Hello, friends – as we share another of our blogs with you, we’re very aware of your world changing in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and the extensive and unprecedented containment actions. OEM’s and suppliers are shutting down operations and restricting plant visits to contain the spread of the virus, and while these potentially create economic hardship for all, these actions are necessary to avoid long-term health consequences to our nation and the world. Our focus is now on safety, as it should be, and we wish all of you, your families and your work families the best of health during these challenging times.
The Value of Work Order Systems
Request for die work comes from many different sources such as
- quality complaints-line side or from the body shop
- comparison of current production panel and the reference panel show differences in draw-in or impact lines
- preventive maintenance activities uncovering die surface erosion, or an engineering change request.
The Work order system allows an organization to document, track, prioritize, and schedule all die repair or maintenance activities. The system is best used as a communication tool, identifying the root problem, the steps to correct the problem and a place to detail any unfulfilled basic conditions that were corrected. A completed work order should document what the agreed upon die work preformed was intended to accomplish and provide a means to track re-occurrences of the issue in the future.
If a die set reveals multiple areas that require attention, creating die work requests provides the scheduling department with information to prioritize the work according to:
- available time between runs (will a production run ahead be necessary?)
- amount of effort compared to the value of the improvement
- documentation of previous repair history , (is this a recurring, high wear area?)
- In reviewing work history and considering new work orders, we should always determine if previous repairs resulted in unintended consequences, negatively effecting die robustness?)
If the necessary work cannot be completed in the typical time before the set of dies return to production, we need to determine the number of die cycles that will be missed to complete the Work Order. This data will aide in determining if extra racks and / or additional part storage space will be required. If the facility cannot provide the racks or floor space, the decision to proceed may require that the repair/correction be performed in a series of steps. This will require detailed recommendations defining the specific work that is to be completed between each production run, while and documenting the portion of the Work plan that was completed in order to schedule subsequent die repairs to finish the work order
Data from previous work orders can also be utilized to improve Preventative Maintenance plans and scheduling on symmetrical parts or non-identical parts within the part families, (fenders, doors inner or outer, hoods, roofs, etc.).
Work orders which resolve formability issues need to be shared with Engineering (feedback process) to prevent similar issues from re-appearing on consecutive product designs (a traditional problem—one that shows up model after model). Our hope is that providing part performance history (including the frequency of occurrences), work required and the impact of those changes on performance will help create a library or history of best practices to improve the necessary responses in the future.
