Quality Management

This book is a part of the course by Jaipur National University, Jaipur.This book contains the course content for Quality Management .

JNU, JaipurFirst Edition 2013

The content in the book is copyright of JNU. All rights reserved.No part of the content may in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or any other means be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or be broadcast or transmitted without the prior permission of the publisher.

JNU makes reasonable endeavours to ensure content is current and accurate. JNU reserves the right to alter the content whenever the need arises, and to vary it at any time without prior notice.

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Index

ContentI. ......................................... II

List of FiguresII. .............................. VIII

List of TablesIII. ............................... IX

AbbreviationsIV. ............................. X

Case StudyV. .................................... 150

BibliographyVI. ............................... 160

Self Assessment AnswersVII. .......... 164

Book at a Glance

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Contents

Chapter I ...........................................................................................................1Introduction to Quality Systems .....................................................................1Aim ....................................................................................................................1Objectives ..........................................................................................................1Learning outcome ............................................................................................11.1 Introduction ................................................................................................21.2 Importance of Quality ...............................................................................21.3 Levels of Quality ........................................................................................31.4 Quality and Financial Performance .........................................................41.5 History of Quality ......................................................................................51.6 Quality Costs- Types and Categories .......................................................6 1.6.1 Nature of Costs .............................................................................71.7 Quality Control .......................................................................................10 1.7.1 Objectives of Quality Control .....................................................10 1.7.2 Benefits of Quality Control ........................................................10 1.7.3 Quality Control and Inspection ...................................................111.8 Quality and Competitive Advantage ......................................................11 1.8.1 Use of Information for Competitive Advantage .........................12 1.8.2 Competitive Advantage ...............................................................12 1.8.3 Role of Information in Competitive Environment ......................12 1.8.4 Porter – Miller Postulates ............................................................12 1.8.4.1 Changes in Industry Structures .....................................12 1.8.4.2 Spawning of New Business ...........................................13 1.8.5 Functional Uses ...........................................................................13 1.8.6 Strategic Uses ..............................................................................141.9 Total Quality Management (TQM) ........................................................14 1.9.1 The Importance of Customer-Supplier Relationships- Quality Chains ............................................................................15 1.9.2 Main Principles of TQM .............................................................16 1.9.3 Introducing TQM into a Business ...............................................161.10 Taguchi Loss Function ...........................................................................18Summary .........................................................................................................21References .......................................................................................................21Recommended Reading .................................................................................22Self Assessment ...............................................................................................23

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Chapter II .......................................................................................................26Statistical Process Control .............................................................................26Aim ..................................................................................................................26Objectives ........................................................................................................26Learning outcome ..........................................................................................262.1 Statistical Process Control .......................................................................272.2 Statistical Process Control Chart Basics ................................................30 2.2.1 Variable Control Charts ...............................................................30 2.2.2 XBAR/S Chart vs. XBAR/R Chart .............................................31 2.2.3 S Charts (Standard Deviations) ...................................................31 2.2.4 R Chart (Ranges) .........................................................................32 2.2.5 I Chart (Individuals) ....................................................................32 2.2.6 Attribute Control Charts ..............................................................32 2.2.7 P Chart vs. NP Chart ...................................................................32 2.2.8 P Chart (Proportion Defective - %) .............................................33 2.2.9 NP Charts (Number Defective – n) .............................................33 2.2.10 C Charts ....................................................................................34 2.2.11 U Chart ......................................................................................352.3 Extraction of Information .......................................................................362.4 Capability Index .......................................................................................362.5 Individual – X and Moving Range Charts .............................................372.6 An SPM/TQM Implementation Model ..................................................382.7 The Seven Basic Tools of Quality ............................................................39 2.7.1 Flowcharts ...................................................................................40 2.7.2 Check Sheets ...............................................................................41 2.7.3 Histograms ..................................................................................43 2.7.4 Pareto Analysis ............................................................................44 2.7.5 Cause and Effect Diagram ..........................................................44 2.7.6 Scatter Diagram ..........................................................................45 2.7.7 Control Charts .............................................................................46Summary .........................................................................................................47References .......................................................................................................47Recommended Reading .................................................................................48Self Assessment ...............................................................................................49

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Chapter III ......................................................................................................52Problem Solving Techniques for Quality Management ..............................52Aim ..................................................................................................................52Objectives ........................................................................................................52Learning outcome ..........................................................................................523.1 Introduction ..............................................................................................533.2 Six Sigma Overview .................................................................................53 3.2.1 The Six Sigma Methodology ......................................................53 3.2.2 Strategies for Six Sigma Introduction .........................................543.3 Pareto Analysis .........................................................................................553.4 Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) ........................................56 3.4.1 Types of FMEAs .........................................................................57 3.4.2 FMEA usage................................................................................57 3.4.3 Benefits of FMEA .......................................................................57 3.4.4 FMEA Timing .............................................................................58 3.4.5 FMEA Procedure ........................................................................58 3.4.6 Reliability ....................................................................................61 3.4.7 Stages of FMEA ..........................................................................61 3.4.8 Other Types of FMEA .................................................................623.5 Brainstorming ..........................................................................................63 3.5.1 Usage Of Brainstorming .............................................................63 3.5.2 The Steps In Brainstorming Process ...........................................64 3.5.3 Basic Principles Of Brainstorming .............................................643.6 The Deming Cycle ....................................................................................683.7 Juran’s Improvement Program ..............................................................69Summary .........................................................................................................71References .......................................................................................................71Recommended Reading .................................................................................72Self Assessment ...............................................................................................73

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Chapter IV ......................................................................................................76Strategic Quality Management .....................................................................76Aim ..................................................................................................................76Objectives ........................................................................................................76Learning outcome ..........................................................................................764.1 Total Quality Management (TQM) ........................................................77 4.1.1 History for TQM .........................................................................77 4.1.2 Basic Concept of TQM ...............................................................78 4.1.3 Structure of TQM ........................................................................79 4.1.4 Key Facets of TQM Integrative Focus are the PIs ......................81 4.1.5 Principles of TQM ......................................................................814.2 Total Company Involvement ...................................................................824.3 Technical and Managerial TQM .............................................................84 4.3.1 Implementation of TQM .............................................................84 4.3.2 Quality Council ...........................................................................86 4.3.3 Quality Statements ......................................................................87 4.3.4 Strategic Planning .......................................................................88 4.3.5 Annual Quality Improvement Program .......................................89 4.3.6 Barriers to TQM Implementation ...............................................894.4 Philosophies of TQM ...............................................................................90Summary .........................................................................................................99References .......................................................................................................99Recommended Reading ...............................................................................100Self Assessment .............................................................................................101

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Chapter V ......................................................................................................103Reliability ......................................................................................................103Aim ................................................................................................................103Objectives ......................................................................................................103Learning outcome ........................................................................................1035.1 Defining Reliability ................................................................................104 5.1.1 Evolution of the Field of Reliability .........................................106 5.1.2 Reliability Measurement ...........................................................106 5.1.3 Reliability Planning ..................................................................107 5.1.4 Factors affecting Reliability ......................................................1085.2 Product Life Characteristic Curve .......................................................1105.3 Reliability Function ...............................................................................112 5.3.1 Scope of Reliability ...................................................................113 5.3.2 Objectives of Reliability ...........................................................114 5.3.3 The Strategic Importance of Maintenance and Reliability .......1145.4 Reliability Engineering ..........................................................................115 5.4.1 Standardisation ..........................................................................115 5.4.2 Redundancy ...............................................................................115 5.4.3 Physics of Failure ......................................................................116 5.4.4 De-rating Practice .....................................................................116 5.4.5 Reliability Testing .....................................................................116 5.4.6 Burn-in ......................................................................................117 5.4.7 Failure Mode and Effect Analysis .............................................117 5.4.8 Fault Tree Analysis (FTA).........................................................1195.5 Types of Reliability .................................................................................119 5.5.1 Inter-Rater or Inter-Observer Reliability ..................................119 5.5.2 Parallel-Forms Reliability .........................................................121 5.5.3 Internal Consistency Reliability ................................................1225.6 Comparison of Reliability Estimators ..................................................125Summary .......................................................................................................127References .....................................................................................................127Recommended Reading ...............................................................................128Self Assessment .............................................................................................129

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Chapter VI ....................................................................................................132Health and Safety .........................................................................................132Aim ................................................................................................................132Objectives ......................................................................................................132Learning outcome ........................................................................................1326.1 Introduction ............................................................................................1336.2 Theory and Hypotheses .........................................................................133 6.2.1 ISO 9001 and Changes in Plant Scale .......................................134 6.2.2 ISO 9001 and Wages .................................................................135 6.2.3 ISO 9001 and Occupational Health and Safety ........................1356.3 Classification of Hazards- ISO 9000 ....................................................136 6.3.1 Hazards Analysis, Critical Control Points and Control Measures Hazard Analysis ...........................................136 6.3.2 Classification of Hazard According to the Risk and Severity (Hazard Index) ............................................................137 6.3.3 Assessment of Risk In Hazard Analysis ....................................1376.4 Key Elements of Successful Health and Safety Management ............138 6.4.1 Policy and Commitment ...........................................................138 6.4.2 Planning ...................................................................................139 6.4.3 Implementation and Operation .................................................139 6.4.4 Measuring Performance ............................................................139 6.4.5 Auditing and Reviewing Performance ......................................1406.5 Codes of Practice ....................................................................................140 6.5.1 Regulations ..............................................................................140 6.5.2 How Regulations Apply ...........................................................141 6.5.3 What Form Do they Take? ........................................................141 6.5.4 The Relationship between the Regulator and Industry ............141 6.5.5 What Next? ...............................................................................1426.6 The Statement of Health and Safety Policy ........................................142 6.6.1 Basic Objectives and General Content of Statement ...............144 6.6.2 Organisation (People and their Duties) .....................................144 6.6.3 Arrangements (Systems and Procedures) .................................145Summary .......................................................................................................146References .....................................................................................................146Recommended Reading ...............................................................................147Self Assessment .............................................................................................148

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List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Issues critical to managers of manufacturing and service organisations .............................................................................3Fig. 1.2 Types and categories of costs ...............................................................6Fig. 1.3 Nature of costs ......................................................................................7Fig. 1.4 Examples of ongoing costs ...................................................................8Fig. 1.5 Changes in industry structure .............................................................13Fig. 2.1 Control chart .......................................................................................27Fig. 2.2 Histogram ...........................................................................................28Fig. 2.3 Steps involved in using statistical process control .............................29Fig. 2.4 Basic controls of control chart ............................................................31Fig. 2.5 Example of construction of a flowchart .............................................40Fig. 2.6 A check sheet for counting rejects ......................................................42Fig. 2.7 Basic cause and effect diagram...........................................................45Fig. 3.1 Pareto diagram example .....................................................................56Fig. 4.1 Structure of TQM ...............................................................................79Fig. 4.2 TQM Implementation Strategies ........................................................85Fig. 4.3 Triangle of interactions .......................................................................95Fig. 5.1 Cumulative failure curve overtime ...................................................110Fig. 5.2 Failure rate curve (Bath Tub Curve) .................................................110Fig. 5.3 Inter-observer reliability ...................................................................120Fig. 5.4 sample measured on two different occasions ...................................121Fig. 5.5 Parallel-forms reliability ...................................................................122Fig. 5.6 Average inter-item correlation ..........................................................123Fig. 5.7 Average item total correlation ...........................................................123Fig. 5.8 Split-half correlation .........................................................................124Fig. 5.9 Cronbach’s alpha ..............................................................................125Fig. 6.1 Workplace safety and health management cycle ..............................138

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List of Tables

Table 2.1 A rejects check sheet for a data entry file .........................................42Table 2.2 A defective cause check sheet ..........................................................42Table 6.1 A Hazard index according to the risk and severity .........................137

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Abbreviation

AGREE - Advisory Group on Reliability of Electronic EquipmentASQ - American Society for QualityCR - Component ReliabilityFMEA - Failure Modes and Effects AnalysisFMECA - Failure Mode, Effect and Criticality AnalysisFR - Failure RatesFTA - Fault Tree AnalysisIGI - Individual Group IndividualLCL - Lower Control LimitsMTBF - Mean Time between FailuresMTTF - Mean Time to FailurePIE - Pooled Independent EffortQCC - Quality Control CirclesQFD - Quality Function DeploymentRG - Real GroupsRPN - Risk Priority NumbersSPC - Statistical Process ControlSQC - Statistical Quality ControlSR - System ReliabilityTQM - Total Quality ManagementUCL - Upper Control Limits VA - Value Analysis

Quality Management

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Chapter I

Introduction to Quality Systems

Aim

The aim of this unit is to:

introduce quality systems•

discuss quality costs•

highlight the history of quality•

Objectives

The objectives of this unit are to:

explain competitive advantage•

describe total quality management•

elucidate Taguchi loss function in brief•

Learning outcome

At the end of this unit, you will be able to:

comprehend different categories of quality costs•

understand the role of information in competitive environment•

get an o• verview of Porter-Miller postulates

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Quality Management

1.1 IntroductionQuality is far larger than business. We talk about quality in all parts of our lives, in judging art, in evaluating the things that we make, in describing our experience. We even talk about quality time and quality relationships. In the broadest sense, quality is that which adds value, that which makes our lives better. Before we try to manage quality, we should try to understand our experience of quality.

Thequalityofproductorserviceisthedegreetowhichitsatisfiescustomer’srequirements.

ThisisinfluencedbyDesignquality:Thedegreetowhichthespecificationoftheproductorservice•satisfiescustomer’srequirements.Process quality: The degree to which the product or service, when made •availabletothecustomerconfirmstospecifications.

Nature of qualityQuality, cost and reliability are generally interrelated. Higher quality is usually associated with higher reliability and where items are produced or where services areprovidedefficiently,someadditionalcostisusuallyincurredinattaininghigherlevels of quality, but some other costs are reduced.

1.2 Importance of QualityThe challenge today for business is to produce quality products or services efficiently.Qualityisoneofthefourkeyobjectivesinoperationsmanagementalongwithcost,flexibilityanddeliveryofgoodsandservices.

Quality is not a new concept in modern business. In October, 1887, William Cooper Procter, grandson of the founder of Procter & Gamble, told his employees, “The firstjobwehaveistoturnoutqualitymerchandisethatconsumerswillbuyandkeeponbuying.Ifweproduceitefficientlyandeconomically,wewillearnaprofit,inwhichyouwillshare”.

Mr. Procter’s statement addresses three issues that are critical to managers of manufacturing and service organisations:

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Quality

Three Critical Issues

CostProductivity

Fig. 1.1 Issues critical to managers of manufacturing and service organisations

Productivity, the cost of operation and the quality of the goods and services that create customer satisfaction, all contribute toprofitability.Of these threedeterminantsofprofitability-productivity,costandquality,themostsignificantfactor in determining the long-run success or failure of any organisation is quality. Good quality of goods and services can provide an organisation with competitive edge. Good quality reduces costs due to product returns, rework and scrap.Goodqualityincreasesproductivity,profitsandothermeasuresofsuccesssuch as brand image, product image and company image. Most importantly, good qualitygeneratessatisfiedcustomers,whorewardtheorganisationwithcontinuedpatronage and favourable word-of-mouth advertising.

1.3 Levels of QualityAn organisation that is committed to quality must examine quality at three levels:

The organisational level•The process level•The performance/job level•

At the organisational level, quality concerns centre on meeting external customer requirements. An organisation must seek customer input on a regular basis. Questions such as the following help to define quality at the organisationallevel:

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Which products and services meet your expectations?•Which do not?•What products or services do you need that you are not receiving?•Are you receiving products or services that you do not need?•

Customer-driven performance standards should be used as the basis for goal setting, problem solving performance appraisal, incentive compensation, non-financialrewardsandresourcesallocation.

Attheprocesslevel,organisationalunitsareclassifiedasfunctionsordepartments,suchasmarketing,design,productdevelopment,operations,finance,purchasing,billing and so on. Since most processes are cross-functional, the managers of particular organisational units may try to optimise the activities under their control, which can sub-optimise for the organisation on a whole. At the level, managers must ask questions such as:

What products or services are most important to the external customer?•What processes produce those products and services?•What are the key inputs to the process?•Which processes have themost significant effect on the organisation’s•customer-driven performance standards?Who are my internal customers and what are their needs?•

At the performance level, standards for output must be based on quality and customer-service requirements that originate at the organisational and process level. These standards include requirements for accuracy, completeness, innovation, timeliness and cost. For each output of an individual’s job, one must ask questions such as:

What is required by the customer, both internal and external?•How can the requirements be measured?•Whatisthespecificstandardforeachmeasure?•

Viewinganorganisationfromthisperspectiveclarifiestherolesandresponsibilitiesof all employees in pursuit of quality. Top managers must focus attention at the organisational level, middle manager and supervisors at the process level and all employees must understand quality at the performance level.

1.4 Quality and Financial PerformanceQuality andfinancial performances are intimately related.Tounderstand thisrelationshipbetter,firstwemustconsidertherelationshipbetweenqualityandcost. A powerful idea in the area of quality is to calculate the cost of quality which includes prevention, appraisal, external failure and internal failure cost categories related to quality. All these except the prevention cost are costs of notdoingthingsrightthefirsttime.Byassigningcosttopoorquality,itcanbe

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managed and controlled like any other cost. Since cost is the most important concern of managers, putting quality in terms of cost offers a powerful means of communication and control. Generally, it was found that most companies were spending20to40percentofsalestomanagequality.Sincethesefigureswerethreetofourtimesgreaterthantheprofitmargins,areductioninthecostofqualitycanleadtoasignificantimprovementinprofit.Today,thebestmanagedcompanieshave been able to reduce their costs of quality from 30 percent of sales to as little as 3 percent over a period of several years. This has been done while improving the quality of the product.

1.5 History of QualityThe quality movement can trace its roots back to medieval Europe, where craftsmen began organising into unions called guilds in the 13th century. Until the early 19th century, manufacturing in the industrialised world tended to follow this craftsmanship model. The factory system, with its emphasis on product inspection, started in Great Britain in the mid- 1750s and grew into the industrial revolution in the early 1800s.

In the early 20th century, manufacturers began to include quality processes in quality practices. After the United States entered World War II, quality became a critical component of the war effort: Bullets manufactured in one state, for example,hadtoworkconsistentlyinriflesmadeinanother.Thearmedforcesinitially inspected virtually every unit of product; then to simplify and speed up this process without compromising safety, the military began to use sampling techniques for inspection, aided by the publication ofmilitary specification,standards and training courses in Walter Shewhart’s statistical process control techniques.

The beginning of total quality in the United States came as a direct response to the quality revolution in Japan following World War II. The Japanese welcomed the input of Americans Joseph M. Juran and W. Edwards Deming and rather than concentrating on inspection, focused on improving all organisational processes through the people who used them. By the 1970s, U.S. industrial sectors such as automobiles and electronics had been broadsided by Japan’s high – quality competition. The U.S. response, emphasising not only statistics but approaches that embraced the entire organisations, became known as Total Quality Management (TQM).

By the last decade of the 20th century, TQM was considered a fad by many business leaders. But while the use of the term TQM has faded somewhat, particularly in the United States, its practices continue.

In the few years since the turn of the century, the quality movement seems to have matured beyond Total Quality. New quality systems have evolved from the foundations of Deming, Juran and the early Japanese practitioners of quality and quality has moved beyond manufacturing into services, healthcare, education and government sectors.

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1.6 Quality Costs- Types and CategoriesTherearethreetypesofcoststhatareidentified:

System costs• : These are associated with setting up the operating system to aim to provide goods or services of appropriate quality.Control costs• : Control costs are incurred in monitoring, checking and correcting activities during the operations.Consequent costs• : Consequent costs are incurred after completion of operations, i.e., after delivery of the goods or completion of the services.

Costs

Cost Types

System costs

Control costs

Consequent costs

Cost Categories

Sequential relationships

Cost responsibilities

Fig. 1.2 Types and categories of costs

Twocategoriesofthecostareidentifiedforeachcosttypeandinadditiononecategory,thatofmanagement/overheadcostsisidentifiedasbeingincurredduringcontrol and also after completion of operations.

Sequential relationships• : There is a general sequential relationship between thesecosts.Thegreatertheeffectorthebenefitgainedfromsystemcosts,thelessistheneedforcontrolcosts.Thegreaterthecombinedbenefitofsystemand control costs, the less the consequent cost implication.Cost responsibilities• : Most of these costs will fall on the supplier. Certainly, all of the costs of investment, prevention, appraisal and usually all of the correction costs must be borne by the supplier, as also the consequent cost implications. Customers will normally bear some but perhaps not all of the usage costs, some of which may have to be met by the supplier.

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1.6.1 Nature of Costs

Investment Costs

Prevention Costs

Appraisal Costs

Correction Costs

Usage Costs

Management/Overhead

Costs

Market Costs

Nature of Costs

Fig. 1.3 Nature of costs

Investment costsInvestment costs are incurred before operations begin. They are, essentially •concerned with the provision of appropriate facilities and systems and also the design/development of the product or service. All this work will always be required, but here we are concerned with the •additional costs which are incurred at the outset to try to ensure that an adequate quality level can be achieved and maintained. This expenditure, therefore, is intended to make life easier later. Some example •of ‘one – off’ costs incurred in advance include:

Thedesignofproductsorthespecificationofservicestomakeiteasier �toachieveandsustainspecifiedquality.The training of staff in quality procedures. �The design and installation of facilities to make quality objectives more �easily obtainable.The establishment of arrangements with suppliers. �The design and installation of the quality management system. �

Prevention costsPrevention costs also relate to the operating system as a whole, but they are •incurred repetitively, if not continually over the life of that system.

Examples of such ‘ongoing’ costs include factors shown in thefigure �below.

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preventive maintenance of facilities

the running of quality cam-paigns to retain interest in and commitment of

quality

the maintenance of supplier

links

regular improvement

initiatives

Examples of ongoing

costs

Fig. 1.4 Examples of ongoing costs

Appraisal costsAppraisal costs are also ‘ongoing’. They include all costs associated with •activities aimed at determining and monitoring current quality levels, including checking, testing, inspecting, monitoring customer views, benchmarking activities, etc.

Correction costsCorrection costs are incurred because the costs outlines above generally fail •to ensure completely that nothing goes wrong. Correction involves:

doing things again �replacing things which, when found to be wrong �cannotberectified �repetition of operations �recycling of items or customers, etc. �

There are also costs of wastage, loss, scrap and so on. These are often referred •to as the ‘internal costs of defects’.

Usage costsThese are the principal costs associated with individual failures. If, despite all •of the activities referred to above, an operating system fails to deliver goods ordevicestothespecifiedquality,thensubsequentcostswillbeincurred.

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For example, if a defective item is passed to a customer, then it may fail •in service, so there will be a cost of disruption, referral, replacement, even compensate under warranty arrangement. On occasions, disputes may arise, so there will be legal costs. The same can •applytoaservicewhichfailstomeetspecifications;whilstthismaynotbeevident immediately on completion of the service, so that neither the supplier northecustomermaybeawareofit.Failuretomeetthespecifiedqualitystandards may result in subsequent losses.For example, something may be damaged in transport and only noticed later. •Treatment in a hospital may be inadequate, resulting in recurrence of an illness. Thefoodprovidedinarestaurantmaybeidentifiedsubsequentlyascausingfood poisoning, etc.In all such situations, costs will be incurred for the customer and/or the supplier. •These are often called the ‘external costs of defects.’

Management/overhead costsManagement/overhead costs remind us that there are many more indirect costs •associated with failure to achieve quality standards. Management may have to devote considerable time to customer relations in •order to offset the effects of poor quality. Persistently poor quality or major quality failures, even infrequent, may cause •loss of morale, motivation and commitment of staff, which must then be re – established. Activities may need to be rescheduled. Organisational changes may need to •be introduced. Management and others may be discharged and other activities may be •neglected or delayed. All of these are the indirect managerial consequences of quality failures.

Market costsThe ability of an operating system to consistently provide goods or services •attherequiredqualityoritsinabilitytodosowillinfluenceitsreputationinthe market. Thatreputationorimagewillinturnaffectcustomerloyaltyandwillinfluence•future demand. A high reputation will facilitate and complement other marketing / promotional •activities and make them more cost effective. A poor reputation will be an obstacle which may require extra effort and thus extra cost to compensate.

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1.7 Quality Control Quality control refers to all those functions or activities that must be performed to fulfil the company’s quality objectives.Quality control begins longbeforeproducts and services are delivered to the customers. Quality begins with the designof aproduct in accordancewith the customer’s specification.Early inthe production system, raw materials, parts and supplies must be of acceptable quality before they are allowed to be used in production. Materials must meet theappropriatespecificationsasstipulatedintheproductdesign.Astheinputsofthe production system proceed through production processes, the quality of the semi-finishedpartsandsub-unitsismonitoredtodeterminewhetherthesystemis operating as intended. This monitoring of quality alerts the operation managers to take corrective action needed before poor quality products are produced. Then finishedproductsareexaminedtodeterminetheiracceptability.

Quality control involves the establishment of quality standards, the use of proper materials, the selection of appropriate manufacturing processes and the necessary tooling to make the product, the performance of the necessary manufacturing operations and the inspection of the product to check on conformance with the specifications.

Quality control is an effective system of principles and methods for prevention of defects and control of variability in materials, bought-out items, manufactured parts and sub-units, by taking timely preventive measures. Quality control starts with product design and includes materials, bought-out items, manufacturing processesandfinishedproductsinthehandsofthecustomers.

Quality control is a staff function concerned with the prevention of defects in manufacturingsothattheitemsmaybemanufacturedrightatthefirsttimeandnothave to be reworked or rejected. In order to achieve this, there must be inspection andcontrolofincomingrawmaterialstoensurethattheymeetthespecifications,in-processinspectionofmanufacturingprocessesandfinalinspectionandtestingofthefinishedproductstoensuresatisfactoryperformance.

1.7.1 Objectives of Quality ControlThe ultimate objective of quality control is to provide products which are dependable, satisfactory, and economical. A quality control system is designed to ensure economical production of products of uniform quality which is acceptable to the customer.

1.7.2BenefitsofQualityControlAneffectivequalitycontrolprogrammeprovidesthefollowingbenefits:

Minimum scrap, rework and other losses•Reduced cost of material and labour•Uniformity of quality and reliability of products which increases sales •turnover

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Reduced inspection cost•Reduced customer complaints•Higheroperatingefficiency•Higher quality consciousness among employees•Better utilisation of all resources•Higherproductivityandimprovedprofits•

1.7.3 Quality Control and InspectionInspection implies comparing actual quality characteristics of a material or product withpredeterminedorspecifiedstandardsoracceptedspecificationsofquality.The purpose of inspection is to separate good products from bad products to take decisions regarding accepting or rejecting the products. The rejected products may be salvaged by rework or disposed off as scrap if they cannot be reworked. While inspection merely helps to discriminate and segregate the good products fromthebad,qualitycontrolattemptstofindtherootcauseofdefectsandtotakecorrective actions to avoid the defects in future.

1.8 Quality and Competitive AdvantageCompetitive advantagedenotes afirm’s ability to achievemarket superiority.In the long run, a sustainable competitive advantage provides above average performance. Six characteristics of a strong competitive advantage are:

It is driven by customer needs and wants. A company provides value to its •customers that competitors do not.Itmakesasignificantcontributiontothesuccessofthebusiness.•It matches the organisation’s unique resources with opportunities in the •environment.Itisdurableandlastinganddifficultforthecompetitortocopy.Asuperior•research and development department can consistently develop new products orprocessesthatenablethefirmtoremainaheadofcompetitors.It provides a basis for further improvement.•It provides direction and motivation to the entire organisation.•

Each of these characteristics relates to quality suggesting that quality is an important source of competitive advantage. Attaining quality in all areas of business is a difficulttask.Tomakethingsevenworse,consumerschangetheirperceptionsabout quality because of changes in lifestyles and economic conditions.

In general, the success of a business depends on the accuracy of its perceptions of consumer expectations and its ability to bridge the gap between those expectations and operating capabilities. Consumers are much more quality minded now than in the past. Perception play as important role as performance. A product or service that is perceived to be of higher quality stands a much better chance of gaining market share than does one perceived to be of low quality even if the actual levels of quality are the same.

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1.8.1 Use of Information for Competitive Advantage

Drastic changes have occurred in Information Technology over last few years. •These changes, in turn, have ushered in an Information Revolution which is sweeping the corporate organisations worldwide.The corporate business environment has resultantly, become intensely •competitive increasingly globalised and highly information based. In such a highly competitive environment, it is imperative for an organisation •to seek and seize competitive advantage to emerge winner. Ability to access and use information effectively has been an important source •of competitive advantage for a number of corporate organisations.

1.8.2 Competitive Advantage

“Competitive advantage is about changing the balance of power between a •firmanditscompetitorsintheindustry,inthefirm’sfavour”.Alternatively, “Competitive Advantage could be usually embodied in either •a product or a service that has the most added values to customers and that is unavailablefromthecompetition”.Competitive advantage could also be seen “as an internal system that delivers •benefitstoafirm,notenjoyedbyitscompetition”.

1.8.3 Role of Information in Competitive Environment

The terms information, information technology and the resultant information •revolution, are changing the rules of the game and creating new paradigm shifts, giving companies new ways to outperform their rivals. This, in turn, facilitates the organisation’s gaining, retaining and sustaining •competitive advantage.

1.8.4 Porter – Miller PostulatesAccording to Porter and Miller, Information Technology is affecting competition in three vital ways:

It changes industry structure and in so doing, alters the rule of competition.•It spawns whole new businesses, often from within the company’s existing •operations.It creates competitive advantage by giving companies new ways to outperform •their rivals.

1.8.4.1 Changes in Industry StructuresAccordingtoPorterandMiller,thestructureofanindustryisembodiedinfivecompetitiveforcesthatcollectivelydeterminetheindustryprofitability:

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The bargaining power of

customers.

The bargaining power of suppliers.

Threat of new entrants in the firm’smarket.

Pressure from substitute products

or services.

Positioning of traditional industry

competitors.

Fig. 1.5 Changes in industry structure

InformationandInformationTechnologycanaltereachofthefivecompetitiveforcesandtherebyhelpthefirmgaincompetitiveadvantage.

1.8.4.2 Spawning of New BusinessInformation and Information technology and the resultant Information Revolution are giving birth to completely new industries in three distinct ways:

The information Revolution makes new business technologically feasible.•Information technology also spawns new business by creating derived demand •for new products.Information and Information Technology helps create/ spawn business within •old ones.

Byenablingafirmtospawnanewbusiness, informationconferscompetitiveadvantagetothefirmasitcanofferabundleofgoods/services.

1.8.5 Functional UsesInformationhelpslowercostinany/allpartsof“ValueChain”.ValueChainisbasically a system of interdependent activities which are connected by linkages. Information not only affects how individual activities are performed, but through newinformationflows,italsogreatlyenhancesacompany’sabilitytoexploitlinkage between activities, both, within and outside the company.

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Competitive advantage is considered as a function of cost / value chain. Information and Information Systems help in:

facilitating product delivery•adding value to quality•improving product quality•

Information helps transform the physical processing component of activities into an information component leading to value addition. Information bestows, organisations with speed and ability to move quickly into the market, thereby givingtheorganisationthefirstmover’scompetitiveadvantage.Italsoenablesorganisations to command a competitive premium.

Information helps organisations to enhance:•quality of their operations �quality of their products �quality of their services �

Information can help simplify:•products �product processes �production Cycle Time �

Information helps an organisation•know/Meet benchmarking standards �improve customer service �improve quality precision of design and product �

1.8.6 Strategic UsesInformationgivesorganisationsanewwaytoputperformtheirrivals.Afirmcanuse four basic competitive strategies to deal with the competitive forces:

Product differentiation•Focussed differentiation•Developing right linkages to customers and suppliers•Becoming a low cost product•

Afirmmay/canachievecompetitiveadvantagebypursuingoneormoreofthesestrategies simultaneously.

1.9 Total Quality Management (TQM)Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management style that implies non- stop process of quality improvement of products, processes, and personnel work. This is a bunch of methodologies that drive company to strategic goals achievement through unceasing quality development. It is focused on production of goods and services that possess high-quality from viewpoint of customers.

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TotalQualityManagementisapopular“qualitymanagement”concept.However,it is about much more than just assuring product or service quality. TQM is a business philosophy, a way of doing business. It describes ways to managing people and business processes to ensure complete customer satisfaction at every stage. TQM is often associated with the phrase, “doing the right thing right, first time.”ThisrevisionnotesummarisesthemainfeatureofTQM.

