process improvement tools Archives

In This Episode…

Renaud interviews Greg Fleming, an experienced merchandising and manufacturing operations manager who went from New Zealand to Australia to China and finally is now based in Ho Chi Minh City in South Vietnam.

Greg’s background is mainly in the apparel trade, from fabric production to retail. Due to his experience in both Vietnam and China, he is well-placed to give us some really interesting insight into manufacturing in both countries.

Since Vietnam is a very popular China-alternative for many importers, let’s hear more about it from Greg here!

Just hit the play button to start listening..!

Listen to the episode right here 👇👇👇

🎧 Greg Fleming | Vietnam VS China Manufacturers & Digitizing Processes In The Factory 🎧

Show Notes

✅ Introducing the episode, Greg, and his experience

✅ What’s the COVID-19 situation in Vietnam? – Greg explains the stringent measures Vietnam is taking to control Covid, including thorough contact tracing, isolation, and the population’s ready acceptance of restrictions, such as mask-wearing.

✅ What are the main differences between working with Chinese or Vietnamese manufacturers? – Greg makes the point that manufacturing in Vietnam seems to have evolved to be more accomodating than China which can be more regimented, although this varies per region, so Vietnamese suppliers will do what they can to become a partner if you’re showing them similar flexibility. He suggests that honesty, openness, and clarity are the cultural differences between Vietnamese and (many) Chinese suppliers. For example, Chinese suppliers will often accept a contract even if they’re going to struggle to fulfill it, whereas those in Vietnam would usually apologize and walk away rather than disappoint you later.

✅ What have been the main obstacles that have prevented Vietnamese manufacturers from digitizing their processes? – 99% of multinationals in Vietnam have brought in some kind of IT systems (such as ERP, MES for managing the shop floor, PLM for new product development, etc), but on the factory floor, its use is probably at around only 5% because management and middle-management don’t understand it or see the value. This could be cultural as Vietnamese people are proud and don’t like new things forced on them, so when implementing it think about what the cultural and process change is that is going to relate to the uptake of IT.

✅ Is there a particular software Greg suggests for apparel based on his experience? – IT in apparel (soft goods) is very different from that used in hard goods because there are so many variations of SKUs that most ERPs don’t get. There are few apparel-specific ERPs, but the best at the moment is probably Coats Digital. Greg endorses it because they have a really good apparel PLM (product lifecycle management), raw material libraries allowing you to create a BOM for multiple styles, the ability to create garment designs in 3D (remotely, which is helpful these days).

✅ How software can save on costs of getting a new apparel product from concept to production (example) – an example of a study that found that it took 4.8 prototypes to go from concept to production-approved, so that’s around $20,000 to get everything sent between Asia and the USA, for example. This can be done using IT if the prototype designs are made and shared digitally in 3D, saving manufacturers a lot of money by doing everything in-country.

✅ How software can save on costs of getting a piece of new furniture from concept to production (example) – centric PLM software is good for furniture as, in Greg’s opinion, it’s as complicated as garments. This is due to its size and shape, so the dimensions need to be precise when considering shipping them in containers. But as well as the need to get dimensions exact, there are also numerous safety considerations and laws for furniture to comply with, such as bookshelves having a mechanism that allows them to be attached to walls to not tip over and harm children. Key takeaway: select what’s right for you when starting on a digital transformation.

✅ When starting the digital transformation on a factory, where to begin? – The focus is on using IT to reduce wasted time and costs. A Vietnamese factory doesn’t want to receive emails from customers asking what is going on. Developing a digital tech pack providing detailed information and specifications about a product is a key task, as is deciding on what’s acceptable or not in new products, such as colors. On color and pre-production samples, Greg gives the example of brands in the West spending around $500 per time to send color swatches between Vietnam and the West for checking which is an avoidable cost. Datacolor color management software can be used to create the pre-production garment sample in the right color and is a far cheaper workaround to sending swatches between countries each time (as long as the final sample is within an acceptable delta of the agreed color). In his experience, machines have proven to be more reliable in recognizing the right colors than humans anyway. Eventually, a pre-production sample should be made, but only after the product is 95-98% agreed and ready in its digital form. Then this can be modeled in the factory and demonstrated to the customer via video conference rather than spending hundreds of dollars to ship it. This is a more efficient way to evolve how the garment trade operates.

