Concept of quality:

In manufacturing, a measure of excellence or a state of being free from defects, deficiencies and significant variations. It is brought about by strict and consistent commitment to certain standards that achieve uniformity of a product in order to satisfy specific customer or user requirements. ISO 8402-1986 standard defines quality as "the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs." If an automobile company finds a defect in one of their cars and makes a product recall, customer reliability and therefore production will decrease because trust will be lost in the car's quality.

Significance of quality:

The significance of quality is the followings given below.

1. Customer loyalty – they return, makes repeat purchases and recommends the product or service to others. 

2. Strong brand reputation.3. Retailers want to stock the product.4. As the product is perceived to be better value for money, it may command a premium price and will

become more prices inelastic.5. Fewer returns and replacements lead to reduced costs.6. Attracting and retaining good staff.

Create or change the cultural by leadership:

These are the important steps for a leader which create or change the cultural.

1) Begin. Someone in a leadership position needs to make the initial decision that cultural change is a priority.

2) Become aware of the culture. Begin to notice its characteristics. Pay attention to shared values, the

way people express themselves (particularly their language), and the stories they tell about their

success and failures.3) Assess your current culture. Start by creating three lists:

What should stay? Write down the aspects of your culture that you like and want to preserve. What should go? Write down the aspects of your culture that must die if you are going to go

forward. What is missing? Write down aspects of the culture that seem to be missing or weak.

4) Envision a new culture. This is the fun part. Rather than simply complain about what is, begin to image what could be.

5) Share the vision with everyone. Culture will not change unless you cast a vision for something new. You have to articulate in a way that is compelling and specific.

6) Get alignment from your leadership team. You want a team that buys the vision, understands what is at stake, and is willing to take a stand to make it happen.

7) Codify cultural decision in a very short statement. An explicit (but very brief) statement of what that decision looks like, how the leader treats the people, support employees and vendors. Because making a decision once isn’t enough: you need a clear way to refer back to it.

8) Model the culture you want to create. The culture of a company is the behavior of its leaders. If you change their attitudes, their values, their beliefs, their behaviors, you will change your culture. If you don’t, you will fail.

Different types of Process Charting:

A Process Chart is a graphic means of representing the activities that occur during a manufacturing or servicing job.

There are several types of process charts. These can be divided into two groups.

(i) Those which are used to record a process sequence (i.e. series of events in the order in which they occur) but do not depict the events to time scale.

Charts falling in this group are:

• Operation process chart (records stages in the entire process).

• Flow process chart – [man (records what the worker does) / material (records how the material is handled or treated) / equipment type (records how the equipment or machine is used)]

• Operator chart (also called Two Handed Process Chart): shows the activities of hands of the operator while performing a task. It uses four elements of hand work: Operation, Delay (Wait), Move and Hold.

(ii) Those which record events in the sequence in which they occur on a time scale so that the interaction of related events can be more easily studied. Charts falling in this group are

• Multiple activity chart (used for recording and analyzing the working relationship between operator and machine on which he works. It is drawn to time scale. The possibility of one worker attending more than one machine is also sought from the use of this chart.)

• Simo chart (It is drawn to time scale and in terms of basic motions called therbligs. It is used when the work cycle is highly repetitive and of very short duration).

JIT:

An inventory strategy companies employ to increase efficiency and decrease waste by receiving goods only as they are needed in the production process, thereby reducing inventory costs.

This means that stock levels of raw materials, components, work in progress and finished goods can be kept to a minimum. This requires a carefully planned scheduling and flow of resources through the production process.

The ultimate goal of JIT is a balanced system. (Achieves a smooth, rapid flow of materials through the system)

The supporting goals are:

Eliminate disruptions

Make the system flexible

Eliminate waste, especially excess inventory

Quality function deployment (QFD):

Quality function deployment (QFD) is the translation of customer requirements and expectations into product into designs. The goal of QFD is to build a product that does exactly what the customer wants instead of delivering a product that emphasizes expertise the builder already has.

Quality function deployment is listening to voice of the market (customer).

QFD & House of Quality:

Identify customer wants

Identify how the good/service will satisfy customer wants

Relate the customer’s wants to the product’s how’s

Identify relationships between the firm’s how’s

Develop importance ratings

Evaluate competing products

Benefits of QFD:

Customer Driven

Reduces Implementation Time

Promotes Teamwork

Provides Documentation

Different techniques for quality improvement:

Quality improvement is a characteristic of quality management and it is the continuous improvement of the output of products and services using management systems.  There are various quality management systems available.

