The application of mistake reduction in the manufacturing of press felts

This report examines the importance of mistake reduction for press felt manufacturing. The incidence rate for human error in the manufacturing of felts is excessive. The study involved application of mistake reduction to prevent felt rejections and enhance consistency.; The research plan was to maximize the application of mistake reduction to areas of felt processing that were incurring fiscal losses and assess the impact to felt rejection cost and variation. The procedures involved analysis of the root causes contributing to error, utilization of teamwork in planning, securing resources, implementation of poka-yoke, and assessment of the results.; Mistake reduction techniques contributed to a {dollar}59,000 reduction in felt rejections and a 51% reduction in the variance for a felt treatment process. Hypothesis testing for equality of the variances related to the mistake-proofing initiative for felt treatment confirmed effectiveness of mistake-proofing for the felt industry.