TQM was elaborated on basis of Edward Deming’s theory. This philosophy has successfully started many years ago in Japan and USA. TQM has shown phenomenal results and now it is used in many successful enterprises all across theworld. Itallowsobtainingfaster, fundamentalandmoreefficientbusinessdevelopment, because it stimulates production of much better products for better prices.W.EdwardsDemingsdefinesTotalQualityManagementas-aphilosophywhich advocates four basic principles:

Intense focus on customer satisfaction•Accurate measurement of activities•Continuous improvement of products and processes•Empowerment of people•

Like most quality management concepts, TQM views ‘quality’ entirely from the point of view of ‘the customer’. All businesses have many types of customer. A customer can be someone ‘internal’ to the business. A customer can also be ‘external’ to the business. This is the kind of customer you will be familiar with. Forexample:whenyouflywithanairlineyouaretheircustomer.TQMrecognisesthat all businesses require ‘processes’ that enables customer requirements to be met. TQM focuses on the ways in which these processes can be managed, with two key objectives:

100% customer satisfaction•Zero defects•

1.9.1 The Importance of Customer-Supplier Relationships- Quality Chains

TQM focuses strongly on the importance of the relationship between customers •and suppliers.These are known as the “quality chains” and they can bebroken at any point by one person or one piece of equipment not meeting the requirements of the customer. Failure to meet the requirements in any part of a quality chain has a way •of multiplying and failure in one part of the system creates problems elsewhere, leading to yet more failure and problems and so the situation is exacerbated.The ability to meet customers’ requirements is vital. To achieve quality •throughout a business, every person on the quality chain must be trained to ask the following questions about every customer – supplier chain:

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About Customers:Who are my customers?•What are their real needs and expectations?•How can I measure my ability to meet their needs and expectations?•Do I have the capability to meet their needs and expectations?•Do I continually meet their needs and expectations?•How do I monitor changes in their needs and expectations?•

About suppliers:Who are my internal suppliers?•What are my true needs and expectations?•How do I communicate my needs and expectations to my suppliers?•Do my suppliers have the capability to measure and meet these needs and •expectations?How do I inform them of changes in my needs and expectations?•

1.9.2 Main Principles of TQMThe main principles that underlie TQM are as follows:

Prevention: • Prevention is better than cure. In the long run, it is cheaper to stopproductdefectsthantryingtofindthem. • Zero defects: The ultimate aim is no (zero) defects or exceptionally low defect levels if a product or service is complicated.Gettingthingsrightfirsttime:• Better not to produce at all than produce something defective. Quality involves everyone: • Quality is not just the concern of the production oroperationsdepartment,itinvolveseveryone,includingmarketing,financeand human resources.Continuous improvement: • Business should always be looking for ways to improve processes to help quality.Employee involvement: • Those involved in production and operations have a vital role in spotting improvement opportunities for quality and in identifying quality problems.

1.9.3 Introducing TQM into a Business

TQM is not an easy concept to introduce into businesses, particularly those •that have not traditionally concerned themselves too much with understanding customer needs and business processes. In fact, many attempts to introduce TQM fail.One of the reasons for the challenge of introducing TQM is that it has •significantimplicationsforthewholebusiness.

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For example, it requires that management give employees a say in the •production processes that they are involved in. In a culture of continuous improvement, workforce views are invaluable. The problem is, many businesses have barriers to investment. For instance, •middle managers may feel that their authority is being challenged.So“empowerment”isacrucialpartofTQM.Thekeytosuccessistoidentify•the management culture before attempting to install TQM and to take steps to change towards the management style required for it. Sincecultureisnotthefirstthingthatmanagersthinkabout,thisstephasoften•been missed or ignored with resultant failure of a TQM strategy.TQM also focuses the business on the activities of the business that are closest •to the customer.

Why do TQM programs fail?The most common causes for TQM program failures appear to be the following:

Lack of commitment from the top management.•Focusingonspecifictechniquesratherthanonthesystem.•Not obtaining employee buy-in and participation.•Program stops with training.•Expecting immediate results, not a long term pay-off.•Forcing the organisation to adopt methods that are not productive or compatible •with its production system and personnel.

Total quality demands new styles of managing and an entirely new set of skills. These new styles include the following characteristics:

Thinking in terms of systems•Definingcustomerrequirements•Planning for quality improvement with each customer•Dealing with customer dissatisfaction•Ensuring ongoing quality efforts•Developing a lifelong learning style•Team building•Encouraging openness•Creating climates of trust and eliminating fear•Listening and providing feedback•Leading and participating in group meetings•Solving problems with data•Clarifyinggoalsandresolvingconflicts•Delegating and coaching•

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Implementing change•Making continuous improvement a way of life•

Elements of TQM concept:The TQM concept supports the philosophies of customer focus, continuous improvement, defect prevention and recognition that responsibility for quality is shared by all employees of an organisation:

The basic elements of TQM concept are:Sustained management commitment to quality•Focusing on customer requirements and expectations•Preventing defects rather than detecting them•Recognising that responsibility for quality is universal•Quality measurement•A continuous improvement approach•Root cause corrective action•Employee involvement and empowerment•The synergies of teamwork•Process improvement•Thinking statistically•Benchmarking•Inventory reduction•Value improvement•Supplier teaming•Training•

1.10 Taguchi Loss FunctionTaguchi methods are statistical methods developed by Genichi Taguchi (Japanese engineer and statistician), to improve the quality of manufactured goods and more recently also applied to, engineering, biotechnology, marketing and advertising. Professional statisticians have welcomed the goals and improvements brought by Taguchi methods, particularly by Taguchi’s development of designs for studying variation,buthavecriticisedtheinefficiencyofsomeofTaguchi’sproposals.

Taguchi’s work includes three principal contributions to statistics:Taguchi loss functions•Thephilosophyofofflinequalitycontrol•Innovations in the design of experiments•

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Taguchi’s use of loss functionsTaguchi knew statistical theory mainly from the followers of Ronald A. •Fisher, who also avoided loss functions. Reacting to Fisher’s methods in the design experiments, Taguchi interpreted Fisher’s methods as being adapted for seeking to improve the mean outcome of a process. Indeed, Fisher’s work had been largely motivated by programmed to compare •agricultural yields under different treatments and blocks and such experiments were done as part of a long term programme to improve harvests. However, Taguchi realised that in much industrial production, there is a need •toproduceanoutcomeontarget,forinstance,tomachineaholetoaspecifieddiameter, or to manufacture a cell to produce a given voltage. He also realised, as had Walter A. Shewhart and others before him, that •excessive variation laid at the root of poor manufactured quality and that reacting to individual items inside andoutside specificationwas counter-productive. He therefore argued that quality engineering should start with an understanding •of quality costs in various situations. In much conventional industrial engineering, the quality costs are simply represented by the number of items outsidespecificationmultipliedbythecostofreworkorscrap.However, Taguchi insisted that manufacturers broaden their horizons to •consider cost to society. Though the short-term costs may simply be those of non-conformance, any item manufactured away from nominal would result in some loss to the customer or the wider community through early wear-out;difficultiesininterfacingwithotherparts,themselvesprobablywideofnominal; or the need to build in safety margins. These losses are externalities and are usually ignored by manufacturers, which •are more interested in their private costs than social costs. Such externalities preventmarketsfromoperatingefficiently,accordingtoanalysisofpubliceconomics. All these losses are, as W. Edwards Deming would describe them, unknown •andunknowable,butTaguchiwantedtofindausefulwayofrepresentingthemstatistically.Taguchispecifiedthreesituations:

Larger the better (for example – agriculture yield) �Smaller the better (for example – carbon dioxide emission) �On target, minimum-variation (for example – a mating part in an �assembly)

Thefirsttwocasesarerepresentedbysimplemonotoniclossfunctions.In•the third case, Taguchi adopted a squared-error loss function for several reasons:

It is thefirst “symmetric” term in theTaylor series expansionof real �analytic loss-functions.Total loss is measured by the variance. As variance is additive, the total �loss is an additive measurement of cost.

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The squared-error loss function is widely used in statistics, following �Gauss’s use of the squared-error loss function in justifying the method of least squares.

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SummaryHigher quality is usually associated with higher reliability and where items •areproducedorwhereservicesareprovidedefficiently,someadditionalcostis usually incurred in attaining higher levels of quality, but some other costs are reduced.Thequalityofproductorserviceisthedegreetowhichitsatisfiescustomer’s•requirements.System costs – These are associated with setting up the operating system to •aim to provide goods or services of appropriate quality.Control costs – Control costs are incurred in monitoring, checking and •correcting activities during the operations.Consequent costs – Consequent costs are incurred after completion of •operations, i.e., after delivery of the goods or completion of the services.Prevention costs also relate to the operating system as a whole, but they are •incurred repetitively, if not continually over the life of that system.Appraisal costs are also ‘on – going’. They include all costs associated with •activities aimed at determining and monitoring current quality levels, including checking, testing, inspecting, monitoring customer views, benchmarking activities, etc. Correction costs are incurred because the costs outlines above generally fail •to ensure completely that nothing goes wrong.The purpose of inspection is to separate good products from bad products to •take decisions regarding accepting or rejecting the products.Management/overhead costs remind us that there are many more indirect costs •associated with failure to achieve quality standards.Quality is not just the concern of the production or operations department, it •involveseveryone,includingmarketing,financeandhumanresources.The Taguchi loss function is a graphical representation of defeat urbanised by •the Japanese business statistician Genichi Taguchi to explain an occurrence distressing the worth of goods shaped by a concern.The Taguchi loss function is a method to explain how every not adequate •division formed, results in a defeat of the company.

ReferencesWorld Meteorological Organization, • Management of Quality [Online] Available at: <http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/IMOP/publications/CIMO-Guide/CIMO%20Guide%207th%20Edition,%202008/Part%20III/Chapter%201.pdf>. [Accessed 30 June 2011].classof1. • Taguchi Loss Function [Online] Available at: <http://classof1.com/homework_answers/operations_management/taguchi_loss_function/>. [Accessed 30 June 2011].

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Total Quality Management• [Online] Available at: <http://tutor2u.net/business/production/quality_tqm.htm>. [Accessed 30 June 2011].ignousom• s, Total Quality Management [Video Online] Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd_uRGy5RKY>. [Accessed 19 July 2011].IIT Bombay, Project Quality Management [Video Online] Available at: <http://•www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MgEkS8_jzo>. [Accessed 19 July 2011].Prof. Oke. J., 2011. • Management Information Systems, Nirali Prakashan.Kemp. S., 2006. • Quality Management Demystified, McGraw Hill.

Recommended ReadingGeorg• e, S. & Weimerskirch, A., 1998. Total Quality Management: Strategies and Techniques Proven at Today’s Most Successful Companies, 2nd ed., Wiley.Rose, K.H., 2005. • Project Quality Management: Why, What and How, J. Ross Publishing.Ireland, L.R., 2007. • Quality Management for Projects and Programs, Project Management Institute.

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Self Assessment

Which statement is false?1. Value Chain is basically a system of interdependent activities which are a. connected by linkages.A customer can also be ‘external’ to the business.b. System costs are associated with setting up the operating system to aim to c. provide goods or services of appropriate quality.Processqualityisthedegreetowhichthespecificationoftheproductord. servicesatisfiescustomer’srequirements.

_____________ is usually associated with higher reliability and where items 2. areproducedorwhereservicesareprovidedefficiently.

Design qualitya. Higher qualityb. Process qualityc. Quality of productd.

The____________orserviceisthedegreetowhichitsatisfiescustomer’s3. requirements.

design qualitya. higher qualityb. process qualityc. quality of productd.

____________ is the degree to which the product or service, when made 4. availabletothecustomerconfirmstospecifications.

Design qualitya. Higher qualityb. Process qualityc. Quality of productd.

___________ are associated with setting up the operating system to aim to 5. provide goods or services of appropriate quality.

System costsa. Control costsb. Consequent costsc. Investment costs d.

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Which costs are incurred before operations begin?6. Market costsa. Investment costsb. Management/overhead costsc. Usage costsd.

Which statement is false?7. The quality movement can trace its roots back to medieval Europe, where a. craftsmen began organising into unions called guilds in the 13th century. The birth of total quality in the United States came as a direct response to b. the quality revolution in Japan following World War II.The birth of total quality in the United States came as a direct response to c. the quality revolution in Japan following World War I.By the 1970s, U.S. industrial sectors such as automobiles and electronics d. had been broadsided by Japan’s high – quality competition.

Which statement is true?8. Competitive advantage could be usually embodied in either a product or a a. service that has the most added values to customers and that is unavailable from the competition.Competitive advantage could be usually embodied in either a product or a b. service that has the fewer added values to customers and that is unavailable from the competition.Competitive advantage could be usually embodied in either a product or c. a service that has the most added values to customers and that is available from the competition.Competitive advantage could be usually embodied in either a product or a d. service that has the fewer added values to customers and that is available from the competition.

____________ is often associated with the phrase, “doing the right things 9. right,firsttime”.

Design qualitya. Total quality managementb. Quality of productc. Investment costsd.

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Which costs include all costs associated with activities aimed at determining 10. and monitoring current quality levels, including checking, testing, inspecting, monitoring customer views, benchmarking activities, etc.?

Correction costsa. Market costsb. Prevention costsc. Appraisal costsd.

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Chapter II

Statistical Process Control

Aim

The aim of this unit is to:

introduce students to statistical process control•

describe in detail the basics of statistical process control charts•

determine the extraction of information•

Objectives

The objectives of this unit are to:

elucidate capability index•

describe individual – x and moving range charts•

explicate SQM/TQM implementation model•

Learning outcome

At the end of this unit, you will be able to:

elaborate the steps involved in using statistical process control•

explain the purpose of control charts•

understand• the seven basic tools of quality

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2.1 Statistical Process ControlStatistical Process Control is an analytical decision making tool, which allows you to see when a process is working correctly and when it is not. Variation is present in any process, deciding when the variation is natural and when it needs correction is the key to quality control.

Process control charts:Control charts show the variation in a measurement during the time period •that the process is observed.

300

200

100

0

-100

UCL

CL

LCL

A

5 10 15 20 25

Jun 26,1999 17:33:21Time

Summary

Control chart

Varia

ble

Fig. 2.1 Control chart

In contrast, bell- curve type charts, such as histograms or process capability •charts, show a summary or snapshot of the results.

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20

15

10

5

075.0 80.0 85.0 90.0 95.0

Core_widthJune30, 1999, 16:29:30

Histogram

Mean: 85.139394Std. Dev.: 2.967952Cases: 99Skewness: 0.013Kurtosis: -1.115P-value: 0.039

freq

uenc

y

Fig. 2.2 Histogram

Process control charts are fairly simple looking connected point charts. The points are plotted on an x/y axis usually representing time. The plotted points are usually averages of subgroups or ranges of variation between subgroups, and they can also be individual measurements.Some additional horizontal lines representing the average measurement and control limits are drawn across the chart. Notes about the data points and any limit violations can also be displayed on the chart.

Purpose of control charts:Control charts are an essential tool of continuous quality control. Control charts monitor processes to show how the process is performing and how the process and capabilities are affected by changes to the process. The information is then used to make quality improvements.

Control charts are also used to determine the capability of the process. They can help identity special or assignable causes for factors that impede peak performance.

Steps involved in using statistical process control:Proper statistical process control starts with planning and data collection. Statistical analysis on the wrong or incorrect data is rubbish, the analysis must be appropriate forthedatacollected.Besureto“Plan”,andthenconstantlyre-evaluateyoursituation to make sure the plan is correct. The key to any process improvement program is the PDSA cycle described by Walter Shewart.

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Plan

Do

Study

Act

Fig. 2.3 Steps involved in using statistical process control

Plan:Identify the problem and the possible causes.

Do:Make changes designed to correct or improve the situation.

Study:Study the effect of these changes on the situation. This is where control charts are used; they show the effects of changes on a process over time. Evaluate the results and then replicate the change or abandon it and try something different.

Act:If the result is successful, standardise the changes and then work on further improvements or the next prioritised problem. If the outcome is not yet successful, look for other ways to change the process or identify different causes for the problem.

Control charting is one of a number of steps involved in statistical process control. Thestepsincludediscovery,analysis,prioritisation,clarification,andthencharting.Qualityisa“cycle”ofcontinuousimprovement.

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2.2 Statistical Process Control Chart BasicsMany companies employ SPC throughout various operations in their facility. Individuals who manage the SPC programs may be familiar with the formulae required to calculate control chart limits, but they are not always aware of the basicrequirementsor“rules”forcontrolchartsthatmustbefollowedinordertoobtain valid results. There are many prerequisites or considerations for all control charts.Thesegeneralrequirementsarespecificastowhetheryouhavevariableor attribute data, whether or not the subgroup sizes are constant or changing and how much sensitively for variation detection is desired. A facility using SPC that is unaware of these requirements can be making mistakes or errors in judgement, without knowing they have violated the general rules and in return may be actually harming the process rather than improving it. The analysis of control chart requirements and rules can be somewhat extensive. Following are the basics of different types of control charts and their associated rules.

2.2.1 Variable Control ChartsVariables control charts for subgroup data are powerful and simply visual tools for determining whether a process may be in or out of control.

An in- control process exhibits only random variation which will remain •within the control chart limits.An out- control process exhibits non- random variation due to the presence •of special causes.

Control charts can help us determine whether the process average (centre) and process variability (speed) are operating at normal levels. Control charts help you focus problem solving efforts by distinguishing between common and special cause variation.A variables control chart for subgroup data will consist of the following:

Plotted points, each of which represents a rational subgroup of data sampled •from the process, such as a subgroup mean or average.A centre line, which represents the expected value of the characteristic for •all subgroups.Upper and lower control limits (UCL and LCL), which are set at the distance of •3 sigma above and below the centre line. These control limits provide a visual display,or“zone”,fortheexpectedamountofvariation.Controllimitspredicthow the process should behave. The control limits are based on probability and the actual behaviour of the process, not the desired behaviour. Control chart limitsaredifferentfromspecificationlimits.Aprocesscanbeincontrolandstillnotbecapableofmeetingthespecificationlimitrequirements.

A graphical example of a basic control is shown at the right with a centre line (green) and upper / lower control limits (red).

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Fig. 2.4 Basic controls of control chart

Control charts evaluate the patterns of variation for stability through the use of tests for special causes. If you detect special cause variation, you should seek out the factors that contribute to this variation so that you can implement corrective actions.

2.2.2 XBAR/S Chart vs. XBAR/R ChartBoth, XBar/S charts and XBar/R charts measure subgroup variability. The S chart usesthe“standarddeviation”torepresentthespreadinthedataandtheRchartusesthe“range”.Boththechartsleadtoasimilarestimateoftheprocessstandarddeviation and similar control limits for the charts. The calculation of the range uses only two data points, the largest and smallest values, while the calculation of the standard deviation uses all the data from the sub – group. R charts are not as sensitive to small amounts of variation as the S chart. You must decide what ismostimportantforyourspecificrequirementswhendecidingbetweenanSchart and an R chart.

XBar chart (averages):The XBar chart is where the sub – group averages or mean values are plotted. Probability shows us that the averages of our processes tend to stay constant unless special cause is present. A process can be behaving normally for the averages and at the same time be considered out of control for the R and S charts. The reverse is also true, R and S charts can remain in control while the averages become out of control.

2.2.3 S Charts (Standard Deviations)Use the S chart when the subgroup sizes are nine or greater. S charts use all the data collected to calculate the subgroup and process standard deviations. S charts provide a more accurate indication of the process variation and result in a chart that is very sensitive to small changes in the process average. You should consider using S charts for processes with a high rate of production, when data collection is quick and inexpensive, or when increased sensitivity to variation is desired. S charts can detect smaller amounts of variation when compared to R charts. The

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only negative aspect in managing an S chart is the need to perform the more difficultcalculationsforthestandarddeviationwhichtypicallyareaccomplishedby using a computer.

2.2.4 R Chart (Ranges)UsetheRchartwhenyoursubgroupsizesareeightorless.Rchartsareefficientforsmall subgroup sizes and are easier to manage due to basic shop math calculations thatneedtobeperformed.Rchartscanbehighlyinfluencedbyasingledatavaluefrom the subgroup.

2.2.5 I Chart (Individuals)When collecting samples to learn about a process, it is sometimes easier to combine the samples into subgroups, if it makes sense to group the samples together. When grouping is not appropriate, then a subgroup size of one (1) provides a method for evaluating the process. Samples that cannot logically be grouped together are good candidates for individuals (I) and moving range (MR) charts.

Examples of conditions that make using subgroups unfeasible or undesirable could be similar to the following:

wheneachsampleisuniquewithrespecttoaspecificperiodoftime•when each sample represents one distinct batch or group•when there are extremely long time intervals between each sample and •production cycle time is extendedwhen sampling or testing is destructive or may be cost prohibitive due to •expensewhen the output is continuous and homogenous•when the measurements (results) are not necessarily related in time to each •other

2.2.6 Attribute Control ChartsAttributes control charts represent a rational sample of data sampled from the process and are either counts (n) of the number of defectives or defects per sample, or proportions of the defectives or defects per sample (%).

Control process only exhibits random variation which will remain within the •control chart limits.An out of control process exhibits non random variation due to the presence •of special causes.

2.2.7 P Chart vs. NP ChartAnattributedefectisaproductorserviceinwhichanonconformity(orflaw)renders the product or service unusable. Examples of this type of defect include brokenarticles,latedeliveries,unansweredcalls,scratchedpaintandflattires.Attributes can have only one of two outcomes, pass/fail, good / bad, go/no-go, etc.

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2.2.8 P Chart (Proportion Defective - %)The purpose of P chart is to generate a (binomial) proportion control chart. A P chart is a data analysis technique for determining if a measurement process has gone out of statistical control. The P chart is sensitive to changes in the proportion ofdefectiveitemsinthemeasurementprocess.The“P”inPchartstandsforthep (the proportion of successes) of a binomial distribution. The P control chart consists of:

Vertical axis – the percentage of defectives for each sub – group.•Horizontal axis – the sub – group designation•

A subgroup is frequently a time sequence. If the times are equally spaced, the horizontal axis variables can be generated as a sequence.

In addition, horizontal lines are drawn at the mean number of defectives and at the upper and lower control limits. The distribution of the number of defective items is assumed to be binomial. This assumption is the basis for the calculating the upper and lower control limits. The control limits are calculated as:

LCL = - 3 ............(i)

UCL = + 3 ............(ii)

Where, is the total number of defects divided by the total number of items and N is the number of items in a given subgroup. Note that this means that the control limits can vary with the subgroup. Also, zero serves as a lower bound on the LCL value.

SYNTAX:PCHART<y><size><x> <SUBSET/EXCEPT/FORqualification>Where,

<y> is a variable containing the number of defective items in each •subgroup;<size> is a variable containing the sample size for each subgroup;•<x>isavariablecontainingthesubgroupidentifier(usually1,2,3,...)•<SUBSET/EXCEPT/FORqualification>isoptional•

2.2.9 NP Charts (Number Defective – n)The purpose of NP chart is to generate a (binomial) count control chart. An NP chart is a data analysis technique for determining if a measurement process has gone out of statistical control. It is sensitive to changes in the number of defective items in themeasurementprocess.The“NP”inNPchartsforthenp(themeannumberofsuccesses) of a binomial distribution. The NP control chart consists of:

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Vertical axis - the number of defectives for each sub-group•Horizontal axis - the sub-group designation•

A sub-group is frequently a time sequence. If the times are equally spaced, the horizontal axis variables can be generated as a sequence.

In addition, horizontal lines are drawn at the mean number of defectives and at the upper and lower control limits. The distribution of the number of defective items is assumed to be binomial. This assumption is the basis for the calculating the upper and lower control limits. The control limits are calculated as:

LCL = np – 3 ................. (i)

UCL = np + 3 .................(ii)

Where, n is the number of items and p is the proportion of defective items. Also, zero serves as a lower bound on the LCL value.

SYNTAX:NPCHART<y><size><x> <SUBSET/EXCEPT/FORqualification>Where,

<y> is a variable containing the number of defective items in each sub-•group;<size> is a variable containing the sample size for each sub-group;•<x>isavariablecontainingthesub-groupidentifier(Usually1,2,3,....);•The<SUBSET/EXCEPT/FORqualification>isoptional.•

2.2.10 C ChartsThe purpose of C chart is to generate a (Poisson) counts control chart. A C chart is a data analysis technique for determining if a measurement process has gone out of statistical control. The C chart is sensitive to changes in the number of defectiveitemsinthemeasurementprocess.The“C”inCcontrolchartstandsfor“counts”asindefectivesperlot.TheCcontrolchartconsistsof:

Vertical axis - the number defective for each sub – group•Horizontal axis - sub – group designation•

The C chart assumes that each sub – group has an equal sample size. A sub – group is typically a time sequence. If the times are equally spaced, the horizontal axis variable can be generated as a sequence. In addition, horizontal lines are drawn at the mean number of defectives and at the upper and lower control limits. The control limits are calculated as:

LCL = - 3 ................... (i)

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UCL = + 3 ................... (ii)

Where, is the mean number of defectives and zero serves as a lower bound on the LCL.

SYNTAX:C CONTROL CHART <y> <x> <SUBSET/EXCEPT/FOR qualification>Where,

<y1> is a variable containing the number of defective items in each sub-•group;<x>isavariablecontainingthesub–groupidentifier(usually1,2,3,.....);•The<SUBSET/EXCEPT/FORqualification>isoptional.•

2.2.11 U ChartU chart generates a (Poisson) proportion control chart. A U chart is a data analysis technique for determining if a measurement process has gone out of statistical control. The U chart is sensitive to changes in the normalised number of defective items in the measurement process. Normalised means that the number of defectives is divided by the unit area. You can also normalise to compensate for unequal samplesizes.The“U”inUchartstandsfor“units”asindefectivesperlot.TheU control chart consists of:

Vertical axis - the normalised number of defectives for each sub-•groupHorizontal axis - sub-group designation•

A sub-group is frequently a time sequence. If the times are equally spaced, the horizontal axis variable can be generated as a sequence. In addition, horizontal lines are drawn at the mean number of defectives and at the upper and lower control limits. The distribution of the number of defective items is assumed to be Poisson. This assumption is the basis for the calculating the upper and lower control limits. The control limits are calculated as:

LCL = - 3 ..................(i)

UCL = + 3 ..................(ii)

Where, is the total number of defects divided by the total area and A id the area corresponding to a given sub-group. This means that the control limits can vary with the sub-group. Also, zero serves as a lower bound on the LCL value.

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SYNTAX:UCHART<y1><area><x> <SUBSET/EXCEPT/FORqualification>Where,

<y1> is a variable containing the number of defective items in each sub-•group;<area> is a variable containing the sample size or area adjustment;•<x>isavariablecontainingthesub-groupidentifier(usually1,2,3...);•The<SUBSET/EXCEPT/FORqualification>isoptional.•

2.3 Extraction of InformationIf data are not carefully and systematically recorded, especially at the point of manufacture or operation, they cannot be analysed and put to use. Information recorded in a suitable way enables the magnitude of variations and trends to be observed. This allows conclusions to be drawn concerning errors, process capabilities, vendor ratings, risks, etc. numerical data are often not recorded, even though measurements have been taken, a simple tick or initials is often used to indicate‘withinspecifications’,but it isalmostmeaningless.Therequirementto record the actual observation can have a marked effect on the reliability of the data. The value of the increase in the reliability of the data when recorded properly should be under estimated. The practice of recording a result only when itisoutsidespecificationisalsonotrecommended,sinceitignoresthevariationgoing on within the tolerance limits which, hopefully, makes up the largest part of the variation and, therefore contains the largest amount of information.

Data should form the basis for analysis, decision and action, and their form and presentation will obviously differ from process to process. Information is collected to discover the actual situation. It may be used as a part of a product or process control system and it is important to know at the outset what the data are to be used for.

For instance, if a problem occurs in the amount of impurity present in a product that ismanufacturedcontinuously, it isnotsufficient to takeonlyonesampleperdaytofindoutthevariationsbetweendifferentoperatorshifts.Similarly,incomparing errors procedures, it is essential to have separate data from the outputs of both. These statements are no more than common sense, but it is not unusual tofindthatdecisionsandactionsarebasedonmisconceivedorbiaseddata.Inother words, full consideration must be given to the reasons for collecting data, thecorrectsamplingtechniquesandstratification.Themethodsofcollectingdataand not the ease of collection; there should not be a disproportionate amount of a certain kind of data simply because it can be collected easily.

2.4 Capability IndexIf a characteristic has single sided or double sided tolerance limits, you can calculate and display the capability indexes and in the mean value tracks and the qualitative tracks.

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The process of capability index is a measurement of the smallest possible share of non-conforming units that results from the optimum distribution of characteristic values in the process. However, this value does not indicate, whether this is the case.

The process capability index is a measurement of the expected share of non-conforming units in the process. The larger this value is, the smaller is the share of nonconforming units.

The following formulae are used in the mean value tracks for the •calculation:

= (USL – LSL) / 6*s = min ((USL - `x), (`x – LSL)) / 3*s

Here, the USL and the LSL are the tolerance range limits; x-bar and s are estimated values for the expected values for the expected value and the standard deviation of the original value distribution. S is calculated according to the process model of the control chart, either as the inner dispersion or total dispersion of the measured values. X is the overall mean value of the measured values.

To calculate the process capability index • in the qualitative tracks, the following formula is used:

= u(1 – p) / 3

Where, p is the estimated share of nonconforming units and u is the quintile function of the normal distribution. This formula typically produces the same value for as with a normally distributed characteristic with the same fraction of nonconforming units (single-sided).

2.5 Individual – X and Moving Range ChartsIndividual – X & moving range charts are a set of control charts for variables data (data that is both quantitative and continuous in measurement, such as a measured dimension or time). The Individual – X chart monitors the process location over time, based on the current subgroup, containing a single observation. The moving range chart monitors the variation between consecutive subgroups over time.

Use of an Individual – X / MR ChartIndividual – X/moving range charts are generally used when you can’t group measurements into rational subgroups, when it’s more convenient to monitor actual observations rather than subgroup averages, or when the process distribution is very skewed or bounded. Each subgroup, consisting of a single observation, representsa“snapshot”oftheprocessatagivenpointintime.Thecharts’x-axesare time based, so that the charts show a history of the process. For this reason, you must have data that is time ordered; that is, entered in the sequence from which it was generated. If this is not the case, then trends or shifts in the process may not be detected, but instead attributed to random (common cause) variation.

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If rational sub-groups can be formed, the X-bar charts are generally preferred, since the control limits are easily calculated using the normal distribution. When process distributions are bounded or skewed, or when rational sub-groups cannot be formed, then it is better to use an Individual – X chart. This, however, requires thatweknowthedistributionoftheprocess,sincethiswilldefinethestatisticalcontrol limits.

Individual–Xchartsareefficientatdetectingrelativelylargeshiftsintheprocessaverage, typically shifts of + - 3 sigma or larger. If X – bar charts can be used, then their larger sub-groups will detect smaller shifts.

Moving range chart calculations:Plotted statistic: The moving ranges between successive sub-groups in an Individual – X chart. (i.e. the difference between the current observation and the observation immediately prior).

=

Centre line:

=

Where, m is the total number of sub-groups included in the analysis and is the moving range at sub-group j.

=

Where, is based on n = 2.

UCL, LCL (Upper and Lower Control Limit):

= + 3

= MAX

Where, MR-bar is the Average of the moving ranges, sigma-x is the process sigma, and d3 is a function of n.

2.6 An SPM/TQM Implementation ModelThe following implementation steps are not static but are dynamic, systematic proceduresthatrequireconstantattentionaswellastheflexibilitytoadapttoanyand all special problems that may be found. At any one step, information found therecansuggestimprovementsandrefinementstothesystemsothatbacktracking,repeating, and/or resequencing of steps may often be taken place.

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SPM/TQM implementation procedures should be kept as simple as possible, although complex interacting process variables may sometimes require more complex implementation procedures. The following list is the simple summary of the important quality implementation steps, and is given to present an overall picture to the quality analysis involved.

The SPF implementation steps are as follows:Develop a flowchart of eachmajor product.Make sure that all quality•measurement spots are shown. Each measurement spot becomes a candidate for a control chart.Identify critical operations. Ask operators, engineers, etc. do Pareto analysis, •cause and effect analysis, etc. Analyse defect rates, costs, etc.List these operations in order of criticality and by cost, defect rate, percent •defective, product, operation importance, etc.Install a chart at the most critical operation as a pilot project. Choose one, at •first,thatwillbeeasytoimprove.Inthisway,therestofthefirmcanbeshownthat SPC really works; that it actually produces cost cutting procedures.Collect the data and plot the charts.•Analyse the charts as enough data become available.•Correct assignable causes and make process improvements as suggested by •chart data and chart interpretation.Afterthisfirstprocesshasbeenchanged,andafterimprovementusingSPC•has been proved, gradually install SPC in all other areas, following the steps listed above.Finally, extend the SPC/TQM system into all areas (such as non-manufacturing, •service activities, management, etc.)

Although single analysis can be used occasionally, especially at the beginning, team approach problem solving and supportive management styles are a must in the long run. Organise committees at each chart installation, make appropriate assignments and train as needed. Include operators, workers, engineers, coordinators, supervisors and any others deemed necessary. New teams can be formed until all employees are on teams and all processes are being controlled using SPC. Remember that team brainstorming can and almost should be used at every step along the way. Also any of the seven basic tools can be used.