1. Six Sigma: Six Sigma is a business management tool developed by the Motorola Company in the mid 80’s. It seeks to improve the quality output and efficiency of companies by identifying the probable defects in a given process and minimizing the variability in output.  This process uses a set of methods including statistical methods creating an infrastructure of people within the organization. Each Six Sigma project process in an organization follows a laid down sequence with the aim of reducing cost and maximizing profit.

2. Total Quality Management (TQM): TQM uses teams made up of workers from all sectors in the company to solve issues. The teams undergo training in the use of basic statistical tools that are used in the collection and analysis of data.

3. ISO 9000: ISO 9000 is a standard of quality systems. The ISO 9000 family of standards ensure that organizations meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders. This process deals with the basics of quality management, emphasizing on eight principles on which the family of standards is based.

4. Quality Control Circle (QCC): Quality control circle is a small group of workers who come together to discuss ways of identifying, analyzing, solving and selecting work related issues.

5. Kaizen: Kaizen (Japanese for improvement) is a daily process geared towards rapid improvement. Kaizen focuses on total reduction of waste while increasing the output of products, and services and achieving sustained improvement in processes and specific activities.

Significance of ISO 9000 Series in quality management:

1. Enhanced customer satisfaction: Companies can gain confidence of clients easily because the ISO is a universally acceptance standard. ISO 9000 QMS certification ensures efficiency, consistency and dedicated quality service by the companies thereby ensuring satisfaction of the customers.

2. Employee Morale: The staffs are more satisfied and motivated once there are defined roles and responsibilities, accountability of management, established training procedure and a well-defined picture of how the roles of the employees affect quality and overall success of the company.

3. Environmental benefits - International Standards help reduce negative impacts on the environment

4. International Recognition: The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is recognized worldwide as the authority on quality management.

5. Improved customer service: ISO 9000 series improved customer service which is directly impact on quality.

6. Better management control: The ISO 9000 registration process requires so much documentation and self-assessment that many businesses that undergo its rigors cite increased understanding of the company's overall direction and processes as a significant benefit.

7. Increased Efficiency: The companies have done extensive researches on the processes they are following, how to maximize quality and efficiency before going through the ISO 9000 series Quality Management Standards certification process. Once they achieve certification, the processes are established. There are guidelines which can be easily followed by anyone, making it easy to provide training, transitions and even for trouble shooting purpose.

8. Supplier Relationships: ISO 9000 certification has been found beneficial regarding supplier relationships. The documentation and testing procedures helps to ensure the quality of the raw materials used for production purpose. This also helps in properly evaluating a new supplier before changing suppliers. There is procedure to check consistency with respect to how and where orders are placed.

Documentation method of ISO 9000 series:

General: Documentation shall include

(a) Statements of quality policy and quality objectives

(b) A quality manual

(c) Required documented procedures

(d) Needed documents to ensure effective planning, operation and control of processes and

(e) Required records.

A procedure or work instruction is needed if its absence cloud adversely affects the product quality. The extent of the documentation will depend on the organization size and types of activities, the complexity of the processes and their interactions and the competency of the employees.

Quality Manual: A quality manual shall be established and maintained that includes

(a) The scope of the QMS with details and justification for any exclusions

(b) The documented procedures or reference to them

(c) A description of the interaction among the QMS processes.

Control of documents: Documents required by the QMS shall be controlled. A documented procedure shall be in place to define the controls needed to

(a) Approve documents prior to use

(b) Review, update and re-approve as necessary

(c) Identify the current revision status

(d) Ensure the current versions are available at the point of use

(e) Ensure that documents are legible and readily identified.

Control of records: Records shall be established and maintained to provide evidence of conformity to requirements and the effective operation of the QMS. They shall be legible, readily identifiable and retrievable.

Standards and series of Environmental Management:

Standards of Environmental Management:

ISO 14000 is a family of standards related to environmental management that exists to help organizations.

It specifies requirements for establishing an environmental policy, determining environmental aspects and impacts of products/activities/services, planning environmental objectives and measurable targets, implementation and operation of programs to meet objectives and targets, checking and corrective action, and management review. ISO 14000 is similar to ISO 9000 quality management in that both pertain to the process (the comprehensive outcome of how a product is produced) rather than to the product itself. The overall idea is to establish an organized approach to systematically reduce the impact of the environmental aspects which an organization can control. Effective tools for the analysis of environmental aspects of an organization and for the generation of options for improvement are provided by the concept of Cleaner Production.

Series of Environmental Management:

ISO 14001 Environmental management systems—Requirements with guidance for use

ISO 14004 Environmental management systems—General guidelines on principles, systems and support techniques

ISO 14006 Environmental management systems—Guidelines for incorporating ecodesign

ISO 14015 Environmental assessment of sites and organizations

ISO 14020 series (14020 to 14025) Environmental labels and declarations

ISO 14030 discusses post-production environmental assessment

ISO 14031 Environmental performance evaluation—Guidelines

ISO 14040 series (14040 to 14049), Life Cycle Assessment, LCA, discusses pre-production planning and environment goal setting.

