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Introduction to Quality Management and Improvement

Quality

• relating to one or more desirable characteristics that a product or service should have

• an important consumer decision factor in selecting competing products and services

• understanding it is the key to business success, growth, and enhanced competitiveness

• increased quality provides a substantial return on investment

Garvin’s Dimensions of Quality

1. Performance

2. Reliability

3. Durability

4. Serviceability

5. Aesthetics

6. Features

7. Perceived Quality

8. Conformance to Standards

Dimensions of Service Quality

1. Responsiveness

2. Professionalism

3. Attentiveness

Quality’s Traditional Meaning: Fitness for use; focuses on products/services meeting user requirements

Two Aspects of Quality

1. Quality of design - how a product is planned and made to stand out.

2. Quality of conformance - how well the product matches its original design.

Quality’s Modern Meaning: It is inversely proportional to variability; quality improves when there is less unwanted variability in the product’s key characteristics.

Quality Engineering Terminology

• Critical-to-Quality (CTQ) Characteristics: Elements of a product that determine how well it meets user or consumer expectations.

• Types of Quality Characteristics

  • Physical

  • Sensory

  • Time Orientation

• Quality Engineering: involves operational, managerial, and engineering activities designed to ensure that the quality characteristics of a product meet the required levels and that variability is minimized.

• Statistical methods are essential for describing and managing variability in quality improvement efforts.

• Types of data:

  • Variable data - discrete data

  • Attribute data - continuous measurements

• Specifications: these define the desired measurements and performance levels for a specific quality characteristic of a product or service.

• Nominal or Target value: The ideal or desired value for a quality characteristic set by design engineers.

• Specification Limits:

  • Upper Specification Limit

  • Lower Specification Limit

• Over-the-wall approach: A traditional design method where engineers set specifications without fully considering manufacturing processes or variability.

• Concurrent Engineering: A team approach to design, with specialists in manufacturing, quality engineering, and other disciplines working together with the product designer at the earliest stages of the product design process.

A Brief History of Quality Control and Improvement

Early Development in Quality (Pre-1900s)

• Fredrick W. Taylor

  • Introduced scientific management principles.

  • Focused on task division, enhancing productivity and quality.

  • Impact: Standardization of work methods.

• Frank and Lillian Gilbreth

  • Extended work on motion study and work design.

  • Issue: Early emphasis was more on productivity than quality.

• Walter A. Shewhart (1924)

  • Developed the statistical control chart.

  • Significance: Marked the formal beginning of statistical quality control.

• Harold F. Dodge and Harry G. Romig (Late 1920s)

  • Developed acceptance sampling as an alternative to 100% inspection.

  • Widespread use in Western Electric by the 1930s.

Growth During WWII

• Expanded use of statistical quality control in manufacturing

• The American Society for Quality Control was created in 1949

  • They promoted quality improvement techniques in various industries

Advancements in the 50s-60s

• The emergence of reliability engineering

• The introduction of designed experiments in the 1950s, these were initially applied in the chemical industry and strengthened the US chemical industry’s competitiveness

Global Influence and Japanese Methods

• 1970s-1980s

  • Western companies realized Japanese competitors used designed experiments since the 1960s.

  • Applications in process improvement, new product design, and reliability enhancement

  • These resulted in those methods being adopted in the West

Global Influence and Japanese Methods

• Post-1980s Growth

  • There was a profound increase in the use of statistical methods for quality and business improvement in the US, which helped their automobile industry from the brink of collapse

  • Management frameworks began to emerge for implementing quality improvement

Statistical Methods for Quality Control and Improvement

Process as a System

• Inputs: Controllable factors (x1, x2, ... xp): Process variables (e.g., temperatures, pressures, feed rates).

• Uncontrollable factors (z1, z2, ... zq): Environmental factors, raw material properties.

• Output: Quality characteristic (y) – A measure of process and product quality.

Control Charts

• Control charts are used as a primary SPC technique

• They plot the averages of measurements of a quality characteristic in samples taken from the process vs. time or sample number

• Components include:

  • Center line (CL): represents the expected average value of the quality characteristic

  • Upper control limit (UCL) and lower control limit (LCL): these define the boundaries within which the process should operate if there are no unusual variations

Designed experiments

• Designed experiments systematically vary controllable input factors to understand their impact on output quality characteristics. This helps in identifying key variables affecting process performance and product quality.

