In business, there’s a lot riding on the idea that everything needs to be perfect and run smoothly at all times, especially in the manufacturing industry. There’s no room for error on an assembly line, and when mistakes do happen they can be costly. Every organization does their best to make sure that their employees and products meet their standards, but their current methods of tracking and reporting issues aren’t always the most effective.
What goes wrong when you don’t get things right the first time?
1. Employees never learn the correct procedures
If one of your employees hasn’t had enough training or forgets correct procedures, they’re going to make some mistakes. And unless someone is around to observe those mistakes, it’s likely that employees will never know they did something wrong in the first place. Confusion in the training stage of the job can create bad habits that, if gone unnoticed, can continue forever. Problems that occur because employees didn’t have enough training are some of the most frustrating in business, simply because they could have been prevented with a better training solution.
2. Poor quality leads to losses
It’s never good when defective parts aren’t spotted before they make it into the field or into your products. Noncompliant products that need to be replaced, or equipment that needs to be fixed before it can be used to do more work, translate into losses for your organization. To keep producing and turning a profit, everything must be maintained correctly and assured for quality. When it comes to bad product, not only will you lose out on warranty costs, but it could also potentially damage your brand and reputation.
3. No insight = no improvement
You need real accountability to make good decisions. When something goes wrong in the field, it’s important to have a record of it and be able to understand the cause. There’s no way to prevent 100% of issues, but when problems do arise it becomes a lose-lose situation if you don’t understand how they can be prevented in the future. Without that information, you have no real insight into your operations. And if you’re not making decisions based on accurate data, there’s no guarantee that you’re making changes that actually.
So, what’s the solution? How can you prevent issues with employee training while preventing poor quality and gaining valuable insight? That’s where mobile forms come into play.
Mobile forms apps provide:
Employee improvement.
Forms can be used as training tools to walk employees through their daily routines and remind them of important details that may help eliminate confusion and ensure successful, error-free performances.
Rapid communication.
Forms can include information that shows employees exactly what to look for during quality audits, from specific criteria they can check off to post-submission reports that can outline response procedures and trigger follow-up tasks. Information gets to the right people right away and allows you to take necessary actions as soon as possible.
Data reporting.
Data from reported errors, product complaints, and equipment downtime is collected and synced to a business intelligence dashboard, showing you exactly what’s happening in your organization and allowing you to make necessary improvements.
Measure twice cut once is an easy concept to understand. And when we’re talking about quality management, setting your team up for success and getting it right the first time could mean saving millions. For an enterprise organization, being able to save even 5% on warranty service costs can be a worthwhile investment. Mobile forms are helping real companies do just that by providing a tool capable of making fast, impactful changes to their manufacturing and quality assurance procedures.
