Renaud Anjoran
Renaud has 10 years of experience in the quality and manufacturing fields and is a certified ISO 9001 lead auditor and ASQ certified quality engineer. He was quoted in the New Yorker and the LA Times, and his articles have been published in Quality Progress, Business Insider, and more. His role is to ensure SynControl really solves customer's problems and saves them money.
Let's say you haven't found any software packages that will support your factory's operations in the way you need. You want to work on a highly/fully customized set of designs and logics. And yet, you have heard of 5- and 6-figure IT projects that led nowhere, and you want to avoid the same mistakes.
In our '
8 Rules for Successful Software Implementation and Process Changes', we wrote rule 6 as follows:
"avoid heavy customization if possible". That's generally the advice I give our customers.
However, if you really want to go down that route, here are our 5 tips for developing customized software.
Topics:
Insider,
manufacturers,
software implementations,
factory processes,
customized software,
process improvement
Online retailers have had to become masters at data analytics. They have an ocean of data and can make experiments & get feedback quickly. They keep iterating on how to get visitors to shop more and come back more often.
At the other extreme, many manufacturing and purchasing organizations still live in the pre-digital world. They “touch” many data that are, unfortunately, not collected in a database for analysis.
That’s a pity. Using relatively simple statistical tools can provide many actionable ideas for cutting defect rates, supplier risks, and operational costs. Machine learning should come much later.
Topics:
quality inspections,
quality control software,
quality improvement,
supplier improvement,
corrective action plans,
data analysis
Most manufacturers have understood that placing inspectors at the end of the line is not the right way (or, at least, not sufficient) to manage quality. The key is to improve processes and to catch issues as close to their source as possible.
But, in practice, when it comes to checking quality during the manufacturing process, what are the most common options? And how to schedule them based on work orders issued by the factory's planning system?
Topics:
quality inspections,
product inspection
We have now been equipping customers with our software, SynControl, for more than 4 years, and they sign up in order to enjoy specific benefits.
Based on our experience, let's look at whether quality inspection software can markedly improve quality on its own in this post...
Topics:
quality inspection software,
quality improvement,
software implementations
How to drive improvements in your company, and in your suppliers' factories? A very common approach is to request a CAP (Corrective Action Plan) when a problem comes up.
However, issuing a one-size-fits-all CAP for each issue makes little sense. There are actually 3 complexities of problems. Let's explore each and a relevant plan of action here...
Topics:
quality improvement,
8D problem solving tool,
supplier improvement,
DMAIC,
PDCA,
corrective action plans
By now, the team at SynControl has helped tens of companies improve their QA/QC processes by implementing our
quality inspection software. And I thought I would write about a few lessons we have learned along the way. I've condensed our best practices into 8 'rules' for manufacturers and buyers to follow when performing new software implementation and process changes.
Topics:
software implementations
Have you decided to start auditing your suppliers’ factories? Or maybe some parts of your company/group?
Topics:
factory audit,
supplier improvement
In times of budget cuts, many hard-nosed executives request cuts in every line of every cost center. However, in some cases, spending more on preventive activities, and cutting drastically in some other budget lines, is a smarter approach.
Topics:
factory audit
We recently interviewed
Jürgen Weckherlin, a consultant in the field of procurement who specialises in increasing productivity and reducing costs, and got answers to several questions that explore some of the best practices for buying offices in China and Asia.
Do you have a buying office overseas? Keep reading for the advice he shared...
Topics:
sourcing,
buying from china,
buying offices
Over the years, we have tried many approaches to improve quality in Chinese factories and we've found that we are starting using the same quality improvement tools over and over with good success.
Topics:
process flow chart,
quality improvement,
process FMEA,
process control plan,
8D problem solving tool
![Best Practices for Buying Offices in China & Asia [Q&A]](https://www.syncontrol.com/hubfs/Best%20Practices%20for%20Buying%20Offices%20in%20China%20%26%20Asia%20%5BQ%26A%5D.jpg)
