Change the Work

Everything so far lives in the quality office: the log, the 8D, the PFMEA, the control plan. The operator at packout will never read any of them. What they will read, if it's at the station and easy to follow, is the work instruction.

This is where the fix either reaches the floor or doesn't.

Write it for the person doing the job

The new packout instruction for the housings fit on one page. A photo of a correctly packed tote: one part per pocket, top face up. A photo of what wrong looks like: two parts touching. The check from the control plan, written as a step: confirm the tote has dividers before the first part goes in. And what to do if it doesn't.

Short sentences, real photos from your own station, and the key check marked so it stands out. If one step needs a paragraph to explain, the step is probably too complicated.

Release it like a change

A new work instruction is a process change, and the system leg of this root cause was a change that skipped the process. Don't repeat the same miss. Release the instruction through a change record:

1. What changed, and which complaint or corrective action it came from.
2. Who reviewed and approved it.
3. Who was trained and signed off, and on what date.
4. When the old version came off the floor.

The training sign-off matters most. The new instruction takes effect when the people doing the job have been shown it, not when it's saved in a folder.

The mistake to avoid

Updating the file and leaving the old copy at the station. Every plant has a laminated instruction from three revisions ago taped to a machine somewhere. Pulling the old copy is a step in the release, not a nice extra. Walk to the station and check.

The plant, the part and the complaint in this book (RMA-031) 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.