2.7 The Seven Basic Tools of QualityTheseareonthe“must”listforallSPCprogramsandalsoforallTQMsystems.Anyone installing and using an SPC program will use most of these seven tools. The seven basic tools of quality are as follows:

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2.7.1 FlowchartsAflowchartispictorial(graphical)representationoftheprocessflowshowingtheprocess inputs, activities, and outputs in the order in which they occur. As such, it assists in the collection and organisation of knowledge of the process. The chart is constructed a follows:

Identifyaflowforstudy,preferablyonethathasalotofproblemstosolve.•Thiscanbeamaterialflow,apaperworkflow,aninformationflow,apeopleflow,adecisionprocedureflow,etc.thebestwaytodothisistouseateamandtobrainstorm,unlesssuchaflowisalreadyobvious.Identify necessary information. This includes information about inputs into •theflow, outputs from theflow, activities and processeswithin theflow,measurements, people, dates, frequencies, operation times, documents, location and equipment used. Use a team and brainstorm.Identifyandlistthesequenceofoperationsintheflow.Studytheprocess,ask•questions of everyone, use a team and brainstorm.Identifythedecisionpointsintheflow.Whencharted,thesedecisionpoints•will appear as yes or no questions only. If the main question to be answered cannot be a simple yes or no question, ask a series of yes or no question. Refer thefigurebelow.

Is it black?Yes

Yes

No

No

Is it brown?

Fig.2.5Exampleofconstructionofaflowchart

Make the chart simple. Use a box for all activities, even for decision points. •The more formal charts use a diamond shape for decision points, as well asothertypesoffiguresfordifferenttypesofactivities.Themultiplelines(arrows) extending from the decision box will instantly and clearly identify it as a decision point. Use a capital letter as a connector to other parts of the chart on the same page, where a line or arrow cannot be used. Use a page number as a connector to another page.Aftercompletion,makeanauditoftheflowchart.Checktheinputs,outputs,•activities, sequencing, etc, to see that nothing has been forgotten, and that the chart actually depicts what is being done at all times, with all people and at allplaceswheretheflowisbeingused.

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Creativity and intelligence are needed, by everyone, at all of these steps. The •best way is to form a team of those concerned with the area or process under study. Of course, an individual can do this, but a team is better.

Advantagesofagoodflowchartanalysis:Most of these advantages also apply to most of the other quality tools.

The people involved begin to better understand the process in the same •terms.Helps to control the process, rather than the process controlling the people.•Improves communications. People can now visualise their suppliers and •customers as a part of the overall process, of which they also are a part.Better support of the entire quality effort, especially from those directly •involvedintheflowchartingactivity.Better training of new employees.Theflowchart is an excellent training•tool.Happier employees. They now feel in better control of their own destinies; they •feel more like an integral and important part of the team and not just a cog in the machinery; and they get a better feeling of approval for their efforts.Reduces confusion. The goal is to get workers so well versed in what is •expected of them that the thought of deviating just doesn’t occur.Assists in reducing organisational slack.•Assists in reducing the chance for errors.•Assists in reducing throughout time.•

2.7.2 Check SheetsCheck sheets are basically a list of items inspected. The list is usually organised in a standardised format designed to facilitate information gathering and later quantitative analysis. It also assures that different people will collect required information in the same way. Table 2.1 shows a simple tally sheet of errors, which is the simplest of all check sheets. Fig. 2.6 and Table 2.2 show two other types of check sheets, where the errors are categorised as they are observed.

The data gathering procedure is extremely simple. It is only necessary to note what is occurring, categorise it into one of the categories on the check sheet, and markatallyinthepropercolumn.Theonlyreallydifficultpartknowscategoriesto use on the check sheet. That comes with knowledge of the process, and some pre-analysis.

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OPERATOR Mon TUE WED THURS FRIPaul1. 11 1 1111 1 11Stephen2. 1111 1 11 111111 111John 3. 1 111 1 1Brian4. 1 1 11111 111111 1111111Debora5. 1 1 11 1 11Keith6. 11 11111 111 1 1David7. 1 11 111 11 1

Table2.1Arejectschecksheetforadataentryfile

Product: Date:: / /Name:Total examined:

DEFECT TYPE DEFECT COUNT TOTAL

CHECKSHEET

1. Bent 172. Chipped 243. Burnt 6

Grand Total 37

Fig. 2.6 A check sheet for counting rejects

Equipment Worker Monday Tuesday WednesdayAm Pm Am Pm Am Pm

MACH 1 A 0 1 0 2 0 00 000 10B

MACH 2 C

Table 2.2 A defective cause check sheet

In the early stages of problem solving, we frequently don’t know which data will end up being useful. Therefore, it is best to be as through as possible in the collection process, i.e., use as many categories as is reasonably possible. Also, the sources and times of the data should always be referenced, as this frequently gives valuable information for subsequent improvements.

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2.7.3 HistogramsA histogram is a graphical summary of variation in asset of data, a pictorial means of organising, summarising, analysing, and displaying data. It contains the same information as the tally sheet, but in a picture form, i.e., a picture of the tallysheet.Thepictorialnatureofthegraphdisplayspatternsthataredifficultto see in a simple table of number, where anything of value is usually hidden in a morass of numbers. Even small amounts of raw data can seem overwhelming, confusing, and/or intimidating unless organised in some way. The histogram is an excellent means of organising large amounts of data so that important information becomes apparent.

A histogram is a bar chart, and the two terms are often used interchangeably. However, statisticians like to refer to bar charts of simple tallies as bar charts, while reserving the term histogram for a bar chart of data evenly divided into equal cells.The main purpose of histograms is to provide clues and information for the reductionofvariation.Thiscomesmainlyfromidentificationandinterpretationof patterns of variation. There are two types of variation patterns:

Random (from chance or common causes)•Non random (from assignable or special causes)•

Some of the random variation patterns, because they are repeated frequently in real life, have been found to be quite useful and have therefore, been documented and quantified.Theyarecalledfrequency,orprobability,distributioninstatisticsandhave been given special names. Non random patterns are patterns of error and are in SPC, especially control charting, to assist in the reduction of variation. Besides the patterns of variation, there are three important characteristic of histogram that also provides information about the nature of the variation. These are:

The centre (where on the number line)•The width (how far it extends on both sides of the centre)•Theshape(peaked,flat,numberofpeaks,etc.)•

Some of the more important histogram patterns are provided in the following list.

Bell shaped: This is normal, natural, pattern of data from most processes. Any •deviation from this pattern is usually abnormal in some way and can usually, therefore, provide clues about the variation. Even if the pattern is normal, however, the variation may still be able to be reduced by decreasing the width of the distribution, by decreasing the standard deviation.Bi-modal: This distribution is usually a mixture of two processes such as •identical parts from two different machines. Theplateaudistribution(flatontop,slighttails):Thisusuallyresultsfroma•mixture of many different processes, and can be analysed by diagramming theflowandobservingtheprocesses.

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The comb distribution (alternating high and low values): This usually indicates •errors in measurement, errors in the organisation of the data, and/or rounding errors.The skewed distribution (a long tail on one side): If the long tail is to the •left, the distribution is negatively skewed; if it is to the right, it is positively skewed. This is not necessarily bad. Many skewed distributions occur naturally with certain types of data, and have been regularised with their own formula. However, if the long tail can have a negative impact on quality, the process should be investigated and the cause determined and eliminated. Causes of skeweddistributionsinclude:shortcycletasks,one-sidedspecificationlimits,and practical limits on one side only.The truncated distribution (a smooth curve with an abrupt ending on one side): •This is often caused by external forces to the process, such as screening, 100% inspection, or a review process. Since truncating unusually indicates added costs, it is a good candidate for improvement.The isolated peak distribution (a small, separate, group of data to one side •of the parent group): Look for poor inspection, measurement errors or data entry errors.Edge-peaked distribution (a peak right at the edge): This usually means that •data from an otherwise long tail have been lumped together at one point (data from outside the limit have been recorded as being inside the limit).

2.7.4 Pareto AnalysisIt uses a specially organised histogram (the Pareto chart) to provide a picture that instantlyidentifiesthoseproblemsofthegreatestconcern,thoseproblemsthatshouldbeaddressedfirst.

2.7.5 Cause and Effect DiagramAs the name implies, this tool is just a group of causes and effects diagrammed to show the interrelationships. The diagram is a form of tree diagram on its side sothatitlookslikeafishbone.ThenameIshikawareferstotheJapanesemanwho conceived the chart.

Thediagramisformedbyfirststatingtheproblemintheformofaneffect.Infig.2.7, the problem is to maximise hardness, within limits. Hardness, then, is the main effect. The main causes are then placed at the end of the lines extending up and down at an angle from the centre line. These main causes are usually some form of the following manufacturing factors like materials, equipment, work methods, operators/workers, processes, tooling, management (policies), measurement, environment,etc.thefirstthreeusuallyaccountfor80%ofallproblems.

Each of these main causes is now treated as effects and causes determined for each of them, and then each of the secondary causes is treated as effects and causes found for each of them, and so on. The procedure is continued until all causesareidentified.

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Machine A Operator A

Machine B Loader

METHODS PROCESS OPERATOR

MEASUREMENT TOOLING MATERIAL

Material RM2

Part P4

Hardness

Fig. 2.7 Basic cause and effect diagram

Each cause, no matter where placed on the chart, must relate to the main effect. If the chart is complex and extensive, secondary charts can be constructed from any of the causes. That cause then becomes the main effect of the secondary charts can be constructed from any of the causes. That cause then becomes the main effect of the secondary chart.

The causes and effects are best determined by forming a team of those most concerned with the main problem, and then using a team of storming procedure. Any quality characteristic can become an effect around which a cause and effect chart is constructed. However, if the problem is people, consider using a desired result rather than a problem as the main effect. In other words, concentrate on the desired characteristics rather than how to change people. Cause and effect diagrams are especially effective in facilitating the brainstorming procedure, in examining and analysing the processes, in planning procedures, and in determining the causes of dispersion. They are also used quite extensively by design engineering.

2.7.6 Scatter DiagramThese diagrams are Cartesian coordinate-type graphs (X, Y graphs) that illustrate cause and effect relationships between two types of data. The two types of data relate in such a way that a change in one (called the independent variable) induces a change in the other (called the dependent variable). Pairs of points (X, Y) are plotted with the independent variable on the X-axis and the dependent variable on the Y-axis. Thus, a change in X causes a change in Y.

The different kinds of relations between the two variables can provide clues and information to solve problems related to the process.

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Note that the relationships within the scatter diagrams are not quantised. This is left for a more advanced procedure called regression analysis. Scatter diagrams are not substitutes for regression analysis, and so must be used with care. For instance, an apparent relationship between two variables can be negated and even reversed by the action of a third, interrelated, variables not on the chart. Also, scatter diagrams can be constructed for two variables only; more than two need a regression analysis.

2.7.7 Control ChartsThese are the graphs of one or more important characteristics of a product. They use statistical techniques to analyse the process, and to provide information for correction and improvement of the process, and thus the products produced on the process.

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SummaryStatistical Process Control is an analytical decision making tool which allows •you to see when a process is working correctly and when it is not.Control charts show the variation in a measurement during the time period •that the process is observed.Process control charts are fairly simple looking connected point charts.•Control charts monitor processes to show how the process is performing and •how the process and capabilities are affected by changes to the process.Variables control charts for subgroup data are powerful and simply visual tools •for determining whether a process may be in or out of control.Control charts can help you determine whether the process average (centre) •and process variability (speed) are operating at normal levels.Both XBar/S charts and XBar/R charts measure subgroup variability.•The XBar chart is where the sub – group averages or mean values are •plotted.S charts provide a more accurate indication of the process variation and result •in a chart that is very sensitive to small changes in the process average.Rchartsareefficientforsmallsubgroupsizesandareeasiertomanagedue•to basic shop math calculations that need to be performed.Attributes control charts represent a rational sample of data sampled from the •process and are either counts (n) of the number of defectives or defects per sample, or proportions of the defectives or defects per sample (%).The purpose of P chart is to generate a (binomial) proportion control chart.•A C chart is a data analysis technique for determining if a measurement process •has gone out of statistical control.A U chart is a data analysis technique for determining if a measurement process •has gone out of statistical control.The Individual – X chart monitors the process location over time, based on •the current subgroup, containing a single observation.

ReferencesIntroduction to Statistical Process Control Techniques• [Online] Available at: <http://www.statit.com/services/SPCOverview_mfg.pdf>. [Accessed 1 July 2011].Statistical Process Control Chart Basics • [Online] Available at: <http://www.statisticalsolutions.net/spc_basics.php>. [Accessed 1 July 2011].nptelhrd, 2009. • Mod-2 Lec-1 Statistical Process Control Part-1 [Video Online] Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbPUiJKyxqw>. [Accessed on – 27 July 2011].

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PaulsonTraining, 2010. • Paulson Training - Statistical Process Control (SPC) [Video Online] Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GC5zU5SBtc>. [Accessed on – 27 July 2011].Wheeler,D. J., 2010• . Understanding Statistical Process Control, 3rd ed., SPC PRESS.Oakland, J. S., 2007. • Statistical Process Control, 6th ed., Butterworth-Heinemann.

Recommended ReadingMontgomery, D. C., 2008. • Introduction to Statistical Quality Control, 6th ed., Wiley.Norton, M., 2006. • Quick Course in Statistical Process Control (Net Effect), 1st ed., Prentice Hall.Doty, L. A., 1996. • Statistical Process Control, 2nd ed., Industrial Press, Inc.

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Self Assessment____________ is an analytical decision making tool which allows you to see 1. when a process is working correctly and when it is not.

Process control chartsa. Purpose of control chartsb. Statistical Process Controlc. Statistical Process Control Chart Basicsd.

The key to any process improvement program is the PDSA cycle described 2. by _____________.

Walter Shewarta. D. C. Montgomeryb. L. A Dotyc. M. Nortond.

Match the following.3.

Variables 1. control charts

use all the data collected to calculate the subgroup A. and process standard deviations.

XBar/S charts 2. and XBar/R charts

areefficientforsmallsubgroupsizesandB. are easier to manage due to basic shop math calculations that need to be performed.

S charts3. for subgroup data are powerful and simply visual C. tools for determining whether a process may be in or out of control.

R charts4. measure subgroup variability. D.

1-D, 2-C, 3-B, 4-Aa. 1-B, 2-D, 3-A, 4-Cb. 1-A, 2-D, 3-B, 4-Cc. 1-C, 2-D, 3-A, 4-Bd.

SPC is the full form of _____________.4. Statistical Proper Controla. Statistical Process Controlb. Strong Process Controlc. Statistical Process Collectiond.

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_____________ show the variation in a measurement during the time period 5. that the process is observed.

Parallel chartsa. Chart Basicsb. Control chartsc. Check sheetsd.

The data analysis technique for determining a measurement process has gone 6. out of statistical control is known as

NP charta. Parallel chartsb. Chart Basicsc. Control chartsd.

Which statement is false?7. The XBar chart is where the sub – group averages or mean values are a. plotted.S charts provide a more accurate indication of the process variation and b. result in a chart that is very sensitive to small changes in the process average.Uchartsareefficientforsmallsubgroupsizesandareeasiertomanagec. due to basic shop math calculations that need to be performed.Attributes control charts represent a rational sample of data sampled from d. the process and are either counts (n) of the number of defectives or defects per sample, or proportions of the defectives or defects per sample (%).

The distribution that is usually a mixture of two processes such as identical 8. parts from two different machines is called as ______________.

Skewed distribution a. Bi-modalb. Bell shapedc. Plateau distribution d.

_______________ monitor processes to show how the process is performing 9. and how the process and capabilities are affected by changes to the process.

Control chartsa. U charts b. S charts c. P chartsd.

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______________ are cartesian coordinate-type graphs (X, Y graphs) that 10. illustrate cause and effect relationships between two types of data.

Chartsa. Scatter diagramsb. Statistical Processc. Control chartsd.

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Chapter III

Problem Solving Techniques for Quality Management

Aim

The aim of this unit is to:

interpret six sigma in brief•

introduce students to the Pareto analysis•

determine Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)•

examine Juran’s improvement program•

Objectives

The objectives of this unit are to:

elucidate the Deming Cycle•

discuss reliability•

describe the stages of FMEA•

explain brainstorming in detail•

Learning outcome

At the end of this unit, you will be able to:

explain the features and usage of six sigma•

elaboratethetypesandbenefitsofFMEA•

enlist the ste• ps involved in brainstorming process

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3.1 IntroductionMany of today’s problem solving and quality improvement tools like control charts,lotsampling,processcapabilityandValueAnalysis(VA)werefirstusedextensively in World War II in respect to the need for tremendous volumes of high quality, lower cost materials. More recently, quality circles, TQM and Kaizen have demonstrated the power of team-base process improvement.

Control chartsStatistical Quality Control (SQC) or Statistical Process Control (SPC) for repetitive, high volume production began in the 1930s, when Shewhart developed control charts. Small production samples were measured periodically to monitor quality. Sample mean (XBar) and range (R) charts were used to detect when a processwasgoingoutof“economiccontrol”.

3.2 Six Sigma OverviewSix Sigma measures the capability of a process to perform defect-free work. Six Sigma means a failure rate of 3.4 parts per million or 99.9997% perfect; however, the term in practice is used to denote more than simply counting defects. Six Sigma can now imply a whole culture of strategies, tools and statistical methodologies to improve the bottom line of companies. In all, Six Sigma is a rigorous analytical process for anticipating and solving problems. It is essentially based on three underlying facts:

You can manage what you measure•Youcanmeasurewhatyoucandefine•Youcandefinewhatyoucanunderstand•

TheobjectiveofSixSigmaistoimproveprofitsthroughvariabilityanddefectreduction, yield reduction, improved consumer satisfaction and best-in-class product/process performance. The principal concepts of six sigma are critical to quality, variation and processes in control.

3.2.1 The Six Sigma MethodologyTheprojecthavinglargeimpactofcustomersatisfactionandsignificantimpactonbottom line is selected. Top management of the organisation has very important roleduringselectionofprojectsandleaders.Theprojectsareclearlydefinedinterms of expected key deliverables. These are typically in terms of DPMO levels or sigma quality levels, RTY, Quality cost, etc. in the overall approach; the actual problem is converted into a statistical problem. This is done by mapping the process,definingkeyprocessinputvariablesandkeyprocessoutputvariables.The power of statistical tools is used to determine a statistical solution. This is then converted into a practical solution.

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3.2.2 Strategies for Six Sigma IntroductionThere are three different strategies adopted by different organisations:

The six sigma organisationIn this strategy, the whole organisation is trained on six sigma philosophy and methods. The training is of varying depth for various levels. Six sigma serves as motivationaldeviceandalsoasametric.Goalsaredefinedintermsofsigma.While the organisation can have a common language of six sigma, large resources are required for training. All improvement ideas are likely to be credited to six sigma regardless of the approach actually used.

The six sigma engineering organisation:Here, the attempt is to develop skills in the engineering functions. The project objectives are usually based on new products, product changes or problem solving. One of the advantages is the relatively higher level of educational and technical background of the individuals that enables them to learn at a faster pace. On the other hand, individuals from other functions do not appreciate the efforts in absence of the awareness of the techniques.

Strategic selection of six sigma projects:The senior management sometimes feels that the current quality processes are generally working well to achieve the overall strategic plan. Hence, six sigma tools and concepts are used to enhance the existing quality processes and supplement the skills of the key people thereby making breakthrough improvements. Six sigmaprojectsareidentifiedconsideringthe:

Strategic direction of the company•Impact on the bottom line•Impact on customer satisfaction•

The project having large impact requires project leaders with high degree of competence. Full time project leaders are selected to execute the project. Selection of candidates is critical for the success. The project leaders go through in-depth training of six sigma approach and tools and work full time on the project. The project is expected to ve completed in about six months. Typical savings expected from a black belt project may be of the order of Rs. 100, 00000. Projects of lesser complexity may not require full time resource. Project leaders of such projects are chosen from the same functional area. These are sometimes called green belts. They also go through training in the six sigma concepts and tools. Training duration is usually less than that for black belts.

This approach requires lesser resources for training that can be customised. The organisations adapting this approach must allocate the best people as project leaders. Some of the potential failure modes of this approach are:

Trained engineers tend to get isolated•Communication barrier due to lack of common language•Failure to develo• p management understanding

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3.3 Pareto AnalysisPareto analysis is a statistical technique in decision making that is used for the selectionofalimitednumberoftasksthatproducesignificanteffectoverall.Ituses the Pareto principle, the idea that by doing 20% of the work you can generate 80%ofthebenefitofdoingthewholejob.Orintermsofqualityimprovement,alarge majority of problems (80%) are produced by a few key causes (20%). This is also known as the vital few and the trivial many.

In the late 1940s, quality management expert Joseph M. Juran suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of income in Italy went to 20% of the population. Pareto later carried out surveys on a number of other countries and found to his surprise that a similar distribution applied.

The 80/20 rule can be applied to almost anything:80% of customer complaints arise from 20% of your products or services.•80% of delays in schedule arise from 20% of the possible causes of the •delays.20%ofyourproductsorservicesaccountfor80%ofyourprofit.•20% of your sales-force produces 80% of your company revenues.•20% of a systems defects cause 80% of its problems.•

The Pareto principle has many applications in quality control. It is the basis for the Pareto diagram, one of the key tools used in total quality control and Six Sigma.

Seven steps to identifying the important causes using Pareto Analysis are as follows:

Form a table listing the causes and their frequency as a percentage.•Arrange the rows in the decreasing order of importance of the causes, i.e. the •mostimportancecausefirst.Add a cumulative percentage column to the table.•Plot with causes on x-axis and cumulative percentage on y-axis.•Join the above points to form a curve.•Plot a bar graph with causes on x-axis and percent frequency on y-axis.•Draw a line 80% on y-axis parallel to x-axis. Then drop the line at the point •of intersection with the curve on x-axis. This point on the x-axis separates the important causes on the left and less important causes on the right.

The diagram below is a simple example of a Pareto diagram using sample data showing the relative frequency of causes for errors on websites. It enables you to see what 20% of cases are causing 80% of the problems and where efforts should be focussed to achieve the greatest improvement.

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The value of the Pareto principle for a project manager is that it reminds you to focus on the 20% of things that matter. Of the things you do during your project, only 20% are really important. Those 20% produce 80% of you results. Indentifyandfocusonthosethingsfirst,don’ttotallyignoretheremaining80%of causes.

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Fig. 3.1 Pareto diagram example

3.4 Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)Customers are placing increased demands on companies for high quality, reliable products. The increasing capabilities and functionality of many products are makingitmoredifficultformanufacturerstomaintainthequalityandreliability.Traditionally, reliability has been achieved through extensive testing and use of techniques such as probabilistic reliability modelling. These are techniques done in the late stages of development. The challenge is to design in quality and reliability early in the development cycle.

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is methodology for analysing potential reliability problems early in the development cycle it is easier to take actions to overcome these issues, thereby enhancing reliability through design. FMEA is used to identify potential failure modes, determine their effect on the operation of the product, and identify actions to mitigate the failures. A crucial step is anticipated what might go wrong with a product. While anticipating every failure mode is not possible, the development team should formulate as extensive a list of potential failure modes as possible.

The early and consistent use of FMEAs in the design process allows the engineer to design out failures and produce reliable, safe and customer pleasing products. FMEAs also capture historical information for use in future product improvement.

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3.4.1 Types of FMEAsThere are several types of FMEAs; some are used much more often than others. FMEAs should always be done whenever failures would mean potential harm or injury to the user of the end item being designed. The types of FMEA are:

System – focuses on global system functions•Design – focuses on components and subsystems•Process – focuses on manufacturing and assembly processes•Service – focuses on service functions•Software – focuses on software functions•

3.4.2 FMEA usageHistorically, engineers have done a good job of evaluating the functions and the form of products and processes in the design phase. They have not always done so well at designing in reliability and quality. Often the engineer uses safety factors as a way of making sure that the design will work and protected the user against product or process failure.

FMEAs provide the engineer with a tool that can assist in providing reliable, safe and customer pleasing products and processes. Since FMEA help the engineer identify potential product or process failures, they can use it to:

Develop product or process requirements that minimise the likelihood of •those failures.Evaluate the requirements obtained from the customer or other participants in •the design process to ensure that those requirements do not introduce potential failures.Identify design characteristics that contribute to failures and design them out •of the system or at least minimise the resulting effects.Develop methods and procedures to develop and test the product / process to •ensure that the failure has been successfully eliminated.Track and manage potential risks in the design. Tracking the risks contributes •to the development of corporate memory and the success of future products as well.Ensure that any failures that could occur will not injure or seriously impact •the customer of the product / process.

3.4.3BenefitsofFMEAFMEA is designed to assist the engineer improve the quality and reliability of design.ProperlyusedtheFMEAprovidestheengineerseveralbenefits.Amongothers,thesebenefitsinclude:

Improve product/ process reliability and quality•Increase customer satisfaction•

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Early identification and elimination of potential product/ process failure•modesPrioritiseproduct/processdeficiencies•Capture engineering/ organisation knowledge •Emphasises problem prevention•Documents risk and actions taken to reduce risk•Provide focus for improved testing and development•Minimises late changes and associated cost•Catalyst for teamwork and idea exchange between functions•

3.4.4 FMEA TimingThe FMEA is a living document. Throughout the product development cycle and updates are made to the product and process. These changes can and often do introduce new failure modes. It is therefore important to review and / or update the FMEA when,

A new product or process is being initiated (at the beginning of the cycle)•Changes are made to the operating conditions the product or process is •expected to function in.A change is made to either the product or process design. The product and •process are inter-related. When the product design is changed the process is impacted and vice-versa.New regulations are instituted.•Customer feedback indicates problem in the product or process.•

3.4.5 FMEA ProcedureThe process for conducting an FMEA is straightforward. The basic steps are outlined below:

Describe the product / process and its function. An understanding of the •product or process under consideration is important to have clearly articulated. Thisunderstandingsimplifiestheprocessofanalysisbyhelpingtheengineeridentify that product / process uses that fail within the intended function and which ones fall outside. It is important to both intentional and unintentional uses since product failure often ends in litigation, which can be costly and time consuming.Create a block diagram of the product or process. This diagram shows major •components or process steps as blocks connected together by lines that indicate how the components or steps are related. The diagram shows the logical relationships of components and establishes a structure around which the FMEA can be developed. Establish a coding system to identify system elements. The block diagram should always be included with the FMEA form.

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Complete the header on the FMEA form worksheet: Product / System, Subsys / •Assy, Component, Design Lead, prepared By, Date, Revision (letter or number) and Revision date. Modify these heading as needed.IdentifyFailureModes.Afailuremodeisdefinedasthemannerinwhicha•component, subsystem, system, process, etc. could potentially fail to meet the design intent. Examples of potential failure modes include:

Corrosion �Hydrogen embrittlement �Electrical short or open �Torque fatigue �Deformation �Cracking �

A failure mode in one component can serve as the cause of a failure mode in •another component. Each failure should be listed in technical terms. Failure modes should be listed for functions of each component or process step. At thispointthefailuremodeshouldbeidentifiedwhetherornotthefailureislikely to occur. Looking at similar products or processes and the failures that have been documented for them is an excellent starting point.Describetheeffectsofthosefailuremodes.Foreachfailuremodeidentified•the engineer should determine what the ultimate effect will be. A failure is designed as the result of a failure mode on the function of the product / process as perceived by the customer. They should be described in terms of what the customermightseeorexperiencetheidentifiedfailuremodeoccurs.Keepin mind the internal as well as the external customer. Examples of failure effects include:

Injury to the user �Inoperability of the product or process �Improper appearance of the product or process �Degraded performance �Noise �

Establish a numerical ranking for the severity of the effect. A common industry standard scale uses 1 to represent no effect and 10 to indicate very severe with failure affecting system operation and safety without warning. The intent of the ranking is to help the analyst determine whether a failure would be a minor nuisance or a catastrophic occurrence to the customer. This enables the engineer toprioritisethefailuresandaddresstherealbigissuesfirst.

A failure mode in one component can serve as the cause of a failure mode in •another component. Each failure should be listed in technical terms. Failure modes should be listed for functions of each component or process step. At thispointthefailuremodeshouldbeidentifiedwhetherornotthefailureislikely to occur. Looking at similar products or processes and the failures that have been documented for them is an excellent starting point.

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Describetheeffectofthosefailuremodes.Foreachfailuremodeidentified•the engineer should determine what the ultimate effect will be. A failure effectisdefinedastheresultofafailuremodeonthefunctionoftheproduct/ process as perceived by the customer. They should be described in terms of whatthecustomermightseeorexperienceshouldtheidentifiedfailuremodeoccur. Keep in mind the internal as well as the external customer. Examples of failure effects include:

Injury to the userInoperability of the product or process �Improper appearance of the product or process �Degraded performance �Noise �

Identifythecausesforeachfailuremode.Afailurecauseisdefinedasadesign•weakness that may result in a failure. The potential causes for each failure modeshouldbeidentifiedanddocumented.Thecausesshouldbelistedintechnical terms and nit in terms of symptoms. examples of potential causes include:Improper torque applied•

Improper operating conditions �Contamination �Erroneous algorithms �Improper alignment �Excessive loading �Excessive voltage �

Enter the probability factor. A numerical weight should be assigned to each •cause that indicates how likely that cause is. A common industry standard scale uses 1 to represent not likely and 10 to indicate inevitable.Identify current controls. Current controls are the mechanisms that prevent •the cause of the failure mode occurring or which detect the failure before it reaches the customer. The engineer should now identify testing, analysis, monitoring and other techniques that can or have been used on the same or similar products / processes to detect failures. Each of these controls should be assessed to determine how well it is expected to identify or detect failure modes. After a new product or process has been in use previously undetected orunidentifiedfailuremodesmayappear.TheFMEAshouldthenbeupdatesand plans made to address those failures to eliminate them from the product / process.Determine the likelihood of detection. Detection is an assessment of the •likelihood that the current controls will detect the causes of the failure mode or the failure mode itself, thus preventing it from reaching the customer.Review Risk Priority Numbers (RPN). The Risk Priority Number is a •mathematical product of the numerical severity, probability and detection ratings:

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RPN = (Severity) (Probability) (Detection)

The RPN is used to prioritise items than require additional quality planning or action.

Determine recommended actions to address potential failures that have a •highRPN.Theseactionscouldincludespecificinspection,testingorqualityprocedures, selection of different components or materials, de-rating, limiting environmental stresses or operating range, redesign of the item to avoid the failure mode, monitoring mechanisms, performing preventive maintenance, and inclusion of back-up systems or redundancy.Assign responsibility and a target completion date for these actions. This •makes responsibility clear-cut and facilitates tracking.Indicate actions taken. After these actions have been taken, re-assess the •severity, probability and detection and review RPNs.Update the FMEA as the design or process changes, the assessment changes •or new information becomes known.

3.4.6 ReliabilityReliability is one of the most important characteristics of any product, no matter what its application is. Reliability is also an important aspect when it comes to dealing with customer satisfaction, whether the customer is internal or external. Customers want a product that will have a relatively long service life, with long times between failures. However, as products become more complex in nature, traditional design methods are not adequate for ensuring low rates of failure. This problem gave rise to the concept of designing reliability into the product itself.

Reliabilitymaybedefinedastheprobabilityoftheproducttoperformasexpectedfor a certain period of time, under the given operating conditions, and at a given set of product performance characteristics. One important consideration when performing reliability studies is the safety of the product or the process. The criticality of a product or process changes drastically when human safety considerations are involved. Reliability tests and studies can form the basis for safety studies.

3.4.7 Stages of FMEAThe four stages of FMEA are as follows:

Specifying possibilities•Functions �Possible failure modes �Root causes �Effects �Detection/Prevention �

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Quantifying risk•Probability of cause �Severity of effect �Effectiveness of control to prevent cause �Risk priority number �

Correcting high risk causes•Prioritising work �Detailing action �Assigning action responsibility �Check points on completion �

Re-evaluation of risk•Recalculation of risk priority number �

3.4.8 Other Types of FMEAThere are numerous types of FMEA other than design FMEA and process FMEA. Some of the other types are described below:

Bymaking some simplemodifications to processFMEA, it can be used formaintenance of FMEA. In maintenance FMEA two column headings from process FMEAaremodifiedasfollows:

Process Function Requirements becomes Equipment / Process Function•Current Process Controls becomes Predictive Methods / Current Controls•The class column is eliminated.•

Maintenance FMEA could be used to diagnose a problem on an assembly line or test the potential failure of prospective equipment prior tomaking afinalpurchase.Similar to maintenance FMEA, environmental FMEA is also only a slight modificationofprocessFMEA.InenvironmentalFMEA,thecolumnsofprocessFMEAaremodifiedasfollows:

Process Function Requirements becomes Sub-Process/Function•Potential Failure Mode becomes Environmental Aspect•Potential Effect of Failure becomes Environmental Impact•Potential Cause/Mechanism of Failure becomes Condition/Situation•Current Process Controls becomes Present Detection Systems•The class column is eliminated•

Environmental FMEA could be used to evaluate the environmental impact or correct the impact of manufacturing.

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AnothertypesofFMEA,serviceFMEA,isamodificationtothestandardprocessFMEA, because most types of services can be considered processes. For example, a moving van company performs a service that involves the following functions as part of the service to the customer – receive request, schedule van, got o client, pack client material, store material, deliver to new address, unpack material and collect for services. During any one of these functions, there are possible failure modes,suchas:whilereceivingtherequest,thecustomercan’tfindthenumber,thephone is busy, customer loses number, or customer changes mind. So, essentially, a process FMEA document can be used for service FMEA.