• Types of designed experiments:

  • Factorial Design Types

    1. Two-Factor Example (2^2): Four combinations of low and high levels for two factors.

    2. Three-Factor Example (2^3): Eight combinations for three factors, arranged in a cube.

• Benefits:

  • Reducing variability

  • Improving quality

  • May lead to performance breakthroughs

Acceptance Sampling

• The inspection and classification samples from a larger batch to decide if the whole lot should be accepted or rejected

• Types of acceptance sampling:

  1. Outgoing: Conducted post-production, before shipping.

  2. Incoming: Applied to batches received from suppliers.

  3. Rectifying: Involves scrapping, recycling, reworking, or replacing rejected units.

Evolution of Quality Techniques

• Early Stage: Reliance on acceptance sampling and inspection.

• Intermediate Stage: Increased use of sampling inspection with the realization that quality can’t be solely inspected into products.

• Advanced Stage: Emphasis on process improvement through Statistical Process Control (SPC) and designed experiments.

Management Aspects of Quality Improvement

3 Main Activities of QMS

1. Quality Planning

   • Involves identifying customers, both internal and external, and identifying their needs

   • Products or services that meet or exceed customer expectations must be developed

   • It prevents wasted resources on defects, complaints, and failures

2. Quality Assurance

   • The set of activities that ensures the quality levels of products and services are properly maintained and that supplier and customer quality issues are properly resolved

   • Key components include:

     • Documentation:

       • Policy

       • Procedures

       • Work instructions and specifications

       • Records

     • Document control

3. Quality Control and improvement

   • SPC and designed experiments are major tools of this

Quality Philosophy and Management Strategies

Key Figures in Quality Management

W. Edwards Deming (1900-1993)

• Background: Educated in engineering and physics at the University of Wyoming and Yale University.

• Influences: Greatly influenced by Walter A. Shewhart, known for developing the control chart.

• Career: Worked at Western Electric, held government positions, and contributed significantly during WWII.

• Impact on Japan: Post-war consultant to Japanese industries, advocating for statistical methods, which fueled Japan’s industrial growth. The Deming Prize was established in his honor.

• Philosophy: Emphasized that quality improvement is primarily the responsibility of management, not the workforce; critiqued traditional American management practices.

Deming’s 14 Points (Summarized, sir’s PowerPoint as reference)

1. Long term focus

2. Commit to quality

3. Prevent problems; don’t rely on mass inspections

4. Choose suppliers over quality, not price

5. Focus on continuous improvement

6. Train your people

7. Help, don’t micromanage

8. Create a safe environment for your employees; drive out fear

9. Encourage teamwork; break down barriers between departments

10. Avoid empty slogans

11. Stop using quotas

12. Remove obstacles

13. Educate everyone

14. Leadership should commit to the past 13 points

Deming’s 7 Deadly Diseases of Management

1. Lack of constancy of purpose

2. Emphasis on short-term profits

3. Performance evaluation issues

4. Management mobility

5. Running a company of visible figures alone

6. Excessive medical costs

7. Excessive legal damage rewards

The Shewhart Cycle (PDCA)

Deming’s Obstacles

1. Automation as a solution

2. Copying existing solutions

3. “Our problems are different”; ignoring universal principles

4. Outdated education

5. Poor use of statistics

6. Relying on inspection

7. Quality as a departmental task

8. Blaming workers

9. False starts

10. The fallacy of zero defects

11. Inadequate Prototype Testing

12. External Help Misconception

Joseph M. Juran (1904-2008)

• Pioneer in Quality Management: Key figure in the development of quality control and improvement, influenced by Walter A. Shewhart.

• Career Highlights: Chief industrial engineer at Western Electric, simplified processes during WWII, and led NYU’s Department of Administrative Engineering. A key influencer in Japan's industrial rise.

• Major Contributions: Co-authored the Quality Control Handbook and founded the Juran Institute.

• Juran Trilogy: Focuses on three pillars—Planning, Control, and Improvement—emphasizing project-based quality improvement, either through continuous or breakthrough efforts.

