Quality Management

Module II. Process Quality Improvement L ec t ure – 12 How Quality Awards, Quality council, Quality circle, Quality Improvement Teams helps improve process quality? Quality awards are prizes awarded for some aspect of quality performance that has been demonstrated by an organization. Deming Prize was instituted by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) in 1951 to honour the contributions of W.E. Deming towards quality control in Japan. This award is given to organization who adopted and preached Total Quality Management principals successfully. Simililar in line, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA)was instituted in USA in the year 1987. In India, Bureau of Indian Standards constituted Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award, to promote excellence in Indian manufacturing and service organisations,in 1991. There are seven parameters for evaluating any organisation for qualifing for any specific award and marks are allocated for each one of the parameter and its...

Module II. Process Quality Improvement L ec t ure – 11 What is the role of Audit in implementation of Quality Management System (QMS)? A QMS encompasses a whole set of activities, which need to be coordinated and controlled for producing the desired quality in an organization. The objective of QMS is to improve the performance of an organization and sustained improvements. In this context, internal audits allow for checking the effectiveness of the installed quality systems from time to time. Internal audits help in ensuring that the QMS conforms to the organizational quality policies as well as any quality standard that it follows. Management review are also adapted by organization to check the current capacity of QMS being implemented. These reviews may be conducted after four to six months of QMS implementation. The review also helps to keep the track of adequacy of the QMS. Before applying for ISO 9000 or any other international standard certification, a pre-assessment audit is ...

Module II. Process Quality Improvement L ec t ure – 10 How ISO 9001 and other standards used in Quality Management System (QMS) influences process quality? ISO is an international organisation for standardisation, which has been formed for the development and issuing of international standards to be used across the world. Since its inception, it has published more than 19,000 standards. Standardization actually helps in the optimization of operations by proper utilization of resources. Earlier, when ISO started its operations, it was working as International Federation of the National Standardising Associations (ISA). But this organisation was dissolved during World War II. The acronym ISO is derived from the Greek word “isos” which means “equal”. The members of ISO are the recognised standard authorities, which also represents their respective nations. For example, American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is the representative of the United States in ISO, and Bureau of Indian s...

Module II. Process Quality Improvement L ec t ure-9 How six sigma philosophy is aligned with process quality improvement? High-technology products with many complex components typically have many opportunities for failure or defects to occur. Motorola developed the six-sigma program in the late 1980s as a response to the demand for these products. The focus of six-sigma is reducing variability in key product quality characteristics, or so-called CTQ, to the level at which defects are extremely unlikely. F igure 2-29 shows a normal probability distribution as a model for a quality characteristic with the specification limits at six standard deviations on either side of the mean. Now it turns out that in situation when specification lines are at three standard deviation level, the probability of producing a product within these specifications is 0.9973, which corresponds to 2700 parts per million (ppm) defective. This is referred to as three-sigma quality performance. In case we hav...

Module II. Process Quality Improvement L ec t ure – 8 How service quality concept is integrated with process quality improvement? How it is different from concept of manufacturing process quality? Service means many different things in different contexts as compared to product quality (Garvin, 1984). For some it is synonymous with customer care, for others it is equivalent of logistics function, or internal services such as accounting or personnel, for others it means 10,000 mile check-up to their car. Despite more than 25 years of study, scholars in the field of services management do not agree on ‘what a service is’. From customers’ perspective, service is a combination of customer experience and their perception of outcome of service. An experience at a park, for example, includes experience of rides, restaurants, emotions of enjoyment and customer view of value for money at the end of the day. From manufacturing operations perspective or definition, F i gu r e 2 - 2 5 shows the ...

Module II. Process Quality Improvement L ec t ure – 7 In what way failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) helps process improvement initiative? Like Design FMEA, as discussed elaborately in M odule 3 , process FMEA can also be performed to remove any possibility of process failures. All failure modes, causes of failure(s), severity, occurrence and detection rating are to be determined and reduction of RPN number by taking corrective action is the standard procedure of preparing and following Process FMEA. More discussion is given in QS 9000 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QS9000 ) document on process FMEA ( http://asq.org/learn-about-quality/process-analysis-tools/overview/fmea.html ; http://www.qualitytrainingportal.com/resources/fmea/fmea_process.htm ). Reader may refer Module 3 to understand the basic steps of FMEA and rating system.

Module II. Process Quality Improvement L ec t ure -6 How benchmarking helps to improve process quality? Benchmarking is a systematic method by which organizations can measure themselves against the best industry practices. It promotes superior performance by providing an organized framework through which organizations learn how the "best in class" can do things, understand how these best practices differ from their own and implement change to close the gap. Benchmarking is the systematic search for best practices, innovative ideas, and highly effective operating practices. Benchmarking considers experience of others and uses it. Indeed, it is a common-sense proposition to learn from others what they do right and then imitate it to avoid reinventing the wheel. Benchmarking is not new and indeed has been around for a long time. Infact, in the 1800s, Francis Lowell, a New England colonist, studied British textile mills and imported many ideas along with improvements he made f...