Customer audit case study 1 (requesting data on NG products)

This production line had DataMatrixCode (DMC) system and all parts were serialized. The system was able to provide traceability down to the level of individual parts, thanks to the fact that inspection data for each process and even lot information for the specified parts were stored on the server for almost all processes on the production line.

Since this traceability system was one of the customer's requirements, we also explained overview of the system during our customer visits. At the time, there was a product that was rejected for camera inspection in one of the caulking processes. It was a common case of inspection error and we continued to visit the production floor.

The customer had written down the serials for that part. He doesn't know the details of the NG, but he wrote down the fact that it was an NG and the serial.

When we returned to the conference room after a quick tour of production floor, He requested us to examine the data. I showed the process data for the requested serials and explained the results and its contents. To my surprise, it was a NG serial from caulking process that happened right in front of the customer during site tour.

He wanted to make sure that the system was functioning correctly. Of course, we had confirmed in the early stages of the line installation that the system was functioning properly, so there was no problem.

customer audit case study 2 (6 a.m. audit start)

At the factory where I was working at the time, the morning production shift started at 6:00 a.m. The office staff would come to work around 7 or 8:00 a.m. Customer visits were typically after 8 a.m. But some customer wanted to be there from the start of morning shift. They wanted to see pre-operation inspection and shift changeover.

I also came to work around 5:30am to do a preliminary site check. At that time, there were seven customers, and I got the impression that they were very dedicated to their work. If it was just one customer, I could handle the audit, but if seven people came at the same time, there was nothing I could do. At the time, there was no way to hide or fake anything.

Customer audit case study 3 (a company that only cleans up the site before the audit)

As with any company, we clean up the site just before visit of customers or internal executives. I've worked in many different countries, and I have the impression that less than 20% of the sites, regardless of the country, are usually ready.

It may be hard to imagine if you've never worked in manufacturing. But there are fallen parts and defective or pending products kept all over the production floor. It's extremely unusual to have an unknown product. Also, the quality of the product can be doubted on a site where there are fallen parts.

In some factories, staff would come to work a few hours early on the morning of the visit to make a final check.
* Because even if we had left it clean the day before, there was a possibility that it would be ruined by the night shift.

I was the type of person who visited the production site many times a day and who thought that if we couldn't do daily, we couldn't do it on the day of the test. So I pointed out the problems to my colleagues every day. However, people just can't seem to prepare for it until before the test.

Customer audit case study 4 (monthly customer visit)

Some customers visited us on monthly basis.
For example, if you are a new business partner, you have little trust in them. So you can think of ways to work with them, such as visiting them regularly to prevent problems from occurring. Or, activity such as training your company's policies and raising the level of your business partners.

However, some of our customers, even those with a long-term business relationship, would visit us from far away on a monthly basis. It's the kind of business trip that seems unnecessary. From the customer's point of view, a trip to supplier is the one to be hosted, and it's easier to feel comfortable if there are no problems with that supplier.

Such customer was actually a bit of problem for production engineers. The engineers don't deal with them directly, but when they see the site over and over again, they gradually learn the inside situation. If they stay for a few days each month, they will be able to see what's going on in the field on the same level as your internal people.

This includes the frequency of worker turnover, the level of recording on the documents, the level of understanding of the workers, the failure rate at production line, downtime of equipment , and the skills of engineers at the time of equipment failure. This makes it hard to cheat in a real audit.

Customer audit case study 5 (inadequate preparation of materials)

This is a "silly" case of not having all the materials to produce on the day of the audit.
It's an unbelievable case, but it happened. To give you a brief background, the mass production equipment was unstable and we were working to improve the perfection of the equipment through a number of trials before the customer visit.

However, no one seemed to be keeping track of the inventory of components, and they realized this fact a few days before the customer visit. After that, we hurried the delivery, including the processing of parts in transit through customs, and somehow managed to get the possibility of delivery done on the day of the customer visit.

In the afternoon of that day, the parts were delivered finally. But due to contamination, they needed to be cleaned. At this point, it was already 3pm. After making the customer wait all morning, they are going to delay it further.

A lot of people were gathered in front of the equipment, but time was running out. I was indirectly involved, so I made a suggestion while looking at the situation.

I proposed, "It doesn't matter if the product is defective, we should just show process flow to customer on the condition that we don't ship those".
Having a customer who has come all the way from far away for an audit to leave without seeing production line running at all is like going to an exam and not writing anything on the answer sheet.
It may be a waste of parts, but not showing the customer anything is rude. If I were a customer, I would get angry and leave.

These are case studies of customer audit by production engineer.


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