ISO 14046 sets guidelines and requirements for water footprint assessments of products, processes, and organizations. Includes only air and soil emissions that impact water quality in the assessment.

ISO 14046 2014, Environmental Management- Water Footprint- Principles, Requirements, and Guidelines

ISO 14050 terms and definitions

ISO 14062 Integrating environmental aspects into product design and development (2002)

ISO 14063 environmental communication guidelines and examples (2006)[10]

ISO 14064 measuring, quantifying, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions

ISO 19011 specifies one audit protocol for both 14000 and 9000 series standards together

Effective Leadership:

Leadership is the ability to guide others without force into a direction or decision that leaves them still feeling empowered and accomplished.

An effective leader has the ability to inspire motivation in others to move toward a desirable vision. While management is focused on tasks, leadership is focused on the person. All in all, the best leadership drives change and long-lasting motivation.

An effective leadership should have:

1. Shape the future. 2. Make things happen. 3. Engage today’s talent.

4. Build the next generation. 5.  Those who invest in himself.

Problem in auditing:

Quality costing:

Quality costing is the costs associated with preventing, detecting, and remediating product issues related to quality. Quality costs do not involve simply upgrading the perceived value of a product to a higher standard. Instead, quality involves creating and delivering a product that meets the expectations of a customer. Thus, if a customer spends very little for an automobile, he will not expect leather seats and air conditioning - but he will expect the vehicle to run properly. In this case, quality is considered to be a vehicle that functions, rather than a luxury experience.

Different types of flow charting:

Basic Flowchart: is often used to define and document basic work and data flows, financial, production and quality management processes to increase efficiency of your business.

Process Flowchart: is also known as the system flow diagram or SFD. The main reason of using process flowchart is to show the relation between major parts of the system.

Cross Functional Flowchart: is often used to show the relationship between a business process and the functional units (such as departments) responsible for that process.

Procedure Flowchart: involves creating a flow chart model that illustrates and analyzes the overall flow of activities in producing a product or service.

Highlight Flowchart: is used to create good-looking style flowcharts.

Workflow Diagram: is used to create diagrams of information flow, business process automation, business process re-engineering, accounting, management and human resources tasks.

Document flowcharts: showing controls over a document-flow through a system

Data flowcharts: showing controls over a data-flow in a system

System flowcharts: showing controls at a physical or resource level

Program flowchart: showing the controls in a program within a system

Models for quality costing:

1. Model PAF2. Model COPQ3. Life-cycle cost model4. Model of process oriented costs

1. Model preventional appraisal and failure cost (paf):

Model PAF constitute the traditional view of quality costs, which is replace of new process,oriented aspects in model of process-oriented costs. The traditional way of monitoringquality costs differentiate between costs and issue.

2. Model COPQ: Cost of poor quality (COPQ) is costs that would disappear if systems, processes, and products were perfect.COPQ = Internal Failure Costs + External Failure Costs

3. Life-cycle cost model:This Life Cycle Costing Tool has been developed to assist asset managers in decision making based on performing a systematic assessment of the life cycle costs of selected water and wastewater assets.

4. Model of process oriented cost Model of process oriented cost distribute of quality cost into two basic section

i. Costs of Conformance: Cost of conformance is the total cost of ensuringthat a product is of good Quality. It includes costs of Quality AssuranceActivities such as standards, training, and processes; and costs of QualityControl activities such as reviews, audits, inspections, and testing. Cost ofConformance represents an organization’s investment in the quality of itsproducts.

ii. Costs of Non-Conformance: It includes both in-process costs generated byquality failures, particularly the cost of Rework. And post-delivery costsincluding further Rework, re-performance of lost work (for products usedinternally), possible loss of business, possible legal redress, and otherpotential costs.

Basic Tools for Quality Improvement:

These are the followings:

(1) Flowchart (2) Cause-and-effect diagram (3) Histogram

(4) Pareto chart (5) Check sheet (7) Control chart (6) Scatter Diagrams

Flowchart: A diagram that uses graphic symbols to depict the nature and flow of the steps in a process.

Cause-and-effect diagram: A graphic tool that helps identify, sort, and display possible causes of a problem or quality characteristic.

Histogram: A bar graph that shows the distribution of data.

A snapshot of data taken from a process. Histogram summarized large data sets graphically.

Pareto chart: Bar chart arranged in descending order of height from left to right.

Bars on left relatively more important than those on right.

Separates the “vital flew” from the “trivial many” (Pareto principle).

