Rework Impact Invisible
First-pass yield: 92%. Rework rate: 8%. Neither team understood that 8% rework was consuming 15% of line capacity through rework cycles.
What Became Visible
Production-quality integration showed: producing 100 units at 92% first-pass yield requires 109 total unit-completions (100 good + 9 rework). Rework cycles consumed 2.5-3.5 hours daily, represented 6 OEE points, and created scheduling chaos.
Upstream Quality Prevention Focus
Instead of managing rework efficiently, focus shifted to preventing defects upstream. Root-cause analysis linked defects to setup parameters, material batches, and operator technique.
How it worked: Quality-production correlation and impact analysis justified upstream prevention investment. Prevention removed rework need entirely rather than managing rework flow.
Results
from prevention focus
from rework elimination
Rework impact compounds beyond defect rate. Quality improvement upstream prevents capacity loss downstream.
Operational Reality
The facility could have optimized rework processes. Prevention was more valuable than optimization.