Learn how Quality at the Source (QATS) can provide great impact on any continuous improvement initiative.
Pull systems, one-piece flow, elimination of waste—these are the concepts most often discussed when lean is the topic. Quality at the Source, on the other hand, is rarely front and center when lean improvement efforts are presented.
Even though improved quality is a common outcome of lean transformations every day, the glamorous lean concepts and tools seem to get all the attention. However, just as 5S systems are credited with productivity improvements of up to 10%, Quality at the Source (QATS) can produce dramatic quality improvements in short order.
Quality at the Source can quickly improve quality by providing simple yet powerful tools for employees to use to identify and reduce the waste of defects throughout the value stream. And like many other lean concepts, QATS depends on other lean tools for successful implementation.
The Basic Concept Behind QATS
In an effort to eliminate the waste associated with defects in a process, the implementation of QATS focuses on placing the skills and knowledge in employees’ hands to keep defects from moving through the value stream. To this end, employees are taught the minimum quality standards at each step of the process and empowered to correct defects or remove the defective item before value-added activity is conducted. By catching these defects earlier in the process, quality is improved and the cost of defects is reduced. The basic idea is to quickly inspect through visual means each item or part before adding value. This inspection should take as little time as possible, and quite often only takes seconds

Defects, after they are identified, should be corrected at the point of discovery whenever possible. This is often the most cost-effective way of correcting defects. If the defect is corrected, a description of the defect and the corrective action must be communicated back to the point in the value stream where the defect occurred. If the defect cannot be corrected on the spot, it should be returned to the point in the value stream where the defect occurred so it can be corrected—or scrapped if the corrective action is not cost effective. In addition to this being the most cost-effective strategy for correcting defects, it also improves employee ownership in the process. This increased ownership is largely due to employees knowing that everyone else in the value stream is observing their work.

While this concept may sound simple on the surface, it can be difficult if an organization consists of multi-skilled employees who are cross-trained for numerous positions. And it becomes even more difficult if these multi-skilled employees rotate through positions on short regular cycles. The reason for this difficulty is largely due to the amount of knowledge that may need to be transferred to each employee. There may be anywhere from one to 10 or more critical quality points at each process step in the value stream. If there are 10 process steps, then there could be 100 or more different quality points to examine in search of defects in a single value stream. That is a lot of information to teach a workforce and then expect each employee to remember.
To overcome this potential problem QATS uses a three-part structure using other lean concepts and is designed to simplify the task of detecting and correcting defects. These three parts consist of training, visual aids and documentation. Correct use of this three-part approach can greatly improve quality and increase employee ownership of the process.                                                 Next