Post by LeanSuite

Every plant has two factories. The one you can see ships product, revenue, and on-time deliveries. The one you cannot see runs below the waterline, and its only job is fixing the first factory's mistakes. It rarely shows on a production report, so it feels free. It is not. By common estimates, the cost of poor quality runs 15 to 20 percent of revenue, and most of it is spent right here: 1. Rework: making the same thing twice. 2. Scrap: making it straight for the bin. 3. Re-inspection: checking what should have been right the first time. 4. Expediting: paying a premium to recover from a slip upstream. 5. Firefighting: the daily scramble that ships nothing. None of it appears on the schedule, which is exactly why it grows. A cost nobody counts is a cost nobody fixes. The first improvement is never a new tool. It is making the second factory visible, so you can finally see what fixing mistakes is really costing you. How big is the hidden factory inside your operation?