Quality control is a management system for initiating and co ordinating:
Quality
development, quality maintenance and quality improvement in the various
departments of design and manufacturing, for achieving the twin
objectives of:
Those activities involved
in the selection of the specific characteristics required to achieve the
desired quality and the processing or fabrication of materials to
conform to the specific characteristics selected.
Quality
creation involves almost all organisational elements of the enterprise
and is the basic objective towards which most activity is directed
In process inventories are drastically
reduced by cutting lot sizes. Any interruption, therefore causes
production to stop until the problem has been solved. In this way, JIT
has been called a system of enforced problem solving. Now, this stoppage
in production forces everybody to solve the quality problem so that the
defect will not repeat. Hence high product quality is ensured.
Suppliers
of materials, under JIT system, supply materials of perfect quality.
Many companies do not even inspect suppliersâ deliveries of materials;
rather, the emphasis is on working with suppliers to produce perfect
parts and materials.
JIT system envisages the use of
automated equipment and robots in production processes. U se of such
sophisticated machines will ensure high product quality.
JIT
system also envisages the use of intensive preventive maintenance
programmes in order to prevent any machine breakdown. This results in
machines producing parts of perfect quality.
Workers
are responsible for producing parts of perfect quality or with zero
defects before they are passed on to the next production operation.
The worker is put in the driverâs seat in controlling product quality. The principles underlying quality at the source are:
Every
workerâs job becomes a quality control station. The worker is
responsible for inspecting his own work, identifying any defects and
reworking them in to non-defectives, and correcting any causes of
defect.
Statistical quality control
techniques are used to monitor the quality of parts produced at each
work station/ and easy-to-understand charts and graphs are used to
communicate progress to workers and managers .
Each worker is given the right to stop the production line to avoid producing defective parts
Workers
and managers are organised into quality circles- groupes of people who
analyse quality problems, work to solve the problems, and implement
programmes to improve product quality.
The act of determining
conformance or non-conformance of the expected performance is the
function of inspection. By inspection, a manager seeks to determine the
acceptability or non- acceptability of the parts, products or services.
The basis for inspection is usually a specification which is called
inspection standard. Inspection is made by comparing the quality of the
product to the standard.
The challenge is to
keep inspection costs minimum, yet realise expected quality. In certain
cases every part is inspected, in which case, it is called 100 percent
inspection. When it is less than 100 percent , it is called partial or
sampling inspection. Parts with high value and those having tendency to
run in to large number of rejects are normally subject to 100%
inspection.
Though
it is in Japan that this was concretised and demonstrated its
potential, its rudimentary origin is traced to USA, where problem
solving groups have existed since the 1930s.
QC â Japan -1960s â Edward Deming & Joseph Juran
QC is a voluntary group
of people who meet togethet on a regular basis to identify, analyse and
solve quality, productivity, cost reduction, safety and other problems
in their work area, leading to improvement in their performance and
enrichment of their worklife.
Consistency of purpose is
a must for continual improvement of a product. Managerâs have to ensure
that the companyâs vision of quality is understood by all the employees
and that they move continuously towards it.
Continuous
change and innovation is a must for survival. In todayâs complex
business situations, it is impossible for a small group of mangers to
identify and sort out quality problems. Thus all the employees have to
be involved in this process.
Quality cannot be achieved only by
inspection. Inspection wastes valuable time and adds to the products
cost without any value addition. Inspections may not be perfect, causing
some defects to be passed on to the customer. Defects are symptoms
removed by inspection, while the disease (root cause) remains.
Inspections create a gap between the people and processes that introduce
defects and the people and processes that detect defects
Wastes should be eliminated in every
functional area, not just production. Even processes in accounting, HRM,
customer service, and sales effect the quality of the product and,
thus, generate waste. Therefore, the whole organisation should
contribute towards the enhancement of quality.
The attitude of supervisors and managers
towards workers should be that of a facilitator. Errors by workers
should be treated by supervisors as an opportunity to learn the process
and systems better. Teamwork should be promoted and rewarded.
The barriers between departments and
individuals should be removed. Problems should not be handled within
strict functional limits and the concerns raised by related functional
areas should not be ignored.
Posters and slogans should be eliminated.
These must not be used to tell the workers to work harder. Instead, they
should be provided with tools and training so that they work smarter
leading to better quality.
Vigorous programme of retraining and education of employees are a must.
Numerical
targets and work standards may affect quality. Reasonable numerical
targets make the workers complacent, while excessively demanding ones
may lead to a compromise on quality in order to achieve the targets.
Such targets cannot be eliminated, but can be set such that quality is
not compromised.
Encourage workers to give quality
improvement ideas without fear. Workers refrain from giving new ideas of
change because they may have to work with new and unfamiliar methods in
place of known and comfortable, though inefficient, methods. They also
feel that if their ideas fail, it may affect their performance
appraisal, eventually leading to job insecurity.
The lowest price should not be the sole
criteria for selecting a supplier. Suppliers asking for lowest prices
often offer low quality products, leading to an increase in the overall
cost to the buyer due to the increased expenses of inspection, scrap,
rework, and inventory to replace defective items, etc. Thus, the
supplier offering the lowest total cost should be selected.
ISO 9000 standard represents an
international consensus on good management practices with the aim of
ensuring that the organisation can time and again deliver the product or
services that meet the clientâs quality requirements. These good
practices have been distilled into a set of system, regardless of what
the organisation does, its size, or whether it is private or public
sector.
To
promote the development of standardiastion and related activities in the
world with a view to facilitating international exchange of goods and
services, and to developing cooperation in the spheres of intellectual,
scientific, technological and economic activity.
Demonstrate ability to consistently provide product to meet customer and applicable regulatory requirements
Enhance customer satisfaction
Improve the quality of its own operation s
Provide
confidence to internal management and interested parties that the
requirements of a quality management system are being effectively
implemented.