I should have stayed in bed

Ever have one of those days when nothing seems to go right? A day when you would have been better off staying in bed? Usually, all is right by the next day. But what if those days are strung together for weeks on end?

That can happen when working on a difficult part project, especially a new part. Before the part order is taken, everyone involved gives their input, a process is developed and the necessary machine time is allocated. A purchase order is then cut. Shortly after the project begins, however, each day presents new problems—no matter what. What should you do?

Call all the players together and look at the process from a different point of view. Short meetings are held during the process when problems occur to ensure good parts are delivered, but decisions are made at the post-process meeting to resolve those problems prior to the next order. The following is a short list of topics to discuss at this post-process meeting—or post-mortem meeting, as I like to call it, because it was going to cause the death of me:

• the customer’s expectations
• the items that went right
• the items that went wrong
• possible solutions, and
• an evaluation of whether the problems can be corrected in time for the next order.

If it was a new part under development, the customer should be aware there might be problems. Perhaps some of the tolerances were unnecessarily tight or the material was difficult to machine. The customer shouldn’t be surprised if the part doesn’t totally meet print if informed at the beginning.

Did anything go right on the project? Even if it’s only that the material arrived on time, that’s a positive. Maybe certain processes went as planned or even better than expected. You need to find elements that did go correctly; otherwise everyone will feel the entire project was a failure.