A while back, I had an interesting debate with the editor and founder of The Daily Pitch, Ben Olmos. Well, not just Ben, but the whole company I had worked with at the time. The issue, and its two solutions, turned out to be extremely polarizing, and each has been a common dichotomy in industrial engineering for a very long time. In fact, the arguments over this one singular issue left such an impression on me that I realized it was a representation of two major supply chain management philosophies that can have vast impacts on how a factory (or any company) operates. The key to resolving such challenges lies in effective root cause analysis, which helps pinpoint the origin of production issues and streamline operations.

Setting the Scene

At the time, I worked with a major equipment manufacturer. We kept experiencing a common issue with one particular part, where somehow, incorrectly colored pieces were being installed on the final product. To get a better idea, the product being produced was one solid color, and a small piece was fitted on the outside of the product. This piece was supposed to be the same color as the overall product. If the product was black, the piece should be black as well, etc. There were about nine different colors available, and the operator installed every piece by hand, within their frame of view, meaning it should have been obvious if a wrong-colored part was installed. Yet, there we were, with multiple incorrectly installed pieces every week.

Many explanations were given for the incorrect installations. Some people blamed the operators, others blamed the process of installation. However, with no real evidence, the issue was eventually blamed on the way the parts were sequenced. Supply chain management plays a crucial role in sequencing, where parts are taken and placed in a kit in the order they are needed on the assembly line. Despite these efforts, errors continued, indicating a deeper issue that required root cause analysis to resolve.

Downtime has serious monetary and reputational consequences within a factory, and since I oversaw designing the sequence process, I was in the firing line for fixing the issue. Industrial engineering provides frameworks that help businesses optimize efficiency and reduce such errors, making it an essential discipline in any manufacturing setting.

An Epiphany and Harsh Reality

Naturally, I was a little miffed. I was open to the idea that perhaps my process was the root cause, but it was frustrating that I had to go through the long and tedious work of re-evaluating the area, trying to investigate and collect data, and then presenting these findings. After all, the line-side operator could visibly see that he was installing the wrong part, so how was it that no one evaluated what he was doing first? In fact, if the line operators and management knew that the sequencer was sending parts incorrectly, why did they not stop the line as soon as they realized the wrong part was sent?

This thought set a lightbulb off in my head. The answer was simple: root cause analysis needed to be applied at the point of failure. Instead of conducting investigations long after the fact, we needed to pause production and address errors as they occurred. This approach is a fundamental principle of industrial engineering, ensuring that supply chain issues are corrected in real time rather than becoming recurring problems.

Healthy Rejection

After all I had been through, I still thought my approach was the correct one. So, I did what anyone would naturally do when looking for justification: I complained to friends and family. However, it didn’t go as expected. Some of those I told agreed with my methods, but when relaying the tale to Ben Olmos, I was shocked again. He disagreed with me! It was then that I realized that perhaps I had stumbled across something larger, something more fundamental about industrial engineering and problem-solving than I had initially realized.

In the end, people were trying to prioritize between three competing interests: productivity, assigning responsibility, and how to control future issues through root cause analysis. The debate essentially boiled down to whether supply chain management should focus on continuous operations or prioritize immediate problem resolution.

The Two Paths

My approach to problem-solving did not prioritize short-term productivity. I was okay with the line stopping in order to preserve evidence. My goal was to ensure that the issues were resolved in a way that promoted responsibility for solving problems at the source. In this case, I believed that the line-side personnel had been absolved of responsibility to fix issues. They could simply let them continue and hope someone else figured it out. This mindset contradicts the principles of industrial engineering, which emphasize lean manufacturing and efficiency in supply chain management.

However, the alternative approach had its own merits. The others believed that there shouldn’t be a stoppage to productivity for investigation. Instead, a separate team should conduct root cause analysis without disrupting the flow of production. This approach aligns more closely with Six Sigma, where highly detailed data collection and analysis are used to pinpoint and correct issues without major disruptions. Industrial engineering bridges these methodologies, balancing efficiency with long-term process improvement.

The Best Way Forward

In the long run, I still believe that the lean approach is the best way to solve the issue. Fighting problems at the point of origin and empowering areas to take responsibility will only yield benefits into the future and reduce complacency. However, you have to understand what your goals are for your processes and company. Perhaps there are scenarios where making supply chain management the top priority makes sense. Maybe there are times when a detached team of investigators conducting root cause analysis is the best solution.

However, if you are ever faced with a choice between continuing work as is or stopping it to uncover the truth behind operational errors, consider what your long-term goals are and how each decision will impact them. Industrial engineering, supply chain management, and root cause analysis all offer frameworks for optimizing manufacturing processes, and choosing the right balance between them is key to ensuring sustainable efficiency.