The cord and the promise
Why improvement doesn't stick. Every plant runs twice: once on paper, once on the floor.
Every plant runs twice: once on paper, once on the floor. We report from the floor.
How US plants really run, across quality, operations, maintenance, safety and continuous improvement, told by the people who run them.
Our beat
Plants run on procedures, audits and forms. They keep running because of people who know where the paper and the floor disagree. How Plants Run is where the leaders who run plants talk, and where we write down what they teach.
Field notes
All field notesIn a layered process audit, which layer should find the most?
A 2012 rule of thumb from the Elsmar Cove quality forum says the line should find the most. What practitioners have said about clean first-layer sheets since 2005, read as questions for whoever runs the program.
Why a repeat finding costs more than a new one
The grading scale used in the Medical Device Single Audit Program adds a grade when a nonconformity comes back, FDA warning letters read repeat failures as a leadership problem, and forum members explain why a repeat can point to the corrective action process.
Where quality, CI and operations people meet: October 2026 to June 2027
Ten US conferences, in date order, where the people who run quality, continuous improvement and operations in plants go to hear from each other.
What we publish
Conversations.
Twenty minutes with a leader who runs a plant or a production system. Every guest gets the same question: how do you know your system works between assessments? Then we ask for scenes.
Field notes.
Short pieces on what the floor says in public. Every note links its sources.
The answers.
When enough guests have answered the question, we publish what the answers add up to.
Be in a conversation
- Twenty minutes on video, at a time you pick.
- Nothing goes out until you and your communications team approve the cut.
- A signed release before we record.
The episode is about your plant, in your words.
Who’s behind it
How Plants Run is hosted by Gabriel Gonçalves, in San Francisco, and edited by Sam Veloso. Make the work of running a plant worth reading about.