Manage quality, remember these 8 points!

 

If you work in quality management within a company, you may encounter various quality issues every day. These include customer complaints, supplier incoming material defects, process instability, insufficient quality planning in the early stages of projects, and other quality problems! Everyone is like a firefighter solving endless quality issues. How should we do quality work well? The following will share with you how to use seven quality management dimensions to improve the company's quality level.

1. Quality is determined by the customer

 

When the product reaches the customer, if it is not what the customer needs, no matter how luxurious the equipment, how excellent the performance, or how exquisite the appearance, it is useless and will inevitably be eliminated. Therefore, manufacturers should replace the concept of "best quality" with "most suitable quality," where "most suitable quality" means the quality that makes the customer feel "most satisfied." It generally includes the following two aspects:

 

Meet the customer's current needs

 

Meet specific specifications

Good functionality

Ease of use

Exquisite appearance

 

Ensure the customer's future needs

 

Durable and not prone to failure

Safe and reliable

Minimal impact from external environment

Thoughtful consideration for the customer

 

2. Quality does not increase costs, but can reduce costs

 

When people mention quality, they first think it means increased costs. In fact, this is a misunderstanding of quality. Actually, improving quality will reduce costs rather than increase them, for the following reasons:

 

For manufacturing, a decrease in defect rate leads to cost reduction

No need to spend on inspection and correction of defective products

No defective products, saving costs on material replacement and machine adjustments

More production opportunities due to fewer defective products

With reduced defect rates, continuous production capacity can be improved

 

3. Quality Management

 

Quality management is to minimize or even eliminate product quality instability. It encompasses all activities managers undertake to achieve departmental goals.

 

Start with unstable product quality

Sources of instability include: personnel, equipment, materials, methods, environment (the "5M"), etc.

 

Emphasize the foundation of quality management

 

Standardization: Standardization is an indispensable principle for managing unstable quality, the "nemesis" of rough manufacturing. (Unification, generalization, serialization, simplification)

Informationization: Digitization is arguably the most effective method for managing occasional instability. Digitization means expressing matters as numerical values as much as possible.

Quality education: Continuously improving employees' quality awareness is an eternal theme for enterprises, enabling employees to get it right the first time.

Equipment management: Equipment optimization and maintenance

Quality cost analysis: Prevention costs, appraisal costs, failure costs.

Quality defect analysis: Minor defects, general defects, serious defects, fatal defects, product quality defect severity classification (see table below)

 

 

4. "Three As" and "Three Inspections"

 

"Three As"

Require employees to operate according to process, drawings, and standards (pre-job training and on-site guidance)

Require inspectors to inspect according to process, drawings, and standards

Require the technical department to prepare processes, draw drawings, and set standards

 

"Three Inspections"

Employee self-inspection

Patrol inspection

Mutual inspection among employees

 

5. Three Major Quality Controls

 

Incoming material control and inventory quality management

The 5R principle of incoming material control: The 5R principle refers to purchasing materials at the right time, right quality, right quantity, right price, and right place. Achieving 5R ensures that requirements for demand, cost, quality, and other aspects of material supply are met.

Right Time: Supply materials timely when needed, avoiding shortages

Right Quality: Purchased materials and warehouse-issued materials meet quality standards

Right Quantity: Purchase quantity and inventory control are appropriate to prevent obsolete materials and excessive capital occupation, obtaining required materials at reasonable cost

Right Price: Obtain required materials at reasonable cost

Right Place: Purchase from the nearest or most convenient suppliers to ensure materials can be supplied anytime

 

Process control and SPC (Statistical Process Control)

Formulation of process quality management plan

Equipment inspection and instrument calibration

First article inspection

Operator self-inspection

Process patrol inspection

Quality abnormality handling

Inspection records

Defect statistical analysis

Segregation and marking of defective products

Application of control charts

Application of limit samples

Implementation of Kanban management

 

Terminal control and customer satisfaction

Determination and commitment of top management

Make customers always "loyal to us"

