You know what I keep hearing from manufacturing leaders?
“Humara rework bahut zyada ho raha hai… operators ko baar baar samjhana pad raha hai… but kuch fark nahi pad raha. Mai kya karu?”
And the frustration is real. Because they’re putting in the effort on the shop floor, but the rework just keeps coming back.
Welcome to my talk series Kya Karu for business owners like you. I’m Nalin Mehta. Let’s get into it.
So what’s actually going on?
Most companies treat rework as a shop floor problem. Operator ne galat kiya. Machine setting theek nahi thi. Material mein defect tha.
And yes, sometimes that’s true.
But in most cases I’ve seen, by the time rework shows up on the shop floor, the real mistake has already happened much earlier. Upstream. In a meeting room, not on the production floor.
Let’s trace it back.
A customer places an order. Sales commits a specification. But that specification is not clearly documented. Or it’s documented in an email that never reaches production.
Production starts with incomplete information. Or worse, with assumptions.
The job gets done. But it gets done wrong. And now it comes back as rework.
The operator didn’t fail. The system failed the operator.
Now let’s look at another pattern.
Engineering releases a drawing. But the drawing has not been updated for a recent design change. Production works from the old version. The output doesn’t match what the customer actually needs.
Again, rework. Again, not a shop floor problem at its root.
Or consider this one.
A new material is approved by procurement because it meets the price target. But nobody checks whether it behaves the same way during processing. The shop floor figures this out the hard way, after a full batch is already done.
So where does rework actually start?
It starts in unclear communication between sales and production. It starts in drawings and documents that are not version controlled. It starts in procurement decisions made without consulting the shop floor. It starts in planning that releases jobs without complete information.
The shop floor is just where it becomes visible.
So what do you fix?
First, create a clear order specification document.
Every order that enters production must carry a single, complete specification sheet. Not an email trail. Not a verbal briefing. One document that sales, planning, and production have all signed off on.
If the specification is not complete, the job does not move to the floor.
Second, control your drawing versions strictly.
Every drawing must have a version number and a date. Production must always work from the latest approved version. Someone must own this. A simple system, maintained consistently, eliminates an enormous source of rework.
Third, loop in the shop floor before approving new materials.
Before procurement finalizes a new material or supplier, run a small trial with the production team. Let them tell you whether it processes the same way. This one step can save weeks of rework downstream.
Fourth, make planning responsible for job readiness.
A job should only be released to the floor when everything is ready. Drawing confirmed. Material available. Specifications clear. If planning releases an incomplete job, the rework that follows is a planning failure, not a production failure.
Fifth, track where each rework case actually originated.
For every rework instance, ask one question. At which step did the correct information fail to reach the right person?
Over time, you will see a pattern. And that pattern will tell you exactly where to focus.
Rework is expensive. But the bigger cost is that it keeps happening because everyone is looking at the wrong place.
Fix the inputs. The shop floor will take care of the rest.
I hope this was useful. Stay connected, there’s a lot more coming in this series.
