How to Reduce Human Error During the Manufacturing Process

Human error is a setback every industry has to overcome. However, as the use of technology in the manufacturing industry increases, the rate of human error has become more apparent than in most fields. These blunders quickly add up and can create major bottlenecks in your production line, wasting money and delaying your time to market. In this article we will discuss a few ways modern manufacturing companies can reduce their rates of human error, including providing employee training, streamlining communication, and employing companywide quality standards.

Discover the root of your human error issues

Getting to the bottom of where your human error stems from is important in taking action to prevent it. Most often, human error in a manufacturing industry stems from some type of miscommunication and a failure to follow company procedure. Humans have a natural unreliability in their actions, which can cause problems along your production line. So rather than punishing the perpetrator of each error, you need to rework your process to avoid the errors before they occur. Creating a plan that works with your employees and motivates them to avoid mistakes should be the goal of a successful manufacturing design. 

Provide proper employee training

While your company should be focusing on training employees on how to complete their day-to-day tasks, they also need to know why their job is important. If they know how their responsibilities fit into the larger picture, and the value they add to your product, they will be more likely to see how a mistake on the job could have serious consequences in the manufacturing process.

Further, introducing e-learning in combination with in person experience is vital to ensuring employees have time to understand the ins and outs of their positions. By making training available online, employees can take their time with each lesson without the pressure of a solely in person learning structure. However, since the exact job conditions can be impossible to reproduce in an online setting, e-training needs to be paired with hands on production experience. The key to proper training is an adequate mix of these two types of learning. Once your company masters the training structure, your human error rate is bound to decrease.

Promote streamlined communication

Another important factor in preventing human error is communication. Streamlined organization-wide communication is one of the best tools available to reduce instances of human error as well as allow for corrective feedback when it does happen. In order to prevent miscommunication issues, your employees need to be comfortable holding an open dialogue with their peers and superiors. This means that communication objectives between teams and different shifts need to be discussed and agreed upon.

In addition, having an easy method of communication across your organization is imperative. If employees are willing to communicate and prevent issues, they need an easily accessible channel to do so. The more barriers to employee contact there are, the less likely an open stream of conversation will occur. Consider what communication method would be best for your company and help your workers understand how to take advantage of all of its benefits.

Implement quality standards

Having a clear, well-defined set of standards can also guarantee a decrease in human error. By setting a high-quality standard that employees are expected to work towards, you ensure that your employees understand what is expected of their final product before they even begin production. These standards should include product details and stages of production, individual employee responsibility, and your company’s training processes. Most importantly, every standard created must be objectively measurable. This way, it is easy for employees to know whether or not they are reaching these goals.

Once your quality standards have been outlined and your organization is going about business, it is important to pay attention to your set benchmarks and determine if they are being met. A simple way to complete a thorough inspection is to compare data from before standards were put in place to results after. Having each department perform this quality check regularly will help you test if your processes are meeting set standards and whether the rate of human error is really decreasing. If it is not, inspection results will give you valuable information that will allow you to resolve production issues moving forward.

The Takeaway

If your company takes preventive action, your rate of human error can be easily reduced. However, it is important to remember that this process won’t be completed in one day. Your company has to continually refresh the skills it takes to accurately manufacture your product, revise and modify your quality workflow standards as well as learn to communicate effectively across your organization. If you make it a priority to follow these three tips, you can effectively reduce human error and minimize downtime across your manufacturing pipeline.

Check out our other resources on this topic:

• Manufacturing BOM: Managing the Document that Pilots Your Supply Chain
• 2022 Specification Management Market Report
• 4 Main Components of Manufacturing Quality Management
• 7 Steps to Improve Vendor & Supplier Management
• Improve Traceability in Manufacturing with a Quality Management System
• How Quality Professionals Should Manage Specifications

When you want to decrease your human error rate and optimize your company’s manufacturing processes, you can depend on our ENSUR software. We can help you implement quality management standards deliver proper employee training, and promote streamlined company-wide communication. And unlike other document management software options, we are truly dedicated to your success and will advise you every step of the way. To learn more about how our software can mitigate your human error issues, contact us now.