The plan of Control System, part of Manufacturing Excellence (MX), is the umbrella that holds the system and relevant processes, procedures, and documents that guarantee that we consistently make the same.
There is a subdivision in Manufacturing Route, Maintenance flow & Logistics as three distinctly separate headings, closely linked but each with its own specific responsibility
The Plan of Control for the Manufacturing Route shall contain the actual manufacturing process and clear identification of the points of measure and properties to control. For different products different production line setting sheets may exist, each being so specific that the production line can be set up to run the product with only minor fine tuning required. For the different jobs that need to be performed in the Manufacturing Area there shall be work instructions, allowing trained operators to perform consistent jobs, but also job descriptions, RACI [Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed] Matrices, and Operator Manuals are required as well. For the Site as a whole or for this part of the Manufacturing Organisation the Plan of Control shall contain a Meeting Structure and Interconnection diagram to be in place, with documents clarifying Meeting purpose, frequency, attendees, timing, common agenda and action list.
For the products, the Plan of Control shall contain product specification sheets, making it possible to verify whether products comply with the specification. Product limits may be staged to match different internal [ operating window] and external specifications [Sales window]. A non-conformity manual shall be required to have those product characteristics that are hard to quantify clearly identified by means of samples that do or do not fit the specification(s).
For the Maintenance, the Plan of Control shall contain the maintenance process or flow with its specific points of control and associated measures. A recurring or annualize plan of scheduled maintenance shall be part of that. Details on internally or externally source activities shall be provided. Log sheets for recurring activities help to build a history file, manually or automated. Work instructions make it possible to standardize the work packages and improve consistency and compliance improving the planning & scheduling function. Recurring or weekly control route sheets shall be part of the Plan of Control, for monitoring performance of equipment, but also for condition monitoring ( vibration, thermographic, balancing, etc) and supported by Inspection instructions.
For Breakdown Maintenance, the Plan of Control shall contain the process flow of how Breakdown Maintenance is requested, administered and followed up afterwards. There shall be a standardized Root Cause & Failure Analysis Sheet and associated process. Easy to use for simple Breakdown Maintenance and helpful and guiding with difficult and hard-to-find incidents.
Both for the Planned as for the Breakdown Maintenance metrics, meeting structure and frequency shall be part of the Plan of Control.
For Logistics the Plan of Control shall contain relevant Bill of Materials for the products that are produced by Manufacturing, allowing perfect staging of Raw Materials and Production Supplies. Also for the storage of the materials and supplies proper specifications shall be available, using Material Safety Data Sheets, Supplier’s Product Specification sheets and other supporting documents.
At the other end, for the Finished Goods Logistics Function, the Plan of Control shall contain a warehouse flow and lay-out to clearly identify appropriate and agreed storage area’s. The Logistics Function shall have service agreements for those that are supplied. This is done in collaboration with Sales but does need to contain the approved and agreed service levels in terms of Safety, Quality, Quantity and timeliness. Metrics, reporting structure and meeting frequency complete the Plan of Control.
The Plan of Control shall contain a validation paragraph for with the criteria for review and approval. When modification are in order, it shall address how the review managed, and monitored. How approval is provided and how is it made clear and unambiguous to the organization that effective documents are used instead of out-date ones.
The Plan of Control shall contain criteria for Qualification of personnel, for the Methods and Procedures used as well as for the recording and archiving of it and the revalidation of Plan of Control itself
Elements that shall be part of the Plan of Control is the Identification and traceability of the products to allow for unique identification of the product and to be able to trace the product for that part of the Supply Chain that is in control of the business. The Plan of Control shall also contain a reaction and a corrective plan to cover for those incidences that quick reaction of the organisation is required and when a corrective plan brings the organisation back into regular operating mode.
The plan of Control as presented here may not be a carbon copy of what the organization current has. Most likely there is already a lot, possible not complete, not consistent, not perfectly up-to-date. Some material will be in writing, some material will be in standard procedures which are common practise for those that work with it.
To implement the Plan of Control there are a few steps that need to be taken:
First and foremost the management needs to agree where the organisation needs to be in the future state. This is very important, because it can be a lot of work to design and build the perfect system but that may not be what you need to run the business reliably, consistently, with great effectiveness, and efficiency. You do not need an ocean cruiser to cross a river!
From the future state and with an assessment of the current state it is possible to identify the GAP between what is and what needs to be. For each of the elements actions can be identified to close that GAP, together with resources to do that and time it will take to implement.
To manage that process a steering committee needs to oversee the progress on all these actions and tasks and enable the organization to put the resources and efforts behind this to succeed.
With this article, I want to give a flavour of what Plan of Control means, the pre-requisites, and what it encompasses. In the implementation a two-day training for the participants is needed and follow-up meetings with the team(s), steering committee meetings to drive the change.