Processes within the service industry can be analysed prior to customers seeing them, thereby preventing any initial loss of business. For example, service FMEA can be used to analyse a new web-based youth sports registration system prior to debut to prevent the loss of participants. Some of the major airlines have used service FMEA to completely analyse the way they are servicing their customer. Service FMEA has also been used as a prevention tool in the services offered by a medical clinic cafeteria, resulting in effective prevention of errors.

3.5 BrainstormingBrainstorming is one of the most known, simplest possible and most economic creative problem solving techniques. Meaning of brainstorming is to activate the brain for spontaneous discussion in search for new ideas. The technique is essentially used by the participants in a group setting. So, it is a group participation activity. It unlocks the creative power of a group. Brainstorming was developed by Alex F. Osborn in 1939. Osborn opined that groups could double their creative output with brainstorming. In addition to increasing the productivity of groups, additional advantages of brainstorming are:

Improving team work•Team building•Morale enhancement•Congenial work environment creation•

3.5.1 Usage Of Brainstorming

Brainstorming can be used for a selection of a problem.•Itisusedforfindingoutallpossiblecausesofaproblem.•It is sued for generating a lot of alternative solutions to a problem.•Brainstormingisusedforfindingoutthebestsolutionstoaproblem.•Itismostsuitedforwelldefined,multi-answer,fairlywelldefinedproblem•with few constraints.

Brainstorming is obviously not an appropriate technique where the problem has a unique solution that can be reached by analysis.

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It is also not very fruitful if the topic selected is vague. The members will carry different frame of reference and ideas generated will have diffused applicability.

3.5.2 The Steps In Brainstorming ProcessFollowing are the steps:

Beforeabrainstormingsession,theproblemiscarefullydefined.Theproblem,•then, is presented to the brainstorming group or brainstorming panel by the brainstorming leader or facilitator.The problem should be stated as clearly as possible so that there is no •misunderstanding about what it is. The more precise the problem, the better.The selection of the participants of the group should be carefully done. A •group of 7 to 10 members is normally thought to be optimal.The leader requests one idea at a time from each member of the panel. This •goes on for several rounds until all ideas of the group have been exhausted. Membersmaysay“pass”whentheyhavenoideasduringanyround.All the ideas should be recorded. No idea should be dropped. In brainstorming •all ideas are thought to be good ideas.Finally, large number of ideas thus collected are critically examined and •narrowed down. In the interest of time, simple voting technique is used. It works because members are normally experts in their areas. Members vote on each idea. The leader records each vote next to the idea. Members can vote as many ideas as they feel have value. Only supporting votes are taken. No one is asked to vote against an idea. Draw a circle around those ideas that receive the most votes.Membersdecidehowmanyofthetopideaswillbesoidentified.Sometimes•ideas are grouped in different categories to facilitate voting.The important ideas are again voted on. Usually each member gets only one •vote at this time. Write the ranking number beside each idea that has been circled. A member can halt the voting on any idea and argue for or against it.

3.5.3 Basic Principles Of BrainstormingTherearefivebasicprinciplesofbrainstorming.Theyareasfollows:

Brainstorming instructions are essentialThe use of brainstorming instructions is essential to the production of a large number of good ideas. Most brainstorming instructions are based on Osborn’s original instructional components which are quoted directly below:

Criticism is rules out. Adverse judgement of ideas must be withheld until •later.“Free-wheeling”iswelcomed.Thewildertheidea,thebetter;itiseasierto•tame down than to think up.

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Quantity is wanted. The greater the number of ideas, the more the likelihood •of useful ideas.Combination and improvement are sought. In addition to contributing ideas of •their own, participants should suggest how ideas of others can be turned into better ideas; or how two or more ideas can be joined into still another idea.

The fourth component, dealing with combination and improvement of ideas, will be taken up later in conjunction with our fourth guideline. But the important new pointtoemergesinceOsborn’sbookisthatthefirstthreecomponentsallreducetoone,inpractice.Thesecondcomponentisbasicallyare-statementofthefirst.Thisleavesthefirstandthethird,whichhavecometobecalleddeferredevaluationand quantity breeds quality. But these two instructions reduce to the latter, in that it turns out that the easiest way to operationalise the brainstorming objective of deferredevaluationissimplytoinspect:“Goforquantity,ignorequality”.

The instruction to go for as many ideas as possible regardless of their quality hasbeenshowntoautomaticallydeferevaluation.Whenquality(Q)isdefinedaccording to the widely adopted dual criteria proposed by Parnes as jointly high ratings on uniqueness and value, the ratio of good-quality ideas to sheer number of ideas (N) has been found to be constant.

For complex, real world creative problem solving, where good ideas are presumablymoredifferenttogenerateinthefirstplace,thecorrelationbetweenN and Q is likely to be still higher. Diehl in a German study that employed the complex problem of generating creative solutions for improving the relationship between the German population and foreign guest workers, observed a correlation between N and Q of 0.82, leading them to conclude that in experimental studies of creative idea production, the simple measure N would be the least equivocal for use in comparisons across studies.

Insummary,“goforquantity,notquality”appearstobetheessentialcomponentof brainstorming instructions.

Aspecific,difficulttargetshouldbesetCreative idea generation is often thought to be a natural process that is self-motivated. But a substantial body of research indicates that it is more effective togivethebrainstormingparticipantsaspecific,difficulttargetforthenumberofideas to be generated during the brainstorming session. This procedure, known as “goalsetting”,workswithanytaskthatcanbeperformedbyindividualsandisone of the most reliable effects ever discovered by organisational and industrial psychologists. Goal setting is eminently suitable for brainstorming tasks.

For instance, Mento, Locke and Klein used goal setting for the experimental brainstorming task of generating uses for common objects such as a tyre or a book. In industry, this would be similar to generating new uses for an existing product, two highly successful examples of which are Arm and hammer baking

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soda used as a refrigerator deodoriser and a not-very-sticky 3M adhesive becoming Post-itnotes. In thefirst experimentconductedbyMentoandhis colleagues,different groups of undergraduate business students were asked to generate ideas for common objects, with a one minute time limit. One group, the control group, wasgivennospecifictargetbutweretoldto“doyourbest”;asecondgroupwasgivenan“easy”targetoffouruses;athirdgroup,a“moderate”targetofsevenuses;andafourtha“difficult”targetoftwelveusesinoneminute.Theno-targetand the easy-target groups averaged 2.9 and 2.8 ideas per object. The moderate-targetgroupsandthedifficult-targetgroupaveragedsignificantlymoreideas,3.4and 3.8 respectively.

Thetargetforbrainstormingideagenerationhastobespecificnumericallyandithastobedifficult.Aspecific,difficulttargetforaparticularbrainstormingtaskcan be operationalised as the number of ideas that can be attained by only 20% of brainstorming participants working on the task under no target conditions. A couple of practice sessions with a total twenty or so brainstormers under no-target conditionsshouldbesufficient tosetaspecific,difficult targetforsubsequentbrainstorming sessions.

Individuals, not groups, should generate the initial ideasDespite thepopularnotionofa“brainstorminggroup”, the researchevidencestrongly suggests that initial creative idea generation should be undertaken by individuals. The individuals should work alone or privately if in the same room. Osborn originated the notion of groups as being superior for brainstorming by claiming in his early work that “the average person can think up twice as many ideaswhenworkingwithagroupthanwhenworkingalone”.Hishypothesiswasimmediately tested by Taylor, Berry and Block and there have now been at least 25 tests of groups’ verses individuals’ idea production. Diehl have reviewed these tests as well as contributing three recent tests.

The 25 tests in Diehl’s review of group versus individual creative idea production wereconfinedtothosestudiesinwhichrealgroups(RG)consistingoftwotonine freely interacting people were compared with what is called “nominal groups”, that is statistically formed, after-the-fact “groups” composed of anequal number of individuals to the regular groups, but working entirely alone with no interaction, and for which the clearer terminology “pooled independent effort”(PIE)hascometobeproffered.Inthestudies,brainstorminginstructionswere given to both the RG and PIE brainstorming participants so that only the group versus individual manipulation was varied. All of the studies used as the outcome variable the measure of quality of ideas, N, but only four studies used anacceptabledefinitionofqualityofideas,Q,thatwasconsistentwiththeParnesdual-criterion measure; however, given the high correlation between N and Q, the lack of complete observation of Q should not be of material consequence. For N, across the 25 tests, PIE was found to be superior to RG in 21 tests, with PIE equal to RG in the remaining four. For Q, PIE was found to be superior in three tests and PIE was equal to RG in the other test. In none of the 25 tests was group brainstorming found to be superior to individual brainstorming.

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For initial idea generation when dealing with real-world, complex problems, the superiority of PIE are massive. For instance, Diehl found, using the German workerproblemwithatimelimitofonlyfifteenminutesforideaproductionandin real-world conditions where the brainstormers were expecting to have their ideas evaluated subsequently by experts, that the average number of ideas, N, producedbyfour-personPIE“groups”was84andtheaveragenumberofQideaswas thirteen, compared with four-person RG groups who produced an average N of only 32 and a Q of three. In keeping with the earlier principle of “quantity breedsquality”,noticethattheQ/Nratiosweresimilar,at15%and9%andindicatethat high-quality ideas are hard to come by. Nevertheless, compared with groups, individuals produced four times as many high-quality ideas.

Usegroupinteractiontoamalgamateandrefineideas:Despite the superiority of individuals for generating initial ideas, group conditions maybebetterforamalgamatingandrefiningideasandthusimplicitlyintroducingevaluation, after the initial ideas have generated. Following the amalgamating andrefiningstep,finalselectionofcreatingideasisachievedmostobjectivelyby reverting to private individual evaluation. Accordingly, we refer to the three recommended overall phases of brainstorming as the IGI (Individual Group Individual) procedure.

Groupsoffivetosevenoftheoriginalindividualbrainstormersappeartoworkbestfortheamalgamationandrefinementphase.Groupsoflessthanfiveexposeindividuals too much, whereas groups of more than seven people tend to prevent everyone from participating.

The group phase is best conducted by the group leader taking one idea serially from each brainstorming participant; putting all the ideas on a common, anonymous list and then allowing equal time for discussion of each idea. During this discussion, refinementofinitialideasand“hitchhiking”bycombiningideasareencouraged.As well, everyone is given an opportunity to offer reasons for agreement or disagreementwitheachidea.Thus,incontrastwiththestrict“deferredevaluation”of the initial brainstorming phase, this second phase is decidedly evaluative, but constructively so. The purpose is to improve all of the ideas without yet passing afinalvoteonthebestone.

Selectfinalideasbyindividualvotes:IGIbrainstormingprocedure,with itspassivechairpersonand its“rotational”format has been shown to result in excellent group cohesion and a greater likelihoodoffinalideaacceptanceandimplementation.theykeytothisseemstobethatfinalideasareselectedbyindividualvotinginwhichallparticipantshave an equal say.

The autocratic, directive leadership that is typical of company or advertising agency “newideas”meetingsisespeciallydetrimentaltoacceptanceandimplementation.in an experiment examining directive versus participative leadership during a real

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world evaluation problem analogous to whichideastoselectorrejectinthe“G”phase of the IGI procedure, Leana found that directive-leader groups are inferior to participative-leader groups. Directive leadership suppresses the number of ideas evaluated and more pertinently to the present point, drastically reduces acceptance of the solution. In the directive-leader groups, 21 out of 26 groups adoptedtheleader’ssolutionbut,inpost-sessiondebriefing,manyindividualsprivately disagreed with the leader’s solution. In the participative-leader groups, only four of the 26 groups chose the leader’s solution and virtually all individuals agreed with the group’s chosen solution.

Another advantage of pooled individual votes is that it usually produces a more accurate prediction than when individuals in groups interact to arrive at a forecast. The pooled individual voting procedure allows positive and negatives to cancel out and is therefore more likely to correctly predict a successful idea.

Individuals are the keys to the beginning and the end of the IGI brainstorming procedure, while acting as a group in the middle. The Individual Group Individual method would appear to best capitalise on the respective strengths of individual processes as well as group processes in the search for high quality creative ideas.

The time required should be kept remarkably short:Conventional wisdom has it that creative idea generation cannot be rushed becausearestor“incubation”periodisnecessary.Theincubationnotionhasbeenaround at least since Wallas’ well known, four-stage model of creative thinking. Just about everyone believes in incubation and can cite personal anecdotes of its value. The notion that brainstorming needs an incubation period for best results must be rejected.

A consistent observation about the brainstorming experiments reviewed for this article, even where the brainstorming task was for a complex, real world problem, is that the time required for initial idea generation is remarkably short, of the orderoffifteenminutes.Moreover,theoverallIGIprocedureofwhichindividualideationisthefirstpart,rarelyrequiresmorethanacoupleofhoursfromstartto completion.

A total duration of two hours compares very favourably with the typical, rambling,unstructuredgroup“ideasmeeting”wherehalfaday’sdeliberationisnot uncommon and the lack of structure and systematic procedure often requires afollow-upmeeting.TheIGIprocedureisextremelyefficientintermsofman-hours and produces superior results.

3.6 The Deming CycleThe Deming cycle is a methodology for improvement. It was originally called the Shewhart cycle after its creator. Walter Shewhart, but was renamed the Deming Cycle by the Japanese in 1950. The Deming cycle is composed of four stages: plan, do, study and act. It is also known as PDSA cycle.

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TheDemingCycle isbasedon the scientificmethodand forcesonacquiringknowledge through the testing of ideas and theories. As such, the emphasis is on objectivity. This process may take more time, but it eliminates making decisions based on intuition or opinions, which are often wrong.

The plan stage consists of several steps. First, we investigate the process in order to identify how things are currently being done. We need to focus on objectives:

What do customers of this process want?•We need to develop a research plan.•

This includes indentifying good measurements for collecting data or asking questions, as well as strategies for conducting experiments. We need to collect data,analysetheresultsandsuggestspecificimprovement.

In the do stage, the plan is implemented, preferably on a small-scale, trial basis. Thismightbeinalaboratory,asshort-termexperimentontheproductionfloor,or with small group f customers. The focus is to understand whether the trial solutionindeedinanimprovement.Wemustdefineprocessmeasures,plandatacollection and gather data to study the effects of the change. The study stage is designed to determine if the trial plan works correctly ad if any further problems or opportunities are found. Data gathered in the do stage are analysed, and we try to learn from the experiment. The greatest challenge is to remain objective, particularly if the data contradict intuition or prior experience.

The last stage, act, focuses on what to do next. We might implement the change and institute controls to ensure that the improvements will be standardised and practiced continuously. An implementation strategy normally outlines training requirements, equipment requirements, changes to current procedures, a schedule formakingthetransitionandcost/benefitimplications.Or,wemightconcludethat the change will not result in a sustained improvement and continue with experiment. In either case, we return to the plan stage for further diagnosis and improvement.

This cycle is never ending; that is, it focuses on continuous improvement. The improved standards are only a springboard for further improvement. This is what distinguishes it from more traditional problem-solving approaches. It is one of the essential elements of the Deming philosophy.

3.7 Juran’s Improvement ProgramJoseph Juran emphasises the importance of developing a habit of making annual improvementsinqualityandannualreductionsinquality-relatedcosts.Jurandefinesbreakthrough as any improvement that takes an organisation to unprecedented levels of performance. Breakthrough focuses on attacking chronic losses or, in Deming’s terminology, common causes of variation. All breakthroughs follow a common a common sequence of discovery, organisation, diagnosis, corrective actionandcontrol.This“breakthroughsequence”isdescribesbelow:

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Proof of the needManagers, especially top managers, need to be convinced that quality improvements are simply good economics. Through quality cost analysis or supplemental data-collection efforts, information on poor quality, low productivity, or poor service can be translated into the language of money to justify a request for resources in order to implement a quality improvement program.

ProjectidentificationAll breakthroughs are achieved project by project, and in no other way. by taking a project approach, management provides a forum for converting an atmosphere ofdefensivenessorblameintooneofconstructiveaction.Identificationofthemostbeneficialprojectsisoftendonethroughdatacollectionandprioritisationefforts or by consensus-voting approaches.

Organisational for breakthroughOrganisation for improvement requires identifying clear responsibility for guiding the project. The responsibility for the project may be assigned to as broad a group as an entire division with formal committee structures or as narrow a group as asmallteamofworkersatoneproductionoperation.Thesegroupsmustdefineandagreetothespecificaimsoftheproject,theauthoritytoconductexperimentsand implementation strategies.

The diagnostic journeyThis focuses onfinding causes of symptoms.Diagnosticians skilled in datacollection, statistics and other problem-solving tools are needed at this stage. Some projects full-time, specialised experts, while others can be performed by the workforce themselves.

The remedial journeyThe remedial journey-moving from cause to remedy-consists of several phases, choosing an alternative that optimises total cost, implementing remedial action, and dealing with resistance to change.

Holding the gainsThisfinalstepinvolvesestablishingthenewstandardsandprocedures,trainingthe workforce and instituting controls to make sure that the breakthrough does not die over time.

Juran’s approach focuses on overall organisational planning and the solution of quality problems through careful diagnosis of causes and remedial action. The DemingCyclehasitsprincipalfocusonsolutionverificationandimplementation;hence, the Deming Cycle is most relevant in the last two steps of Juran’s approach.

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SummaryStatistical Quality Control (SQC) or Statistical Process Control (SPC) for •repetitive, high volume production began in the 1930s when Shewhart developed control charts.Six sigma methodologies are considered to be primarily a business management •strategy that is focused upon improving business processes by the minimisation and / or elimination of variation and defects.Pareto analysis is a statistical technique in decision making that is used for •the selection of a limited number of tasks that produce significant effectoverall.The value of the Pareto principle for a project manager is that it reminds you •to focus on the 20% of things that matter.FMEA is used to identify potential failure modes, determine their effect on •the operation of the product, and identify actions to mitigate the failures.The Risk Priority Number is a mathematical product of the numerical severity, •probability and detection ratings:RPN = (Severity) • (Probability) (Detection)The RPN is used to prioritise items than require additional quality planning •or action.Reliability is one of the most important characteristics of any product, no •matter what its application is.Reliabilitymaybedefinedas theprobabilityof theproduct toperformas•expected for a certain period of time, under the given operating conditions, and at a given set of product performance characteristics.Environmental FMEA could be used to evaluate the environmental impact or •correct the impact of manufacturing.Meaning of brainstorming is to activate the brain for spontaneous discussion •in search for new ideas.Joseph Juran emphasises the importance of developing a habit of making •annual improvements in quality and annual reductions in quality-related costs.

ReferencesProblem-Solving/Process Improvement • [Online]. Available at: <http://www.brecker.com/quality.htm>. [Accessed: 5 July 2011].Pareto Analysis Step by Step• [Online]. Available at: <http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/pareto-analysis-step-by-step.html>. [Accessed: 5 July 2011].CKScienceJobs, 2010. • Quality Manager Job (Polymers) - North West [Video Online]. Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AYoyhi6TYg>. [Accessed: 27 July 2011].

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InformaticaCorp,• 2011. Solving the Customer Data Challenge with Master Data Management (MDM) [Video Online] Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLkWHubOc18>. [Accessed: 27 July 2011].Stamatis, D. H., 2001. • Six Sigma and Beyond: Problem Solving and Basic Mathematics, Volume II, 1st ed., CRC Press.Wilson, P. F., Dell, L. D. and Anderson, G. F., 1993. • Root Cause Analysis: A Tool for Total Quality Management, 1st ed., ASQ Quality Press.

Recommended ReadingHartman, M. G., 2001. • Fundamental Concepts of Quality Improvement, ASQ Quality Press.Alexander, W. F. and Serfass, R. W., 1998. • Futuring Tools for Strategic Quality Planning in Education, Amer Society for Quality.Nemoto, M. and Lu, D., 1987. • Total Quality Control for Management: Strategies and Techniques from Toyota and Toyoda Gosei, Prentice Hall Trade.

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Self Assessment

_____________ means a failure rate of 3.4 parts per million or 99.9997% 1. perfect.

Control chartsa. Statistical Quality Control b. Pareto Analysisc. Six Sigmad.

Match the following.2.

Proof of the need1. moving from cause to remedy-consists of several A. phases.

Project 2. identification

Diagnosticians skilled in data collection, B. statistics, and other problem-solving tools are needed at this stage.

The diagnostic 3. journey

All breakthroughs are achieved project by C. project, and in no other way by taking a project approach, management provides a forum for converting an atmosphere of defensiveness or blame into one of constructive action.

The remedial 4. journey

Managers, especially top managers, need to be D. convinced that quality improvements are simply good economics.

1-D, 2-A, 3-B, 4-Ca. 1-D, 2-C, 3-B, 4-Ab. 1-C, 2-A, 3-D, 4-Bc. 1-B, 2-D, 3-A, 4-Cd.

___________ is a statistical technique in decision making that is used for 3. the selection of a limited number of tasks that produce significant effectoverall.

Statistical Quality Controla. Six sigma methodologies b. Pareto analysisc. Risk Priority Number d.

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The Risk Priority Number is a mathematical product of the______________, 4. probability, and detection ratings.

numerical severitya. pareto analysisb. six sigmac. riskd.

FMEA stands for___________.5. FailureModesandEfficientAnalysisa. Fast Modes and Effects Analysisb. Failure Modes and Effects Analysisc. Failure Modes and Extra Analysisd.

The value of the Pareto principle for a project manager is that it reminds you 6. to focus on the ___________ of things that matter.

50%a. 20%b. 30%c. 60%d.

Which statement is false?7. Pareto analysis is a statistical technique in decision making that is used for a. theselectionofalimitednumberoftasksthatproducesignificanteffectoverall.The value of the Pareto principle for a project manager is that it reminds b. you to focus on the 20% of things that matter.Statistical Quality Control is used to identify potential failure modes, c. determine their effect on the operation of the product, and identify actions to mitigate the failures.The Risk Priority Number is a mathematical product of the numerical d. severity, probability and detection ratings

The Deming cycle was originally called the ___________ after its creator.8. Shewhart cyclea. Wilson cycleb. Stamatis cyclec. Hartman cycled.

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The increasing capabilities and functionality of many products are making it 9. moredifficultfor____________tomaintainthequalityandreliability.

buyersa. sellersb. ownersc. manufacturersd.

_______________ is used to prioritise items than require additional quality 10. planning or action.

Area Priority Numbera. Planning Priority Numberb. Six Sigma Priority Numberc. Risk Priority Numberd.

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Chapter IV

Strategic Quality Management

Aim

The aim of this unit is to:

explain the basics concept of TQM•

explore key facets of TQM•

definestructureofTQM•

Objectives

The objectives of this unit are to:

explainfunctionsofthefinancialsystem•

elucidate money and capital market•

enlisttypesoffinancialmarkets•

Learning outcome

At the end of this unit, you will be able to:

understand the philosophies of TQM•

classify the quality statements•

descr• ibe the criticism of quality philosophies

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4.1 Total Quality Management (TQM)TQM was developed from the lessons learned from Japanese organisations. It is a broad philosophy and applied process of implementing a formalised structure of management education and activities for dealing with quality issues. It is based on the assumption that the majority of quality issues can be handled by focused management activity, leading to improved quality of work and greater levels of quality in the whole organisation.

This will in turn lead to higher levels of distinctive quality at an acceptable and competitive cost.

TQM is a quality-focused customer-oriented integrative management method that emphasises continuing and cumulative gains in quality, productivity, and cost reduction. These gains are achieved through continuous improvement in product design, reduction in operating costs, reduction in operating losses, avoidance of wastage of time, effort, and material in a form, removal of production-line deficiencies, up-gradationof skills and empowerment of employees to detectand correct errors, among other measures. TQM involves the participation of every department, every section, every activity, continuous improvement effort. Its central integrative focus is the concept of total customer satisfaction with the quality and performance of the company’s products or service.

The structure of TQM may be seen to consist of the following main elements:Design Standardisation•Taguchi Methods (Control of Variability)•Quality Function Deployment•Performance Measurement and Statistical Quality Control•Employee Involvement•Small-Group Activities•

4.1.1 History for TQMTQMhasevolvedoverthepastfivedecadesbyincorporatingandsynthesisingideas frommany sources.Though the Japanese companieswere the first tointroduce and use the TQM concept, many of the basic ideas underlying TQM originated in the United States. W. Edwards Deming and Joseph M. Juran are the two people most closely associated with the development programs in Japan and subsequently in the United States.

Deming was most widely noted for teaching the importance of management responsibility for the quality system and for having companywide participation. He emphasised the need for a total quality system to build quality into the products rather than inspecting the products for quality.

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Juran argued that poor quality is due to poor management, and he insisted that good product quality requires a companywide approach and management involvement in building quality program is characterised as a Quality Trilogy made up of quality planning, quality monitoring, and control.

In 1946, the American Society of Quality Control was formed. At present, the society is called as American Society for Quality (ASQ). In 1950, W. Edward Deming, a student of Shewhart educated the Japanese engineers. In 1954, Joseph M. Juran educated the Japanese companies about the management’s responsibility to achieve quality.

In 1960, Quality Circle concept was evolved and Japanese workers started practicing it. By the late 1970s, US companies started thinking about TQM. As a part of implementing TQM many US managers were sent to Japan to learn how to implement TQM. In early 1990s, Statistical Process Control was evolved and major automotive industries emphasised the use of these techniques as a compulsory requirement for their suppliers. Approximately, at the same time Genichi Taguchi popularised the design of experiments for optimising the process parameters and for designing robust products.

In the middle of 1990s, ISO 9000 standards were popularised and accepted worldwide as a means to achieve quality.

4.1.2 Basic Concept of TQMTQM requires the following six basic pillars for its successful implementation and existence:

Top management: • The fate of any company is determined by the way it is managed by its top management. The total quality business requires right people for various jobs and all the necessary resources for accomplishing the tasks. Only a committed top management can inculcate the required culture and discipline for the total quality culture is only with the top management. Hence, the top management commitment occupies the number one position in the requirement list for effective implementation of TQM.Focus on customer: • Today’s business starts and ends with the customer and customers are treated as God of the business. The whole idea of TQM dwells around the customer and their satisfaction. The famous quote ‘The next process is your customer’ has made a tremendous impact on the manufactured products. Theexternalcustomercanbesatisfiedonlyiftherequirementsareclearlyunderstood and the right product/service is delivered. The loyal customer base for the product is a good measure of customer satisfaction.Employee involvement: • The success of any organisation is always attributed to the involvement of the employees and the top management who has instilled the quality consciousness into the employees. Employee involvement is an achievement made true by excellent HR practices.

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Continuous improvement: • Continuous improvement in all aspects of the business is the key to retain the initial success achieved by TQM practices. Training the workforce on all the latest technologies and providing them with all the necessary resources results in continuous improvement.Partnership with suppliers: • Good relationship with suppliers ensures a timely supply of goods and thus the lead time can be reduced drastically. For example, Maruti Udyog Limited, the famous car manufacturer in India has attracted all their suppliers to have their plants near their company. This has resulted in a significantsavingoftheirinventorymanagementcostandleadtime.Performance measures: • Performance measures act as motivators for everyone in a company. Care should be taken to ensure that the performance measures are objectively set and they are used fairly.

4.1.3 Structure of TQMThe structure of TQM may be seen to consist of the following main elements:

Design Standardisation

Taguchi Methods (Control of Variability)

Quality Function Deployment

Performance Measurement and Statistical Quality Control

Employee Involvement

Small-Group Activities

TQM Structure

Fig. 4.1 Structure of TQM

Thenatureofeachoftheseelementsmaybeoutlinedbriefly:Design standardisation• denotes that the design of components and their assembly in a product has been rationalised, tested rigorously, and proven in manufacture.Itisapowerfulmeansforimprovingtheflowofnewproductsthrough the product and process design function. It also has major implications forsimplifyingthefactoryfloorenvironmentandtheentireproductservicetask

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inthefield.Aprovenstandarddesignservestoeliminatevarious‘bugs’fromthe production process. It makes possible the optimisation of the production process and its error-free operation.Taguchi methods• provide a powerful means for isolating critical product design parameters that need to be controlled in the manufacturing process. They also enable manufacturing management to relate the variability in their products to monetary losses. Taguchi’s quality loss function enables management to think of quality in terms of money rather than merely in terms of the implications of various statistical distributions, standard deviations, variability and so on. The importance of Taguchi methods lies in their demonstration of how the cost of variability. The cost of quality to the company and to society can be calculated through Taguchi’s quality loss function. The function, for example, enablesacompanytoevaluatethesignificanceofa50percentreductioninproduct variability in terms of monetary gains. The company can then analyse whether the methods by which it can achieve that 50 per cent reduction in variability are worth the reduced quality monetary losses.Quality Function Deployment (QFD)• represents a comprehensive analytic schema or framework for quality. The purpose of this schema is to enable a company to translate any customer preference or desire about products into what has to be done in design, manufacturing, or distribution and to the product and the process, to satisfy the customer. Quality function deployment provides structure to the product development cycle. The foundation of this structure is customer requirements. QFD proceeds in a systematic manner from design concepts to manufacturing process to manufactured product. It ensures at each step that quality assurance is built into both process and product. QFD also implies that the company has documented its quality policy that is understood, implemented and maintained at all levels in the organisation and thatresponsibilityandauthorityareclearlydefined.Performance measurement and statistical quality control• are applicable to both, the factory of the enterprise and its vendors or suppliers. The latter are enjoined upon and expected to supply materials, components, and inputsofrequiredstandardsandspecificationsofquality.Withoutaproperframe of measurement, a company cannot assess and evaluate the success or effectiveness of its efforts towards improving the cost and quality of its operations and outputs.The concept of employee involvement• is essentially concerned with extending decision-making to the lowest possible hierarchic level of the company. It also denotesahighlevelofworkers’motivationandmoraleandtheiridentificationwith the goals of the organisation. A high level of employee involvement, i.e., their motivation, commitment, and empowerment towards productivity, innovation, and problem-solving, depends on the strength of an organisation’s culture, i.e., its system of shared values, beliefs, norms, and vision.

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The concept of small-group activities• is closely aligned with employee involvement. Small voluntary groups of workers known as quality circles or productivity teams represent a mechanism for evoking, sustaining, and utilising employee involvement. Small-group activities represent a powerful way of improving productivity, quality and work performance in the organisation in a continuing manner.

4.1.4 Key Facets of TQM Integrative Focus are the PIsKey facets of TQM’s integrative focus are the four PIs:

People Involvement•Product Process Innovation•Problem Investigation•Perpetual Improvement•

The keynote of these four PIs is teamwork or cooperation. In TQM, however, the concept of teamwork is larger and more inclusive. It implies that

employees are viewed as assets; •suppliers are viewed as partners; •customers are viewed as guides. •

Involving all three of them intimately in the company’s team effort to accomplish TQM is a continuing thrust of the company’s manufacturing policies. The underlyingassumptionsorkeypremisesofTQMmaybebrieflysummarised:

Quality cannot be improved by investment in high technology alone.•Quality depends on and comes from, people.•Quality is the result of attitudes and values; it is the result of viewing quality •as a ‘way of life’.Organisational culture and management style govern the quality of products •and services in a very basic manner.

4.1.5 Principles of TQMA quality focused environment must be promoted with customer satisfaction as the key indicator of quality, in order to implement and sustain the TQM movement in the company. Existing systems in the company must be willing to accept the change in attitudes and processes that are required to bring out continuous improvement in the goods and services provided by an organisation.

A quality focused environment aims at meeting the customer requirements and needs at a reasonable cost. Promoting change in the management systems by providing sufficient trainingon changemanagement, promotingparticipationof all stakeholders and an empowered workforce is the key to address the above challenges.

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Supportive and enabling leader, who will never restrict the freedom of subordinates, will succeed in the TQM implementation. For the continued success of TQM, both the clients and the workforce must be active partners in the development of the products/services.

Inparticular,ifcustomersaretobesatisfied,membersoftheorganisationmusthave a sense of ownership of their services. Also, employees at all levels must be able to exercise wide discretion in meeting customer needs, both within and outside the organisation. Some key changes needed to support this process include:

Recognition and reward for creativity and innovation of the employees in •meeting the objectives.Introducing continuous and progressive improvements and provide an ongoing •staff training.

To achieve an empowered workforce, a TQM environment must provide training to everyone in the company to gain additional capabilities, to improve the process and perform the work. Advanced job skill training must be provided and constantly updatedtoreflecttheimprovedprocesses.

4.2 Total Company InvolvementIf small group activities and empowerment, as defined by the Japanese, areinappropriate for American companies.

Total employee involvement is the natural result of a work environment that encourages the active participation of each employee in the day-to-day operation ofthecompany.Theenvironmentneedstoclearlydefinegoalsandobjectives.It also needs to have stable and uniform direction, trustworthy leadership, and most important a viable, open communication throughout the organisation. This concept sounds easy, and the senior management of most companies truly believes that these conditions exist in its companies. Unfortunately, most companies do not meet any of these criteria and therefore do not have the full support of their work force.

Here are the 8 ways to get total involvement:Teams• : People work better when working close to other people. We are social animalswhothriveoncommunicationandcooperation.Apracticalfirststeptototal involvement is to start small and local. It may be too much to expect one thousand people to all agree and engage fully in a common goal right away, butwecanachievethisintheshorttermwithgroupsoffivetotenfairlyeasily.Encouragement aids engagement, as peer recognition for accomplishment is as important if not more important than monetary or other extrinsic rewards in the long run.

