Quality Control

Bob Weinstein

April 23, 2007

Quality control has become manufacturing companies’ most important goal for determining profitability. It’s the backbone of the bottom line because it generates revenue.

Manufacturers have taken many paths in order to achieve quality control. But many are finding that it can actually be accomplished through focused and targeted technology efforts. If the technology is doing what it’s supposed to do, the following results can be expected:

Dramatically improve efficiency. Multipurpose QC software not only can track and record improvements, but can also correlate them to cost savings. With information constantly being analyzed, all the manufacturing processes can be improved. When software takes on everyday tasks, employees can concentrate on solving unexpected problems.
Fine-tune systems. While people evaluate data already gathered, the system analyzes new data.
Reduce errors. No matter how efficient and smart, human beings can’t help making errors. They’re incapable of achieving 100 percent efficiency. Systems, however, can come pretty close to achieving that goal. The faster problems can be identified, the faster they can be solved. Problems have a way of mushrooming and morphing into bigger and more complex issues. A half-century ago, manufacturers often discovered serious errors after the product was completed and distributed. Automotive manufacturers, particularly, spent billions correcting defective auto parts. They learned too late that a glitch in the production process turned out a defective part that could malfunction and cause serious injury, even death, to drivers. They learned the hard way the importance of building QC into every phase of the manufacturing process. But it’s a lesson that is still being learned, because many manufacturers’ QC efforts are still centered on inspection and testing of finished goods. They haven’t grasped the obvious reality that appropriate technology solutions can prevent errors early, in either the initial stages of production or the pre-production design phase. The savings industry-wide could be staggering.
Accelerate production process. Electronic data can be evaluated a lot faster than paper files, eliminating delays in production and delivery.

Recognizing technology’s importance is only the first step. Choosing the best QC system is the tough part for most manufacturers. Some companies have started with off-the-shelf technology and then either upgraded or customized it to achieve better results. Others have started from scratch and built their own.

Most large manufacturing companies have no idea how to capture quality information so that good QC decisions can be made quickly, observes Bob Dean, vice president of product development at technology consulting company TBM Consulting Group, in Durham, N.C.

“Typically, companies are trying to fix something that happened in the past,” says Dean. “It doesn’t really matter whether it happened yesterday, a week or a month ago. The issue is that they’ve wasted precious time trying to correct something after the fact.”

TBM’s QC standards are based upon Lean and Six Sigma, which is the foundation of the Toyota product system. If executed properly, Lean and Six Sigma can yield extraordinary results. Lean focuses on eliminating non-value-added steps and activities in a process, and Six Sigma concentrates on reducing variation in the remaining value-added steps. Simply, Lean makes sure companies work on the right activities, and Six Sigma makes sure it does the right things right the first time.

“The essence of Lean Sigma is recognizing that you cannot just focus on quality or speed; you have to work towards a balanced process that can help an organization focus on improving service quality as defined by the customer within a set time limit,” Dean explains.

The heart of efficient QC is a quality reporting system, says Dean. “Regardless of what system is being used, the goal is to identify problems quickly. Often, companies invest a great deal in complex IT systems. The result is that they have so many subsystems working, they can’t respond instantly to problems when they occur. Or they have gone through complete installations, but they haven’t integrated everything, so optimal efficiency can’t be achieved.”

What are companies doing wrong? There are no pat answers, according to technology consultants. Dean finds that many companies’ QC problems date back to Y2K, when they were pressured into making major technology changes by their vendors and no thought was given to their long-range impact.

“Companies didn’t question their vendors because the changes had to be done quickly,” Dean explains. “They discovered too late that they had complex systems they didn’t understand and supporting systems that weren’t communicating with each other. The problems were never fixed, and to this day their systems are not fully integrated.”

Dean advises companies to return to the basic QC tenets found in the teachings of Edward Deming, heralded as the father of the quality evolution in the 1940s. In Deming’s book Out of the Crisis, he presented his famous 14 Points, which outlined the guidelines for a more efficient workplace and for increased productivity. His third point said, “Build quality into a product throughout production.”

“Deming taught a methodology for identifying and fixing problems,” says Dean. “He said that before you can fix problems, you have to return to the basics. What that means is that in order to find the best applications that meet QC requirements, companies need to follow a structured approach. It starts with figuring out how to define and identify problems according to strict guidelines.”

Deming was also laying out some of project management’s essential commandments--set parameters, determine how problems are going to be defined, create a timeline for achieving goals.

“Many companies have IT systems, but they haven’t taken the time to figure out how to process the information they gather so decisions can be made quickly,” adds Dean. “Information is randomly gathered and then put on spreadsheets and often rewritten. When it’s finally evaluated, there are many interpretations. You’d think a large company would have a sophisticated, integrated system where information is entered one way and at one time so that it is easily understood and acted upon. But that’s not the case.”

Worse yet, there are companies that are still in the dark ages and don’t have any QC system. They’re relying on antiquated reporting techniques that require endless paper trails.

“Often critical information is inputted randomly at different times of the day, or at the end of the day and not dealt with until the following day,” says Dean. “So time is lost and problems only get worse.”

Companies that have good QC systems have disciplined reporting procedures and adhere to quality standards. “We advise many of our manufacturing companies that run 24-7 to measure Overall Equipment Effectiveness,” Dean adds. “OEE looks at the real rate of effectiveness of equipment by how well it performs according to machine, quality and downtime standpoints. This is achieved by closely evaluating the production process throughout the day to find out if it’s performing consistently.”

Many manufacturers have overcome QC reporting glitches by using sophisticated technology that provides real-time information and evaluation so better decisions can be made. Boulder, Colo.-based Analytical Spectral Devices is one of them.

ASD has developed a testing process using light and the energy of light to determine the chemical composition of myriad solid and liquid substances. The software takes a spectral image so that production managers have an exact identification, or fingerprint, at a certain point and time. By taking a number of fingerprints and tracking them over time, a company can precisely monitor what’s going on with its materials.

“By running this process every tenth of a second during production, managers can collect data that can be used to monitor performance conditions,” explains MichaelLands, ASD’s business development director.

ASD’s technology is used by chemical, cosmetics, food and beverage, agriculture and pharmaceutical companies, to name a few. While the technology is used in many industries, it has to be adjusted for each material it measures. “Every problem has a certain level of customization,” says Lands. “If we don’t have a perfect fit application, we make one. The goal is to find applications that solve customers’ problems.”

The trick is to achieve that end throughout the manufacturing process. That’s no simple feat, especially when you consider that products only become more complex. That translates to more advanced QC applications that monitor, adjust and tweak the production process so it delivers perfect products around the clock.

To achieve consistent QC results, TBM Consulting Group’s Dean offers the following three tips:

Before investing in technology, define the manufacturing processes and how they should be executed.
Look for real-time management systems that allow operators to gauge whether the equipment is meeting its expectations. Real-time management has to be clearly defined. Depending upon the product, it could be hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute or second-by-second. Good QC technology can look at equipment throughout the day, analyze output and take action if necessary.
Determine whether your QC technology will get you through the next five to 10 years. Many companies are stuck with outdated technology. Before you invest in expensive technology, make sure it meets the company’s longer-term objectives and is not obsolete next year.

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