✅ Summarising Greg’s approach of implementing IT – the goal is to reduce the cost of doing business at the product development stage that allows a factory to implement mass-customization to facilitate what a merchandise financial planner needs today, that is to say, to be flexible on styles and order amounts. IT gives you the ability to order in smaller quantities, but many components require quite complex software which can’t be handled in excel, email, or by sending packages back and forth.

✅ Is there a risk that some importing countries will start to demand more proof that products are truly made in the country claimed, materials are not from certain contentious areas, they are sustainable, etc? What is the solution to this? – EU laws are coming in soon that will require exporters to prove the country of origin of their products. In the case of Vietnamese garments where 80+% of materials used come from outside of Vietnam (mainly China), this leaves them in a difficult situation. Customs may no longer accept invoices for materials etc as proof of origin due to fears over counterfeiting. Therefore, Greg suggests that blockchain-based IT software (which is already being invested in by the largest players) is the best way to mitigate the risks of counterfeiting in this situation and be able to comply.

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Do you wonder why you still suffer from quality issues, even though the process is quite mature and seems to be well understood?

Or are you preparing to launch the production of a new product… or production of an existing product in a new factory? And you want to plan ahead to avoid missteps that might be quite costly?

There are 3 key process improvement tools that you can use:

The Process flow chart
The Process FMEA (Failure Mode & Effects Analysis)
The control plan (both for product and for the process)

And there is a logical order that you can follow. Let’s go through these documents one by one…

1. The Process Flow Chart

This is simply the mapping of the process steps. There are many templates you can follow, and here is an example of a process flowchart:

Take a step back and look at this process. What steps can be combined (less picking & stacking, fewer mistakes, higher productivity)? Are there ways to eliminate one step (e.g. by clipping rather than positioning and then screwing)?

2. The Process FMEA

With the process map in hand, walk on the factory floor and observe each step. for each process, make a list of things that might go wrong (the “failure modes”). Bring in people from different teams and backgrounds if possible.

The FMEA is a great way to assess the risks and to rank them. The 3 components of risk in this form are:

The severity of the impact (on the customer, on the downstream process…) if it happens
Occurrence — how often it is expected to happen
Detection — how likely is it to be caught before it has an impact?

And then, for each failure mode, it drives an action plan. It is a living document and should be updated often.

👉 Read more about the Process FMEA, when to use it, and get a FREE template

A word of caution. It is not an easy exercise. Don’t expect a production supervisor or a quality auditor to do it nicely without prior training and experience.

In theory, it is a tool to think of issues that might come up in the future. But an easier way to start is to include the issues that came up in the past… if that process has been in place for some time.

3. The control plan

Based on the above documents, you have:

A map of the process steps
A ranking of the highest risks to watch out for

This the basis for a good process control plan — the central document that the factory should use to drive the process’ capability up (in other words, improve process controls so as to get better product quality).

A good control plan includes:

Process controls — in this example, what to check regularly on a die casting machine to ensure it works properly. (Note that the mold and the materials also need to be checked regularly — it’s not only about the machine.)

Product controls — in this case, an inspection of incoming components and inspection of some characteristics of semi-finished products. (It should also include inspection of completed products, obviously.)

Based on the control plan, proper work instructions can be given to the main interested parties:

Production operators (who need to achieve that plan and do some of the checks when appropriate)
Quality inspectors & engineers (who need to do some of the checks)
Maintenance technicians (who need to know what the settings should be on the equipment)
Purchasers (who need to buy the right components & materials)
Customers (who need to know what specifications the manufacturer commits to, and who may want to audit the process controls)

*****

I made this whole approach look very linear, but often those process improvement tools are developed at the same time. Each document feeds the other two.

Our consultants have developed these documents in a number of projects, with good results. They are quite powerful.

What do you think? Do you, or your suppliers, use these process improvement tools?

Editor’s note: This post has been republished here from QualityInspection.org with some adjustments for Sofeast readers

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Tag: process improvement tools

Vietnam VS China Manufacturers & Digitizing Processes In The Factory [Podcast]