Know Your Manufacturing Process Baseline Before Improving Before diving into advanced line upgrades or expensive automation, the first step is to understand the manufacturing process baseline. What do you change if you do not know what needs to be changed and why?   This involves collecting detailed data on how a manufacturing line currently performs — […]

Introduction Every organization faces unexpected issues—but how you respond defines your success. When deviations from standard procedures are mismanaged or ignored, the result can be catastrophic: product recalls, regulatory fines, and irreparable brand damage. A deviation in manufacturing refers to a temporary or unplanned departure from approved procedures, specifications, or standards during the production process. […]

Work Instruction Updates: Capturing Continuous Improvement and Tribal Knowledge By Jon M Quigley Why Work Instruction Updates Matter Work instruction updates are more than administrative chores; they are potent tools for continuous improvement and the preservation of tribal knowledge. As organizations adapt to changing customer needs, technological shifts, and workforce turnover, the need to capture, […]

Introduction Manufacturing organizations striving for excellence often rely on two powerful forces: manufacturing continuous improvement and robust documentation. Yet, connecting what truly happens on the shop floor with what gets recorded can be far more challenging than it seems. This gap between practice and documentation often leads to inefficiencies, inconsistent training, and the risk of losing […]

  My thoughts on this LinkedIn post Judging a process by its outcomes in organizations, teams, and even personal projects is common. When things go awry, the immediate instinct is often to blame the process itself. However, this overlooks a crucial distinction: a well-designed process can still yield poor results if executed improperly. Consider a […]

By Jon M. Quigley From Robert Fey’s post on LinkedIn. Response:    Delayed SOP Is Just the Tip—Systemic Blindness Runs Deep When a delayed SOP (Start of Production) surfaces, it’s tempting to blame test quality or last-minute execution. These are failure points for sure. However, it can also be uncontrolled scope changes, poor configuration, poor […]

By Shawn P Quigley and Jon M Quigley Change Dynamics Change is a function of tension created by the difference between the current condition and the desired state. It can only occur when this tension contains sufficient energy to overcome external forces. These external forces could be something as simple as the current condition being […]

In preparation for our trip to Eindhoven University of Technology to lecture on Configuration Management, we provide a brief excerpt on the evolution of the horseless cariage. Traditionally new market segments open due to the need to solve a problem. Such problems may be real as in the case of the environmental crisis solved by […]