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Uniforms• : Simplifying and standardising how we present ourselves not only removessuperficialdifferencesthatdistractusfromwhatwehaveincommon,but also remind us that we are coming to work for a reason. Just as personal protection equipment is necessary for working with machinery, diving gear is necessary for diving and lab coats are needed in the lab, a basic uniform helps people be mindful that they are choosing to be involved in whatever they are doing. Stand up meetings• : Successful teams from the habit of meeting to review the game plan before the start of the day and review it at least once during or near the end of the day. This speeds up communication, nips any problems in the bud and reinforces the goal of the shared work of the team. The team meeting is the most basic act of total involvement. Any organisation claiming to aim for total involvement or to practice lean must have teams that hold regular brief meetings.Cross training and job rotation• : Total involvement means never saying “that isnotmyjob”.Teammemberswhocanprovidemutualassistancetoothersrequire knowledge and skill of the work of others. This is developed through crosstrainingandjobrotation.Thebenefitsofcrosstrainingareimmense,bothintermsofhardsavingsandsoftsavings,andincludeflexibility, jobsatisfaction, exposure of problems, improved quality and of course reduced cost. To get total involvement, give people more to do.Cleaning• : The high performance workplace should be clean and well-organised by design and through discipline. This should not be the result of heroic daily efforts at cleaning. While daily 5 to 15 minute clean up times may be the way tostartthispractice,clevermanagerstargettheseminutesfor“savings”orto increase capacity, resulting in not only more clutter but damaged morale due to eroding involvement, and ultimately lower performance. A more effective practice of cleaning is to make 5S a natural part of the work cycle soeveryonecan“cleanasyougo”.Processesshouldbedesignedforeaseofputting things back, picking things up, and sweeping things away periodically with an emphasis on always eliminating the need to clean through root cause countermeasures. Total involvement is again the key - making sure that cleanliness is not the janitor’s job part of everyone’s habit.Suggestions systems• : The basic creative unit in an organisation is the human mind. Every person has one of these. Too often they are underutilised at work. Properly designed to encourage small, local, practical improvements towards eliminating variation, overburden and waste, the suggestion system is the best single way to get total involvement. People have found various pitfalls to step into with suggestion schemes over the years, but those who have not shied away from building a proper suggestion scheme are rewarded with upwards of one idea implemented per month per employee for years on end.

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TPM• :WecouldsaythatTotalProductiveMaintenanceisahighlyspecificandconcrete application of the lean thinking and principles, focused on making the most effective use of production equipment. The term TPM predates the term“lean” and incorporatesmanyof the concepts and tools of lean.It was a marriage of preventive maintenance disciplines with TQM (Total Quality Management) and has evolved over the years, expanding reach into administrative and management areas. At the heart of TPM is teamwork, the development of people and total involvement in improving safety, quality, delivery and cost. Due to its highly structured and focused nature, whenever appropriate TPM should be implemented towards a lean operation with total involvement.Policy deployment• : Also knwon as hoshin kanri, hoshin planning, strategy deploymentorsimplygoalalignmentaims toseta fewsignificant targetsand then use a down-up-down deployment process by which conversations take place on how each team at each level in the organisation will support the achievement of these goals. Combined with a built-in PDCA process for corrective action and learning, policy deployment may be the most powerful management discipline available to us today. In essence policy deployment is the systematic application of Kaizen to management and planning. Under policy deployment, everyone is involved in building the success of their company and thereby creating their own future.

4.3 Technical and Managerial TQMFollowing are the steps involved in technical and managerial TQM:

4.3.1 Implementation of TQMTotal Quality Management is in the limelight. TQM philosophy has been accepted world over as an excellent methodology for quality improvement in any organisation. Every organisation is at least thinking or wanting to know about TQM principles. While it is true that TQM improves the quality of work life, it should be understood that it is not a panacea. While implementing TQM three phaseshavebeenidentifiedtobecritical.ItisreferredasOEAmodel.

OrientationWhen TQM is introduced, it is necessary to set goals, and set up new organisational structures. The management and workers should be informed of what TQM is and why it is to be created within the traditional organisation.

EmpowermentA ‘punishing power’ has to be created for TQM activity. The workers must be given the tools to practice TQM and be encouraged to used the tools and be involved in the quality effort. This must be reinforced by the diffusion of improvement success stories.

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AlignmentOnce TQM has started and is moving ahead, you need pulling power to direct the activity to synchronise and align to TQM and goals and practices of the Institutions.

Celebration

Continuous improve-

ment strategies

Bench marking

Implemen-tation Reengineer

Personal Involve-ment of CEO

Quality metrics

Quality manuals

Scientific tools

Institution-alisation

Quality im-provement programs

Training for all

Budget for

TQM

Customer needs

Job De-scription & specifica-

tion

Database Develop-

ment

Bottom up strategies

Quality policy and

GoalsQuality teams

Training the trainer

Commit-ment of CEO

5$ policy

PADS

Standardise Rewarding system

STEPS1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1

PHASE

V

IV

III

II

I

Fig 4.2 TQM Implementation Strategies(Source:http://books.google.co.in/books?id=F-v3AdcJP9kC&pg=PA365&dq=Implementation+of+TQM&hl=en&ei=_RcdToinFo7IrQemk7XGDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=c

elebration&f=false)

Points of caution in TQM implementation:TQM implementation should not be a half-hearted activity. Full commitment •from all levels of employees is essential for its success. Commitment is continues pursuit of goals/tasks under all circumstances.TQM requires the employees at all levels to undergo attitudinal, informational •and skills training. Training the managers as well as the other non-managerial staff is essential to TQM’s proper implementation.TQMshouldbea clearlydirectedwithadefinitegoal towardswhich the•organisation would slowly but surely move. Therefore, there should be strategic plans and specific attainments chalkedout.Thegoals should beclearly measurable for their quantum of realisation. There should be clear metrics for the same.

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TQM should be focused on the customer. •TQM is an ongoing activity, because the requirements/preferences of the •customer may change.TQM should also not lose its sights on key business results. •

4.3.2 Quality CouncilIn order to build quality into the culture, a quality council is established to provide overall direction. It is the driver for the TQM engine.

Inatypicalorganisationthecounciliscomposedofthechiefexecutiveofficer(CEO); the senior managers of the functional areas, such as design, marketing, finance,production,andqualityandacoordinatororconsultants.If thereisaunion, consideration should be given to having a representative on the council. A coordinator is necessary to assume some of the added duties that a quality improvement activity requires.

The responsibility of the coordinator is to build two-way trust, propose team needs to the council, share council expectations with the team, and briefs the council on team progress.

In smaller organisations where managers may be responsible for more than one functional area, the number of members will be smaller.

In general, the duties of the quality council are:Develop, with input from all personnel, the core values, vision statement, •mission statement, and quality policy statement.Develop the strategic long term plan with goals and the annual quality •improvement program with objectives.Create the total education and training plan•Determine and continually monitor the cost of poor quality.•Determine the performance measures for the organisation, approve those for •the functional areas, and monitor them.Continually determine those projects that improve the processes, particularly •those that affect external and internal customer satisfaction.Establish multifunctional project and departmental or work group teams and •monitor their progress.Establish or revise the recognition and reward system to account for the new •way of doing business.

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In large organisations, quality councils are also established at lower levels of the corporation. Their duties are similar but relate to that particular level in the organisation. Initially, these activities will require additional work by council members; however, in the long term, their jobs will be easier. These councils are the instruments for perpetuating the idea of never ending quality improvement.

4.3.3 Quality StatementsIn addition to the core values and concepts, the quality statements include the vision statement, mission statement, and quality policy statement. Once developed, they are only occasionally reviewed and updated. They are part of the strategic planning process. The utilisation of the three statements varies considerably from organisation to organisation.

Vision statementThe vision statement is a short declaration of what an organisation aspires to be tomorrow. It is the ideal state that might never be reached but which you continually strive to achieve. Successful visions are timeless, inspirational, and become deeply shared within the organisation.

Successful visions provide a succinct guideline for decision making. One way toreinforcethesignificanceofthevisionstatementistoincludeitonemployeebadges. An example of a simple one sentence vision statement is “To be world class enterprise in professional electronics’’ by- Bharat Electronics.

Mission statementThe mission statement answers the following questions: who we are, who are the customers, what we do, and how we do it. This statement is usually one paragraph or less in length, is easy to understand, and describes the function of the organisation. It provides a clear statement of purpose for employees, customers, and suppliers.

An example of a mission statement is “Our mission is to improve continually our products and services to meet our customers’ needs, allowing us to prosper as a business and to provide a reasonable return to our shareholders, the owners of ourbusiness.”by–FordMotorCompany

Quality Policy StatementThe quality policy is a guide for everyone in the organisation as to how they should provide products and service to the customers. It should be written by the CEO with feedback from the work force and be approved by the quality council.

Common characteristics are:Qualityisfirstamongequals•Meet the needs of the internal and external customers.•Equal or exceed the competition.•

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Continually improve the quality.•Include business and production practices.•Utilise the entire work force.•

A quality policy is a requirement of ISO/ QS 9000. A simple quality policy is:Xerox is a quality company. Quality is the basic business principle for Xerox. Quality means providing our external and internal customers with innovative products and services that fully satisfy their requirements. Quality is the job of every employee by Xerox Corporation.

4.3.4 Strategic PlanningManyorganisationsarefinding thatstrategicqualityplansandbusinessplansare inseparable.

There are seven basic steps to strategic quality planning. The process starts with the principle that quality and customer satisfaction are the centre of an organisation’s future. It brings together all the key stake holders.

Customer needsThefirststepistodiscoverthefutureneedsofthecustomers.Whowilltheybe?Will your customer base change? What will they want? How will the organisation meet and exceed expectations?

Customer positioningNext, the planners determine where the organisation wants to be in relation to the customers. Do they want to retain, reduce, or expand the customer base? Products or services with poor quality performance should be targeted for breakthrough or eliminated. The organisation needs to concentrate its efforts on areas of excellence.

Predict the futureDemographics, economic forecasts, and technical assessments or projections are tools that help predict the future. More than one organisation’s product or service has become obsolete because it failed to foresee the changing technology.

Gap analysisThis step requires the planners to identify the gaps between the current state and the future state of the organisation. An analysis of the core values and concepts is an excellent technique for pinpointing gaps.

Closing the gap The plan can now be developed to close the gap by establishing goals and responsibilities. All stakeholders should be included in the development of the plan.

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AlignmentAs the plan is developed, it must be aligned with the mission, vision, and core values and concepts of the organisation. Without this alignment, the plan will have little chance of success.

ImplementationThis last step is frequently themostdifficult.Resourcesmustbeallocated tocollecting data, designing changes, and overcoming resistance to change. Also part of this step is the monitoring activity to ensure that progress is being made.

4.3.5 Annual Quality Improvement ProgramAn annual program is developed along with a long-term strategic plan. Some of the strategic items will eventually become part of the annual plan, which will include new short term items.

In addition to creating the items, the program should develop among all managers, specialists, and operating personnel.

It is a sense of responsibility for active participation in making improvements. The skills needed to make improvements. The habit of annual improvements so thateachyeartheorganisation’squalityissignificantlybebetterthanthepreviousyear’s.

Some organisations have well-structures annual quality improvement programs. In organisations that lack those programs, any improvements must come from the initiative of managers and specialists. It takes a great deal of determination by these people to secure results, because they lack the legitimacy and support that comesfromanofficial,structuresprogramdesignedbythequalitycouncil.

4.3.6 Barriers to TQM ImplementationThe most common barrier found in any implementation is the complacency, i.e., gettingsatisfiedwithwhatwehavenownotstrivingforcontinuousimprovement.The following are the commonly experienced obstacles while implementing TQM:

Lack of management commitmentThe top management must provide continuous support for their implementation. They must clearly communicate the purpose of quality improvement to all the employees and necessary resources must be given.

Inability to change the organisational cultureThemostdifficultpartintheTQMimplementationischangingtheexistingculture.This requires a lot of training and awareness programs. Change is possible only when the people think that they belong to the organisation. The trust between the employer and employee must be improved.

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Inadequate planningEveryone involved in the business must be involved in the planning process. While planning, the company should focus on the customer satisfaction rather than the profits.Iftheplanningisinadequate,theimplementationissuretofail.

Lack of training and educationTraining and education must be made as a part of business process. Properly trained people are the most important asset of any organisation. To be effective, the top management must conduct the training program.

Incompatible organisation structureIf all the departments are not equally treated while implementing any program, the implementation is sure to fail. It is better to form multifunctional teams to implement any new philosophy; this will wipe out the differences.

Poor measurement metrics and data analysisDecision making must be based on data analysis. If proper measurement metrics are not used, the data collected will lead to confusion. For every problem the root cause must be traced out so that the implementation becomes easier.

Poor attention to the voice of the customersA TQM organisation should never ignore the voice of the customers. If customer focus is lost, everything is lost as far as the TQM implementation is concerned.

Lack of teamworkIf people are not working in teams it is a clear sign of TQM implementation failure. Teamwork can reduce the implementation hurdles to a maximum extent. The team members must be carefully trained on the required skills and every team have a member from all departments.

4.4 Philosophies of TQMAccording to ISO 9000, Total Quality Management is a management philosophy that seeks to focus the functions of an organisation into Quality, with the participation of every member in it, in order to reach a long-lasting success by satisfyingallcustomerrequirementsandbringbackbenefittothemembersofthat organisation and to the society.

Deming’s PhilosophyW. Edwards Deming was an American statistician responsible for improving the standards of Japan’s manufacturing companies by introducing TQM. Deming went to Japan just after the war to help set up a census of the Japanese population. While he was there, he taught ‘statistical process control’ to Japanese engineers- a set of techniques, which allowed them to manufacture high quality goods without expensive machinery.

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Following are the Deming’s 14 points:

Create constancy of purpose towards improvementThis point encourages management to accept the obligation to constantly improve the product or services. This is possible only by innovation, research, education, and continual improvement in all facets of the company.

Adopt the new philosophyTop management and everyone in the organisation must learn the new philosophy of continuous improvement and that should be the way of life, and non-conformance in any way must be rejected.

Cease dependence on inspectionIf variation is reduced, there is no need to inspect manufactured items for defects, because there won’t be any.

Move towards a single supplier for any one itemMultiple suppliers mean variation between raw materials. This will result in the variation of manufactured parts. If dependent on one supplier, the uniformity will be ensured and variation due to raw materials can be drastically reduced.

Improve constantly and foreverConstantly strive to reduce variation.

Institute training on the jobProperly trained people will work systematically and the variation will be less.

Institute leadershipDeming makes a distinction between leadership and mere supervision. Supervision is based on quota and target, but leadership requires a factual understanding of the situation.

Drive out fearThe fear component must be removed from the minds of the employees, because the fear may become counterproductive in the long run.

Break down barriers between departmentsThe concept of ‘Internal customer’ is the central idea of the TQM philosophy. Internal customers are the departments that use the output of your department. So there should be a great understanding and transparency among the departments.

Eliminate slogansAnother central TQM idea is that it’s not people who make most mistakes it is the process they are working within. Finding fault with the workforce without improving the processes is counterproductive.

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Eliminate management by objectivesDeming saw production targets as a way to production of poor-quality goods. The numerical quotas urge the people to compromise on quality while increasing the quantity. Quantity without quality is of no use.

Remove barriers to pride of workmanshipPeople should be made to be proud of their work.

Institute education and self improvement

The transformation is everyone’s jobThe transformation will be complete only when the quality becomes the lifeblood of everyone. It is the responsibility of the top management to ensure that their people have adopted the quality concepts.

Juran and QualityJuran’s philosophy is perhaps best summed up in the saying, cited by Logothetis (1992: 62) ‘quality does not happen by accident, it has to be planned’. This is reflectedinhisstructuredapproachtocompanywidequalityplanning,anaspectalready met in the work of other gurus. The emphasis of his work is on ‘planning, organisational issues, management’s responsibility for quality and the need to set goals and targets for improvement’.

Juran’sfirsttwobeliefscanbederivedfromthis.First,thatmanagementarelargelyresponsible for quality. Second, that quality cannot be consistently improved unlesstheimprovementisplanned.Juran’sdefinitionofqualityconstitutesanotherstrandofhisphilosophy.Hedefinesqualityas‘fitnessforuseorpurpose’.Thisessentially simple approach encapsulates the demand for substantial action inherent in all of Juran’s work.

Juran’s emphasis in this respect is in three areas: changing management behaviour through quality awareness, training and then spilling down new attitudes to supportingmanagementlevels.Thistop-downapproachreflectsJuran’sbeliefthat management is largely responsible for quality problems.

SummarisingJuran’sphilosophyfivekeybeliefscanbeidentified:managementis largely responsible for quality;

quality can only be improved through planning; •plansandobjectivesmustbespecificandmeasurable;•training is essential and starts at the top; •three step process of planning, control and action.•

The quality planning road map: Joseph M. JuranStep 1: Identify who are the customers.Step 2: Determine the needs of those customers.

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Step 3: Translate those needs into our language [the language of the organisation].Step 4 Develop a product that can respond to those needs.Step 5: Optimise the product features so as to meet our [the company’s] needs as well as customers needs.Step 6: Develop a process which is able to produce the product.Step 7: Optimise the process.Step 8: Prove that the process can produce the product under operating conditions.Step 9: Transfer the process to operations.

Ten steps to continuous quality improvement: Joseph M. JuranStep 1: Create awareness of the need and opportunity for quality improvement.Step 2: Set goals for continuous improvement.Step 3: Build an organisation to achieve goals by establishing a quality council, identifying problems, selecting a project, appointing teams and choosing facilitators.Step 4: Give everyone training.Step 5: Carry out projects to solve problems.Step 6: Report progress.Step 7: Show recognition.Step 8: Communicate results.Step 9: Keep a record of successes.Step 10: Incorporate annual improvements into the company’s regular systems and processes and thereby maintain momentum.

Crosby PhilosophyCrosby’sphilosophyisseenbymany,tobeencapsulatedinhisfive‘Absolutesof Quality Management’. Each of these absolutes will be examined in turn to consider its meaning.

Five absolutes of quality management: Philip B. CrosbyQualityisdefinedasconformancetorequirements,neitheras‘goodness’nor•‘elegance’ There is no such thing as a quality problem.Itisalwayscheapertodoitrightfirsttime.•The only performance measurement is the cost of quality.•The only performance standard is zero defects.•

Summarising Crosby’s perspective on quality, there appear to be three essential strands:

abeliefinquantification•management leadership•prevention rather than cure•

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Quality is then considered by Crosby to be an inherent characteristic of the product not an added extra. He believes, for example, that 20 per cent of manufacturing cost relates to failure, whilst for service companies this is around 35 per cent. He considers that the workers must not be blamed for error, but rather, that management should take the lead, and that the workers will then follow. Crosby suggests that 85 per cent of quality problems are within the control of management.

Fourteen step quality programme by Philip B. CrosbyStep 1: Establish management commitment - it is seen as vital that the whole management team participates in the programme; a half hearted effort will fail.

Step 2: Form quality improvement teams – the emphasis here is on multidisciplinary team effort. An initiative from the quality department will not be successful. It is consideredessentialtobuildteamworkingacrossarbitrary,andoftenartificial,organisational boundaries.

Step 3: Establish quality measurements – these must apply to every activity throughout the company. A way must be found to capture every aspect, design, manufacturing, delivery and so on. These measurements provide a platform for the next step.

Step 4: Evaluate the cost of quality – this evaluation must highlight, using the measures established in the previous step, where quality improvement will be profitable.

Step 5: Raise quality awareness – this is normally undertaken through the training of managers and supervisors, through communications such as videos and books, and by displays of posters etc.

Step 6: Take action to correct problems – this involves encouraging staff to identify and rectify defects, or pass them on to higher supervisory levels where they can be addressed.

Step 7: Zero defects planning – establish a committee, or working group to develop ways to initiate and implement a Zero Defects programme.

Step 8: Train supervisors and managers – this step is focused on achieving understanding by all managers and supervisors of the steps in the quality improvement programme in order that they can explain it in turn.

Step 9: Hold a ‘Zero Defects’ day to establish the attitude and expectation within the company. Crosby sees this as being achieved in a celebratory atmosphere accompanied by badges, buttons, and balloons.

Step 10: Encourage the setting of goals for improvement. Goals are of course of no value unless they are related to appropriate timescales for their achievement.

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Step 11: Obstacle reporting – this is encouragement to employees to advise management of the factors which prevent them achieving error free work. This might cover defective or inadequate equipment, poor quality components, etc.

Step 12: Recognition for contributors – Crosby considers that those who contribute to the programme should be rewarded through a formal, although nonmonetary, reward scheme. Readers may be aware of the ‘Gold Banana’ award given by Foxboroforscientificachievement(PetersandWaterman,1982).

Step 13: Establish Quality Councils – these are essentially forums composed of quality professionals and team leaders allowing them to communicate and determine action plans for further quality improvement.

Step 14: Do it all over again – the message here is very simple – achievement of quality is an ongoing process. However far you have got, there is always further to go!

Crosby’s ‘Quality Vaccine’ is an essential part of his process. It is based on three principal ingredients:

integrity•dedication to communication and customer satisfaction•companywide policies and operations which support the quality thrust•

Logothetis proposes a triangle of interaction between these three ingredients which must be supported by Crosby’s belief in how the vaccine is administered. This again has three strands

determination – awareness that management must lead; •education – for management and staff;•Implementation – creating an organisational environment where achievement •of quality is regarded as the norm, not the exception.

Communication Operations

Integrity

Fig. 4.3 Triangle of interactions

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Genichi TaguchiThe two founding ideas of Taguchi’s quality work are essentially quantitative. First, is a belief in statistical methods to identify and eradicate quality problems? The second rests on designing products and processes to build quality in, right from the outset.

Taguchi’s view of quality as a negative, the cost of non-quality, that is, ‘the loss imparted to society from the time the product is shipped’. Taguchi’s prime concern is with customer satisfaction and with the potential for ‘loss of reputation and goodwill’ associated with failure to meet customer expectations. Such a failure he considered would lead the customer to buy elsewhere in the future, damaging the prospects of the company, its employees and society. He saw that loss not onlyoccurredwhenaproductwasoutsideitsspecificationbutalsowhenitvariedfrom its target value.

System design �Parameter design �Tolerance design �

Thefirststageisconcernedwithsystemdesignreasoninginvolvingbothproductand process. This is an attempt to develop a basic analytical, materials, process and production framework. This framework is carried forward into the second stage, parameter design. The search at this stage is for the optimal mix of product variation levels and process operating levels, aiming to reduce the sensitivity of the production system to external or internal disturbances. Tolerance design, thethirdstage,enablestherecognitionoffactorsthatmaysignificantlyaffectthe variability of the product. Additional investment, alternative equipment and materials are then considered as ways to further reduce variability.

Here, a clear belief can be seen in identifying and, as far as possible, eradicating potential causes of ‘non-quality’ at the outset.

Organisational principles: Genichi TaguchiPrinciple 1: CommunicationPrinciple 2: ControlPrinciple3:EfficiencyPrinciple 4: EffectivenessPrinciple5:EfficacyPrinciple 6: Emphasis on location and elimination of causes of errorPrinciple 7: Emphasis on design controlPrinciple 8: Emphasis on environmental analysis.

Shigeo ShingoItcouldbeconsideredthatShingowasthefirstmanagementthinkerandpractitionertoengageinwhathascometobecalledas“re-engineering”.Hisachievementinreducing hull assembly time from 4 months to 2 months at Mitsubishi, and the development of the SMED System at Toyota as part of the ‘just-in-time’ concept were both substantial contributions in their own right.

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However,hisprincipalcontributiontothequalityfieldisthemistakeproofingconcept, Poka-Yoke, ‘Defect = 0’. This approach stops the production process wheneveradefectoccurs,defines thecauseandgeneratesactiondesigned toprevent recurrence. Alternatively, ‘on-line’ adjustment to the product or process may be made, enabling continuous processes to be managed. For example, in the chemical and steel industries it may be both impractical and expensive to stop a production process.

Poka-Yoke relies on a process of continuously monitoring potential sources of error. Machines used in the process are equipped with feedback instrumentation to carry out this task as Shingo considered that human personnel are ‘fallible’.

Cybernetic systems: The idea of Poka-Yoke is similar to the concepts employed in cybernetic systems, that is, systems which in the process of going out of control put them back in control again. The simplest and commonest form of cybernetic system is a domestic heating system which on receipt of ‘feedback’ information about the air temperature from the thermostat turns the heating system on and off in the attempt to maintain a set temperature. A similar example is the cooling system on an engine where the thermostat opens and closes to allow or inhibit theflowofcoldwatertocirculate,keepingtheengineatanoptimumoperatingtemperature.

The ‘goal’ of these systems is a particular temperature. In the case of ‘Poka-Yoke’ the goal of the system is zero defects. In each case the goal is determined outside the system, for example, by the house owner in the case of the heating system, or the factory management in the case of a production process.The concept is now widely employed in industrial control systems for production processes.

For example, the baking industry uses a system of this type to control the chamber temperatures in travelling ovens aiming to ensure that the product is appropriately heated at each stage of the cooking process. The employment of these techniques can reduce or eliminate the need for human monitoring of processes and, as Shingo suggests, enhance reliability.

Criticism of quality philosophiesEach quality guru has worked in different situations and several have contributed in contrastingeras.Thisnaturallyhasinfluencedthewaytheirideashavedeveloped.Hence, we can be found a great diversity in their philosophies, principles, and methods. There are two main areas of focus of the various philosophies. They are:

the technical needs of quality control•quality management•

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The human dimension of Technical needs of prediction and control are met largely by statistical and quantitative methods. The philosophies of so me quality guruscovertechnicalneedsfromdesignrightthroughtoinspectionofthefinalproduct.

Management of the human dimensions of organisation is not clearly provided for in these quality philosophies. The gurus mention their interest in managing people, but offer a few tangible principles and virtually no applicable methods. Quality Control Circles (QCC) provide the clearest exposition to generate motivation, autonomy, and creativity through an approach that is clearly defined.WhileQCCs target groups of people (i.e., employees), individuals have been targeted bythemanagementmethodlike“qualityofworklife”(QWL)whichisnotapartofthequalityphilosophiesofqualitygurus.“Qualityofworklife”shiftsthekey perspective to the individual worker as regards his/her potential and skills and feeling about the job. It promotes meaningful recognition for workers and membersoforganisationsasindividuals.“Employeesuggestionschemes”and“jobenrichmentprograms”areothermanagementmethodstocomplementthequality philosophies.

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SummaryTQM was developed from the lessons learned from Japanese organisations.•TQM is a quality-focused customer-oriented integrative management method •that emphasises continuing and cumulative gains in quality, productivity and cost reduction.TQM involves the participation of every department, every section, every •activity, continuous improvement effort.A quality focused environment must be promoted with customer satisfaction •as the key indicator of quality, in order to implement and sustain the TQM movement in the company.Total employee involvement is the natural result of a work environment •that encourages the active participation of each employee in the day-to-day operation of the company.In addition to the core values and concepts, the quality statements include the •vision statement, mission statement, and quality policy statement.According to ISO 9000, Total Quality Management is a management •philosophy that seeks to focus the functions of an organisation into Quality, with the participation of every member in it, in order to reach a long-lasting successbysatisfyingallcustomerrequirementsandbringbackbenefittothemembers of that organisation and to the society.Each quality guru has worked in different situations and several have •contributed in contrasting eras.The gurus mention their interest in managing people, but offer a few tangible •principles and virtually no applicable methods.

ReferencesTyco Electronics Corporation, 2003. • Total Quality Management Process, [Online]. Available at: <http://www.ceecis.org/iodine/08_production/TQM/TQM1.pdf>. [Accessed 24 July, 2011].Department of Trade and Industry, • Total Quality Management (TQM), [Online]. Available at: <http://www.businessballs.com/dtiresources/total_quality_management_TQM.pdf>. [Accessed 25 July, 2011].eHow, • Professional Management Tips: Steps in Total Quality Management, 2009. [Video Online]. Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srjbK6n0xIY>. [Accessed 25 July, 2011].eHow, 2009. • Business Strategies: Benefits of Total Quality Management, Roger Groh, [Video Online]. Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAp6KyY7gAg>. [Accessed 26 July, 2011].Pryor, M. G., White, J. C. and Toombs, L. A., 1999. • Strategic Quality Management: A Strategic Systems Approach to Continuous Improvement, 1st ed., Dame Publishing. Alexander, W. F. and Serfass, R. W., 1998. • Futuring Tools for Strategic Quality Planning in Education, Amer Society for Quality.

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Recommended ReadingGrigsby, D. W. and Stahl, M. J., 1997. • Cases in Strategic Management: Total Quality and Global Competition, 1st ed., Wiley.Burgelman, R., Christensen, C. and Wheelwright, S., 2008. • Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation, 5th ed., McGraw-Hill/Irwin.Dess, G., Lumpkin, G. T. and Eisner, A., 2007. • Strategic Management: Creating Competitive Advantages, 4th ed., McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

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Self Assessment

_________ standards were popularised and accepted worldwide as a means 1. to achieve quality.

ISO 9100 a. ISO 9000b. ISO 2000c. ISO 2100d.

Which pillar of TQM act as motivators for everyone in a company?2. Performance measuresa. Continuous improvementb. Employee involvementc. Partnership with suppliersd.

_________________ represents a comprehensive analytic schema or 3. framework for quality.

Performance Measurement and Statistical Quality Controla. Employee Involvementb. Small-Group Activitiesc. Quality function deploymentd.

Which of the following is not the key facet of TQM?4. People Involvementa. Product Process Innovationb. Purpose Investigationc. Perpetual Improvementd.

Which statement is true?5. Organisational functions and management style govern the quality of a. products and services in a very basic manner.Organisational culture and management style govern the quality of products b. and services in a very basic manner.Organisational culture and management words govern the quality of c. products and services in a very basic manner.Organisational hazards and management disorder govern the quality of d. products and services in a very basic manner.

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Where should be the key indicator of quality focused environment must be 6. promoted?

Customer satisfaction a. Organisation satisfactionb. Employee satisfactionc. Employers satisfaction d.

‘Quality does not happen by accident, it has to be planned’. According to 7. whose philosophy?

Shigeo Shingoa. Genichi Taguchib. Ishikawac. Joseph M. Jurand.

____________philosophyisseenbymany, tobeencapsulatedinhisfive8. ‘Absolutes of Quality Management’.

Crosby’sa. Shigeo Shingo’sb. Genichi Taguchi’sc. Joseph M. Juran’sd.

The idea of _________ is similar to the concepts employed in cybernetic 9. systems in which the process of going out of control put them back in control again.

Noka-Pokea. Yoka-Pokeb. Poka-Yokec. Doka-Yoked.

_____________ which is not a part of the quality philosophies of quality 10. gurus.

Quality of lifea. Requirement of work lifeb. Quality of work lifec. Enjoyment of work lifed.

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Chapter V

Reliability

Aim

The aim of this unit is to:

definetheterm“reliability”•

highlighttheevolutionofthefieldofreliability•

explain reliability measurement•

Objectives

The objectives of this unit are to:

describe reliability planning•

discuss the factors affecting reliability•

analyse product life characteristic curve•

Learning outcome

At the end of this unit, you will be able to:

understand the scope of reliability•

recognise reliability function•

e• nlist types of reliability

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5.1DefiningReliabilityReliability is the ability of a product to perform as expected over time is one of the principal dimensions or key elements of quality which is multi-dimensional in nature. Reliability is an essential aspect of product and process design and sophisticated equipment used today in such areas as transportation, communications and medical services require high reliability. For example, high reliability is absolutely necessary for safety in space and air travel and for medical productssuchaspacemakersandartificialorgans.Highreliabilitycanalsoprovidea competitive advantage for many consumer goods. Japanese automobiles gained a large market share in the 1970s, primarily because of their high reliability. As the overall quality of products continues to improve, consumers expect higher reliabilitywitheachpurchase;theysimplyarenotsatisfiedwithproductsthatfail unexpectedly. However, the increased complexity of modern products makes highreliabilitymoredifficulttoachieve.Likewiseinmanufacturing,theincreaseduseofautomation,complexityofmachines,lowprofitmarginsandtime-basedcompetitiveness make reliability in production processes a critical issue for survival of the business.

