8-Steps for Abnormality Management: The Art of Focusing on What’s Not Working

8 Steps to Identifying Abnormalities and Transforming them into Improvements

• What is an Abnormality? And, why is it so important to manage it?
• 8 Steps to Identifying Abnormalities and Transforming them into Improvements
  

What is an Abnormality?

It’s any situation where something is outside the established standard.  It could exists in any process.

Most commonly it is related to Maintenance and Quality caused by a variety of issues such as an equipment malfunction, user error, inferior materials, and more. 

A great abnormalities management program enables EVERYONE to detect, address, prevent and improve each situation.

Why is it important to detect and manage Abnormalities?

• Productivity – OEE, WFM, Equipment losses
• Quality – Prevent rework
• Ownership – Train, follow-up,
  solve, prevent, improve

8 Steps to Identifying Abnormalities and Transforming them into Improvements

1. Define the standard
2. Monitor consistently
3. Monitor completely
4. Collect information and take action
5. Track resolution
6. Identify trends
7. Prevent future abnormalities
8. Sustain Improvement

1. Define the standard

• Process Performance
  1.Preventive actions, breakdown elimination
• Quality defects
  1.Wrong part, function, missing, visual defect, acceptable process limits, material/product out of specification…

2. Monitor consistently

• Define KPIs to be monitored
• Define the time intervals at which the processes are monitoring
• Define the right people to monitoring the processes and collect information
• Train these people on how to monitor and recognize abnormalities

3. Monitor completely

• Specify the acceptable and unacceptable conditions and values for every monitored item
• Train people on how to properly find and document the required information
• Validate that the monitoring has been done

4. Collect information and take action

• Provide a place (action tracker) to capture all the relevant data and evidence
• Trigger a follow-up activity when an abnormality is detected 
• Follow-up activity should include an owner, priority, and due date

5. Track resolution

• Ensure the right people are assigned to address the abnormalities 
• Prioritize based on issues, dues dates, severity 
• Monitor past due activities

6. Identify trends

• Centralize and standardize the information about all monitoring activity, not only the discovered abnormalities
• Identify a team that will analyze the data and look for insights
• Analyze the data to identify which processes and departments are doing well and which need help

7. Prevent future abnormalities

• Identify how abnormalities may be prevented in the future
• Take the identified steps to implement these changes 
• Changes may be in the technology, process, and people

8. Sustain Improvement

• Health Check
• Update the standards library based on the identified changes
• Update all monitoring activities and materials with the new information
• Communicate and train people

VIDEO: Abnormality Management: The Art of Focusing on What’s Not Working

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