Continuous Defect Program

Many managers subscribe to continuous improvement programs of one sort or another. I subscribe to continuous defects. Let me explain. If you have a defect such as the crepe wrinkles above, air buckles on film, starring, etc, etc, I want to see them uniformly distributed and continuous across the width. If you have continuous defects there is a good chance that you only have one problem. If, however, the defects are not uniform across the width you almost certainly have two or more problems. The first is the crepe wrinkles, air buckles etc etc. The second is no less problematic, a non-uniformity of machine or material, most probably gage. In fact, some problems such as corrugations cannot exist with uniform profile and are solely the result of variation across the width. If you have problems that come and go with time, you not only have the problem itself (whatever that might be), but also MD variation in machine or material. Let’s hear it for continuous defects !