Armand V. Feigenbaum (1920-2014)

• Concept of Total Quality Control: Introduced in his 1951 book Total Quality Control, which greatly influenced early quality management practices in Japan.

• Three-Step Approach: Emphasized quality leadership, quality technology (statistical methods and technical tools), and organizational commitment.

• Organizational Focus: Advocated for a systems approach to quality improvement, highlighting the importance of management commitment and a structured process for successful implementation.

• 19-Step Improvement Process: Proposed a detailed framework for quality improvement, with statistical methods as a key component. Initially suggested centralizing technical expertise in a specialized department.

Total Quality Management (TQM)

• A strategy for implementing and managing quality improvement activities on an organizational basis

• Began in the 1980s with Deming and Juran’s philosophies as a focal point

• Key elements of TQM include:

  1. Customer focus

  2. Workforce engagement

  3. Supplier Improvement

  4. Integration with business goals

Quality Systems and Standards

The International Standards Organization (ISO)

• Founded in 1946 in Geneva, Switzerland

• They establish standards for quality systems; the ISO 9000 series is their most widely adapted, it includes:

  1. ISO 9000: Fundamentals and Vocabulary

  2. ISO 9001: Quality Management System Requirements

  3. ISO 9004: Quality Management System - Guidelines for performance improvement

• The ISO 9000 series is also an American National Standards Institute and an ASQ Standard

• The ISO Certification Process involves selecting a registrar, preparing for audits, and ensuring compliance with the standard’s clauses (e.g., management responsibility, resource management)

• Challenges of ISO Certificatio:

  • Heavy emphasis on paperwork and documentation

  • Lack of emphasis on variability reduction and process improvement

  • Other ISO certified organizations have still faced challenges despite being certified

• ISO certification has been criticized for being costly without much actual impact on quality improvement, which suggests that companies might benefit more from focusing on internal quality standards

Malcolm Balridge National Quality Award (MBNQA)

• Established by the US Congress is 1987

• Given annually to recognize US organizations for performance excellence

• Administered by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

• Categories of award:

  1. Manufacturing

  2. Service

  3. Small Business

  4. Healthcare

  5. Education

Six Sigma

• A quality methodology developed by Motorola in the 1980s as a response to customer demand

• Focuses on reducing variability in key product quality characteristics to the level where failure or defects are extremely unlikely

• Three Sigma Quality

  • Specification limits are three standard deviations from the mean; probability of producing a product within specifications is 0.9973, which corresponds to 2,700 ppm defective

• Six Sigma Quality

  • The probability that any specific unit of a hypothetical product is non-defective is 0.2 ppm

• However, predictions can only be made of process performance when the process is stable or mean and standard

The Link Between Quality and Productivity

Producing high-quality products is challenging in today’s rapidly evolving industrial environment. Technology advances in fields like electronics, metallurgy, and biotechnology complicate product design and manufacturing.

Challenges in Balancing Quality and Productivity

• Rapid technological advancements require:

  • the quick integration of new technologies for competitive advantage

  • the optimization of processes for economy, efficiency, productivity, and quality

• Without focusing on all dimensions, companies face higher costs and reduced productivity

Quality Costs

• Financial controls in business management often overlook quality costs.

• Why do quality costs matter?

  1. Products are becoming more complex because of technological advances

  2. There is more awareness of life-cycle costs (maintenance, spare parts, failures)

  3. Quality engineers can communicate better with management using cost metrics

• Categories of quality cost:

  1. Prevention costs: costs associated with avoiding defects

     • New products review

     • Product or process design

     • Process control

     • Burn-in

     • Training

     • Quality data acquisition

  2. Appraisal costs

     • Inspection or testing of incoming materials

     • Product inspections throughout production

     • Calibration and maintenance of testing equipment

  3. Internal failure costs

     • Scrap

     • Rework

     • Retesting

     • Downtime

     • Yield Losses

  4. External failure costs

     • Complaint adjustments

     • Returned products

     • Warranty changes

     • Liability costs

     • Indirect costs

• Quality costs can range from 4% to 40% of sales depending on the

  industry.

• Prevention and appraisal investments reduce internal/external failure

  costs.

• Pareto analysis can be used to identify key areas for quality improvement.