Paul Boykin

The “Production Database” may need a new name…Manufacturing Operations System (MOS), as described by Jason Spera. These capabilities are indeed very beneficial to the continuous improvement of the production process, particularly as Jason describes in the latter part of the article with regards to planning, controlling shop-floor execution, and data mining for analysis, reporting, monitoring, and traceability.

Jason mentions a “digital work package” that provides “every conceivable guidance, verification, and information needed to conduct a quality build efficiently.” That is exactly the intent of the “Production Database” as defined in goal #1 (from my earlier post). Our manufacturing and process engineers continually add to this store of information throughout the life of the product. However, there is one source of information that often isn’t utilized effectively: the front-line employees actually using the information. Their input tends to be filtered through the perspective (and the time constraints) of the attending engineers.

We’ve all experienced conversations with front-line employees where we “discovered” a good assembly technique for a product we’ve been building for quite some time, yet no one else knows about this technique. This good information is “trapped” in the employee’s experience and not shared due to lack of an easy, embedded system of communication. Maybe this technique was communicated at one time, but never became part of the official documentation. We hope to break that barrier through a “Tips” button that allows our operators to provide input directly–”wikipedia” style. These tips and comments will be clearly highlighted from the official documentation, of course. I’ll let you know how this experiment goes…

Paul Boykin
Process Engineering Manager