A quick self-check for factory owners

The Twelve-Point Factory Wastage and Firefighting Audit.

You want a factory that runs smoothly without you watching it. But you are not sure where the margin leaks, or whether it is people or systems. Answer these 12 questions in five minutes. Every 'no' is a spot where scrap or firefighting is costing you money.

A tray of metal swarf and offcuts collected beside a running machine
Uncounted scrap is the cheapest loss to find and the costliest to ignore.

Score yourself first

Every 'no' is money on your floor.

  1. 01Can you see the stage of every open order without calling a supervisor?
  2. 02Do you learn an order is short before it reaches the customer?
  3. 03Is machine output logged as it happens, not from memory at shift end?
  4. 04Do you know the scrap % for each stage, machine and operator?
  5. 05Is a job blocked from starting until the client signs off the artwork?
  6. 06Do you get a warning before raw material runs out mid-run?
  7. 07Can your team find existing dies, tools or plates instead of making new ones?
  8. 08Can an operator see if the last stage is done without leaving the machine?
  9. 09Does one job number follow the order from quote to dispatch?
  10. 10Do you track On-Time In-Full (OTIF) as a real % for every customer?
  11. 11Can key clients check their order status online without calling you?
  12. 12If you left for two weeks, would production run fine without you?