Reducing errors in production

25% of production errors are caused by unclear documentation or poorly thought-out, or poorly executed training.

I pass on the 25% of errors in production that come from a short-term planning failure (at the end of the hour).

Doing Lean is good, but supporting Lean actions with solid documentation and training is even better.

So if you are on an industrial site and want to improve your productivity, and reduce human errors, this video is for you!

https://youtu.be/Mu46ZUDrang

25% of human errors come from poorly written documentation and training!

Start by making sense!

Infobesity, cognitive overload,... Are these words familiar to you? Probably... On an industrial site, production errors happen because:

• operators have 150 text procedures to read (150 is the real number!)
• operators are afraid to perform their tasks for fear of making a mistake
• Executives burn out because they have conflicting instructions from one procedure to another

This is the real life of an industrial site... All under pressure on costs and speed.

Coddled with 80% of useless documentation, they lose the meaning of their jobs:

• The processes seem trivial to them, even though they were very well designed by consultants who are highly paid for it.
• The processes are no longer controlled because the old ones have retired.

So the first thing to do is to make processes and procedures meaningful again. Make simple popularization videos that focus on “Why.” Why is the process useful? Why was the process designed this way?

Use microlearning for all the theory

Whether we are talking about a procedure or a manufacturing process, there is always some theory. What could be more boring than learning about this theory by reading procedures of several dozen pages, or by attending soporific classroom training.

Switch to microlearning for all of this theory. Also, make videos that are less than 5 minutes long, by subject, and by target population. It will be much more effective.

Keep learning in the field for manufacturing operators, with a touchscreen tablet handy to review micro-learning videos when in doubt.

Use virtual reality wisely to reduce production errors

I am always surprised to see this kind of euphoria around virtual or augmented reality. From my point of view, it is a fundamental contribution to learning and assisted execution in business.

But watch out for the ego and the geeky side! It can be very, very expensive. Therefore, it is necessary to balance the use of this technology with a reflection on value!

Also, focus on the most risky process steps from a safety or quality point of view. Leave the others aside. Microlearning will suffice.

On these critical steps, develop training simulators, or assisted execution. And in both cases, you can simplify the documentation at the workplace.