Assessing the Cost

During one of our recent assessments, our Planning and Quality teams identified part inspection as a process in need of an overhaul. They realized that some of the parts we manufacture for different customers could look similar or, in some cases, identical. At the time, our part inspection process required a dedicated inspector to use hand-held equipment to visually evaluate each part. That process came with a high potential for error. Often key features could either be misidentified or inaccurately measured, causing parts to be misidentified. After further investigation, we determined that part misidentification is one of the most significant quality drivers in our industry.

Just one misidentified part can have many far-reaching consequences that come at a steep cost for us and our customers.

• Money – We determined that the monetary cost is an average of $3500 per occurrence but could be significantly more depending on where in the process the error gets caught.
• Time – Misidentifying a part not only takes away from our valuable production time but causes our customers to lose time waiting on the right parts.
• Trust – Identification errors erode the hard-earned trust our customers have in us.
• Reputation – We rely on maintaining a solid reputation with our current customers to attract new ones. Consistent errors cause irreparable damage to our reputation.
• Safety – By far, the most serious cost. The safety of our customers and their customers is our top priority. Marking parts correctly is just one of the ways we keep safety front and center.