Reliabilityasafield,separatedfromthemainstreamofstatisticalqualitycontrolin the 1950s with the post-war growth of aerospace and electronic industries in the US. The Department of Defence took a keen interest in reliability studies when it became painfully apparent that there was a serious problem with the reliability of military components and systems. For instance, 60 percent of aircraft destined for the Far East during the World War II proved unserviceable, 50 percent of electronic devices failed while still in storage and the service life of electronic devices used in bombers was only 20 hours and 70 percent of naval electronic devices failed! The Department of Defence of US established an adhoc group in 1950 to study reliability of electronic equipments and components for the armedforces.Theofficialreport,releasedin1952,ledtothedevelopmentoftheAdvisory Group on Reliability of Electronic Equipment (AGREE) to further study issues involving reliability, testing, military contracts, packaging and storage. MilitaryspecificationscodeMIL-Rformilitaryreliability-becameReliabilityasafield,separatedfromthemainstreamofstatisticalqualitycontrolinthe1950swith the post-war growth of aerospace and electronic industries in the US. The Department of Defence took a keen interest in reliability studies when it became painfully apparent that there was a serious problem with the reliability of military components and systems. For instance, 60 percent of aircraft destined for the Far East during the World War II proved unserviceable, 50 percent of electronic devices failed while still in storage and the service life of electronic devices used in bombers was only 20 hours and 70 percent of naval electronic devices failed! The Department of Defence of US established an adhoc group in 1950 to study reliability of electronic equipments and components for the armed forces. Theofficial report, released in1952, led to thedevelopmentof theAdvisoryGroup on Reliability of Electronic Equipment (AGREE) to further study issues involving reliability, testing, military contracts, packaging and storage. Military specificationscodeMIL-Rformilitaryreliabilitybecameamandatorypartof

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military contracts to ensure procurement of equipments and components that met reliability requirements. Because of this military research, which spread rapidly throughout the various industries, reliability engineering became a distinct area of expertise.

Reliability has to do with the quality of measurement. In its everyday sense, reliabilityisthe“consistency”or“repeatability”ofyourmeasures.Beforewecandefinereliabilitypreciselywehavetolaythegroundwork.First,youhavetolearnabout the foundation of reliability, the true score theory of measurement. Along with that, you need to understand the different types of measurement error because errors in measures play a key role in degrading reliability. With this foundation, youcanconsiderthebasictheoryofreliability,includingaprecisedefinitionofreliability.Thereyouwillfindoutthatwecannotcalculatereliabilitywecanonlyestimate it. Because of this, there a variety of different types of reliability that each has multiple ways to estimate reliability for that type. In the end, it’s important to integrate the idea of reliability with the other major criteria for the quality of measurement validity and develop an understanding of the relationships between reliability and validity in measurement.

BasicconceptsanddefinitionsLikequality,reliability isoftendefinedinasimilar“transcendent”mannerasa sense of trust in a product’s ability to perform satisfactorily or resist failure. However, reliability is an issue that requires a more objective, qualitative treatment. Theformaldefinitionofreliabilityis:“Reliabilityistheprobabilitythataproduct,piece of equipment or system performs its intended unction for a stated period oftimeunderspecifiedoperatingconditions.”Thisdefinitionhasfourimportantelements: probability, time, performance, and operating conditions.

First, reliability is defined as a probability, that is, a value between0 and1.Expressing reliability in this way provides a valid basis for comparison of different designs for products and systems. For example, a reliability of 0.95 indicates, on an average, 95 out of 100 items will perform their function for a given period of time and under certain operating conditions.

Thesecondelementofthedefinitionistime.Clearlyadevicehavingareliabilityof 0.95 for 100 hours of operation is inferior to one having the same reliability for 5000 hours of operation, assuming that the device is expected to have a long service life.

Performance,thethirdelementofthedefinition,referstotheobjectiveforwhichthe product or system was made. The term failure is used when expectations of performance of the intended functions are not met. Two types of failures can occur: functional failure at the start of the product life due to manufacturing or material defects such as a missing connection or faulty component, and reliability failure after some period of use. Examples of reliability failure are:

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a device does not work at all (car will not start)•the operation of a device is unstable (car idles rough)•theperformanceofadevicedeteriorates(gearshiftingbecomesdifficult).•

Thefinalcomponentofreliabilitydefinitionisoperatingconditionswhichinvolvethe type and amount of usage and the environment in which the product is used. Reliability must include extreme environments and conditions as well as the normal usage conditions.

5.1.1 Evolution of the Field of ReliabilityThefieldofreliabilityhasevolvedthroughthreedistinctphases,muchliketheevolution of quality assurance. Initial efforts were directed at the measurement and prediction of reliability through statistical studies. The major focus was on the determination of failure rates of individual components such as transistors and resistors. Knowledge of component failure rates helps to predict the reliability of complex systems of these components. As knowledge about reliability grew, new methods of analysis were developed to increase the reliability built into products and processes. A new discipline called reliability engineering was established. Like total quality management, reliability must become an integrated part of all organisationalfunctions:marketing,design,purchasing,manufacturing,andfieldservice. The total process of establishing, achieving and maintaining reliability objectives is called reliability management.

5.1.2 Reliability MeasurementIn practice, reliability is determined by the number of failures per unit time during the duration under consideration (called the failure rate). The reciprocal of the failure rate is used as an alternative measure. Some products must be scrapped and replaced upon failure, others can be repaired. For items that must be replaced when a failure occurs, the reciprocal of the failure rate (expressed as time units per failure) is called the mean time to failure (MTTF). For repairable items, the mean time between failures (MTBF) is used.

Designing for reliability: Each part of a product is designed for a given level of component reliability. The component reliability is the probability that a type of part will not fail in a given time period or number of trials under ordinary conditions of use. Component reliability is usually measured by

reliability (CR), •failure rates (FR) and •mean time between failures (MTBF)•

Component reliability (CR) = (1 - FR)

Where, FR = Failure rate Number of failures =

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FRn = and

MTBF = =

System Reliability or Product Reliability is the product of the reliabilities of the parts or components of which the product is composed. Product or system reliability SR = CR 1 × CR 2 × CR 3 ×..... CRn, where the product has ‘n’ critical components having’ individual component reliabilities of CR1..... CRn respectively.

The more components in a product or process, the more complex is the system and thus the greater is the risk of failure or unreliability.

5.1.3 Reliability PlanningEvery reliability program should have a list of detailed procedures for accomplishing its tasks. This is the reliability program plan. It is of the utmost importancebecauseitisthemajorvehiclewhichprovidesforefficientoperationas well as being the medium (standard) by which the success of the operation is measured. The major elements of this plan are:

A detailed list of all tasks.•A description of each task with the proposed method of accomplishing each •task. A detailed description of the method of evaluating the effectiveness of each •task.A master schedule showing the time each task is to begin and end.•Manpower and budgetary requirements.•Provisions for changes to the plan as requirements change.•A list of responsible departments and the tasks for which they are each •responsible.A list of known and probable reliability problems, an assessment of the •probable problem impact on the product, and the proposed solution procedures to these problems.Provisions for reliability training.•Abenefitcostanalysistosupporttheprogramanditsbudgets.Thebenefit-cost•analysistosupporttheprogramanditsbudgets.Thebenefitcostanalysisshouldinclude, besides the cost comparison, such intangible elements as customer satisfactionandcompanyreputation,eveniftheycannotbequantified.

Every reliability plan should also include a program for improving the reliability of the product. This reliability improvement program should be designed to optimise reliabilitywhileatthesametimereducingcostsandincreasingprofits,increasingoutput without increasing unit costs, and increasing customer satisfaction. The

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first step in such a programwouldbe to integrate the reliability andproductassurance programs among all applicable company activities such as purchasing, engineering, research, manufacturing, quality control, inspection, packaging, shipping,installation,field-service,andperformancefeedbacks.

Other important reliability improvement activities would include:Make sure that products are designed to use those elements that optimise •reliability and maintainability but, at the same time, keep life cycle costs to a minimum.Reduce the number of components.•Use better component arrangements.•Select better materials.•Use reliability checklists in all phases of the product life (design, development, •manufacturing, and service life) to identify possible errors and to correct for them.Debug and/or de-rate all components prior to use.•Minimise improper equipment use by providing for proper installation, good •maintenance, and good operating manuals.Provide warning labels, load and speed limits, and proper buttons and controls •to minimise operator error.

5.1.4 Factors affecting ReliabilityFollowing are the factors that affect reliability:

Complexity of a product:• Simple products are always much more reliable than complex ones. The reason is obivious. The greater the number of components along with their linking mechanisms, the more are the chances that one of them will fail, thereby preventing the produc from performing its intended function. Take the simple case of the good old kitchen hearth. As long as there are enough logs in the hearth, one can be sure of its heating capability. Compare it with the modern cooking range, with its numerous heating elements, switches, thermostats and connecting wiring. Any of these components or their connections could fail and the cooking range will be useless until it is repaired. One of the reasons of complexity of the equipment is the incorporation of autoamtic functions in the product. Although automation eases the human burden, it makes the equipment less relaible. Firstly, more components have to be added to provide additional functions, which bring in their own unreliability. Secondly, in a manually operated device the human controlling agency can provide necessary adjustments to meet the requirements of unforeseen situations, whereas in autoamtic device only those adjustments are possible which are already programmed into it. In case a new factor emerges, there is no easy way by which the device can be suitably adjusted. This of course, does not mean that we should not have automatic devices. Automation represents technological advancement, since well designed automaticdevicessavetimeandeffortandoftenperformspecifiedfunctions

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much better than the human agency. The problem of reliability in automatic devices has been mentioned merely to bring out the need for greater vigilance in design to ensure that reliability does not suffer. If proper attention is given to htis aspect, it is possible to design automatic devices with a fairly high degree of reliability.Component reliabilitiy:• It is said, that the strength of a chain is actually the strength of its weakest link. The same applies to the reliability of a complete equipment or a system, which is governed by the reliability of the components. Thisiswhatmakesreliabilitycontrolmuchmoredifficultthanthecontrolofany other parameter. Even one small component of poor quality getting into the assembly, can have a disproportionately adverse effect on overall reliability of the equipment. The worst part of it is that an unreliable component cannot beeasilydetectedinthefinalinspectionandmayberevealedonlywhenafailure takes palce in actual service.Manufacturing process:• Although the inherent reliability of a product is determined by its design, the extent to which it is actually achieved depends upon the process of manufacture.The manufacturing drawings only lay down the important dimensions and characteristics of the product. There are number ofotherfeaturessuchassurfacefinishes,characterisitcsoftheproduct.Thereareanumberofotherfeaturessuchassurfacefinishes,radiusofcurvatureof edge and corners, welding and brazing details, etc., which are left to the manufacturer and are provided for according to the general engineering practice followed in the manufacturing concern. Nevertheless, these characterisitcs can have an appreciable effect on reliabiltiy of the equipment.Environmental conditions:• Every device or a mechanism is subjected to certain environmental conditionswhichmayhave amarked influenceon its functioning and operating life. Some environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, corrosive atmosphere, vibration and shock, may cause rapid deterioration of the product and thereby adversely affect its reliability. Therefore, these factors have to be given due consideration during the design of a product to ensure that it can withstand environmental hazards and achieve the required standard of reliability.Operation and maintenance:• The way a machine or device is operated and maintained, is another factor which determines the reliability that will be achieved in actual service. As is wll known to any vehicle owner, bad driving habits and indifferent preventive maintenance takes a heavy toll and can render even the best of vehicles unreliable. Since this factor depends upon the user, the designer of the product does not have much control over it. At best, efforts can be made to educate the user by providing detailed instructions on usage and maintenance.

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5.2 Product Life Characteristic CurveFailure rate and product life characteristic curve in considering the failure rate of a product, suppose that a large group of items is tested or used until all fail and that the time of failure is recorded for each item. Plotting the cumulative percentage offailuresagainsttimeresultsinacurveastheoneshowninfigurebelow,theslope of the curve at any point gives the instantaneous failure rate (failures per unit time) at any point of time. Following is the cumulative failure curve shown below.

Cum

ulat

ive

perc

enta

ge o

f fai

lure

s

Hours0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000

100

75

50

2520

Slop = 20 = 0.021000Slop = 20 = 0.04500

Fig. 5.1 Cumulative failure curve overtime(Source: Total Quality Management Bhat, K. Shridhara pages 498)

Thefigure below shows the failure rate curve, generally called product lifecharacteristic curve

0.120.100.080.060.040.02

00 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000

Hours

Hours

Wear outuseful lifeEarly failure

Failu

re ra

te

Fig. 5.2 Failure rate curve (Bath Tub Curve)(Source: Total Quality Management Bhat, K. Shridhara pages 498)

Life time failure rate: All products and processes fail at some point in their life time.Thefailure-rateprofileillustratedbythebathtubcurveinfig.5.2showsthat there are higher rates both at the early or infant state and in old or wear out failures towards the end of the product’s life. There is a relatively low or what is considered the normal failure rate in between the two extremes.

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Infant mortality: At the early stage of the product life, components may be fragileastheyhavenotbeen“run-in”orconverselyoperatorsarenotfamiliarwith equipment and because of bad use, the equipment breaks down. This is often the case of appliances such as washing machines or power lawn movers. Some firmsmay“run-in”or“burn-in”aproductbeforeitisreleasedinthemarkettoensure that all the teething (start-up) problems have been overcome. To cover the possibilityoffailureintheearlydaysofaproduct’slife,certainfirmsprovidea90daywarrantyfortheirproducts.Theterm“infantmortality”isobviouslyusedbecause young children are fragile at this point of their life.

Normal failure: Once a product has been used for some period, it is normally pretty robust and with correct preventive maintenance, will last throughout its expected life time. During this period, the failure rate is pretty constant and low rate fail.

Wear-out failure: Towards the end of the life of a product or process, the failure starts to increase rapidly again as parts become used or worn out and eventually fail.

Computation of failure rate if limited data are available, the failure rate is computed using the following formula:

Failure rate (Fn)orλ=

Or alternatively,

Fnorλ=

Afundamentalassumptioninthisdefinitionallowsfordifferentinterpretations.Since the total unit operating hours equal the number of units tested, no difference occurs in total unit operating hours between testing 10 units for 100 hours or one unitfor1000hours.However,thedifferenceinfig.5.2isclearsincethefailurerate varies over time. For example, if useful life began at 10 hours and the wear out began at 200 hours, a failure would almost certainly occur before 1000 hours, whereas a failure would not be likely to occur in 100 hour tests. During a product’s useful life, however, the failure rate is assumed to be constant, and different test lengths during this period of time should show little difference. This assumption isthereasonthattimeisanimportantelementofthedefinitionofreliability.Toillustrate the computation of Fn (or A), suppose that 10 units are tested over 100 hours period. Four units failed with one unit each failing at 8, 30, 60 and 70 hours, the remaining six units performed satisfactorily until the end of the test. The total unit operating hours are:1 × 8 = 81 × 30 = 301 × 60 = 601 × 70 = 70

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6 × 100 = 600________________Total = 768

Therefore, Fnorλ=

= 0.0052 failures per hour

In other words, in a one-hour period, about 0.5 percent of the units would be expected to fail. On the other hand, over a 100 hour period about 0.0052 x 100 = 0.52 or 52 percent of the units would be expected to fail. In the actual test, only 40 percent failed (i.e. 4 units out of 10 units failed).

An electronic component such as a semiconductor commonly exhibits a high, but decreasing failure rate early in its life followed by a period of a relatively constant failure rate, and ending with an increasing failure rate. Knowing the product life characteristics curve for a particular product helps engineers predict behaviour and make decisions accordingly. For instance, if a manufacturer knows that the early failure period of a microprocessor is 600 hours, it can test the chip for 600 hours (or more) under actual or simulated operating conditions before releasing the chip to the market.

Failure Rate and Product Life Characteristics Curve:The slope of the curve at any point gives the instantaneous failure rate at any •point in time.The product life characteristics curve is obtained by plotting the slope of the •curve at every point.The average failure rate over any interval of time is the slope of the line •between the two endpoints of the interval on the curve.Knowing the product life characteristics curve for a particular product helps •engineers predict behaviour and make decisions accordingly.Knowledge of a product’s reliability is also useful in developing warranties.•

5.3 Reliability FunctionReliabilitywasdefinedastheprobabilitythatanitemwillnotfailoveragivenperiod of time. However, the probability distribution of failure is usually a more convenientfiguretouseinreliabilitycomputations.Itmaybenotedthatduringthe useful life of a product, the failure rate is assumed to be constant. Thus, the fraction of good items that fails during any time period is constant. It is assumed that the probability of failure over time can be modelled mathematically by an exponential probability distribution, which was found as valid for many observable phenomenon such as failure of light bulbs, electronic components, and repairable systems such as automobiles, computers and industrial machinery.

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Ifλisthefailurerate,theprobabilitydensitydistributionrepresentationfailureis given by the exponential density.

5.3.1 Scope of ReliabilityThe scope of reliability can be visualised by the following facts in respect of any equipment or system:

The working environment of the equipment/system.•The need of safety aspects for men and material.•Degree of uncertainty about the success of operation and its improvements •in system/ equipment performance.Needforefficient,economic,andcontinuousrunningofequipment/system•without disturbances.A failure of an equipment/system raises the question in the minds of the people •regarding its reliability and its further use.Improvementintheconfidenceoftheworkingpersonnelparticularlyinthe•hazardous area because of safety reasons.

Any equipment/system manufactured is designed with certain objectives to meet its goals in terms of production/service. With passage of time or environmental conditions the equipment may not give the desired results over a period of time. This system may be treated as unreliable. Therefore, a reliable equipment is the one which works for a given stipulated time period under given environmental conditions without interruptions. In general terms, if the failures are unpredicted and more in number, the equipment/system is said to be unreliable and its market value is reduced. On the other hand if the numbers of failures are less, then the equipment/system is reliable and its market value is high. The term risk is associated with frequent failures of equipment and to a large extent is a qualitative in nature and attempts are being made to assure its quantitative measure. It tries to combine the probability of something going wrong and consequences of the event. Now the problem is to assess these consequences. In certain cases it is easy and straightforward,whereas in some cases it is difficult tomeasure it.Keepingthisinmindtheriskcanbedefinedastheproductofitsfrequencyandthe magnitude. The frequency here means the failure of the equipment per unit time. These failures can occur due to various reasons depending upon the working conditions, operator skill and other such parameters.

To know the real scope of reliability it is required to highlight some technological systems, which need high reliability. The application of reliability becomes more dominant where risk factor is high and capital involvement is at stake with human life.Thefirstinthisclassfallstheaerospacesystemsmainlyaircrafts.Itisknownthat capital investment in case of aircrafts is very high and also human lives are at risk, the systems used must be highly reliable. The other area where high reliability is required is the nuclear power plant. If such plants are not available for power production, they incur heavy loss per hour as well as the good will of the concerning people. The radiations from such plants can cause havoc, due

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care has to be taken during the discharge of their by-products. Two main types of equipment failures normally affect the reliability of such systems. Firstly ‘fail dangerous’, and secondly the ‘fail safe’. The fail dangerous will protect the system in case of any fault, whereas in fail safe mode the system will be shutdown in case of any fault. The above two systems must be highly reliable to avoid any mis-happening. Safety circuits can also be provided for the whole protective system. It is desired that the protective systems should shutdown the plant in case of serious fault where protection device fails. The other highly reliable systems include chemical plants, process industries, and electric supply systems where the failures can cause high revenue losses. Although the safety of human is not at stake in these cases but inconveniences are caused to the users. For example, running of electric trains can be badly affected by unreliable power supply.

5.3.2 Objectives of ReliabilityDuring the design phase of any product/system, it is desired that the said system shouldmeettheperformancestandardsasexpectedwithinthespecifiedconstraints.These constraints include cost of equipment/product, environmental conditions, and availability of material/ parts etc. A system/equipment normally comprises of many units/components and their interconnection and integration should result in satisfactory performance. The number of components and units make a system complex and therefore, system is dependent on complexity of the functioning of theunits. It is furthermoredifficult toachievesatisfactoryperformancefromsuch system/equipment. Therefore, the objectives of reliability are many fold and include the following:

Trouble free running of system/equipment•The adequate performance for a stated period of time•The equipment/system should work under the specified environmental •conditions.Minimisation of downtime of equipment/system•Maintainability of device/components•

5.3.3 The Strategic Importance of Maintenance and ReliabilityThe results of product or process failure can be disruptive, inconvenient, and expensive. Machinery and product failures can have far-reaching effects on an organisation’s operation, reputation, and profitability. I complex highlymechanised plants, an out-of-tolerance process or a machine breakdown may resultinidleemployeesandfacilities,lossofcustomersandgoodwill,andprofitturning into losses. A good maintenance and reliability strategy safeguards a firm’sperformanceanditsinvestmentinassets.Theobjectiveofmaintenanceand reliability is to maintain the capacity of the system while controlling costs. Maintenance involves all activities involved in keeping a system’s equipment in working condition whereas reliability of the equipment is the probability that a partoftheequipmentorproductwillfunctionproperlyforaspecificperiodoftime under stated conditions. The interdependency of the operator, machine, and mechanic is a hallmark of successful maintenance and reliability.

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5.4 Reliability EngineeringReliability engineers distinguish between inherent reliability and achieved reliability. Inherent reliability is the predicted reliability determined by the design of tbe product or process whereas achieved reliability is the actual reliability observed during use. Achieved reliability can be less than inherent reliability due to the effects of the manufacturing process and the conditions of use.

Reliability engineering is a relatively new discipline concerned with the design, manufacture, and assurance of products having high reliability. Some of the common methods of reliability engineering are:

Standardisation•Redundancy•Physics of Failure•De rating practices•Reliability Testing•Burn-in•Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) also known as Failure Mode, Effect •and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA). •

These methods are discussed in the following paragraphs.

5.4.1 StandardisationOne method of ensuring high reliability is to use components with proven track records of reliability over years of actual use. If failure rates of components can be established, then standard components having low failure rates or high reliability can be selected and used in the design process. The use of standardised components not only achieves higher reliability but also reduces costs since standardised components are used in many different products, thereby increasing the volume of usage which in turn increases the production volumes of manufacturers. This gives the advantages of economies of scale to the manufacturers which enables them to reduce the cost ‘Of manufacture and hence the selling price.

5.4.2 RedundancyRedundancy is providing back-up components that can be used when the failure of anyone component in a system can cause a failure of the entire system. We have earlier discussed how redundant components can increase reliability of a system.Redundantcomponentsaredesignedeitherinastand-byconfigurationoraparallelconfiguration.Inastand-byconfiguration,thestand-byunitisswitchedinwhentheoperatingunitfails.Intheparallelconfiguration,bothunitsoperatenormally but only one is required for proper functioning. Redundancy is crucial to systems in which failure can be extremely costly, such as aircraft or satellite communications systems. Redundancy however, increases the cost, size, and weight of the system.

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5.4.3 Physics of FailureMany failures are due to deterioration because of chemical reactions over time, which may be aggravated by temperature or humidity effects. Understanding the physical properties of materials and their response to environmental effects helps to eliminate potential failures or to make the product robust with respect to environmental conditions that affect reliability.

5.4.4 De-rating PracticeDe-rating is the assignment of a product to operate at stress levels below its normal rating. For example, a capacitor rated at 300 volts is used in a 200 volts application. For many components, data are available showing failure rate as a function of stress levels. The conservative design will use such data to achieve reliability by using the parts &t lower working conditions and low ambient temperatures. Some firmshaveestablishedinternalpolicieswithrespecttode-rating.

De-ratingisalsoaformofqualifyingthe“factorofsafety”andhencelendsitselfto setting guidelines as to the margins used. De-rating may be considered as a methodofdeterminingmorescientificallythefactorofsafetysothatthereliabilityis increased and failure rate is reduced.

5.4.5 Reliability TestingThe reliability of a product is determined principally by the design and the reliability of the components of a product. However, theoretical analysis of the design alone cannot determine reliability which is a complex issue. Hence, formal testing is necessary which involves simulating environmental conditions to determine a product’s performance, operating time, and mode of failure. The various reasons that make testing necessary are:

Test data are often necessary for liability protection, as means for evaluating •designs or vendor reliability, and in process planning and selection. Reliability test data are required in military contracts. •Testing is necessary to evaluate warranties and to avoid high costs related to •earlyfieldfailure.Good testing leads to good reliability and hence good quality. The various •methods of performing product testing are:

life testing �accelerated life testing �environmental testing and �vibration and shock testing �

The purpose of life testing (that is, running devices until they fail) is to measure the distribution of failures to better understand and eliminate their causes. Since life testing can be expensive and time-consuming, it is not practical for devices that have long natural lives.

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Accelerated life testing involves overstressing the components to reduce the time tofailureandfindweaknesses.Anexampleofacceleratedlifetestingisrunningan electric motor faster than typically found in normal operating conditions.

Environmental testing consists of varying the temperature from -40 C to + 70° C to subject the products to thermal shock to see whether they could withstand these extreme temperatures.

Vibration and shock testing were used to simulate trucks driving through rough road conditions and long distances to determine the product’s ability to withstand rough handling and accidents.

5.4.6 Burn-inSemiconductors are electronic components which form the building blocks of numerous electronic products for civil and military use. The semiconductors have a small proportion of defects called latent defects that can cause them to fail during the initial 1000 hours of normal operation. After that, the failure rate stabilises, perhaps for as long as 25 years, before beginning to rise again as components wear out. These early failures known as infant mortalities can be as high as 10 percent in a new technology or as low as 0.01 percent in proven technologies. The sooner a faulty component is detected, the cheaper is its replacement or repair. For example, a correction on an integrated circuit fabrication line costs about 50 cents, at the board level it might cost US $5, at the system level about $50 and inthefield$500.

Burn-in, also known as component stress testing involves exposing integrated circuits to elevated temperatures in order to force latent defects to occur. For example, a device that might normally fail after 300 hours at 25°C, might fail in less than 20 hours at 150 0 C. Devices which survive the burn-in tests are likely to have long, trouble-free operating lives. Burn-in requires 48 to 96 hours usually and some function tests are performed during the burn-in cycle to save testing time.

5.4.7 Failure Mode and Effect AnalysisFailure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) is also known as failure mode, effect and criticality analysis (FMECA). FMECA is the detailed study of a product design, manufacturing operation or distribution network to determine which features are critical to various modes of failure. The concept was developed in the USA in the 1950s to increase the reliability for military equipment and in aviation and space programs. Using FMECA involves input from other functional areas, including marketing,design,purchasing,production,andfinance.

The three principal study areas in a detailed FMECA analysis are:failure mode•failure effect and•failure criticality•

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These studies may be applied at any stage of conception, design, development, production,orfinaluse.However,sincetheobjectiveofFMECAistopreventfailure, the study is most often applied at the design stage.

Failure mode analysis• : Failure mode analysis is analysing the operation of the product or process to see what the most likely modes are where failure would occur. This would include describing the conditions, the components involved, the time elements, location etc.Failure effect analysis:• The failure effect analysis is the study of the potential failures to ascertain the likely impact on the performance of the whole product, the process or service and/or related elements. Failure criticality analysis:• Failure criticality analysis is the examination of the potential failures of the product, process, or service to determine how critical the failure would be. The criticality might range from customer irritation through a lowering of performance, shut down of an operating plant, a safety problem, or an environmental hazard to a catastrophic occurrence. “Failuremodeeffectandcriticallyanalysis(FMECA)isdefinedasaprocedureinwhichthecausesofpotentialfailuresareidentified,theireffectsassessedandcorrectivemeasuresarerecommended.”FMECAcanbeappliedtoproductor processes by which they are made. For each product or process element, the following factors are considered:

The most likely failure modes (i.e. the way in which the product element �can fail). The cause or causes of failure. �The effect of the failure mode on the next higher assemblies up to and �including the end product.The likelihood of a particular failure mode actually occurring in service. �The seriousness of a failure to the proper operation of the end product �and thus to society.Ways in which failure can be detected and/or prevented. �

Example of FMECASuppose a household electric lamp is being analysed. Broken and/or frayed wiring from the lamp to the plug is a potential failure mode. Possible causes are fatigue, heat, and even family dog biting the wire. A broken wire cannot conduct the electric current and thus the light will not work. Excessive heat may be generated, fuse may blow, and someone may receive an electric shock. These effects are dangerous and thus quite serious. Possible corrective actions include using wire that has long life in extreme environment and placing a warning label on the lamp.

Steps in FMECA:The step by step procedures depend to a certain extent on what service or product is being examined. The following are the key phases:

In the product or the process, identify all the components and assemblies that •are part of the operating system.

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Make an exhaustive listing of all the possible failure modes of each component •in the system. Establish the effects that each mode of failure would have on the product, •process or service. Make a list of all possible causes of each failure mode. •Assign a numerical value to each occurrence for each of the following •criteria:

P, the probability of each failure mode occurring. �S, the seriousness or criticality of the failure. �D,thedifficultytheclientofdetectingthefailurebeforetheproductor �service is used by the client. For example, a scale of 1 to 10 is used, with 1 being low or easy and 10 high.

For each possible failure mode, determine the value of the product P x S x D •which is considered the criticality index or risk priority number (RPN) which represents the relative priority of each mode. Determine the corrective action necessary to avoid the failure in question and •also which department or function would be responsible for the corrective action.Rank the RPN for the whole product or process such that the necessary •corrective action can be taken in the light of the resources available.

5.4.8 Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)Fault tree analysis (FTA) is a failure analysis in which an undesired state of a system is analysed using Boolean logic to combine a series of lower-level events.Thisanalysismethodismainlyusedinthefieldofsafetyengineeringtoquantitatively determine the probability of a safety hazard.

5.5 Types of ReliabilityYou learned in the Theory of Reliability that it’s not possible to calculate reliability exactly. Instead, we have to estimate reliability, and this is always an imperfect endeavor. Here, I want to introduce the major reliability estimators and talk about their strengths and weaknesses.

There are four general classes of reliability estimates, each of which estimates reliability in a different way. They are:

5.5.1 Inter-Rater or Inter-Observer ReliabilityUsed to assess the degree to which different raters/observers give consistent estimates of the same phenomenon. Whenever you use humans as a part of your measurement procedure, you have to worry about whether the results you get are reliable or consistent. People are notorious for their inconsistency. We are easily distractible. We get tired of doing repetitive tasks. We daydream. We misinterpret.

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object or phenomenon

observer 1 observer 2

Fig. 5.3 Inter-observer reliability

So how do we determine whether two observers are being consistent in their observations? You probably should establish inter-rater reliability outside of the context of the measurement in your study. After all, if you use data from your studytoestablishreliability,andyoufindthatreliabilityislow,you’rekindofstuck. Probably it’s best to do this as a side study or pilot study. And, if your study goes on for a long time, you may want to re-establish inter-rater reliability from time to time to assure that your raters aren’t changing.

There are two major ways to actually estimate inter-rater reliability. If your measurement consists of categories the raters are checking off which category each observation falls in you can calculate the percent of agreement between the raters. For instance, let’s say you had 100 observations that were being rated by two raters. For each observation, the rater could check one of three categories. Imagine that on 86 of the 100 observations the raters checked the same category. In this case, the percent of agreement would be 86%. OK, it’s a crude measure, but it does give an idea of how much agreement exists, and it works no matter how many categories are used for each observation.

The other major way to estimate inter-rater reliability is appropriate when the measure is a continuous one. There, all you need to do is calculate the correlation between the ratings of the two observers. For instance, they might be rating the overall level of activity in a classroom on a 1-to-7 scale. You could have them give their rating at regular time intervals (for example, every 30 seconds). The correlation between these ratings would give you an estimate of the reliability or consistency between the raters.

Youmightthinkofthistypeofreliabilityas“calibrating”theobservers.Thereare other things you could do to encourage reliability between observers, even if you don’t estimate it. For instance, I used to work in a psychiatric unit where every morning a nurse had to do a ten-item rating of each patient on the unit. Of course, we couldn’t count on the same nurse being present every day, so we had tofindawaytoassurethatanyofthenurseswouldgivecomparableratings.The

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waywediditwastoholdweekly“calibration”meetingswherewewouldhaveallofthenursesratingsforseveralpatientsanddiscusswhytheychosethespecificvalues they did. If there were disagreements, the nurses would discuss them and attempttocomeupwithrulesfordecidingwhentheywouldgivea“3”ora“4”foraratingonaspecificitem.Althoughthiswasnotanestimateofreliability,itprobably went a long way toward improving the reliability between raters.

Test-retest reliabilityWe estimate test-retest reliability when we administer the same test to the same sample on two different occasions. This approach assumes that there is no substantial change in the construct being measured between the two occasions. The amount of time allowed between measures is critical. We know that if we measure the same thing twice that the correlation between the two observations will depend in part by how much time elapses between the two measurement occasions. The shorter the time gap, the higher the correlation; the longer the time gap, the lower the correlation. This is because the two observations are related over time the closer in time we get the more similar the factors that contribute to error. Since this correlation is the test-retest estimate of reliability, you can obtain considerably different estimates depending on the interval.

measure measure

time 1 time 2

Fig. 5.4 sample measured on two different occasions

5.5.2 Parallel-Forms ReliabilityThis type is used to assess the consistency of the results of two tests constructed in the same way from the same content domain. In parallel forms reliability you firsthavetocreatetwoparallelforms.Onewaytoaccomplishthisistocreatealarge set of questions that address the same construct and then randomly divide the questions into two sets. You administer both instruments to the same sample of people. The correlation between the two parallel forms is the estimate of reliability. One major problem with this approach is that you have to be able to generate lots ofitemsthatreflectthesameconstruct.Thisisoftennoeasyfeat.Furthermore,this approach makes the assumption that the randomly divided halves are parallel or equivalent. Even by chance this will sometimes not be the case. The parallel forms approach is very similar to the split-half reliability described below. The major difference is that parallel forms are constructed so that the two forms can be

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used independent of each other and considered equivalent measures. For instance, we might be concerned about a testing threat to internal validity. If we use Form A for the pre-test and Form B for the post-test, we minimise that problem. it would even be better if we randomly assign individuals to receive Form A or B on the pre-test and then switch them on the post-test. With split-half reliability we have an instrument that we wish to use as a single measurement instrument and only develop randomly split halves for purposes of estimating reliability.

time 1 time 2

form A

form B

Fig. 5.5 Parallel-forms reliability

5.5.3 Internal Consistency ReliabilityIt is used to assess the consistency of results across items within a test. In internal consistency reliability estimation we use our single measurement instrument administered to a group of people on one occasion to estimate reliability. In effect we judge the reliability of the instrument by estimating how well the items that reflectthesameconstructyieldsimilarresults.Wearelookingathowconsistentthe results are for different items for the same construct within the measure. There are a wide variety of internal consistency measures that can be used.

