Isn't Inspection considered a non-value added activity in IE? If so, I am not surprised it is not considered a part of IE studies. Most IE studies focus on productivity improvement and defect elimination at source. But nevertheless, defects slip through and some of it could lead to very high cost of quality.
".isn't Inspection considered a non-value added activity in IE?"
In process chart analysis, the first question is whether the activity can be eliminated?
Inspection as an activity is integral to material processing. Whether an operator has to do it or an additional person has to do it is an issue to be settled. If we can eliminate it, it is fine. If we can't eliminate we can try to improve it to reduce its cost principally by reducing the time. But any other way is also useful like changing the inputs.
I realize now that there is no proper emphasis on total process improvement in Industrial Engineering curriculums.. In behavioral finance, they say biases in decision making. Same thing happened for IEs. The ILO work study book discussed some partial things. We are getting stuck with it without expanding our view to all aspects of each activity in the process to improve it. Eliminate is always the first step. I say effectiveness of the activity is answered in this eliminate question. Is it the right thing to do? If yes, then look for right way of doing it.
I am keen on having dialogue on IE activities patiently in the hope of improving them.
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