Check sheet: A check sheet is basically used for gathering and organizing data. It is always a good idea to use a software check sheet for information gathering and organizing needs.

Control chart: A statistical tool used to distinguish between process variation resulting from common causes and variation resulting from special causes.Scatter Diagrams:Scatter Diagrams are used to study and identify the possible relationship between the changes observed in two different sets of variables.

Advance Tools for Quality Improvement:

These are the followings:

(1) Relations diagram (2) Tree diagram (3) Arrow diagram (4) Affinity diagram(5) Matrix diagram (6) Matrix data analysis diagram (7) Process decision programme chart.

Relations diagram: The purpose of relations diagram is to generate a visual representation of the relations between an effect and its causes as well as the interrelationship between the causes in complex problems.

Tree diagram: The purpose of the tree diagram is to explore ways and means to achieve an objective, develop a list of alternate means to reach the desired situation in a sequential order and to present them in a visual form.

Arrow diagram: The purpose of an arrow diagram is to create a visual presentation of the steps of a process or tasks necessary to complete a project with special emphasis on the time taken for these activities. The diagram provides a clear understanding of the schedule of various steps in the process which helps one to monitor the process for ensuring its completion on time.

Affinity diagram: The purpose of an affinity diagram is to provide a visual representation of grouping of a large number of ideas or factors or requirements into logical sets of related items to help one organise action plans in a systematic manner.

Matrix diagram: The purpose of a matrix diagram is to explore the existence and the extent of relations between individual items in two sets of factors or features or characteristics and express them in a symbolic form that is easy to understand. The purpose for which the tool is most frequently used is to understand the relation between customer expectations as expressed by the customers and product characteristics as designed, manufactured and tested by the manufacturer.

Matrix data analysis diagram: The purpose of matrix data analysis diagram is to present numerical data about two sets of factors in a matrix form and analyse it to get numerical output. The factors most often are products and product characteristics. The purpose then is to analyse the data on several characteristics for a number of products and use the information to arrive at optimum values for the characteristics for a new product or to decide the strong points of a product and use the information for designing a strategy for the promotion of the product.

Process decision programme chart: The purpose of matrix data analysis diagram is to present numerical data about two sets of factors in a matrix form and analyse it to get numerical output. The factors most often are products and product characteristics. The purpose then is to analyse the data on several characteristics for a number of products and use the information to arrive at optimum values for the characteristics for a new product or to decide the strong points of a product and use the information for designing a strategy for the promotion of the product.

ISO 14000 Series:

ISO 14000 series is a family of standards related to environmental management. This series of standards is designed to cover the whole area of environmental issues for organizations in the global marketplace.

First published in 1996 (and continually updated) by the International Standards Organization (ISO), these standards are designed to provide step by step (structured) approach to setting environmental objectives, achieving them, and verifying that they have actually been achieved. Through these standards a firm can manage the impact of its products (goods and services) and processes on the quality of the environment. A firm may apply for certification to independent (third party) accredited auditors or (unlike ISO 9000 series) can self-declare compliance if its management is confident that the firm's operations are meeting the stipulated requirements.

Audits:The word audit is derived from the Latin term word “audire” which means to hearAudits is one which concerned with the verification and evaluation of accounting records with determining the accuracy and reliability of accounting statements and reports.Types of Audits:Financial Audits: Financial related audits include determining whether (a) financial information is presented in

accordance with established or stated criteria; (b) the entity has adhered to specific financial compliance

requirements.

Operational Audits: These audits may include the determining of the extent to which the desired results or

benefits established by the legislature or other authorizing body are being achieved,

Information Systems Audits: Analysis and evaluation of a firm's information system (whether manual or

computerized) to detect and rectify blockages, duplication, and leakage of information. The objectives of

this audit are to improve accuracy, relevance, security, and timeliness of the recorded information.

Integrated Audits: An integrated audit considers information technology, financial and operational controls as

mutually dependent for establishing an effective and efficient internal control environment

Investigative Audits: This is an audit that takes place as a result of a report of unusual or suspicious activity

on the part of an individual or a department. 

Follow-up Audits: These are audits conducted approximately six months after an internal or external audit

report has been issued. They are designed to evaluate corrective action that has been taken on the audit

issues reported in the original report.Scope of Audits:The scope of audits is increasing with the increase in the complexities of the business. It is said that long range objectives of an audit should be to serve as a guide to the management future decisions.

ISO 9000- 2000:This standard describes the concepts of a quality management system (QMS) and defines the fundamental terms used in the ISO 9000 family. The standard also includes the eight quality management principles which were used to develop ISO 9001 and ISO 9004. This standard replaces ISO 8402:1994 and ISO 9000-1:1994.