Average inter-item correlation The average inter-item correlation uses all of the items on our instrument that are designedtomeasurethesameconstruct.Wefirstcomputethecorrelationbetweeneachpairofitems,asillustratedinthefigure.Forexample,ifwehavesixitemswe will have 15 different item pairings (that is, 15 correlations). The average inter item correlation is simply the average or mean of all these correlations. In theexample,wefindanaverageinter-itemcorrelationof.90withtheindividualcorrelations ranging from .84 to .95.

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measure

Average Inter-Item Correlation

I1 I2 I3 I4 I5 I6

.90

I1 1.00I2 .89 1.00I3 .91 .92 1.00I4 .88 .93 .95 1.00I5 .84 .86 .92 .85 1.00I6 .88 .91 .95 .87 .85 1.00

item 1

item 2

item 3

item 4

item 5

item 6

Fig. 5.6 Average inter-item correlation

Average item total correlationThis approach also uses the inter-item correlations. In addition, we compute a total score for the six items and use that as a seventh variable in the analysis. Thefigurebelowshowsthesix item-to-totalcorrelationsat thebottomof thecorrelation matrix. They range from .82 to .88 in this sample analysis, with the average of these at .85.

measure

Average Inter-Total Correlation

I1 I2 I3 I4 I5 I6

.85

I1 1.00I2 .89 1.00I3 .91 .92 1.00I4 .88 .93 .95 1.00I5 .84 .86 .92 .85 1.00I6 .88 .91 .95 .87 .85 1.00Total .84 .88 .86 .87 .83 .82 1.00

item 1

item 2

item 3

item 4

item 5

item 6

Fig. 5.7 Average item total correlation

Split-half reliabilityIn split-half reliability, we randomly divide all items that purport to measure the same construct into two sets. We administer the entire instrument to a sample of people and calculate the total score for each randomly divided half the split-half reliabilityestimate,asshowninthefigure,issimplythecorrelationbetweenthesetwo total scores. In the example it is .87.

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measure

Split-Half Correlations

.87

item 1

item 2

item 3

item 4

item 5

item 6

item 4

item 6

item 1 item 3

item 2 item 5

Fig. 5.8 Split-half correlation

Imagine that we compute one split half reliability, and then randomly divide the items into another set of split halves and recomputed, and keep doing this until we have computed all possible split half estimates of reliability. Cronbach’s Alpha is mathematically equivalent to the average of all possible split-half estimates, although that’s not how we compute it. Notice that when I say we compute all possible split-half estimates, I don’t mean that each time we go a measure a new sample! That would take forever. Instead, we calculate all split-half estimates from the same sample. Because we measured our entire sample on each of the six items, all we have to do is have the computer analysis do the random subsets ofitemsandcomputetheresultingcorrelations.Thefigureshowsseveralofthesplit-half estimates for our six item example and lists them as SH with a subscript. Just keep in mind that although Cronbach’s Alpha is equivalent to the average of all possible split half correlations we would never actually calculate it that way. Someclevermathematician(Cronbach,Ipresume!)figuredoutawaytogetthemathematical equivalent a lot more quickly.

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measure

item 1

item 2

item 3

item 4

item 5

item 6

Cronbach’salpha(α)

SH1 .87SH2 .85SH3 .91SH4 .83SH5 .86

SHn .85

α=.85

87 87 87

Fig. 5.9 Cronbach’s alpha

5.6 Comparison of Reliability EstimatorsEach of the reliability estimators has certain advantages and disadvantages. Inter-rater reliability is one of the best ways to estimate reliability when your measure is an observation. However, it requires multiple raters or observers. As an alternative, you could look at the correlation of ratings of the same single observer repeated on two different occasions. For example, let’s say you collected videotapes of child-mother interactions and had a rater code the videos for how often the mother smiled at the child. To establish inter-rater reliability you could take a sample of videos and have two raters code them independently. To estimate test-retest reliability you could have a single rater code the same videos on two different occasions. You might use the inter-rater approach especially if you were interested in using a team of raters and you wanted to establish that they yielded consistent results. If you get a suitably high inter-rater reliability you could then justify allowing them to work independently on coding different videos. You might use the test-retest approach when you only have a single rater and don’t want to train any others. On the other hand, in some studies it is reasonable to do both to help establish the reliability of the raters or observers.

The parallel forms estimator is typically only used in situations where you intend to use the two forms as alternate measures of the same thing. Both the parallel forms and all of the internal consistency estimators have one major constraint you have to have multiple items designed to measure the same construct. This is relatively easy to achieve in certain contexts like achievement testing (it’s easy, for instance, to construct lots of similar addition problems for a math test), but for more complex or subjective constructs this can be a real challenge. If you do have lots of items, Cronbach’s Alpha tends to be the most frequently used estimate of internal consistency.

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The test-retest estimator is especially feasible in most experimental and quasi-experimental designs that use a no-treatment control group. In these designs you always have a control group that is measured on two occasions (pre-test and post-test). the main problem with this approach is that you don’t have any information about reliability until you collect the post-test and, if the reliability estimate is low, you’re pretty much sunk.

Each of the reliability estimators will give a different value for reliability. In general, the test-retest and inter-rater reliability estimates will be lower in value than the parallel forms and internal consistency ones because they involve measuring at different times or with different raters. Since reliability estimates are often used in statistical analyses of quasi-experimental designs (e.g., the analysis of the non-equivalent group design), the fact that different estimates can differ considerably makes the analysis even more complex.

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SummaryReliability is the ability of a product to perform as expected over time is •one of the principal dimensions or key elements of quality which is multi-dimensional in nature. Reliability is an essential aspect of product and process design and sophisticated equipment used today in such areas as transportation, communications and medical services require high reliability. Thefieldofreliabilityhasevolvedthroughthreedistinctphases,muchlikethe•evolution of quality assurance. Initial efforts were directed at the measurement and prediction of reliability through statistical studies. The major focus was on the determination of failure rates of individual components such as transistors and resistors. Knowledge of component failure rates helps to predict the reliability of complex systems of these components. As knowledge about reliability grew, new methods of analysis were developed to increase the reliability built into products and processes. Every reliability program should have a list of detailed procedures for •accomplishing its tasks. This is the reliability program plan. It is of the utmostimportancebecauseitisthemajorvehiclewhichprovidesforefficientoperation as well as being the medium (standard) by which the success of the operation is measured.Failure rate and product life characteristic curve in considering the failure rate •of a product, suppose that a large group of items is tested or used until all fail and that the time of failure is recorded for each item.Reliabilitywasdefinedearlierinthischapterastheprobabilitythatanitemwill•not fail over a given period of time. However, the probability distribution of failureisusuallyamoreconvenientfiguretouseinreliabilitycomputations.Itmay be noted that during the useful life of a product, the failure rate is assumed to be constant. Thus, the fraction of good items that fails during any time period is constant. It is assumed that the probability of failure over time can be modelled mathematically by an exponential probability distribution, which was found as valid for many observable phenomenon such as failure of light bulbs, electronic components, and repairable systems such as automobiles, computers, and industrial machinery.

ReferencesTrochim, W. M.K., 2006. • Types of Reliability [Online] Available at: <http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/reltypes.php>. [Accessed 26 July 2011].RELIA-EASY. • Quality versus Reliability [Online] Available at: <http://www.relia-easy.com/index.html>. [Accessed 26 July 2011].Balakrishnan, H., 2011. • Reliability [Video Online] Available at: <http://academicearth.org/lectures/reliability>. [Accessed 26 July 2011].headlessprofessor, 2008. • Reliability [Video Online] Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmqKQBMgB4M>. [Accessed 26 July 2011].

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Bazovsky, I., 2004. • Reliability Theory and Practice (Dover Books on Mathematics), Dover Publications.O’Connor, P., 2002. • Practical Reliability Engineering, 4th ed., Wiley.

Recommended ReadingLeemis, L. M., 2009. • Reliability: Probabilistic Models and Statistical Methods, Lawrence Leemis.Ebeling, C. E., 2009. • An Introduction to Reliability and Maintainability Engineering, Waveland Pr Inc.Gulati, R. and Smith, R., 2009. • Maintenance and Reliability Best Practices, 1st ed., Industrial Press, Inc.

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Self Assessment

_____________ is the ability of a product to perform as expected over time 1. which is multi-dimensional in nature.

Maintainabilitya. Reliabilityb. Split-half reliabilityc. Split-half reliabilityd.

High reliability is absolutely necessary for safety in space and ____________ 2. andformedicalproductssuchaspacemakersandartificialorgans.

water travela. land travelb. air travelc. street traveld.

Match the following.3.

Standardisation1. Rating is the assignment of a product to operate at A. stress levels below its normal rating.

Redundancy2. Many failures are due to deterioration because B. of chemical reactions over time, which may be aggravated by temperature or humidity effects.

Physics of 3. Failure

Provides back-up components that can be used C. when the failure of anyone component in a system can cause a failure of the entire system.

De rating 4. practices

One method of ensuring high reliability is to D. use components with proven track records of reliability over years of actual use.

1-D, 2-C, 3-B, 4-Aa. 1-B, 2-A, 3-D, 4-Cb. 1-C, 2-A, 3-D, 4-Bc. 1-D, 2-A, 3-C, 4-Bd.

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Reliability is determined by the number of ____________ during the duration 4. under consideration called the failure rate.

failures per unit areaa. force per unit timeb. failures unit timec. failures per unit timed.

Ifλisthefailurerate,theprobabilitydensitydistributionrepresentationfailure5. is given by the_______________.

exponential densitya. densityb. exponential diversityc. absolute densityd.

The ____________ uses all of the items on our instrument that are designed 6. to measure the same construct.

Average item total correlationa. Split-half reliabilityb. average inter-item correlationc. Split-half reliabilityd.

_________________ is used to assess the consistency of results across items 7. within a test.

Parallel-forms reliabilitya. Test-retest reliabilityb. Inter-observer reliabilityc. Internal consistency reliabilityd.

The ______________ is especially feasible in most experimental and quasi-8. experimental designs that use a no-treatment control group.

reliability estimators a. test-retest estimatorb. split-half reliability c. inter-item correlationsd.

______________ is used to assess the consistency of the results of two tests 9. constructed in the same way from the same content domain.

Test-retest reliabilitya. Inter-observer reliabilityb. Internal consistency reliabilityc. Parallel-forms reliabilityd.

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___________ is a failure analysis in which an undesired state of a system is 10. analysed using Boolean logic to combine a series of lower-level events.

Fault tree analysisa. Standardisationb. Redundancyc. Physics of failured.

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Chapter VI

Health and Safety

Aim

The aim of this unit is to:

defineISO9001•

describe theory and hypotheses of ISO 9001•

classify hazards of ISO 9000•

Objectives

The objectives of this unit are to:

explain key elements of successful health and safety management•

discuss the relationship between the regulator and industry •

outline the risk in hazard analysis•

Learning outcome

At the end of this unit, you will be able to:

analyse control measures hazard•

understand codes of practice•

identi• fy hazard according to the risk and severity

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6.1 IntroductionNearly 900,000 organisations in 170 countries have adopted the ISO 9001 Quality ManagementSystem standard.This is a remarkablefigure given the lack ofrigorous evidence regarding the standard’s effect on organisational practices and performance. Implementing a quality management system that conforms to ISO 9001 entails documenting operating procedures, training, internal auditing, and corrective action procedures. It also requires that procedures to improve existing procedures be implemented.

Proponents claim that quality programs such as ISO 9001 improve both, management practices and production processes, and that these improvements translate into increased sales and employment (unless productivity gains outweigh sales increases).The latter benefits aremagnified if customers interpret theadoption of ISO 9001 or other quality programs as a signal of high quality products or services. To the extent that greater employee skill and training are required to develop and implement procedures to improve procedures, the theory of human capital suggests that employees’ earnings should rise as well.

Finally, ISO9001 can improveworker safety through the identification andelimination of potentially hazardous practices, development of a formal corrective action process, and institutionalisation of routine audits and management reviews. Some critics suggest that such formalisation and documentation of work practices can negatively affect employees, such as by reducing skill requirements or increasing cumulative trauma disorders (e.g., Brenner, Fairris, and Ruser 2004).

6.2 Theory and HypothesesCompanies that implement a quality management system that conforms to ISO 9001 typically improve the documentation of operating procedures, training, and proceduresforcorrectiveaction.AplantseekingISO9001certificationmusthirean accredited third-party auditor to attest that:

writtenproceduresexistforallsignificantoperations•training, monitoring, and other procedures are in place to ensure that written •procedures are followed, andprocedures for continuously improving other procedures have been •implemented.

The latter requirement has implications for employees’ training, incentives, and scope of decision-making. The cost of implementing ISO 9001, including developing procedures, documentation, and training and hiring a third-party auditor, range from $97,000 to $560,000 (in 2008 dollars), depending on the size and complexity of the operation (Docking and Dowen 1999)

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6.2.1 ISO 9001 and Changes in Plant ScaleProducts and services which canot be easily distinguished as that of higher and lower quality, there is little incentive either for customers to pay a premium for, orforcompaniestoinvestin,higherquality(Spence1973).FirmscanbenefitfromISO9001certification in suchcircumstances. Inparticular, if ISO9001certificationismoreoftenprofitableforhigherqualityfirms,ISO9001cansignalto buyers that adopters likely possess high quality (Spence 1973; Terlaak and King2006).Ifcertificationservestocrediblydifferentiatehigherqualityproductsandservices,certifiedfirmsshouldseeanincreaseindemand,whichwouldalsoresultinincreasedunitsalesandtotalrevenues.ISO9001certificationcanalsoincrease customers’ willingness to pay for quality, which creates an incentive formanagerstoinvestinimprovingproductorservicequality.Ifcertificationteaches managers to cost-effectively improve quality along dimensions customer perceiveandvalue,suchfirmsshouldalsoseeanincreaseinunitsalesandtotalrevenues. ISO 9001 adoption can also help managers learn how to reduce costs. Understandardeconomicassumptions,aprofit-maximizingfirmsetspriceasamark-up over marginal cost. To the extent that adoption helps them to learn how tolowertheirmarginalcosts,certifiedfirmsshouldreducetheirprices.

Holding all else constant, these lower prices should translate into increased unit salesandrevenue.Whetherhigh-qualityfirmsaremorelikelytoadoptISO9001,or the standard improves adopters’ quality or costs, both scenarios give rise to the sameprediction:ISO9001certificationwillincreasesales.Indeed,manyindustrialbuyersuseISO9001certificationintheirscreeningcriteriaforpotentialsuppliers,believing that it “almost guarantees that [their] products will consistently meet theirdesignspecifications”(Ferguson1996:309).Thesescenariosindicatethatsuch revenue increases will be accompanied by constant or declining operating costs(therebyincreasingprofits),whichimpliesthatISO9001certificationshouldbeassociatedwithgreaterprobabilityoffirmsurvival.

HYPOTHESIS 1a: ISO 9001 certification leads to higher rates of firm survival.

HYPOTHESIS 1b:ISO9001certificationleadstohighersales.

If the hypothesized increase in revenues is due to increased unit sales (not solely increased prices) and the demand for additional units cannot be accommodated by existing worker capacity, we also have:

HYPOTHESIS 2a:ISO9001certificationleadstohigheremployment,butbyless than sales increases.

If, as suggested by survey data, ISO 9001 can also enhance worker productivity (Naveh and Erez 2006), employment growth will be proportionately less than sales growth, leading to:8

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HYPOTHESIS 2b:ISO9001certificationleadstohigherlabourproductivity.

6.2.2 ISO 9001 and WagesThe effect of ISO 9001 adoption on wages can be positive or negative. Helper, Levine, and Bendoly (2002) found that attempts to foster employee involvement led to higher wages meant to compensate the incremental effort expended to achieve the requisite higher skill levels. Employees of ISO 9001 adopters are often expected to perform discretionary tasks such as documenting new procedures and contributing quality improvement ideas. ISO 9001 adopting plants must develop and deploy quality-related training to ensure that employees properly implement new procedures and acquire the skills needed to conduct internal audits and root-cause analyses and continuously improve other procedures. Reliance on greater employee discretionary efforts and enhanced skills (as in theories of human capital) canleadfirmstopayhigherwages(toinducegreatereffort,asinefficiencywagetheories [Levine 1992]) or increase employees’ bargaining power (Lindbeck and Snower 1986). If greater human capital, efficiencywages, and/or bargainingpower are important, we have:

HYPOTHESIS 3:ISO9001certificationleadstohigherwages.

Rigorous adherence to written procedures, on the other hand, implies a fairly routinized workplace, and routinization is often associated with reductions in frontline workers’ skills, discretion, and bargaining power. (A plant encountered inthecourseofourfieldresearch,forexample,wasimplementingISO9001withthe express purpose of documenting workers’ tacit knowledge and procedures so that the plant could be replicated overseas using lower cost labor.) When this condition prevails, we have:

HYPOTHESIS3′:ISO9001certificationleadstolowerwages.

6.2.3 ISO 9001 and Occupational Health and SafetyAdopting ISO 9001 might lead to improvements in occupational health and safety in a variety of ways. In the process of formally documenting procedures, for example, managers can identify and eliminate hazardous practices and add safety precautions. Moreover, by fostering more focused attention to detail (Naveh and Erez2006),ISO9001adoptioncanrevealnew“win-win”opportunitiestoimprovequality or efficiency andoccupational health and safety thatwere previouslyobscuredbyindirectanddistributedcostsandbenefits(KingandLenox2001).Additionally, processes that provide warning signals and prompt corrective action can forestall serious accidents (Marcus and Nichols 1999). Finally, routine auditing and corrective action procedures required by ISO 9001 to address management system failures encourage root-cause analysis that can identify problematic work practices that might otherwise precipitate not only quality failures, but occupational health and safety concerns.

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Departments charged with managing quality sometimes also manage health and safety, and companies are increasingly implementing integrated management systems that incorporate all these considerations (Toffel 2000; Barbeau et al. 2004). Occupational health and safety can be improved by applying the tools of continuousimprovementassociatedwithISO9001certification.Employeeswhoknow how to identify root causes of quality problems, for example, also have the skills to identify root causes of safety problems. Exploiting these opportunities yields:

HYPOTHESIS 4: Adopting ISO 9001 reduces the number and cost of occupational injuries.

The high rates of repetition and increased monitoring implicit in the emphasis of ISO 9001 on routinisation and standardization of tasks can increase stress and repetitive motion injuries, potentially worsening the safety records of plants with quality programs (as argued by Brenner et al. 2004).

Moreover, to the extent that the higher equipment utilization associated with ISO 9001 adoption (Koc 2007; Huarng, Horng, and Chen 1999) translates into reduced employee downtime, employee fatigue, a major cause of injuries, might be expected to increase (Williamson and Boufous 2007). Additionally, new quality management procedures implemented in association with ISO 9001 that add inspection tasks to work processes optimized for production can occasion poor ergonomic conditions that leave employees susceptible to injuries (Landau and Peters 2006). These considerations give rise to:

HYPOTHESIS 4′: Adopting ISO 9001 increases the number and cost of occupational injuries.

6.3ClassificationofHazards-ISO9000The ISO 9000 family of standards communicate to quality management systems and are designed to help organisations ensuring that they meet the requirements of customers and other stakeholders. The standards are available by ISO, the International Organisation for Standardisation and available through National standards bodies ISO 9000 deals with the fundamentals of quality management systems, including the eight management principles on which the family of standards is based. ISO 9001 deals with the needs that organisations wishing to meetupthestandard,havetofulfil.

6.3.1 Hazards Analysis, Critical Control Points and Control Measures Hazard Analysis

In 2000, hazard was developed to represent a biological, chemical, or physical •agent, or a condition of food with the potential to cause an adverse health effect when present at an unacceptable level.

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Hazard analysis is the process of collecting and interpreting information on •hazards and conditions leading to their presence in order to decide which are significantforfoodsafetyandshouldbeaddressedinthatparticularindustry’sHACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point Systems) plan.Hazards to food safety can originate from the raw materials, the line •environment, and the personnel handling the food, but even if they enter thefinalproduct,thisdoesnotmeanthattheirlevelsarealwaysdangerous.Therefore, hazard analysis is a process of deciding whether potential hazards aresignificantandiftheyneedtobecontrolled.Duringthisprocessthehazardwillbedeterminedtobesignificantdependinguponthelevelspresent,thesizes, or the doses of the hazardous agent.Furthermore, the effect of the agent varies with the food in which it is found •and the susceptibility of the person ingesting it. Some agents, for example, are more dangerous than others and there is a great variety in the severity of the effect. However there is always a level below which the presence of an agent is considered to be acceptable.

6.3.2ClassificationofHazardAccordingtotheRiskandSeverity(HazardIndex)Priorities must be assigned to address contaminants in a rational and cost-effective way. These criteria can be used to establish priorities for food safety control activities. Although food safety emergencies always have highest priority, sound public health planning must rest on science and on objective assessments of risks and cost-effective possibilities for their reduction. One of these criteria, and perhaps the most important from the public health point of view, is the severity of potential effects of a contaminant on health. Therefore in order to classify a hazard we should take under consideration its risk and severity according to the following table.

Risk (R) Severity (S) Hazard Index (HI)Maximum likelihood=5 Lethal Hazard=5 Maximum value=25Medium likelihood=3-4 Severe Hazard=3-4 Medium value=9-16Minimum likelihood=1-2 Minimum Hazard=1-2 Minimum value=1-4

Table 6.1 A Hazard index according to the risk and severity

6.3.3 Assessment of Risk In Hazard AnalysisEvaluatingthelikelihoodofoccurrenceofthehazardisthemostdifficultaspectof Hazard Analysis. It is possible for instance, that Salmonella is present in any number of raw materials; but is its presence probable or likely or reasonably expectedtooccur?Thechoiceofdescriptivewardsreflectsanassessmentofthelikelihood of occurrence, which is one of the elements of the assessment of risks. Another part is the assessment of whether the reduction of a hazard is adequate, acceptable, or unacceptable.

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6.4 Key Elements of Successful Health and Safety Management

Initialreview

Measuringperformance

Reviewingperformance

Safety andHealth policy

Planning

Auditing Implementationand operation

Control link

Information link

Feedback loopto improveperformance

Fig. 6.1 Workplace safety and health management cycle

The key elements of a successful safety and health management system are set out in this section. Figure below outlines the relationship between them. They also comply with the main elements of an occupational safety and health management system. The manner and extent to which the individual elements will be applied will depend on factors such as size of the organisation, its management structure, the nature of its activities, and the risks involved.

6.4.1 Policy and CommitmentThe organisation should prepare an occupational safety and health policy programme as part of the preparation of the Safety Statement required by section 20 of the 2005 Act. Effective safety and health policies should set a clear direction for the organisation to follow. They will contribute to all aspects of business performance as part of a demonstrable commitment to continuous improvement. Responsibilities to people and the working environment will be met in a way that fulfilsthespiritandletterofthelaw.

Cost-effective approaches to preserving and developing human and physical resources will reduce financial losses and liabilities. In a wider context, stakeholders’ expectations, whether they are shareholders, employees or their representatives, customers or society at large, can be met.

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6.4.2 PlanningTheorganisationshouldformulateaplantofulfilitssafetyandhealthpolicyassetout in the Safety Statement. An effective management structure and arrangements should be put in place for delivering the policy. Safety and health objectives and targets should be set for all managers and employees.

6.4.3 Implementation and OperationFor effective implementation, the organisation should develop the capabilities and support mechanisms necessary to achieve its safety and health policy, objectives and targets. All staff should be motivated and empowered to work safely and to protect their long-term health, not simply to avoid accidents. The arrangements should be:

Underpinned by effective staff involvement and participation through •appropriate consultation, the use of the safety committee where it exists, and representation systems;Sustained by effective communication and the promotion of competence •which allows all employees and their representatives to make a responsible and informed contribution to the safety and health effort.

There should be a planned and systematic approach to implementing the safety and health policy through an effective safety and health management system. The aim should be to minimise risks. Risk assessment methods should be used to determine priorities and set objectives for eliminating hazards and reducing risks. Wherever possible, risks should be eliminated through the selection and design of facilities, equipment, and processes. If risks cannot be eliminated, they should be minimised by the use of physical controls and safe systems of work or, as a last resort, through the provision of personal protective equipment. Performance standards should be established and used for measuring achievement.

Specificactionstopromoteapositivesafetyandhealthcultureshouldbeidentified.There should be a shared common understanding of the organisation’s vision, values, and beliefs. The visible and active leadership of senior managers fosters a positive safety and health culture.

6.4.4 Measuring PerformanceThe organisation should measure, monitor, and evaluate its safety and health performance. Performance can be measured against agreed standards to reveal when and where improvement is needed. Active self-monitoring reveals how effectively the health and safety management system is functioning. Self-monitoring looks at both hardware (premises, plant and substances) and software (people, procedures and systems, including individual behaviour and performance). If controls fail, reactivemonitoringshouldfindoutwhytheyfailed,byinvestigatingtheaccidents,ill-health, or incidents that could have caused harm or loss. The objectives of active and reactive monitoring are:

to determine the immediate causes of substandard performance;•

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to identify any underlying causes and implications for the design and operation •of the safety and health management system.

6.4.5 Auditing and Reviewing PerformanceThe organisation should review and improve its safety and health management system continuously, so that its overall safety and health performance improves constantly. The organisation can learn from relevant experience and apply the lessons. There should be a systematic review of performance based on data from monitoring and from independent audits of the whole safety and health management system. These form the basis of complying with the organisation’s responsibilities under the 2005 Act and other statutory provisions. There should be a strong commitment to continuous improvement involving the development of policies, systems, and techniques of risk control. Performance should be assessed by:

internal reference to key performance indicators;•external comparison with the performance of business competitors and best •practice in the organisation’s employment sector.

Many companies now report on how well they have performed on worker safety andhealthintheirannualreportsandhowtheyhavefulfilledtheirresponsibilitieswith regard to preparing and implementing their safety statements. In addition, employers have greater responsibilities under section 80 of the 2005 Act on ‘LiabilityofDirectorsandofficersofundertakings’whichrequiresthemtobeina position to prove they have proactively managed the safety and health of their workers. Data from this ‘Auditing and Reviewing Performance’ process should be used for these purposes.

6.5 Codes of PracticeApproved Codes of Practice offer practical examples of good practice. They give advice on how to comply with the law by, for example, providing a guide to what is ‘reasonably practicable’. For example, if regulations use words like ‘suitable andsufficient’,anApprovedCodeofPracticecanillustratewhatthisrequiresinparticular circumstances.

Approved Codes of Practice have a special legal status. If employers are prosecuted for a breach of health and safety law, and it is proved that they have not followed therelevantprovisionsoftheApprovedCodeofPractice,acourtcanfindthemat fault unless they can show that they have complied with the law in some other way.

6.5.1 Regulations Regulations are law, approved by Parliament. These are usually made under the Health and Safety at Work Act. The Health and Safety at Work Act and general duties in the Management Regulations are goal setting (see ‘What form do they take?’) and leave employers freedom to decide how to control risks which they

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identify. Guidance and Approved Codes of Practice give advice. But some risks are so great, or the proper control measures so costly, that it would not be appropriate to leave employers discretion in deciding what to do about them. Regulations identifytheserisksandsetoutspecificactionthatmustbetaken.Oftentheserequirementsareabsolutetodosomethingwithoutqualificationbywhetheritisreasonably practicable.

6.5.2 How Regulations Apply Some regulations apply across all companies, such as the Manual Handling Regulations which apply wherever things are moved by hand or bodily force, and the Display Screen Equipment Regulations which apply wherever VDUs areused.Otherregulationsapplytohazardsuniquetospecificindustries,suchas mining or nuclear.

6.5.3 What Form Do they Take?Sometimes it is necessary to be prescriptive, that is spelling out in detail what should be done. Some standards are absolute. For example, all mines should have two exits; contacts with live electrical conductors should be avoided. Sometimes European law requires prescription.

Some activities or substances are so inherently hazardous that they require licensing, for example explosives and asbestos removal. Certain big and complex installations or operations require ‘safety cases’, which are large scale risk assessments subject to scrutiny by the regulator. For example, railway companies are required to produce safety cases for their operations.

6.5.4 The Relationship between the Regulator and Industry As mentioned above, HSC consults widely with those affected by its proposals. HSC work through:

HSC’s (health and Safety Commission) Industry and Subject Advisory •Committees, which have members drawn from the areas of work they cover, and focus on health and safety issues in particular industries (such as the textile industry, construction and education or areas such as toxic substances andgeneticmodification);intermediaries,suchassmallfirmsorganisations;•providing information and advice to employers and others with responsibilities •under the Health and Safety at Work Act; guidance to enforcers, both HSE inspectors and those of local authorities; •the day-to-day contact which inspectors have with people at work. •

HSC directly canvasses the views of small businesses. It also seeks views in detail from representatives of small businesses about the impact on them of proposed legislation.

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6.5.5 What Next?The Review of Regulation concluded that the present system of health and safetyregulationgenerallyworkswell,thoughitidentifiedseveralareaswhereimprovements can be made.

Although the Review has ended, our work in support of Better Regulation continues. The Review programme has formed an important basis for long-lasting successes in improving workplace health and safety. Policies and initiatives flowingfromitcontinuetosupportourpriorityaimsandobjectives,andwillberefinedinthecomingyears,adaptingandevolvingtotakeaccountofchangesintechnology, workplace trends and the needs of those involved.

6.6 The Statement of Health and Safety Policy A company safety policy normally contains the arrangements, organisation, and procedures that form the safe system of work for the normal work task or process that prevails within the workplace or commercial enterprise.

It is the policy of Hackle Security Services Ltd, hereafter referred to as ‘The Company’ to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of its employees, and that of other persons who could be affected by their undertaking. In accordance with the requirements of the Health and Safety at Work Act, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, and other applicable legislation, the company will undertake assessments of risks and instigate arrangements that, so far as is reasonably practicable, ensure;

Places of work are maintained in a safe condition•Working environments are safe and without risk to health•Work equipment and systems of work are safe and without risk to health•Adequate welfare facilities are provided; and•Information, instruction, training, and supervision are provided to ensure the •health and safety of its employees and that of persons who may be affected by their work activities.

The company places great importance on ensuring the health safety and welfare of its employees. Managers have a key role in maintaining these standards and should regard their Health and Safety responsibilities towards persons under their direction, with equal importance to that of maintaining customer service levels andprofitability.

The effective implementation of this policy will require the co-operation of employeesatalllevels.Allemployeesareremindedthattheyhavespecificlegalresponsibilities to:

Ensure the health and safety of themselves and of any other persons who may •be affected by their acts or omissions at workUse equipment in accordance with the instructions and training provided•

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Report any work situation, which is considered to pose a serious threat or •dangerCo-operate with their employers to comply with any statutory requirement •placed upon themReport any matter where it is considered that the safety arrangements in force •fail to reduce risk to an acceptable level.

The Managing Director is ultimately responsible for Health and Safety within the company. He will ensure adequate resources are available to achieve the aims of this policy and monitor its effectiveness. Managers/Line Managers and Supervisorsareresponsiblefortheimplementationofthearrangementsdefinedin this policy in relation to the areas and activities under their control. The Policy willbereviewedannuallyandupdatedasnecessarytoreflectanychangesintheactivities undertaken and legislative requirements.

Essentially, a policy should consist of three parts, as follows: A general statement of intent. This should outline in broad terms the •organisations overall philosophy in relation to the management of health and safety. It should also include reference to the broad responsibilities of both management and workforce. Organisation (people and their duties). This part outlines the chain of •command in terms of health and safety management. Who is responsible towhomandforwhat?Howistheaccountabilityfixedsoastoensurethatdelegated responsibilities are undertaken? How is the policy implementation monitored? Other organisational features should include: individual job descriptionshavingasafetycontent,detailsofspecificsafetyresponsibilities,the role and function of safety committee(s), the role and function of safety representatives and a management chart clearly showing the lines of responsibility and accountability in terms of health and safety management. The competent person(s) who is to assist with compliance with the health and safety requirements should also be included. Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992, Reg 61. Arrangement (systems and procedures). This part of the policy deals with the •practical arrangements by which the policy will be effectively implemented. These include safety training, safe systems of work, environmental control, safe place of work, machine/area guarding, housekeeping, safe plant and equipment, noise control, radiation safety, dust control, use of toxic materials, internal communication/participation, utilisation of safety committee(s) and safetyrepresentatives,firesafetyandprevention,medicalfacilitiesandwelfare,maintenance of records, accident reporting and investigation, emergency procedures and workplace monitoring. (Records of the formal arrangements arealsorequiredtobekeptwheremorethanfiveemployeesareemployed.Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992, Reg 4.

