Why Inspections Make People Take Production Risks

Generally speaking, people view inspections as a good thing and a sign of good quality.

The truth is that inspections are generally a sign of the opposite. Unless mandated by some legal requirement, inspections are an acceptance of poor quality.

Think about why we inspect. We do it because we keep getting bit by the same problem happening over and over, so we inspect to make the pain go away. The problem is that what we are really doing is normalizing the underlying problem.

Now, I am not saying that all inspections are unnecessary. In fact, they serve a very important role as a stopgap. Most companies are strapped for resources, so can’t attack every problem at once. Unfortunately, though, once an inspection takes root, they are very hard to get rid of. They are the blackberry bushes of the production process.

Watch this video from my Ramblings of a Continuous Improvement Coach series to learn more about why inspections get into people’s heads and make them take more risks.