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Field Book · Chapter 2 of 8 · Red tag and quality alert

Contain It

How to draw the containment fence around a nonconforming supplier lot: tag every container, log it, and tell every downstream department before the next shift.

By Chris Martin, quality manager. 2 minute read. Free, no signup.

Containment for a bad supplier lot means tagging every piece that could be affected, logging each tag, and alerting every downstream department. Draw the fence wider than you think: the skid at the dock, bins already at the line, assemblies built since arrival, and the previous lot from the same supplier.

It's 7:45. The thread result has been on the report for fifteen minutes, and a different question has taken over: where else are these bolts? The skid at dock 3 is safe. Two bins from the same lot are not. Receiving moved them to the assembly cell at 7:05, before the inspection started.

Containment answers that question. You draw a fence around every piece that could be bad, you mark it, and you tell everyone who might touch it.

Tag it, then log it

The red tag goes on the skid and on every container from the lot, at the dock and wherever else the lot is. A good tag says what it is, the lot, the date, who tagged it and why. The red tag log is the record of what was tagged, where, and why. Without the log, a tag is a piece of paper that can fall off, and you cannot prove the fence is complete.

Move tagged material to a marked hold area when you can. If it cannot move, tag it where it sits and say so on the log. Nobody but the person who owns the disposition releases a tag.

Tell the people downstream

A quality alert is a one-page notice to every department that could be affected: what the part is, what is wrong, which lots, and what to do if you have some. Here it went to the assembly cell, the stockroom and the shift leads on both shifts before 9:00. Put a photo on it if you can. People recognize a picture faster than a lot number.

Where the fence goes

Draw it wider than you think you need. In this case that meant four places:

  1. The skid at the dock.
  2. The two bins already at the assembly cell.
  3. Any assemblies built from those bins since 7:05. There were none, because the lead had not opened them yet.
  4. The previous lot from the same supplier, 55087, still in the stockroom. Receiving pulled 32 pieces and all 32 accepted the gage, so the problem did not start earlier.

Notice what the fourth item does. It is a check, not an assumption. You can narrow the fence once you have evidence, and you can widen it the moment you do not.

The mistake to avoid

Containing only what you can see. The skid at the dock is easy. The bins at the cell are the ones that cause the escape. Ask where else the lot has been since it arrived, not just where it sits now.

ON THE FLOOR MONDAY
  • Walk your dock and stockroom looking for tagged material.
  • Check that every tag has a matching line on the red tag log.
  • Pick one past alert and ask whether it told people what to do.

Open the printable Monday Board

Want every tool on this trail in one purchase? The Supplier Trail Bundle has all 11.

The supplier, the part, the lot and the people in this book (Dunmore Fastener Co., FB-8120, lot 55102) are a made-up example. The tool sidebars show ShopFloorOps tools, which I make and sell. Every chapter teaches the step itself, so you can use your own forms.