The ultimate target of the production process is to make products that will meet the demands of customers.Meeting the demands of customers efficiently and quickly with best quality and allowing competitive pricing should be the focus for every manufacturing organization to achieve business success.Three building blocks of manufacturing process can be depicted as: A production process can be of multiple types like repetitive, discrete, job shop, continuous process and discrete process based on nature of product produced. Each one of them have their own challenges. What is common is variability in all of them and needs good controls and assurance system to get best out of the process. Process certification is the way to achieve desired quality at optimal cost by eliminating/reducing variabilities.Process certification is a scientific approach consisting of three dimensions -methods, operator and components. Core objective is to identify and systemically eliminate/reduce variables to derive best out of production process. The principles of Process certification are applicable for all types of production processes but relatively easy to apply for repetitive, discrete and job shop type as process observation is easy by team which is core to the certification. Methods certification is a structured team-based study of methods (production process steps) and applying principles of FMEA(Failure Modes & Effects Analysis), to ascertain failure modes and planning can be done to eliminate them. Techniques of SPC(Statistical Process Control) are applied to measure and keep process under statistical control to ensure performance deviations are avoided.Operator certification is accomplished through various evaluations of operator’s capability in class room training, on the job training and effectiveness while building product in work station. Level of competency in all these gives confidence to ensure desired results while product is produced.Components certification is accomplished at components manufacturing site. Critical specifications of components which needs tighter control to ensure quality are subjected to techniques of SPC. This ensures variability is always in control limits. By achieving desired process capability of six sigma levels, the process certification has added advantages as well. Apart from a great product, organizations can develop operators with high degree of reliability and capability which can lead to their satisfaction and develop talent pool as well. Due to part certification, supplier capability and reliability can also be enhanced resulting in reduced cost and efforts. Supplier selection for future component sourcing becomes a logical advantage.Last but not the least, status of various certifications can be displayed on shop floor to give a visibility on accomplishments and show-case organizations focus and accomplishments to customers/external visitors to build credibility.Share on EmailShare on WhatsAppShare on LinkedInShare on TwitterShare on Facebook
