The Accuracy

Controlled Enterprise
Successful Defect Prevention, Failure
Elimination and Error Prevention

An ‘accuracy-controlled enterprise’ uses targets,

tolerances and tests to deliver fully complying
products and services right the first time.

MikeSondalini
 Contents
Contents ....................................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 3
1. Failure Prevention and Defect Elimination ............................................................................. 5
1.1. Defect and Failure Creation .............................................................................................. 5

1.2. Defect and Failure Management..................................................................................6

1.3. Defect and Failure Elimination....................................................................................7
2. Controlling Accuracy – Removing Error.............................................................................9
2.1. Accuracy Control – The Purpose of Targets in Operating Procedures..........................9
2.1.1. The Need for Tolerances in Procedures .............................................................11
3. The Accuracy Controlled Enterprise (ACE) ...................................................................... 13
3.1. Developing ACE Procedures.....................................................................................14
3.1.1. Easily Definable Standards and Measures..........................................................14
3.1.2. Difficult to Define Standards and Measures.......................................................15
3.1.3. Handling Procedural Non-Conformances ..........................................................16
3.2. Extra Benefits of Being an ACE................................................................................16
3.2.1. Far Fewer Downstream Problems...................................................................... 16
3.2.2. Less Expensive to the Operation........................................................................ 17
3.2.3. Better, Faster Training In-built .......................................................................... 17
3.2.4. Less Highly Skilled Employees Needed for Less Cost....................................... 18
4. Raising Standards - Intentionally Improving Skills ...........................................................19
4.1. Systematize the Learning Process..............................................................................20
4.1.1. Develop Training Plans for Each Person............................................................20
4.2. The Importance of Raising Standards........................................................................ 21
4.2.1. The Cost of Poorly Written Standard Operating Procedures............................... 21
4.2.2. The Best SOPs Can Be Done By The Least Skilled People................................ 22
4.2.3. Train and Retrain Your People to Your Standard Operating Procedures ............
23
4.2.4. Focus becomes Improving the System Performance .......................................... 24
5. The Power of Visual Control Measures............................................................................. 26
5.1. Visual Control Measures for Continuous Processes...................................................27
APPENDIX..............................................................................................................................28

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Understanding Elite Performers in Population Distributions .....................................................29
The Curse of Being an Average Business ............................................................................. 32
Getting More Than Average Performance............................................................................. 34
Why Teams Outperform....................................................................................................... 35
Implications for Managing Organizations ............................................................................. 37

Introduction

How many defects, errors and failures can your operation afford each day? Do your people have
the time to go back and do a job twice or three times because it was done wrong the first time?
Are people happy to regularly accept wasted production and lost time due to mistakes? If not,
then do your internal work procedures support doing the job right the first time?

The elimination of error is a major issue in business operation. Errors produce bad, unwanted
outcomes. They are wasteful. They take resources and money away from where they were
intended to be used. They use valuable time to correct what should have been done right in the
first place. Error prevention needs to be actively addressed. Your business systems need to
prevent errors happening, and if they do happen, to then detect and stop them from going further.

You can guarantee correct performance by specifying a target and tolerance in your operating
procedures. Having a target and tolerance sets the recognized acceptance criterion. A simple
proof-test will confirm if it has been met. Specifying a mark and tolerance range changes the
focus from one of simply doing the job; to now doing the job accurately. This results in high
quality workmanship and sound operating practices that deliver reliable performance. Those
organizations that use ‘target - tolerance - test’ methodology in their procedural tasks move from
being a quality-conscious operation to being an Accuracy Controlled Enterprise (ACE).

This book presents you with information on how to use one of the best methods yet devised to
detect and stop errors in business processes – the Accuracy Controlled Enterprise. ACEs prevent
failures and eliminate defects by doing work accurately so that the business can produce
maximum profits from the effort and money that go into it.

3
The Accuracy Controlled Enterprise uses business procedures that ask for proof of accuracy
before a task is considered to be completed properly. These built-in self-checks prove all is well
and the work was done right. It turns people into experts at their tasks who do their work right
first time, every time!

It is much more than a new quality control method. Those organizations that become Accuracy
Controlled Enterprises go beyond quality control. They purposely introduce into their procedures
defect eliminating and failure preventing methods so they can be certain that their products or
services are made without error. They are able to guarantee both internal and external customer
satisfaction.

The Accuracy Controlled Enterprise does not focus on quality. Rather it focuses on accuracy of
performing a task. Accuracy is defined as “the degree of conformity of a measured or calculated
value to its actual or specified value.” To have accuracy you need a target value and a tolerance
of what is acceptably close to the target to be called accurate. ACEs understand that if the task
is done right, to the required tolerance standard, then the quality is automatically delivered. A
secondary benefit, and one that is most profitable, is that if the task is done accurately the first
time it is also the least cost way of making the product or service using current methods.

It is easy to become an ACE. In many cases the procedural documents businesses have already
prepared simply need targets, tolerances and proof-tests included. A successful proof-test result
demonstrates beyond doubt that the task was done right. It gives people confidence that what
they did was correct.

An ‘Accuracy Controlled Enterprise’ delivers fully complying product, at the least possible cost
of manufacture, guaranteeing customer satisfaction right first time. Isn’t that what successful
business is all about?

Continued at The Accuracy Controlled Enterprise

4
1. Failure Prevention and Defect Elimination

An organization conducting business aims to deliver its products or services to clients exactly as
it specifies them to be. The organization has procedures and standards describing its products,
their manufacture and how they will perform for customers. Problems arise when it cannot meet
its aims exactly as intended. If a problem prevents the business delivering what the client wants,
then it jeopardizes its future. Typically, problems are defects and failures in the operation that
cause non-conformances to standard requirements.

Examples are variations in raw material quality, production planning errors, equipment failures,
incorrect documentation, procedures not followed, and numerous other situations that produce
non-conformances.

Let’s start by getting an understanding of where problems can come from.

1. 1.Defect and Failure Creation

Figure 1.1 shows how errors arise in an organization. The symbolic bucket is a department within
the organization. The errors result from defective practices and wrong decisions that then grow
into problems. A similar picture applies to every department – production, maintenance,
administration, finance, marketing, research, and development. The same can be said for every
organization in the world.

Design Errors Installation

Errors

Fabrication Errors Management

Errors

Operating Errors Workmanship

Errors

Your Operation is a Bucket for Collecting Defects.

Figure 1.1 – Defect and Failure Creation

5
 The previous pages where just a sample of …
Accuracy Controlled Enterprise
By Mike Sondalini

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