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14 The PCB Magazine • March 2016 Inspection Is Evil A wise man once said, "Inspection is evil." Actually it was me, and I didn't say it just once, I say it every chance I get. Inspection is a non value-add activity and companies tend to use it to hide many sins. Traditionally, leaders of American industry have had a one-size-fits-all solution to just about any manufacturing prob- lem they encounter: they throw more inspec- tors at it. Customer returns increase and/or in- ternal yields decrease: "Let's hire more inspec- tors to make sure our customers do not receive the results of our inefficient process." Whether you find bad parts internally or ship them, the customer is paying for your process inefficien- cies either by defects, or the cost of your inspec- tion, rework and repair. I am here to tell you that this approach simply does not work, and I will prove it to you shortly. From a functional standpoint, there are three types of inspection: 1. Judgment/standard inspection 2. Informative inspection 3. Point of origin inspection The first two are widely used and considered traditional methods of quality control. Point- of-origin inspection is the only method that ac- tually eliminates defects by putting the respon- sibility for quality back at the manufacturing source, which is quality assurance. Not only is inspection non value-add, it is ineffective as well! How effective would you think visual inspection is? Would you be surprised if I said that 100% visual inspection is only 80–85% effec- tive! Don't believe me? Then I would challenge you to gather up at least 30 people from your organization and per- form what I like to call "Steve's F Test." Your 30 people are your "F" In- spectors, inspecting the product for the presence of the letter "F." Put the following paragraph up on a screen and administer the test with the following instructions: "Read through the text in Figure 1 below ONCE in the time allowed and count the num- ber of times the letter "f" appears. Do not read through the paragraph twice, as this would be 200% inspection. You have 60 seconds!" Once the time is up, go around the room and write down each person's count, construct a quick histogram and show the results. Reveal the correct answer (39) to the group. I can guar- antee that in almost every single case, you will end up with a normal bell-shaped distribution, proving that your "F" inspectors may be hard pressed to even hit the 80% accuracy level. I have administered this test literally hundreds of times and not once has this not been the case. And remember, this was only a 60-second test; think about the drop of efficiency due to fatigue, distractions and boredom of inspectors over an eight-hour shift! Believe me now? So is inspection a good way of ensuring quality and profit? I think not. Con- sidering the multiple negative impact of exces- sive inspection, I would argue that inspection is one of the more hidden destroyers of profits in any organization. Inspection is evil. What is the Solution? That is simple: applying the appropriate best practice tools discussed in detail in my past col- umns to drive to true root cause to permanently eliminate profit-sucking process problems from your operation. inCrease profits by minimizing inspeCtion Figure 1: steve's F Test.