Issue Tracking in Manufacturing
Consider this scenario: You are running late for the office and are about to catch the elevator when you notice a sign board saying, ‘Elevator Under Maintenance. Please use the staircase.’ In that moment, this might seem like an inconvenience, but existence of that sign board is of paramount importance for safety of numerous lives. Although, it is easier to communicate issues in small settings or places. Conversely, the transmission of significant information is more challenging at a workplace where more lives are at risk. Issue tracking in manufacturing is therefore given top attention for the workers’ safety. Tags maintain liaison among concerned departments to ensure prompt resolution.
At the factory level, issue tracking, also referred to as the tagging system means marking and documenting the status of equipment or situation and alerting the relevant coworkers of its operational state. As problems are inevitable in a production environment, this approach can assist and prevent everything from small irregularities to major risks. Such shop floor abnormalities are also termed as Fuguai in Japanese. Companies maintain following three main sorts of tags for tracking issues in manufacturing sector, commonly known as Failure Tags or F-Tags
1. Safety Tags
Safety tags can be sent out by anyone for everyone. These include issues like-
- Trips and falls due to leakage, debris or unorganized equipment that can result from minor injuries to unfortunate events like death.
- Unguarded machinery that can induce sparks, flying chips or/and involve sharp rotating parts.
- Electrical hazards resulting from exposed wires, poor installation, unlocked panels etc.
2. Operator Tags
These tags are meant for supervisors, cleaning department, and quality. They track deformities such us-
- Leak proofing and oil filling
- Pressure testing
- Checking corrosion and cracks
- Spills, dust, and dirt
3. Maintenance Tags
Maintenance tags need Engineers, Mechanics and other repair personnel to rescue in cases where-
- There are loose or missing screws
- Open/broken seals
- Spark or overheating of equipment
- Slackness in conveyer belt
- Gas or chemical leak
Issue tracking is a necessary aspect of risk management for every business. Primary objective is to prevent workplace accidents, illnesses, and fatalities, as well as the pain and financial hardship these occurrences can bring on for employees, their families, and employers. Regardless of its importance, the conventional tag management system has its own drawbacks-
- Lack of transparency regarding recent and past safety inspections and departmental actions
- Lack of detailed inspection outcomes
- Torn, greasy or damaged tags
- Delays due to manual registration, confusion of ownership and missing pieces of information
- Lack of communication of changes/improvements among all the concerned people
- Stacks of colored tags on the Shop Floor
How can TheLeanSuite's Issue Tracker help resolve manufacturing shop floor problems?
- Digitize your tracking process; save paper
- Avoid delays by quickly identifying issues and prioritizing them based on severity of the abnormality
- Capture/ record the issue with phone and upload it with the detailed digital form to cap the issue in real time
- Assign the tags/tickets to the right person
- Be notified when the issue is approved and resolved
- Gain insights on tagged issues and share the resulting changes in equipment with the co-workers
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