Production and Operation Management

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[pic 7]

Diagram 8

The run chart is visualized as the above diagram. Data in run chart are categorized under two sets of values which are X and Y. X represents time and Y values the estimations taken for the procedure or operation.

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3 QUALITY TOOLS EXAMPLE

In order to monitor the quality of the car that I am producing in my company, I would use the check sheet, Pareto diagram and the cause and effect as my three main quality tools. These tools would help me to brainstorm and solve the quality issues that my company is having.

[pic 8]

I used a check sheet to detect defects in my automobile production center. The data in the check sheet was collected for a month to check how many cars have defects. The check was tested prior to collect appropriate and accurate data. It is set up in a way so that the check sheet is easily used. Whenever a problem occurs, the data is recorded on the check sheet for further evaluation.

The check sheet shown shows the number of defects detected in the car production over a month. It keeps track of the defects detected over the four weeks to determine the source of problem. The data collected is then transferred into a Pareto chart.

[pic 9]

The Pareto chart helps my company to emphasize on the most significant issue. It is laid out from the highest to the lowest frequency over a period of time from left to right. There are a total of 86 issues detected where the highest number of problem faced is engine overheating which are 24 out of 86 issues. These rounds up about 28% of the total problems in the quality issues faced in my company.

Therefore, now that the main issue is engine overheating, I would use the Cause and Effect diagram to help my company to gather the root of this problem. As for the reason to why the engine is overheating, it can be resolved through this quality tool.

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[pic 10]

The cause and effect diagram above shows that the visualization of the source of problems that is causing the overheating engine. It helps on the regular comprehension of elements bringing on the issue. 4 main headings are used to incite thoughts such as machines, workers, suppliers and methods. For example, under the “machines” there are thermostat problems dysfunctional radiators problems. This helps to tackle the most fundamental and significant problems of overheating engines.

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CONCLUSION

The quality of a firm’s products or services can affect the organization in many ways. Therefore is it important to develop and maintain a quality assurance program. Errors and imperfections in a product or a service can result in loss of business, incur liability, affect productivity and induce higher cost.

Total quality management (TQM) is critical for company's procedure capacities improvement. This is to guarantee a fit and maintained competitive advantages. TQM is a client centered approach program that concentrations around consumer loyalty by conveying the best quality item at most minimal conceivable cost where the primary perspective is to avoid defects by taking a shot at an objective of zero imperfections. It makes a client centered association that authorizes workers to give an enhanced quality.

In order to maintain the quality of a product, a firm must spend on quality costs. There are 4 cost of quality which are appraisal cost, prevention cost, internal failure cost and external failure cost. Appraisal costs are costs that occur because of the need to control products and services to ensure a high quality level in all stages, conformance to quality standards and performance requirements. In other words, cost incurred to determine the degree of conformance to quality requirements such as measuring, evaluating or auditing. Examples of appraisal cost include testing, inspecting, verification and quality audits.

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[pic 11]

Prevention cost is the expenses of all activities particularly intended to avert low quality in items or administrations. Examples are the cost of new product review, quality planning, supplier capability surveys, quality assurance and error proofing. Failure cost consists of internal failure cost and external failure cost. Internal failure costs are the expense of defects detected before the product or service is delivered to the customer such as re-inspection, material review, scrap, shortages and delay. Whereas, the external failure costs are the expense of errors found after the product or service is delivered. Examples are complaints, warranty, environmental costs and returns.

Therefore, if a firm wants to reduce error or imperfections, the failure cost must be reduced and the cost of appraisal cost and prevention cost is to be increased. A higher investment on the checking, testing and evaluating will ensure quality product and zero error performance.

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REFERENCES

An Asian Perspective, Mcgraw Hill Publication, William J. Stevenson and Sum Chee Chuong (2012)

McMahon, T. (2011, September 17). The Seven Basic Tools of Quality [Scholarly project]. In SlideShare. Retrieved February 19, 2017, from http://www.slideshare.net/ALeanJourney/the-seven-basic-tools-of-quality

CHECK SHEETS: FIVE BASIC TYPES. (2013, January 14). Retrieved February 19, 2017, from Six Sigma Daily, http://www.sixsigmadaily.com/check-sheets-five-basic-types/

Van den Berg, R. G. (2016, November 14). Histogram – what is it? Retrieved February 19, 2017, from SPSS Tutorials, https://www.spss-tutorials.com/histogram-what-is-it/

Crosby, P. B. (1980). Quality is free: the art of making quality certain. New York, USA: Mentor.

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