Quality problems rarely begin at the inspection table. They start earlier—when handoffs are unclear, queues are hidden, and operators can’t easily see what’s next or what’s wrong.
Visibility beats complexity
The best layouts make the state of work obvious:
- what’s ready
- what’s blocked
- what needs attention
- what’s waiting for approval
If those answers require asking three people, you’ve built rework into the process.
Create “clean flow” and “exception flow”
Mixing rework with normal production is a common mistake. It pollutes the signal and hides defects longer.
Set up two lanes:
- Clean flow: normal jobs with known routing
- Exception flow: rework, missing info, engineering questions
Even a small dedicated table and rack can prevent exception work from taking over the floor.
Put checks where they belong
QA at the end is expensive. Better:
- simple checks at the point where defects are introduced
- clear “stop and fix” triggers
- defined ownership for approval
The goal is to catch issues when they’re still cheap.
Make handoffs physical
Digital systems help, but physical controls are powerful:
- marked staging squares
- labeled racks
- “ready / not ready” lanes
- first-article sign-off zones
When the floor makes handoffs explicit, the team spends less time interpreting and more time producing.
If you’d like, we can help you identify where visibility breaks down today and propose a layout + workflow that reduces rework without slowing production.