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6.6.1 Basic Objectives and General Content of Statement Health and safety policy statements should state their main objectives, for instance,

specify that health and safety are management responsibilities ranking equally •with responsibilities for production, sales, costs, and similar matters; indicate that it is the duty of management is to see that everything reasonably •practicable is done to prevent personal injury in the processes of production, and in the design, construction, and operation of all plant, machinery and equipment, and to maintain a safe and healthy place of work; Indicate that it is the duty of all employees to act responsibly, and to do •everything they can to prevent injury to themselves and fellow workers. Although the implementation of policy is fundamentally a management responsibility, it will rely heavily on the co-operation of those who actually produce the goods and take the risks; identify the main board director or managing board director (or directors) •who have prime responsibility for health and safety, in order to make the commitment of the board precise, and provide points of reference for any managerwhoisfacedwithaconflictbetweenthedemandsofsafetyandthedemands of production; be dated so as to ensure that it is periodically revised in the light of current •conditions, and be signed by the chairman, managing director, chief executive, or whoever speaks with authority on health and safety matters ; and Clearly state how and by whom within the operation is to be monitored. •

6.6.2 Organisation (People and their Duties)

Suitable policies will demonstrate both in written and diagrammatic form •(where appropriate) the following features: The unbroken and logical delegation of duties through line management •and supervisors who operate where the hazards arise and the majority of the accidents occur. The identification of key personnel (by name and/or job title)who are•accountable to top management for ensuring that detailed arrangements for safe working are drawn up, implemented and maintained. Thedefinitionoftherolesofboth,lineandfunctionalmanagement.Specific•job descriptions should be formulated. The provision of adequate support for line management via relevant functional •management such as safety advisers, engineers, medical advisers, designers, hygienists, chemists, ergonomists, etc. The nomination of persons with the competence and authority to measure and •monitor safety performance. The provision of the means to deal with failures in order to meet job •requirements.

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Thefixingofaccountabilityfor themanagementofhealthandsafety ina•similar manner to other management functions. The organisation structure must unambiguously indicate to the individual •exactlywhathemustdotofulfilhisrole.Thereafter,afailureisafailuretomanage effectively. The organisation should make it known (both, in terms of time and money) •what resources are available for health and safety. The individual must be certain of the extent to which he is realistically supported by the policy and bytheorganisationneededtofulfilit.

6.6.3 Arrangements (Systems and Procedures) It is vital to establish safe and healthy systems of work designed to counteract theidentifiedriskswithinabusiness.Thefollowingaspectsshouldbeusedasaguide when preparing arrangements for health and safety at work:

The involvement of the safety adviser, committee and relevant line/functional •management at the planning/design stage. The provision of health and safety performance criteria for articles, and product •safety data for substances, prior to purchase. Theprovisionof specific instructions forusingmachines, formaintaining•safety systems, and for the control of health hazards. Thedevelopmentofspecifichealthandsafetytrainingforallemployees.•The undertaking of medical examinations and biological monitoring. •The provision of suitable protective equipment •The development and utilisation of permit-to-work systems. •Theprovisionoffirst-aid/emergencyprocedures,includingaspectsoffire•safety/prevention. The provision of written procedures in respect of contractors and visitors. •The formulation of written safe systems of work for use by all levels of •management and workforce.

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SummaryISO9001canimproveworkersafetythroughtheidentificationandelimination•of potentially hazardous practices, development of a formal corrective action process, and institutionalization of routine audits and management reviews. Some critics suggest that such formalization and documentation of work practices can negatively affect employees, such as by reducing skill requirements or increasing cumulative trauma.The key elements of a successful safety and health management system as •well as the relationship between them are explained. The manner and extent to which the individual elements will be applied will depend on factors such as size of the organisation, its management structure, the nature of its activities, and the risks involved.Approved codes of practice offer practical examples of good practice. They •give advice on how to comply with the law by, for example, providing a guide to what is ‘reasonably practicable’. For example, if regulations use words like ‘suitableandsufficient’,anApprovedCodeofPracticecanillustratewhatthisrequires in particular circumstances. Approved Codes of Practice have a special legal status. If employers are •prosecuted for a breach of health and safety law, and it is proved that they have not followed the relevant provisions of the Approved Code of Practice, acourtcanfindthematfaultunlesstheycanshowthattheyhavecompliedwith the law in some other way.

ReferencesHealth and Safety Home Pages, 2006. • The Statement of Health and Safety Policy [Online] Available at: <http://www.healthandsafety.co.uk/safpofs.html>. [Accessed 15 July 2011].Aston-GlobalCertifications,2009.• 14 Steps to Implementing ISO 9001 Quality Management System [Online] Available at: <http://www.hacklesecurity.co.uk/pdf/Health-and-Safety-Policy.pdf>. [Accessed 15 July 2011].colimmy99, 2010. • Preparing ISO 9001 Quality Management System [Video Online] Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64hI5ApZVUo>. [Accessed 15 July 2011].iso9001stor• e, 2010. ISO 9001 Quality Management System [Video Online] Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAnn9xX_Hsc>. [Accessed 15 July 2011].Kane, R. W., 2011. • Environmental Health and Safety Audits, 9th ed., Government Institutes.Stephen Asbury and Peter Ashwell, 2007. • Health & Safety, Environment and Quality Audits: A risk-based approach, 1st ed., Butterworth-Heinemann.

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Recommended ReadingWeinstein, M. B., 1997. • Total Quality Safety Management and Auditing, 1st ed., CRC-Press.Hutchison, D., 1997. • Safety Health and Environmental Quality Systems Management: Strategies for Cost-Effective Regulatory Compliance, Lanchester Press Inc.Suokas, J. and Rouhiainen, V., 1993. • Quality Management of Safety and Risk Analysis, Elsevier Science.

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Self Assessment

Proponents claim that quality programs such as ____________ improve both, 1. management practices and production processes.

IOS 9001a. SOI 9001b. ISO 9001c. ISO 1000d.

Match the following.2.

HYPOTHESIS 2a1. Adopting ISO 9001 reduces the number and cost A. of occupational injuries.

HYPOTHESIS 1a2. ISO9001certificationleadstohigherwagesB.

HYPOTHESIS 33. ISO9001certificationleadstohigherratesofC. firmsurvival

HYPOTHESIS 44. ISO9001certificationleadstohigherD. employment, but by less than sales increases.

1-C, 2-D, 3-A, 4-Ba. 1-D, 2-C, 3-B, 4-Ab. 1-B, 2-A, 3-D, 4-Cc. 1-D, 2-A, 3-B, 4-Cd.

ISO 9001 certification leads to higher labour productivity is known as3. __________.

HYPOTHESIS 2ba. HYPOTHESIS 1b. HYPOTHESIS 4c. HYPOTHESIS 2ad.

If_____________ ismoreoftenprofitable forhigherqualityfirms, itcan4. signal to buyers that adopters likely possess high quality.

ISO 9000a. ISO 2000b. ISO9001certificationc. ISO9011certificationd.

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HSC stands for ____________________.5. Health and Safety Communitya. Handle and Security Commissionb. Health and Safety Commissionc. Health and Safety Commissiond.

Regulations are laws that are approved by________________.6. parliamenta. governmentb. publicc. companyd.

Information, instruction, training, and supervision are provided to ensure the 7. ___________ of its employees and that of persons who may be affected by their work activities.

health and safetya. healthb. safetyc. injuriesd.

_______________ is vital to establish safe and healthy systems of work 8. designedtocounteracttheidentifiedriskswithinabusiness.

Responsibilitiesa. Organisationb. Arrangementsc. Appointmentsd.

______________ clearly state how and by whom within the operation is to 9. be monitored.

Health and safety policya. Safety policyb. Health policyc. Insurance policy d.

The company places great importance on ensuring the health safety and welfare 10. of its_______________.

employeesa. employerb. managerc. publicd.

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Case Study I

Total Quality Management [TQM]

Executive Summary:Our client, a multi-location ready mix concrete, sand and gravel supplier faced the twin problems of escalating costs and eroding customer service. MLE was engaged tosupportthePresidentasheimplementedhisvisionforthefirm.Centraltohisvision was the creation of a culture which valued quality, customer service, and continuous improvement. Over a six month period MLE Consulting performed a TQM readiness assessment, organised the Quality Steering Committee, trained the management and hourly employees in TQM and supported the work of the departmentally based Quality Teams and the cross functional Corrective Action Teams. Our client has reported savings of $2 million to $3 million.

Background:ThefirmisoneofthelargestreadymixconcreteproducersintheMid-Atlanticregion. Over 350 employees are spread over seven different locations and four major divisions. The second generation management team recognised the need to change the culture of the organisation without losing the strength of the family oriented culture. The company did not have a history of participative management andreactedslowlytoopportunities.Initialinterviewsconfirmedthatmanagementwas viewed sceptically. Substandard internal communication fed fear and resentment on the part of employees.

Managers and employees were very loyal to the company. Most of them had grownupinthebusiness.Managementhada“shirtsleevestyle”typicaloftheconstruction industry. Most of the truck drivers could read and write. Turnover was exceptionally low by national and regional standards.

The prolonged recession in commercial and residential construction had put them in a vulnerable position. They were faced with increasingly aggressive competition. A major objective for implementing TQM was to eliminate the waste in delivery and improve the reliability of delivery. The President made it plain that the savings from improvements would fund the culture he needed to implement TQM.

The Process:Thefirst stepwas to perform aTQM readiness assessment.Over afive dayperiod MLE interviewed all of the senior management team and several hourly employees.Thisconfirmedinitialobservationsandhighlightedseveralareasfortargeted customer service improvement and cost reduction. TQM training was developed and initial Corrective Action Teams (CAT) were formed, based on the results of the assessment.

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The next step was to communicate the vision to every employee in the company. The President told each employee his vision for the business. MLE attended these special 5:30 AM meetings with the truck drivers to answer questions about the TQM process.

The next step was to organise the steering committee and train the management team. Training was further developed in the six TQM training sessions. By incorporating their culture, credibility was improved. In addition, training improved the application of TQM ideas and broke down barriers to change.Four groups of twenty employees were then trained. MLE trained in-house trainers to continue the training of employees.

A second, but equally important task continued parallel to the training. The Corrective Action Team (CAT) used the TQM process to improve the customer service levels and eliminate waste in trucking.

TheCATteamusedeachofthefivecriticalareasinTotalQualityManagementto generate the needed changes in their trucking operations:

Customer Focus •Teamwork •Problem Solving •Waste Elimination •Continuous Improvement •

Over three months they generated cost reduction initiatives worth $600,000 and implemented over $300,000 of cost savings. This major victory by hourly and firstlinemanagementdemonstratedtheeffectivenessofTQM.

Results:The client engaged MLE to support a change in the vision of the company. They realised a 25:1 payback on their investment in Total Quality Management. Their premier service reputation was restored and they became the preferred supplier to many contractors. According to the President, the company has become much amoreflexibleandresponsive.Improvementstothebottomlinebearthisout.

Source: slideshare, Case Study - TQM - Total Quality Management, 2011. [Online] Available at:<http://www.slideshare.net/siddharth4mba/case-study-tqm-total-quality-management>. [Accessed 28 July 2011].

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QuestionsWhy MLE change the culture of the organisation? 1. Answer: Thefirmwas one of the largest readymix concrete producersOver 350employees are spread over seven different locations and four major divisions but Turnover was exceptionally low by National and regional standards. The competition in the industry was increasing so without changing the culture according to the modern standards the survival of the company was in danger. The management also realised that we should focus on quality and customer satisfaction so they decided to bring change.

What was the process followed by MLE?2. Answer: MLE follows the process in a very systematic way and takes steps in right direction. TQM readiness assessment was done •Communicate the vision to every employee of the company •Train the management team •Focus on five major areas Customer Focus, Teamwork, Problem Solving •Continuous improvement, waste elimination The process which MLE follows was right and got good results.

Whyandhowtheprofitwasincreasedinthecompany?3. Answer: The following are the main reasons:MLE was already an established organisation and organisation just needs •implementation of TQM tools and methods in efficient wayManagement and employees was very loyal to organisation•Employees accept changes in a positive way•Planning and implementation was perfect•Focus on right areas•

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Case Study II

Quality Management in Construction Projects: A Case Study of Quality Management in Construction Projects of an Oil and Gas Company

AbstractIn an organization or business will have a lot of construction projects, any project also is importance. Ensure the quality of the project is very important for each organization. Aware of that, the quality management has been applied widely in their construction projects. But how apply the successful model of quality management for a construction project that is still a big question.

Organisations in Vietnam as some other countries, in fact, the signers disclaim the possibility of anticipating and detailing everything in the construction documents. Second, it is unstable for the construction environment. The complexity and size of project vary. Working conditions cannot be somewhat control. The employee is variable; its composition, motivation, and size change. Cooperation between contractor and subcontractors is problematic. Those will affect the quality management of construction projects and it makes the project to delay, re-work, and increase cost.

So, how to manage the quality of the construction project effectively? This thesis will research about quality management in construction project through theory and real case that is applied in PTSC Production Services Company.

Currently, although businesses involved in construction activities apply quality management systems, but in practice there are a lot of poor works that worry people and society. Consequences of poor quality will damage property and waste money of business and community, and it also cause danger to people.

To ensure the effective application of quality management for construction projects, it requires the strong commitment of business leaders and implementation of multiple solutions. Applying this effective quality management will bring many potential benefits for businesses.Mr.LeVanThongmade a researchwhich main objectives were: (1) determination of quality management activities in the construction in the Oil and Gas Company; and (2) to discuss and review the effectiveness of quality management in construction of the Oil and Gas Company

ConclusionsQuality management system has been applied by PTSC companies in their projects. It brings success to the company for many years now, and became a famous company in the international market in oil and gas technical services industry in Vietnam. They are the useful tools to avoid and mitigate problems and to improve quality performances of the following projects. They are the principles that management use to achieve effective cost control, quality control, schedule

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control etc. Many civil and industry construction Corporations, companies in developed countries have been applied the successful Quality Management and gotmoreprofitsandreducedlosttimeandcostforreworks.Theyrecognizetheimportance of the Quality Management and have responsibilities to identify, assess, prevent, and manage all breakdowns and risks to projects, damage to property and working environment.

The quality improvement programs establish actions for achieving the objectives and targets, in line with the policy commitment of continuous improvement. When establishing targets, the following will be taken into consideration:

Who do? How? Who supervise the provision of information; as executive / •coordination / control is assigned in advance and all agents involved must comply.Thesystemclearlyandcloselyflexibilityhavecreatedapositiveconsequence•of works completed on schedule, ensure quality and safety.

Effectiveness of the implementation quality management:After implementation of the quality management, there are some achieved results as below:

Quality Assurance is to obtain completed construction that meets all contract •requirements.Assuranceisdefinedasadegreeofcertainty.Qualityassurancepersonnel continually assure that the contractor’s works comply with contract requirements.Quality Control is the successful execution of a realistic plan to ensure that the •required standards of quality construction will be met. In QC, the contractor defines procedures tomanage and control his own, designer of record,consultant, architect-engineer, all subcontractor and all supplier activities so that the completed project complies with contract requirements. For design-build contracts, this includes providing and maintaining a Design Quality Control plan as a part of the overall contract QC plan. This plan, as a minimum, must assure that all documents are reviewed by a technically competent independentreviewerspecificallynamedintheplan.Thisreviewcannotbeperformed by the same designers that produced the product. The design QC planmustbemanagedbyaDesignQCManagerwhohasverifiableengineeringor architectural design experience or is a registered engineer or architect. The Design QC Manager is under the supervision of the QC Manager.

RecommendationsThe performance of Quality Management must be carried out permanently 1. in the company to prevent all budget overrun, progress slow, reworks maybe happening from the existing projects and future projects.The performance of Quality Management must be concerned from the top 2. management to everybody in the company.Examine the quality control methods being used to determine if the contractor 3. is properly controlling design activities in design-build contracts.

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Examine the quality control methods being used to determine if the contractor 4. is properly controlling construction activities. Make certain that the necessary changes are made in the contractor’s QC 5. system,ifexcessiveconstructiondeficienciesoccur.Assist the contractor in understanding and implementing the contract 6. requirements. Examine ongoing and completed work. 7. Producethequalityspecifiedintheplansandspecificationsandfordesign-8. build contracts in the Request for Proposal, as well as the contractor’s accepted proposal. Develop and maintain an effective QC system. 9. Perform all control activities and tests. 10. Prepare acceptable documentation of QC activities. 11.

Source: Professional Project Management Education, 2010. Quality Management in Construction Projects: A Case Study of Quality Management in Construction Projects of an Oil and Gas Company [Online] available at: <http://professionalprojectmanagement.blogspot.com/2010/10/quality-management-in-construction.html>. [Accessed 28 July 2011].

QuestionsWhat are the results of the implementation quality management in the 1. project?Describe the challenge faced by the construction projects.2. Point out the recommendations to ensure the effective application of quality 3. management for construction projects.

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Case Study III

Supplier Quality Management in a Flat WorldA multibillion dollar global consumer electronics brand and medical devices company

While the Company is seen as a premium brand in consumer electronics and appliances, its products for diagnostic imaging, patient monitoring and cardiac care are equally recognised in the medical and health service industry.

Just like any other large-scale manufacturer of industrial-grade machinery with complex mechanical, electrical and electronics design, the Company has a global supply base comprising of over hundreds of suppliers for thousands of parts and components on its bills of materials. Monitoring and managing supplier quality is as critical for it as is its internal quality processes because each stage in the entire supply and manufacturing chain has to conform to a common set of standards to ensure reliability of the end-products. Moreover, as medical devices is a regulated industry, the Company has to meet compliance obligations and reporting requirements such as Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMPs), device safety standards, marketing laws, industry mandates (like ISO 13485) and countryspecificguidelinessuchastheUSFDA21CFRPart11andPart820(Quality System Regulation). As a result, the Company has the onus of managing liabilities and mitigating risks arising from its own operations as well as from its large supplier ecosystem.

ChallengeThe Company introduced an initiative to create an online communication platform and single interface for its supplier management. A critical part of making this project successful was providing integrated functionality for supplier quality management, particularly the Supplier Corrective Action Request (SCAR) process – the cornerstone of a closed-loop quality management program.

The SCAR program, accepted at a high level, had standardized information collectionandflowsbasedupontheindustrystandard8Dmethodologytoanalyze,resolve and prevent quality issues. However, the implementations were different across locationsandbusinessesandhencetheprocesswas inefficientandnotfully traceable. The data was collected, stored and handled in many different ways by different groups. Some parts of the process were paper-based, requiring hardcopies of records to be signed and stored in document vaults. Others used local systems developed on legacy and proprietary technologies or standalone client-server applications. In all cases SCAR data was emailed (as attachments), faxed or mailed between the Company and suppliers and entered into various systems manually, by the employees.

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The Company wanted to harmonize and consolidate all supplier facing processes andsystemstodecreasecostandtoincreaseefficiencyandspeed.Tofullyrealizethis vision, the Company was looking for a solution that could extend this platform for supplier quality management centred on the SCAR process.

Whilelayingoutthecriteriaforselectingtherightsolution,theCompanyidentifiedkey challenges that had to be overcome for the success of the project – and many were unique to its business setup and environment. Moving from various heterogeneous backend systems to a common enterprise-wide data model for all its internal business and suppliers, supporting the complex organizational hierarchy and providing secure web-based access for internal and external users, integrating with existing SAP ERP, QN and BW systems and providing quality metrics for measuring supplier performance were some of the critical success factors.

SolutionBy implementing the MetricStream solution, the Company has achieved tremendous efficienciesandcompletetraceabilityin its supplier quality management process, across it businesses and supplier base. MetricStream was selected after an extensive evaluation of various offerings in the market. Primary factors that led to MetricStream’ selection were its feature rich solution with embedded best practices being employed by the Customer, Metric Stream’s expertise and experience in implementing applications for regulatory compliance (particularly in the life sciences industry) and its robust Enterprise Compliance Platform (ECP) that providestheconfigurabilityandextensibilityessentialforthelongtermsuccessin complex IT environments typical of larger corporations.

SCARs can be initiated directly in the system based on supplier quality issues identifiedduringreceivingandincominginspectionofpartsorbasedonissuesloggedattheproductionlineviatheSAPQN(QualityNotification)application.Though its integration with SAP, MetricStream allows users to search for issues in the QN application (QNs) and initiate a SCAR for one or more QNs. The real-time integration transmits all the relevant data from SAP to MetricStream for QNs for which SCARs are triggered, eliminating duplicate data entry and ensuring information integrity.

Theflexibilityofthesystemisleveragedinmanyways,forexample,thesolutionsupportsworkflowsforInformation Only type SCARs to make supplier aware of failures for trending purposes and internal investigation as well as Analysis Required type SCARs that require the supplier to respond to the Company with a detailed root cause analysis and corrective and preventive action plan.

TheSCARrecordincludesdetailedandstandardizedinformationfieldssuchasSCAR type, part number and details, serial and traceability numbers, quantities received failed and returned and RMA number. The solution also supports calculation of Cost of Poor Quality based on direct and indirect costs such as defective PPM metrics and time and capacity loss – data used by the Company for supplier performance monitoring and negotiations.

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TheSCARsolutionsupportsinformationflowanddatagatheringbasedontheindustry standard 8D Problem Solving Methodology. The initial stages allow the SCAR owner to record problem symptoms, emergency responses, team members, problem descriptions, and containment strategies to be adopted. After an internal review, the SCAR is assigned to the supplier for documenting the subsequent steps for the root cause analysis, permanent corrective action plan and implementation, preventive action plan and implementation. The supplier response is routed back to the SCAR owner review and closure after specifying if an audit or a follow-up activity is needed to ensure the effectiveness of the SCAR. At each stage of the workflow,userscanaddcommentsanduploadsupportinginformationsuchasimages and reference documents as attachments that become a part of the SCAR record.

While the Company has over 1,500 suppliers, the distribution follows the Pareto principle with a minority of suppliers accounting for a majority of business interactions. To this set of core suppliers, the Company wanted to provide direct web-based access to the MetricStream system for managing SCARs. But for many suppliers, the limited SCAR-related interactions did not justify providing them with access to the system. MetricStream provided an innovative approach to support both these categories of suppliers. Suppliers who have access to the application get SCAR assignments that they can respond to by directly logging into the web-based system. For the remaining suppliers, SCAR assignments are sent as emails with an MS Excel spreadsheet template that contains the SCAR information. Following the instructions provided, suppliers can enter their responses in the spreadsheet itself and email it back to the SCAR owner. This spreadsheet is uploaded directly into the MetricStream solution and the data entered by the supplier is parsed and stored as a standard SCAR record. This has enabled the Company to follow a common data model, ensuring consistent business practices for SCARs across its supplier base while avoiding any error proneandinefficientmanualdataentry.

The MetricStream solution maps the Company’s 6-level organization hierarchy covering corporate as well as all the divisions, business groups, business lines and locations.For theseorganizational entities, roles aredefined for carryingout various activities and responsibilities. Employees are mapped to appropriate rolesinthesystemenablingflexibleuseradministrationwitheasymanagementofaccess rights and privileges. The system front-end is linked with the supplier portal (built on SAP Enterprise Portal technology) from where users can directly access the MetricStream solution through single sign-on based on shared authentication of credentials.

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BeyondtheefficienciesgainedbystreamliningtheSCARprocess,theCompanyhasgreatlybenefitedbytheaccesstodataandmetricsprovidedbyMetricStreampowerfulreportingandsearchcapability.UserscaneasilyfindandtrackSCARsusingflexiblesearchcriteriasuchasdaterange,owner,andstatus.Thesystemprovides comprehensive metrics for measuring supplier performance based on PPM data, Cost of Poor Quality and SCAR results. Users have easy access to scorecards and dashboards that present data analytics such as SCARs per supplier per business unit per year/month/week and SCAR cycle times.

Designed to support over 2,000 users globally, the MetricStream supplier quality management solution handles 12,000 SCARs across 1,500 suppliers of the Customer.

BenefitsCompleteTraceability:Achieved tremendous efficiencies and complete•traceability in its supplier quality management process across it businesses and supplier base.Improved Throughput Time: Improved average CAPA throughput time •significantly by reducing process waiting time, ensuring immediate communication, and setting clear priorities.CostSavings:Realizedsignificantsavingsfromeliminationofredundantpaper•archiving and through productivity gains in activities such as information routing, trending, and data analysis and data entry.

Source: MetricStream, 2011. Supplier Quality Management in a Flat World [Online] available at: < http://www.metricstream.com/casestudy/supplier_quality_flat_world.htm>.[Accessed28July2011].

QuestionsDiscuss the challenge faced by the Company while creating an online 1. communication platform.What is the result after implementing the solution provided by 2. MetricStream?Outline the benefits made by the company after the solution is 3. implemented.

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Bibliography

ReferencesAlexander, W. F. and Serfass, R. W., 1998. • Futuring Tools for Strategic Quality Planning in Education, Amer Society for Quality.Aston-GlobalCertifications,2009.• 14 Steps to Implementing ISO 9001 Quality Management System [pdf] Available at <http://www.hacklesecurity.co.uk/pdf/Health-and-Safety-Policy.pdf> [Accessed 15 July 2011]Balakrishnan, H., 2011. Reliability [Video Online] Available at: <http://•academicearth.org/lectures/reliability> [Accessed 26 July 2011.]Bazovsky, I., 2004. • Reliability Theory and Practice (Dover Books on Mathematics), Dover Publications.CKScienceJobs,• 2010. Quality Manager Job (Polymers) - North West [Video Online]. Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AYoyhi6TYg>. [Accessed 27 July 2011]colimmy99, 2010. • Preparing ISO 9001 Quality Management System [Online] Available at <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64hI5ApZVUo> [Accessed 15 July 2011]Department of Trade and Industry, • Total Quality Management (TQM), [pdf]. Available at: <http://www.businessballs.com/dtiresources/total_quality_management_TQM.pdf>. [Accessed 25 July 2011].eHow, 2009. • Business Strategies: Benefits of Total Quality Management, Roger Groh, [Video Online]. Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAp6KyY7gAg>. [Accessed 26 July 2011].eHow, • Professional Management Tips: Steps in Total Quality Management, 2009. [Video Online]. Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srjbK6n0xIY>. [Accessed 25 July 2011].headlessprofessor, 2008. Reliability [Video Online] Available at:• <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmqKQBMgB4M> [Accessed 26 July 2011.]Health and Safety Home Pages, 2006. • The Statement of Health and Safety Policy [Online] Available at <http://www.healthandsafety.co.uk/safpofs.html> [Accessed 15 July 2011]ignousom• s, Total Quality Management [Video Online]. Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd_uRGy5RKY> [Accessed 19 July 2011].IIT Bombay, Project Quality Management [Video Online]. Available at: <http://•www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MgEkS8_jzo> [Accessed 19 July 2011].InformaticaCorp,• 2011. Solving the Customer Data Challenge with Master Data Management (MDM) [Video Online] Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLkWHubOc18>. [Accessed 27 July 2011]Introduction to Statistical Process Control Techniques• [pdf]. Available at: <http://www.statit.com/services/SPCOverview_mfg.pdf> [Accessed 1 July 2011]

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iso9001stor• e, 2010. ISO 9001 Quality Management System [Online] Available at <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAnn9xX_Hsc> [Accessed 15 July 11]Kane, R. W., 2011. • Environmental Health and Safety Audits, 9th ed., Government Institutes.Kemp. S., 2006. • Quality Management Demystified, McGraw Hill.Management of Quality• . [pdf] Available at: <http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/IMOP/publications/CIMO-Guide/CIMO%20Guide%207th%20Edition,%202008/Part%20III/Chapter%201.pdf> [Accessed 30 June 2011].nptelhrd• , 2009. Mod-2 Lec-1 Statistical Process Control Part-1 [Video Online]. Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbPUiJKyxqw> [Accessed 27 July 2011]Oakland, J. S., 2007. • Statistical Process Control, 6th ed., Butterworth-Heinemann.O’Connor, P., 2002. • Practical Reliability Engineering, 4th ed., Wiley.Pareto Analysis Step by Step• [Online]. Available at: <http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/pareto-analysis-step-by-step.html>. [Accessed 5 July 2011]PaulsonTraining• , 2010. Paulson Training - Statistical Process Control (SPC) [Video Online]. Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GC5zU5SBtc> [Accessed 27 July 2011]Problem-Solving/Process Improvement • [Online]. Available at: <http://www.brecker.com/quality.htm>. [Accessed 5 July 2011]Prof. Oke. J., 2011. • Management Information Systems, Nirali Prakashan.Pryor, M. G., White, J. C. and Toombs, L. A., 1999. • Strategic Quality Management: A Strategic Systems Approach to Continuous Improvement, 1st ed., Dame Publishing. RELIA-EASY. Quality versus Reliability [Online] Available at: <http://www.•relia-easy.com/index.html> [Accessed 26 July 2011.]Stamatis, D. H., 2001. • Six Sigma and Beyond: Problem Solving and Basic Mathematics, Volume II, 1st ed., CRC Press.Statistical Process Control Chart Basics • [Online]. Available at: <http://www.statisticalsolutions.net/spc_basics.php> [Accessed 1 July 2011]Stephen Asbury and Peter Ashwell, 2007. • Health & Safety, Environment and Quality Audits: A risk-based approach, 1st ed., Butterworth-Heinemann.Taguchi Loss Function• [Online]. Available at: <http://classof1.com/homework_answers/operations_management/taguchi_loss_function/> [Accessed 30 June 2011].Total Quality Management• [Online]. Available at: <http://tutor2u.net/business/production/quality_tqm.htm> [Accessed 30 June 2011].Trochim, W. M.K., 2006. • Types of Reliability [Online] Available at: <http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/reltypes.php> [Accessed 26 July 2011.]

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Tyco Electronics Corporation, 2003. • Total Quality Management Process, [pdf]. Available at: <http://www.ceecis.org/iodine/08_production/TQM/TQM1.pdf>. [Accessed 24 July 2011].Wheeler,D. J., 2010• . Understanding Statistical Process Control, 3rd ed., SPC PRESS.Wilson, P. F., Dell, L. D. and Anderson, G. F., 1993. • Root Cause Analysis: A Tool for Total Quality Management, 1st ed., ASQ Quality Press.

Recommended ReadingAlexander, W. F. and Serfass, R. W., 1998. • Futuring Tools for Strategic Quality Planning in Education, Amer Society for Quality.Burgelman, R., Christensen, C. and Wheelwright, S., 2008. • Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation, 5th ed., McGraw-Hill/Irwin.Dess, G., Lumpkin, G. T. and Eisner, A., 2007. • Strategic Management: Creating Competitive Advantages, 4th ed., McGraw-Hill/Irwin.Doty, L. A., 1996. • Statistical Process Control, 2nd ed., Industrial Press, Inc.Ebeling, C. E., 2009. • An Introduction to Reliability and Maintainability Engineering, Waveland Pr Inc.Georg• e, S. & Weimerskirch, A., 1998. Total Quality Management: Strategies and Techniques Proven at Today’s Most Successful Companies, 2nd ed., Wiley.Grigsby, D. W. and Stahl, M. J., 1997. • Cases in Strategic Management: Total Quality and Global Competition, 1st ed., Wiley.Gulati, R. and Smith, R., 2009. • Maintenance and Reliability Best Practices, 1st ed., Industrial Press, Inc.Hartman, M. G., 2001. • Fundamental Concepts of Quality Improvement, ASQ Quality Press.Hutchison, D., 1997. • Safety Health and Environmental Quality Systems Management: Strategies for Cost-Effective Regulatory Compliance, Lanchester Press Inc.Ireland, L.R., 2007. • Quality Management for Projects and Programs, Project Management Institute. Leemis, L. M., 2009. • Reliability: Probabilistic Models and Statistical Methods, Lawrence Leemis.Montgomery, D. C., 2008. • Introduction to Statistical Quality Control, 6th ed., Wiley.Nemoto, M. and Lu, D., 1987. • Total Quality Control for Management: Strategies and Techniques from Toyota and Toyoda Gosei, Prentice Hall Trade.Norton, M., 2006. • Quick Course in Statistical Process Control (Net Effect), 1st ed., Prentice Hall.

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Rose, K.H., 2005. • Project Quality Management: Why, What and How, J. Ross Publishing.Suokas, J. and Rouhiainen,V., 1993. • Quality Management of Safety and Risk Analysis, Elsevier Science.Weinstein, M. B., 1997. • Total Quality Safety Management and Auditing, 1st ed., CRC-Press.

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Self Assessment Answers

Chapter Id1. b2. d3. c4. a5. b6. c7. a8. b9. d10.

Chapter IIc 1. a 2. d3. b 4. c 5. a 6. c 7. b8. a 9. b10.

Chapter IIId 1. b 2. c 3. a 4. c 5. b 6. c 7. a 8. d 9. d 10.

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Chapter IVb1. a2. d3. c4. b5. a6. d7. a8. c9. c10.

Chapter Vb 1. c 2. a 3. d 4. a 5. c 6. d 7. b 8. c 9. a 10.

Chapter VIc 1. b 2. a 3. c 4. d 5. a 6. a 7. c 8. a 9. a10.