An audit that "doesn't seem like an audit": We finally understand the truth about quality
At three o'clock yesterday afternoon, an urgent notice in the administrative department's group was like a stone thrown into the calm work rhythm. It read, "At 14:00 tomorrow, two foreign quality engineers from XYZ Company will come to the factory for on - site verification. Please complete the 'full - dimension preparation' in each department before 16:00."
In an instant, the entire company seemed to have been hit with an "acceleration button":
- The aunt in the workshop squatted beside the equipment base and scrubbed the oil stains three times with a steel wool pad. She didn't even let go of the dust in the bolt seams, muttering, "The places the foreigners touched last time must shine brightly enough to reflect people this time."
- The QC group arranged 15 samples to be inspected in two rows and wiped them repeatedly with alcohol cotton, even rubbing off the fingerprints on the labels. The team leader held a caliper and shouted, "Measure the tolerance one more time! Last time, a sample had a deviation of 0.02mm, and we almost got a return!"
- The young girl in the document group wore glasses and checked the operation instruction manual page by page. She filled in the "version number" that was missed last week, replaced the illustration for "Operation Step 3" with the latest one, and even measured the alignment of the labels with a ruler. "Foreigners definitely pay attention to details," she said.
- The warehouse keeper brought a ladder and re - pasted the labels on the material racks three times. Even the "M" in "Screw M10" had to be written in capital letters - "In the last audit, the foreigner said the labels were not uniform. There must be no mistakes this time."
We didn't get off work until 10 p.m. When we walked out of the workshop, the streetlights cast our shadows very long. Even the security guard came over and asked, "What's going to be inspected tomorrow? I've adjusted all the surveillance videos."
At two o'clock this afternoon, the foreigner arrived on time. There was no polite greeting, no rummaging through the three record books, and not even a moment's rest in the meeting room.
- The first stop is the sample room. The blond foreigner picked up a metal part, measured the radial runout with a caliper, looked up and said, "This product exceeds the tolerance by 0.01mm. The locating pin of the mold is loose and needs to be tightened." The foreigner wearing glasses pinched the corner of the plastic part and pointed at the slight burrs. "Too much mold release agent was sprayed. Reduce the usage by 10% next time." The QC team leader quickly took out a notebook to take notes, and his hands were shaking.
- The second stop is the production workshop. The foreigner stood beside the assembly line, staring at the rag in the operator's hand. The rag was casually laid on the equipment. The foreigner pointed to the hook in the corner and said, "The rag should be hung here. Otherwise, it will pick up dust and contaminate the product surface." The workshop director blushed, rushed over to hang the rag up, and mumbled, "I've always said it should be put in a fixed place, but no one listened."
- Finally, standing in front of the quality bulletin board, the foreigner asked, "What's the defect rate in the recent week?" The operator blurted out, "0.3%. It's mainly because the dimensional deviation is caused by the unstable shrinkage rate of the raw materials." The foreigner let out an "oh", then turned around and walked towards the door. He said to the general manager, "Everything is OK."
The whole review only took 47 minutes.
We didn't dare to breathe a sigh of relief until the foreigner's car drove out of the factory area. The QC team leader slumped in the chair, wiping the sweat from his forehead and saying, "I thought they were going to check the temperature records from last month. We've filled that stuff in three times - we missed filling it in last Wednesday and just wrote it according to the average value." Actually, we all knew clearly:
- What was supplemented the night before last was not just the temperature record. For the inspection report of a certain batch of materials, the supplier's batch number was filled in incorrectly, so we covered it with correction fluid and rewrote it.
- The version number on the operation instruction manual was old, so we pasted a new label on it to cover it up.
- The equipment maintenance record wasn't signed by the team leader. We asked him to add the date later. If really investigated in detail, these "tricks" are full of loopholes.
But this review was more heart - wrenching than any previous internal inspection.
- Previously, we thought that "5S just means sweeping the floor", so the equipment filters weren't cleaned for half a year. It wasn't until a foreigner said that "cleaning tools should be kept in a fixed place" that we understood: 5S is not just a formality; it's the first line of defense against pollution.
- Previously, we thought, "It doesn't matter if there are missing entries in the records. Just fill them in later." —— It wasn't until the foreigner didn't check the records but asked about "the actual defect rate" that we realized: What matters is not how beautifully the records are written, but whether the operators can clearly explain the real situation.
- Previously, we thought, "Burrs are minor issues and the customers have never mentioned them." It wasn't until a foreigner pointed it out that we realized: Just because the customers haven't filed complaints doesn't mean they haven't noticed. It's just that the "breaking point" hasn't been reached.
In the evening, the general manager sent a red envelope in the group with the postscript "You've all worked hard". I was staring at the phone screen and had already started writing a proposal - "Suggestions on Promoting the Normalization of 5S", which included the exact words of the foreigner: "The rags should be hung on a fixed hook." I had proposed this plan before, and the general manager said it was "too troublesome". Now with the "endorsement" of the foreigner, it will definitely be approved.
Actually, it's not that foreigners are strict in their inspections. It's that we ourselves are usually too "careless". Just like when there are guests coming to your home, you will actively sweep the dust under the sofa - not for the guests, but to make yourself live more comfortably. The foreigners' audits are like that "guest": he doesn't rummage through your drawers, but you will actively tidy up the messy things; he doesn't say your home is dirty, but you will actively wipe the tables.
Next time if there is such an audit again, I won't stay up late to make up the records anymore. I will do the following before getting off work every day:
- Ask the operator to hang up the rag.
- Ask the QC group to check the burrs of the samples once.
- Ask the documentation group to check the version number of the operation instruction manual once.
Because I finally understand that quality is not achieved during audits, but turning ‘almost right’ into ‘done properly’ every day in normal times.
It's really nice that the foreigner comes here occasionally. He's not here to "find fault", but to help us "spot" those "taken-for-granted loopholes".