Monthly Manufacturing Performance Review

Pull availability, performance, and quality components from the MES (MachineMetrics, Plex, Tulip) for each work center. Flag any cell trending below 65% for a deeper Pareto in the next step. Watch for performance loss masked by inflated cycle-time standards — a common reason OEE looks fine while the schedule slips.

Sort downtime by reason code — changeover, breakdown, material wait, no operator, quality hold. The top two categories drive the kaizen agenda for the month. If 'unspecified' or 'other' is a top-three category, that is itself a finding — operators are not coding stoppages.

Maintenance manager pulls PM completion percentage from Fiix, Limble, eMaint, or Maximo. Anything below 90% on critical assets needs a written explanation. Deferred PMs on CCR equipment require plant manager sign-off — skipped PMs are the leading cause of unplanned downtime here.

Production planner reviews on-time completion of work orders against takt for the demand pattern. Attainment under 85% with OEE above 75% usually signals a scheduling or material-flow problem, not an equipment problem.

Industrial engineer walks the floor and confirms the capacity-constrained resource is still the same one identified last month. CCRs migrate when product mix shifts; running the buffer in front of yesterday's bottleneck is a classic theory-of-constraints mistake.

Quality engineer pulls SPC charts from Minitab or InfinityQS for every CTQ dimension on the control plan. Any Cpk below 1.33 on a customer-driven characteristic triggers a process review. Watch for charts where Cpk looks healthy but the process has drifted off-center — Cp is fine, Cpk is hiding the shift.

Group non-conformances by part family and defect mode. The top defect mode usually deserves a 5-why or fishbone session. Confirm every NCR opened more than 30 days ago has a disposition entered — open NCRs without disposition are how segregated parts get re-mixed into stock.

Walk the active 8Ds with the quality manager. Any past D3 (containment) without a verified D5 root cause is at risk of customer escalation. Confirm effectiveness checks (D6) are real — a defect-free run for N cycles, not just an operator retraining sign-off.

Run the calibration-due report from the gauge management system. Any past-due gauge on the floor invalidates measurements taken since its due date — production from that period is suspect. ISO 9001 clause 7.1.5 and IATF 16949 7.1.5.2 both cite this as a frequent finding.

Red-tag every past-due gauge, remove from service, and route to the calibration lab (internal or ISO 17025 third party). Identify any product measured with the gauge since its last valid calibration date and flag for re-inspection or quarantine pending engineering review.

Quality manager reports surveillance-audit status against the active certification. Open major findings older than 60 days are a recertification risk. Confirm document control (work instructions, control plans, PFMEAs) is current with the latest ECNs — outdated routings on the floor is the most common surveillance finding.

Pull labor efficiency by operator from Kronos/UKG and the MES. Persistent variance under 85% on a setup operator usually points to a routing or fixturing problem, not the operator. Variance over 110% deserves equal scrutiny — the standard is probably stale.

Production supervisor walks the cell-by-cell skills matrix. Any operation with only one qualified operator is a single-point-of-failure. Confirm forklift operators are certified to OSHA 1910.178 for the specific equipment type they're running — counterbalance certification does not cover reach truck.

Layered process audit only works if every layer (operator, supervisor, manager, plant manager) actually walks. Pull the LPA completion record. If the plant manager's audits are missing, the whole program is at risk of becoming paperwork — a known IATF 16949 finding pattern.

EHS coordinator reports recordables, near-misses, and first-aid events. A drop in near-miss reports without a corresponding drop in incidents usually means underreporting, not improved safety. Confirm OSHA 300 log entries match incident reports and that the 300A summary is posted Feb 1 – Apr 30 if the period applies.

Plant manager and continuous-improvement lead walk the floor together. Capture observations against the standard — 5S state, andon usage, kanban discipline, work-instruction visibility. Findings without a named owner and a date are not findings.

Pull on-time-delivery and quality PPM by supplier from the ERP scorecard. Suppliers above 5,000 PPM or below 90% OTD trigger a SCAR (supplier corrective action request) in the next step. Watch for 'trusted supplier' bias — incoming inspection waivers granted years ago are a common reason a drift goes undetected.

Buyer drafts a SCAR with containment expected within 24 hours, root cause within 14 days, and effectiveness verification within 30. For repeat offenders, raise to dual-source evaluation and notify NPI engineering of any parts at risk.

Materials planner runs ABC analysis and identifies SKUs with zero movement over 180 days. Dead stock ties up cash and floor space; obsolete components also hide stale revs that get pulled into work orders by mistake. Decide write-off, return-to-vendor, or scrap for each line.

Production supervisor counts kanban cards in circulation against the calculated quantity (demand × lead time × safety factor). Card creep — operators adding 'just one more' card — silently inflates WIP and hides flow problems.

Supply chain manager lists every active part with one approved source and lead time over 12 weeks. Sole-source castings, semiconductors, and specialty alloys are the usual offenders. Trigger second-source qualification for any item where a stockout would idle the plant for more than 5 days.

Buyer compares actual receipts against blanket-PO pricing. Surcharges, freight changes, and unannounced material-cost passthroughs are common silent margin-killers. Expedite fees outside the contract terms get pushed back to the supplier.

Controller decomposes variance into price, usage, and efficiency components by product family. Negative usage variance with positive efficiency variance usually points to scrap or yield loss — not labor productivity.

Walk overhead, indirect labor, MRO, and utilities against budget. Overtime spikes in indirect maintenance are an early warning that PM compliance is slipping into reactive mode.

For every capex project closed in the last 12 months, compare actual savings/throughput gain to the AFE business case. Projects without post-completion validation are how the next capex request gets harder to defend.

Roll up scrap and rework dollars from the NCR system at full burdened cost — labor, machine, material, allocated overhead. Reporting only material cost understates the real impact by a factor of three to five.

Plant manager reviews the consolidated KPI deck with the leadership team. Decision options: Approved (no actions), Approved with actions (corrective plan required), or Reopen (gap is too large to close out the month). The decision drives whether the corrective-action step fires.

Continuous-improvement lead converts review actions into A3s or 8Ds with named owners and due dates. Distribute to the floor at shift handover and post on the visual management board. Reopen at next month's review for effectiveness verification.