The challenge

The supplier, a Tier 1 water pump manufacturer, had a quality control plan that met every ISO requirement. Operators did the checks, recorded the results, and the plant passed its audits. On paper, the quality system was working.

It also ate production time on every shift. Staff plotted control charts by hand, 20 to 30 data points per part, which was slow and easy to get wrong. The finished sheets went into binders where nobody could trend or search them, so nothing from the checks fed back into improving First Time Through (FTT) or OEE.

The solution: Scheduled Quality Checks

The plant moved every in-process and start-up check into 10in6 Scheduled Quality Checks. Each check shows its work instructions on screen, and the results go into a database the quality team can analyse as they come in.

10in6 trained the team on an initial set of checks, and the customer completed 75% of the remaining configuration themselves. The module is built so a plant's own operations and quality staff can set up and maintain their checks without outside help for each one.

After deployment, the team had:

  • Check intervals triggered electronically, so operators don't have to remember them
  • Touch-screen entry with in-context work instructions at each step
  • Real-time alerts and notifications for out-of-spec results
  • SPC control charts plotted automatically
  • Historical trending across machine, operator, part number, and shift
  • A plant-wide quality scorecard visible to management in real time
  • A complete, date-stamped audit trail for every check ever performed
Touch-screen quality check entry with in-context work instructions
Touch-screen quality check entry — work instructions appear in context for each step, reducing check time and improving accuracy.
Automated SPC control chart with out-of-spec alerting
Automated SPC control charts are plotted for each variable. Out-of-spec results trigger immediate alerts — catching process drift before defects are produced.

The results

Both numbers moved within six months of go-live.

FTT improvement from 72% to 83% over 6 months
First Time Through (FTT) improved from 72% to 83% over six months — an 11-point gain driven by earlier defect detection and faster quality check cycles.
OEE improvement from 32% to 54% over 6 months
OEE improved from 32% to 54% over the same period.

The two gains are connected. When checks run faster and catch drift earlier, the line stops less often for out-of-spec parts and fewer parts go to rework or scrap, which lifts both numbers.

Business outcomes

Behind the two numbers, day-to-day work changed in four ways.

  • Checks take less time. With the instructions on screen, operators don't have to recall each step, so they finish checks faster and more consistently.
  • Check results drive improvement work. The quality team trends results, finds root causes and makes targeted changes, using the same records that satisfy ISO.
  • Paper waste and storage costs reduced. The check sheets, binders and filing space that went with them are gone.
  • Audits are simpler. Each check result is stored with its date and time, so customer and regulatory audits that used to mean pulling paper records now take minutes.

As a Tier 1 supplier, the plant gets asked by its own customers for quality performance data as well as proof of compliance. The same check records now answer both.

The full case study covers the modules deployed, the self-implementation detail and the customer's quotes: read the Stackpole Water Pumps case study →

FTT, FPY and OEE Quality: what's the difference?

This story uses First Time Through, and people often ask how it relates to First Pass Yield and to the Quality factor in OEE. They measure closely related things at different scopes, and usage varies between companies, so the important thing is to define yours and stick to it.

MetricWhat it measuresBest used for
First Time Through (FTT)Share of units that pass all checks and steps without rework, repair or scrap on the first attempt.The headline quality KPI for a line or process.
First Pass Yield (FPY)The same idea, usually measured at a single step or station.Finding which step parts fall out at.
Rolled Throughput Yield (RTY)The FPYs of every step multiplied together.Seeing how small losses at each step compound.
OEE QualityGood parts ÷ total parts at one machine, with reworked parts counted as a loss.The quality factor inside OEE for that machine.

Why the distinction matters: three steps with FPYs of 95%, 92% and 97% sound healthy one at a time. Multiplied together they give 0.95 × 0.92 × 0.97 = 84.8%. Only about 85 of every 100 units get through the whole process right the first time. Improving the 92% step does the most for the whole line, which is exactly the kind of finding that trending check results by station makes visible.