ERP Functions: Quality 3

Last week we looked upon the operations involved in quality department and the methods they have adopted in their department. In this week we shall move one more step deeper as how the analysis of the data collected is done and how actually Quality Control is achieved.

Last week we have seen that after inspection one has to decide from 4 types decision about the tested item. Out of them if it is Accepted then the item will move ahead for further operations. But if it is not accepted then it should have particular reason for not being accepted. Dimensional variations, Physical Property variations, Mechanical Property variations etc may have caused the item to be not acceptable. The quality inspector has to identify the reason for the non acceptance. This is first level of analysis of the quality of the item produced.

Once the reason is identified the next step is to understand the cause behind the reason. There will be some common reasons of which the cause may be already known. But when the new reason is found then the cause is needs to analyzed. Secondly if a particular reason for the non-acceptance is repeating then also analysis is to be done. This is initial step of Rejction Cause Analysis (RCA)

Once the cause is found the immediate next step is to make the produced item correct. This is called as corrective actions. Items may be reworked to make it further usable or it may be converted to some other item. Immediate actions to remove the cause from doing damage to the produced item and making it acceptable is corrective actions. This is done to ensure production is continuously running and producing acceptable items.

We must understand that corrective actions are only temporary measurements to remove the defect cause. Further steps has to be taken in order not to have same cause in the production. This is called as preventive actions. This is done with complete understanding of whole production process and operating standards of items. This is involves deep study of overall factory operations. Storage of items, handling of items, conveying of items, operator skill level etc will all be be studied and suitable actions will be taken in order to prevent the same cause from occurring again.

In summary Route Cause Analysis Involves 3 steps

1. Finding the Cause of rejection

2. Corrective Actions

3. Preventive Actions

Efficient QC department will actively do RCA in order to ensure quality output of the factory. This is analysis part of non acceptance of inspected items. Here we have considered that the inspecting instruments/gauges and the inspector are able to perfectly compare required measurement and the produced item's measurement. But practically it is not the case. We shall deal with them in next week.

Keep watching space

ERP Functions: Quality 2

Last week we briefly looked upon the Check point department of the industry i.e. QA & QC.  Now in this week we shall go one step deeper in understanding the various functions of the department.

As defined in last week there are mainly two areas of Inspections. 1. Incoming Inspection 2. In house Inspection. Now we shall understand what is actually meaning of inspection?

Inspection is general term can be defined as verifying the internal and external (visual or measured) attributes of the item pertaining to its further usage with standard or required attributes and authorizing item for further usage.

So in order to do inspection one has to have the standard attributes that makes the item suitable for further usage. We must note that this standard attribute will different for different type of industries. And it is very much necessary that these standards are properly defined. However no machine can produce 100% exact match of standard ideal item matching all the attributes exactly the same all the time. So a tolerance for deviation from the ideal standard attributes will be defined, again based on further usage of the item. If the produced item attributes does not fall under the tolerance of ideal item, then it is "Not Ok" for further usage. This concept is used in both inhouse and incoming inspections.

In the last paragraph we saw that a decision is to be made based on inspection. There are mainly 4 types of decisions.

1. Accepted: The inspected item attributes fall well inside the tolerance limit of ideal standard attributes.

2. Rejected: The inspected item attributes does not fall well inside the tolerance limit of ideal standard attributes, item produced is not usable further.

3. Rework: The inspected item attributes does not fall well inside the tolerance limit of ideal standard attributes, but with some extra operations/treatment the item can be made further usable.

4. Hold: The inspected item attributes does not fall well inside the tolerance limit of ideal standard attributes, but one is not sure of declaring it as Rejection/Rework at the moment.

Next is how many items are to be inspected while doing inspection? There are 4 standard ways for doing inspection.

1. 100% - Each of the item produced/inwarded is inspected for all the attributes.

2. Quantity/batch - Total produced/inwarded items will be segregated in different batches of equal quantity. In the individual batches a fixed number of items will be inspected and the attributes and the decision for those selected items is considered those of whole batch.

3 Quantity/lot -  In the Total produced/inwarded items a fixed number of items will be inspected and the attributes and the decision for those selected items is considered those of whole lot.

4. Random - This is kind of inspection which is done in Random selection of items from the lot. One may also can choose 0 items!!

So now we are clear on the inspection definition and the methods of doing it. Further we shall see the analysis part of inspection.

Keep watching space.