If you have been around for a while, you may recall the “Parts is Parts” commercial from the Wendy’s fast-food chain. As bad as the “parts is parts” idea is for chicken sandwiches, it’s equally bad for manufacturing. Parts are not necessarily parts, especially when some portion of those part numbers have defects. If we have clearly identified the part numbers with the defects, it is important to segregate this group from the other part numbers. Not taking this seriously will result in a bigger problem: more parts that will have to be pored over to determine if there is a fault.
We will need to get to the bottom of the problem. In the automotive world, we may employ either the 8 Discipline (8D) or A3 approach. The 8D approach is called that because of the number of steps that are taken to identify the cause of the problem and walk through its resolution. The disciplines are as follows: