Don't Blame the Operator for a Process You Haven't Brought Under Control

Eight Principles for Process Improvement, Control and Management

Stop blaming operators. Start fixing processes.

Here's what I have seen over the years: Production managers and supervisors becoming frustrated with operators while remaining completely oblivious to the poor state of the process itself. In the past I was guilty of it myself.

No documented standards. Insufficient training. Inconsistent measurements. Drifting equipment. Inadequate raw material control. Then they wonder why quality varies shift to shift and day to day.

After 40+ years in Extrusion manufacturing, I've learned this critical fact: the process owns the output, not the operator.

Great operators can't save a broken process. But a solid process? It makes everyone look good and the days more profitable.

I've outlined eight process principles that separate consistent manufacturers from those constantly firefighting. Master these, and you'll build processes that deliver quality consistently—regardless of who's running the shift.

These eight principles form a continuous improvement cycle, starting with the recognition that it's the process—not the operator—that drives output. Maintenance of current performance naturally leads back to measuring the next opportunity.

The bottom line?

Process improvement isn't about finding fault with people. It's about designing systems that enable consistent excellence. When something goes wrong, resist the urge to blame the operator. Instead, ask yourself: "Have I brought this process under control?" If the answer is no, you know where the real work begins.

Principle 1: Process Wins

It's the Process That Drives the Output

Here's a reality check: when defects occur, our instinct is to blame the operator. But that instinct misses the root cause entirely. People work within the constraints of their processes. Give them better processes, and they'll produce better results. It's that simple.

Output quality is determined by process quality, not by inspection or effort alone. Consistent, high-quality outputs are the natural result of well-designed and controlled processes. Attempting to inspect quality into products or relying solely on individual effort cannot compensate for poorly designed or inconsistent processes.

"A bad system will beat a good person every time." — W. Edwards Deming

"Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets." — Paul Batalden

"Eighty-five percent of the reasons for failure are deficiencies in the system and process rather than the employee." — W. Edwards Deming

Quality, efficiency, and consistency are properties of well-designed processes, not individual effort alone. By shifting focus from individual performance to process capability, you create sustainable improvement that doesn't depend on heroic efforts or exceptional individuals. The process is the foundation—everything else builds from there.

Principle 2: Measure

Measure Everything That Matters

"What gets measured gets managed." — Peter Drucker

"In God we trust; all others must bring data." — W. Edwards Deming

You can't manage what you don't measure. Period. Without reliable data, you're operating on intuition, opinion, and guesswork—and that's not a recipe for success.

Measurement serves two critical functions: First, it provides the feedback necessary to know whether a process is operating within its defined standards (control). Second, it generates the data required to understand current performance levels and verify that changes actually result in improvements. Without measurement, both control and improvement become guesswork rather than data-driven management.

But effective measurement isn't about tracking everything; it's about tracking what matters:

•      The vital few metrics that drive customer value and business results—not vanity metrics

•      Reliable data collection systems that capture accurate, timely information

•      Clear operational definitions so everyone measures the same way

•      Systems that distinguish between signal and noise—real changes versus random variation

Measurement isn't a one-time activity. It's an ongoing discipline that provides the feedback loop for everything that follows. Good measurement reveals problems, confirms improvements, and prevents backsliding.

Principle 3: Baseline

Document Your Current Reality

"If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing." — W. Edwards Deming

"If it isn't written down, it doesn't exist." — Philippe Kahn

Before you can improve a process, you must understand it completely. And I mean completely—not how you think it works, not how it's supposed to work, but how it actually operates in the real world.

Documentation is the foundation of standardization. Without clear, written procedures that define each step, input, output, and decision point, there is no common reference for what the "standard" should be. Documentation creates the baseline from which all improvement efforts begin and ensures knowledge transfer across the organization.

The baseline phase is about brutal honesty:

•      Document every step as it actually happens—warts and all

•      Create process maps that show workflows, decision points, and handoffs

•      Identify critical process parameters that significantly impact output quality

•      Define quality characteristics that matter to customers

•      Establish target values and acceptable ranges for key metrics

Without an accurate baseline, you can't measure improvement. This requires careful data collection and a willingness to face the truth about current performance. No sugarcoating allowed.

Principle 4: Fix

Attack Variation Relentlessly

"If I had to reduce my message to management to just one point, it would be: Understand and reduce variation." — W. Edwards Deming

"Uncontrolled variation is the enemy of quality." — W. Edwards Deming

Variation is the enemy of quality. When processes vary unpredictably, output becomes inconsistent, defects increase, and improvement efforts fail. Understanding variation and systematically reducing it is foundational to everything else.

Process variation is the enemy of operational excellence. It leads to defects and rework (quality loss), unpredictable throughput and scheduling difficulties and lack of predictability (productivity loss), and wasted materials, time, and effort (efficiency loss). Variation also undermines customer confidence and increases costs throughout the value chain.

With your baseline and measurement system in place, now you can address the fundamental issues preventing optimal performance. In manufacturing processes like extrusion, here's what the data typically shows:

•      85-90% of problems come from process variation — inconsistent material properties, temperature fluctuations, die wear, setup differences, environmental changes, operator technique variations

•      10-15% come from limiting factors and constraints — equipment capacity limits, die design limitations, material property boundaries, physical bottlenecks

Root cause analysis techniques—5 Whys, Cause & Effect diagrams, Pareto analysis,5 Whys—help you identify the true sources of problems rather than just treating symptoms. The goal? Make the process fundamentally capable of meeting requirements consistently!

Remember: A process with high variation cannot be controlled, improved, or optimized. Fix the variation first.

Principle 5: Standardize

Standardize Only What's Under Control

"Without a standard there is no logical basis for decision making or taking action."

— Joseph Juran

"Without standards, there can be no improvement." — Taiichi Ohno

Here's the common-sense question: Why would you standardize something that's not under control? That's like writing down a recipe for a dish that comes out differently every time you make it. It makes no sense.

Control requires a target state—a standard to maintain. Standardization establishes the "right way" to execute a process, creating the reference point against which actual performance can be compared. Without this standard, there is no meaningful way to determine if a process is in control or out of control. Control is the act of maintaining adherence to the established standard.

Standardization should only happen after you've fixed the process and brought it under statistical control. Once that's done, standardization:

•      Captures the best-known method for achieving results

•      Creates a stable baseline for measuring future improvements

•      Enables consistent training and reduces dependence on tribal knowledge

•      Provides a control mechanism to prevent regression to old, ineffective methods

And here's the truth about improvement: You can't improve what isn't standardized. Without a stable, documented process as your baseline, you can't tell real improvements from random fluctuations. Standardization creates the reference point that makes improvement measurable and repeatable.

Standard work isn't about rigid compliance—it's about preserving what works while creating a platform for the next level of improvement.

Principle 6: Optimize

Optimize Within Your Constraints

"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence."

 — Vince Lombardi

With a stable, standardized process in place, optimization is about fine-tuning performance to approach theoretical limits. But here's the reality: every process operates within constraints.

Your constraints might include:

•      Physical constraints: equipment capacity, material properties, facility limitations

•      Economic constraints: budget, labor availability, acceptable cost per unit

•      Regulatory constraints: safety requirements, environmental standards, quality mandates

Optimization uses techniques like Design of Experiments, statistical process control, and Six Sigma methods to squeeze maximum performance from existing resources. You're not chasing perfection—you're pursuing excellence within realistic boundaries.

Balance is critical here. Over-optimizing one dimension often creates problems elsewhere. Systems thinking prevents you from sub-optimizing individual steps at the expense of overall flow.

Principle 7: Improve

Breakthrough Improvement Requires a Stable Foundation

"It is impossible to improve any process until it is standardized. If the process is shifting from here to there, then any improvement will just be one more variation that is occasionally used and mostly ignored. One must standardize, and thus stabilize the process, before continuous improvement can be made." — Masaaki Imai

With a standardized and optimized process as your foundation, now you can pursue deliberate innovation that takes performance beyond current boundaries. This isn't about tweaking—it's about breakthrough thinking.

"Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing, layout, processes and procedures." — Tom Peters

Improvement at this level requires:

•      A stable baseline from standardization that lets you measure real impact versus random variation

•      Willingness to challenge assumptions and explore new technologies, materials, or methods

•      Rigorous testing using the standardized process as your control

•      Systematic integration of proven changes back into the standard

This is where you adopt new technologies, redesign workflows, implement advanced materials, or transform business models. These changes move you beyond incremental gains to step-change improvements.

This principle takes you beyond current constraints to the next level of performance capability.

Principle 8: Maintain

Maintain to Sustain

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." — Aristotle

"Sustaining gains is as important as making them in the first place." — John Kotter

Here's the tough lesson experience teaches you: the most challenging principle is often maintenance. Organizations frequently achieve improvements only to watch them erode over time through complacency, personnel changes, or gradual deviation from standards.

Process decay is inevitable—without continuous maintenance, even the best processes will degrade over time. Sustainability requires building a culture of adherence and creating systems that make it easier to follow the standard than to deviate from it. Continuous improvement must be matched by continuous maintenance.

Effective maintenance requires:

•      Continuous monitoring of key metrics with control charts and dashboards

•      Regular audits to ensure standards are followed as intended

•      Management of change documentation so the next engineer troubleshooting the process knows what was changed, when it was changed, and why—preserving valuable knowledge and preventing repeated mistakes

•      Rapid response systems to address deviations before they become embedded

•      Ongoing training and skill development for all the process team members

•      Management commitment to sustaining improvement as a strategic priority

Maintenance isn't passive—it's active stewardship of hard-won improvements. The discipline of maintenance separates organizations that achieve lasting excellence from those that cycle through endless improvement initiatives without sustaining results.