not exist to guess elegantly.
Read Method5S
Almost every plant has done 5S once. Implementing it is not the hard part. Making it hold when nobody is watching is.
Read MethodPoka yoke
If your quality control depends on nobody getting distracted for eight hours, you do not have control. You have hope.
Read MethodFMEA
It is the only tool on this list that works on a defect that has not happened yet. Which is why it is the one most often filled in out of obligation and least often actually used.
ReadWhat is holding your operation back today?
Tell me the concrete problem. I will tell you whether it is mine to solve or someone else’s, and what I would do first.