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62 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2024 Prioritizing High-payoff Activities 1 High-payoff activities (HPAs) are vital to achieving production excellence and fall into five categories: • Safety • Quality • On-time delivery • Cost reduction/efficiency gain • Continuous improvement Safety Safety should be the top priority for every PCB manufacturer. Key HPAs in the safety arena include: • Utilize engineering controls to error-proof (Poka-Yoke) safety standards. • Use personal protective equipment (PPEs) to improve the safety of a working envi- ronment, especially in departments where chemical processes are used. • Offer ongoing training to both new and current employees to ensure safety on the production floor. Quality Quality should be top of mind with respect to every aspect of production and embedded in the organization's culture. e quality cycle begins with process development and persis- tent evaluation of production output data in search of process variances. is will help to determine where in the manufacturing cycle process quality output meets or exceeds expec- tations. On-Time Delivery Quality products do not arrive late. To ensure on-time delivery, manufacturers should focus on the following HPAs: • Process the order correctly the first time • Know the capacity limitations of the facility • Continuously learn to overcome processing challenges using root cause analysis Cost Reduction/Efficiency Gain Efficiency ga ins and co st reductions so und like the same thing, but they are more like two sides of the same coin. • Cost reduction is measured by use of fewer consumables • Efficiency gains are the result of utilizing less labor To improve both, manufacturers need mean- ingful, granular metrics in place to measure how much of each is being used. It is essential to understand labor costs at a granular level, including how process and technology impact operational efficiency down to the individual level. Continuous Improvement Continuous improvement is arguably the most important of the five HPAs. Manufac- turers who implement and sustain quality management systems (QMS) will realize con- tinuous improvement across the production floor. Common elements of successful continuous improvement programs include: • Utilize Lean, Six Sigma, 5S, and 5-Why root cause analysis. • Perform daily process walks, known as Gemba in the Lean Manufacturing philosophy. ese provide daily observa- tion of processes occurring in real-time and can uncover resource gaps. • Set the stage for solid countermeasures with processes like Plan-Do-Check-Act (PCDA), a method to continually improve and measure results that will prevent reoccurrence of an observed weakness or gap in the process. Putting the five HPAs into daily practice in any production process will help keep the production team laser focused on achieving production excellence through the continual improvement cycle.