LPAs the Latest Automotive CoolAid?

I just sat through a presentation on how LPAs led to a 73% improvement in quality at an organization. I was reminded that Chrysler touted a huge improvement from the 45% FTC at the "KTP 2" transmission plant, where LPAs were "born". Some might say, "Great".

No-one seems to be thinking about the root of the problem, or to put it another way, did just standing at the process, asking simple questions REALLY lead to such improvements? How come products were launched with such a poor FTC? The auto industry has been making millions of transmissions for decades. How come the yield was so poor? The Tier 1 component supplier seeing a 73% improvement from using an LPA must have a very ineffective APQP process, FMEA and PPAP which no-one flagged a lack of process capability...

Isn't it time the Quality people in these organizations stopped drinking the LPA CoolAid and actually fixed the process(es) which are the root cause of ineffective process controls?

 

It seems like a gimmick, I suppose the truth is in execution.

Is it very different from Management By Walking Around (MBWA)? Sam Walton was famous for doing that: going around and visiting his stores, talking with people versus hiding out in Mahogany Row and "delegating" this kind of information gathering.

I suppose the premise is that different levels of people will see different things. Trust Automotive to take the open approach to MBWA and hand people a checklist. People who are not comfortable with just observing, asking questions and exploring a process tend to appreciate checklists. And we know that managers like to make reports and charts...

But that isn't what you asked, is it? You asked Isn't it time the Quality people in these organizations stopped drinking the LPA CoolAid and actually fixed the process(es) which are the root cause of ineffective process controls? I think we can agree that it would be better if the Quality people fixed the processes, but apparently there was something lacking that the additional "layers" of reviewers were able to contribute. My great regret is that they did not tell you just what that was, hence you were left with the question.

In my view, middle and upper managers too often hide away and then blame Quality for what goes wrong. If their involvement is going to be a constructive one, I'm for it.