Strive for customers with strict quality requirements

Implement a company-wide "one-vote veto" activity

Establish an employee-satisfying corporate environment

Emphasize Education and Training

Establish Good Environmental Quality

Always Cultivate Supplier Philosophy

 

6, 6S and TPM

 

6S Management and Quality

 

Sort (SEIRI): Distinguish between items to use and not to use; firmly remove unused items from the site, only keep what is needed

Set in Order (SEITON): Arrange the items to be used neatly in designated locations and manage with proper labeling

Sweep (SEISO): Clean the dirt on equipment, environment, and other production elements on site to keep it clean

Standardize (SEIKETSU): Maintain the state after sorting, setting in order, and sweeping, also called the “3S” activity

Sustain (SHITSUKE): Everyone must abide by company rules and develop good work habits

Safety (SAFETY): Work according to operating procedures to avoid accidents

 

6S Mnemonic

 

Only sorting without setting in order makes items hard to find

Only setting in order without sorting makes it messy and hard to discard

Sorting and setting in order without sweeping makes item usage unreliable

How to ensure the effect of 3S? Cleanliness offers a solution

Standardized work cultivates discipline; safe production is most important

Diligent improvement accumulates over time; company management level rises

 

TPM and Total Employee Autonomous Improvement

T (Total): Full participation

P (Productive): Productivity

M (Maintenance): Maintenance

 

TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) refers to all departments of a company including production, development, design, sales, and management, with full participation from top management to frontline employees, carrying out repeated small team activities aiming to pursue production limits, building a system that can prevent all waste, challenging zero breakdowns, zero waste, and zero defects for a highly efficient enterprise, as well as a vibrant enterprise with department and team autonomous improvement activities. Expected effects:

 

Tangible effects: Improve quality, reduce costs, shorten production and management cycles, reduce inventory, increase labor productivity, equipment efficiency; reduce work waste, decrease market complaints, reduce various losses, eliminate safety hazards, increase the number of improvement proposals

Intangible effects: Enhance employees' awareness of improvement; improve employees' skill levels; cultivate a proactive corporate culture

 

7, Quality Management and TQM

 

Deming's Main Ideas — 14 Points of Management

Have a constant purpose to improve products and services

Adopt new concepts

Stop relying on inspection to improve quality

Eliminate the practice of awarding contracts based on lowest bid

Continuously improve production and service systems to enhance quality and productivity

Establish on-the-job training system

Establish leadership system

Eliminate fear so everyone can work effectively for the company

Remove slogans, exhortations, and targets demanding zero defects and high productivity from employees

Break down barriers between departments

Eliminate work standards at the workplace, replace with leadership

Remove obstacles that prevent workers from taking pride in their skills

Establish a dynamic education and self-improvement mechanism

Make everyone in the company committed to transformation

 

8, Quality Management and Zero Defect Management

 

Zero Defect Management is a quality concept and management method pioneered by American quality management master Crosby. Its premise is: regarding the dual work attitude performance existing in the workplace, people are willing to accept imperfection in some areas, while expecting zero defects in others. This dual attitude develops because people make mistakes. However, zero defects means that if people focus on details and avoid errors, they will continuously approach the goal of zero defects.

 

Zero Defect

Do it right the first time! Companies spend half of their operating costs on the cost of mistakes, which is about 25% of sales revenue, yet companies consider this natural. Doing it right the first time avoids this cost; quality means meeting requirements, quality means profit.

 

Establish Prevention System

Traditional concepts focus on inspection after product completion and after-sales remedies. Zero Defect Management starts from the human value level and spiritual domain, changing people's attitudes and habits, and changing the way people behave and work to improve product quality.

 

Basic Principles of Zero Defect

The basic principle of Zero Defect Management is the company's guideline to improve quality to achieve zero product defects. The core of quality management is prevention, and all work standards are zero defects. Prevention in zero defects focuses on preventing unconscious errors, with the following characteristics:

 

Usually caused by poor operations

Once unconscious errors occur, it is difficult to find reasons to explain or justify based on daily experience