GESTION DE LA CALIDAD TOTAL

it shows. Remember that initial tour of the Hoover Universal Plant by Japanese executives in the early 198os?

After we received the report from that tour, our managers came to clearly understand what Toyota expected

from its suppliers and began to make changes accordingly. In 1985, Hoover Universal won the contract to supply

Camry seats for Toyota´s new Georgetown plant, based not on the quality or productivity in Hovover´s plants

but on our highly visible commitment to continuous improvement.

Attention to quality is usually easy to spot. If employees are proud of their quality program , they usually give

it a name and post banners displaying the plant´s vision or mission statement, business objetives, and mettics

showing achievements to date. Both short-and-long-term goals fot the plant and team-as well as statements about

internal and external customer requirements, production shedules, work instructions, productivity levels, incoming

and outgoing quality, scrap and rework levels, attendance, vacation schedules, safety, and levels of employee

training-shuld be displayed at each work center.(This overlaps with category 3)

You should also find out what the plants does with the plant does with scrap. Better plants call atention to crap

rather than hide it by shining a light on it, for example, or marking it with red tape- because they want to know

right away if scrap is building up or if a portion of the process is producing defective parts. One way to find out:

Ask people what they do when a faulty part comes off the line.

Discarding it or discreetly putting it out of the way is a sign of inefficiency. Finally, ask about product develompment

Are cost and timing goals set during develompment?. Are start.ups well managed and low in cost?.

RATING THE PLANT

Immediately following the tour, team members should meet to share their observations and impressions and to develop a report

assessing the plant´s leanness and estimating its cost of sales. This metting should happen right away, since visual

data leave a vivid, but fleeting, impression.

The team should use both the RPA rating sheet and the RPA questionnaire to rate leanness. Rate each of the 11 categories on a

scale from "poor". to "excellent" to "best in class", in meant literally.: Only one plant in each industry, worlwide, deserves

this rating. Then total the ratings; the sum will be between 11 and 121, with an average plant scoring 55. The questionaire

is completed at the same time. (The sidebar "The RPA Process Database" explains the scores for some of the plants toured by my

students.

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