Focus on OEE: Part 6 – The Customer Connection: When Dissatisfaction Drains Your OEE

Think your shop floor issues are the sole reason for a less-than-stellar OEE score? It may be time to broaden your perspective.

Customer dissatisfaction can be a subtle yet significant drain on your overall equipment effectiveness, causing problems that manifest in unexpected ways throughout your operation.

While you might be battling obvious symptoms like machine failures or quality issues, the true source of these inefficiencies could lie within the feedback loop of unhappy customers.

Consider a scenario where a customer frequently complains of late deliveries. At first glance, this seems like a logistics or lead-time problem. However, suppose you’re not diligently tracking OEE. In that case, you might miss the underlying cause: Unplanned downtime, excessive scrap rates, and inefficient production cycles are silently sabotaging your ability to deliver on time. Customer dissatisfaction is the warning signal, pointing to the need to improve your OEE for greater reliability.

In this installment, we’ll expose the top 10 ways customer dissatisfaction translates into real-world manufacturing headaches and how these secondary symptoms undermine your OEE. We’ll also provide strategies to proactively address these issues, protecting your customer relationships and operational efficiency.

1 Small Batch Sizes:

Unease with a product’s quality or performance often causes customers to reduce their order quantities or split orders among multiple suppliers. These smaller, fragmented orders wreak havoc on your production lines. Frequent changeovers tank equipment availability, and the lack of flow reduce overall output, driving down your OEE.

Mitigation: Prioritize quality at its source. Lean methodologies like Six Sigma and robust quality control tools help you consistently deliver products that meet or exceed customer expectations, translating into larger, more confident orders.

2 Rework Loops:

Reworking items due to recalls, warranty issues, or outright customer rejections drains resources and damages your OEE. You’re not just wasting the original production time; you now must dedicate precious capacity to fixing past mistakes. This diverts personnel, adds unforeseen scheduling burdens, and often leads to scrap or further customer dissatisfaction.

Mitigation: Attack the root cause of defects. Don’t just fix the symptom – use techniques like the “5 Whys” to identify the true drivers of quality issues and systematically implement preventive measures within your operation.

3 Engineering Change Notices (ECNs):

A barrage of ECNs driven by customer dissatisfaction signals problems that likely slipped during design or testing. The resultant modifications disrupt scheduled production, add changeover time, and frequently generate scrap at a steep cost to your OEE.

Mitigation: Integrate the voice of the customer into your product development process. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and other tools let you map customer requirements directly to design specifications, reducing the likelihood of costly late-stage changes.

4 Parts Cannibalization:

Desperate customer situations sometimes lead to “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” Pulling components from in-process machines or even finished products to expedite a repair throws your entire production plan into disarray. It also cannibalizes future sales potential, further harming both customer satisfaction and long-term OEE.

Mitigation: Improve your spare parts management and expedite your failure analysis process. Knowing what fails, why, and how quickly you can get replacements to the customer significantly reduces the need for such disruptive measures.

5 Information Suppression:

Understandably, a dissatisfied customer might feel reluctant to reveal the full magnitude of their issues, especially if they fear a slow or dismissive response. This lack of information hinders your ability to effectively troubleshoot and permanently resolve problems. The issues fester, continuing to chip away at your OEE.

Mitigation: Establish multiple channels for customer feedback, ranging from simple surveys to collaborative problem-solving forums. Demonstrate you value customer input and are serious about finding solutions.

6 Excessive Machine Adjustments:

Dissatisfied customers often demand quick fixes or non-standard modifications to address issues. This leads to constant tweaking of machine settings, creating instability on the shop floor. Frequent adjustments increase downtime, generate variability in the process, and drag down your OEE.

Mitigation: Don’t be afraid to say “no” (respectfully) to unreasonable requests. Instead, guide customers towards long-term solutions. Conduct thorough capability studies before accepting orders to ensure you can consistently meet requirements within standard operating procedures.

7 False Sense of Urgency:

Chronic customer dissatisfaction creates an environment of constant crisis management. This warps production priorities, leading to reactive instead of planned interventions. The resulting chaos disrupts efficiency and lowers your OEE.

Mitigation: Break the “firefighting” cycle. Instead of simply reacting to immediate issues, perform data-driven analysis to identify patterns of quality problems. Prioritize fixing these systemic weaknesses to prevent future emergencies.

8 Design for Manufacturability Oversights:

Designs that work beautifully on paper can sometimes be impossible to manufacture reliably within your facility’s capabilities. When customers complain about flaws inherent in a design, you’re forced into retooling, awkward workarounds, and delays – all of which sabotage your OEE.

Mitigation: Involve production personnel early in the design phase. DFM (Design for Manufacturability) and DFA (Design for Assembly) principles help you avoid features that are either impossible to create within budget constraints or prone to misalignment, leading to downstream quality issues.

9 Lost Customer Trust:

Repeat dissatisfaction erodes customer trust to the point where they preemptively plan for delays and problems. This leads to shorter lead times imposed upon you, forcing rushed schedules that compromise quality and diminish your OEE.

Mitigation: Transparency is key. Communicate proactively about potential delays or issues, offering solutions rather than excuses. Underpromise and overdeliver to rebuild trust and give yourself the necessary time to operate efficiently.

10 Rush Order Prioritization:

Frequent emergencies stemming from unhappy customers lead to prioritizing “rush orders” over your planned schedule. This constant juggling creates bottlenecks, disrupts your ideal workflow, and decreases your overall OEE.

Mitigation: Establish clear policies with customers regarding rush order costs and lead times. Have the courage to enforce these policies when appropriate. This protects your scheduled production runs and helps you achieve a more predictable, efficient operation.

Conclusion for Senior Operations Leaders:
Breaking the Cycle

As the examples above illustrate, customer dissatisfaction isn’t simply a business problem – it’s an operational problem. Left unaddressed, it gnaws at your OEE, driving down performance and perpetuating a cycle of frustrated customers and frustrated production teams.

The first step to breaking free from this vicious cycle is to acknowledge the link between customer satisfaction and manufacturing efficiency.

Tracking OEE rigorously not only quantifies your performance but can also serve as an early warning system for hidden weaknesses that erode customer trust. With the data OEE provides, you can target specific areas for improvement and proactively address the root causes of dissatisfaction.

How POWERS Can Help

At POWERS, we understand the interconnectedness of OEE, quality control, and customer satisfaction. Our solutions provide the real-time visibility and analysis tools you need to identify hidden inefficiencies that drag down your OEE. Our experts can collaborate with you to implement data-driven strategies that not only boost your OEE but also create lasting customer loyalty and a competitive advantage for your operation.

We understand that every manufacturing operation faces unique challenges. That’s why we offer tailored solutions that meet your specific needs. Unlock your untapped potential and maximize your operational efficiency with POWERS. Let’s start the conversation today:

Optimize your manufacturing processes and achieve unprecedented efficiency. Contact POWERS today to learn how our expertise can drive your company’s success.