ERP Functions: Quality 1

We have looked into Material Inward Production and Despatch sections.This week, We shall look into major functions of Quality Department.

Quality Department is usually termed as QA & QC. i.e. Quality Assurance and Quality Control. As the name suggests the department is the one which provides assurance of quality of the product. Secondly it also regularly verifies the quality of products and production processes there by controlling the Quality of overall factory.

There are majorly two sections under Quality Department.

1. Incoming Inspection :- Inspecting quality and standard of the materials coming into the factory from various suppliers. Also inspection of customer rejected products sent back to the factory.

2. In House Inspection :- This deals with quality inspection at various stages of production. Also majorly at final stage of production to assure the quality of finished product is matching with customer required standard.

We shall look into these in detail in coming weeks. Along with that we shall also look into the analysis part for quality deviations in material or in production processes and how the data is maintained.

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ERP Functions: Production 3

Last week we discussed about the Overall Equipment Efficiency of the production. In this week we shall see the constraints involved in achieving good OEE and how to measure them. Along with that we shall also see the implications of these parameters in production operations.

The first parameter is Performance. The performance is mainly depends on the machine and the operator. Machines needs to be properly maintained with periodical verification and other activities in order to make it perform to its designed capacity. We shall discuss the machine maintenance further. Second major effecting factor is the operator who is operating the machine. He/she must be skilled enough to utilize the machine to its maximum capacity and also for longer performance of the machine. In-fact the performance of the machine is actually the performance of the operator.

Next is Quality. Again this parameter is depending upon the machine, operator and material of the product. As explained before properly maintained machine with skilled and efficient operator are the major factors to produce defect free products. Along with this the quality of material is also effects the quality of finished product. Quality is in terms of dimensions, chemical composition, micro structure, free from unwanted or destructive materials. Usually every industry verifies the quality of the raw-material while inwarding inside the factory. Then in production after the operations that effects the quality parameters, quality checking is done before the product is moved for next operation. QA (Quality Assurance) & QC (Quality Control) department must ensure the quality of all the materials of overall plant. Also in case of deviations of quality the root cause is also to be analyzed. We shall discuss these further.

Lastly Utilization. This parameter is effected by various factors. Major factors are power break down, machine break down, non availability of input materials, non availability of operators etc. Each of these factors have caused by external and internal sources. Some are avoidable some are not. So since several sources are involved it is efforts of factory as a whole that can bring good utilization. Periodic review of the factors effecting poor utilization is must. Even though factory has high capacity machines and efficient operators and quality materials if all those cant be utilized i.e. cant be run means factory can't meet the production requirement.

So we now have looked into the factors effecting the production. Next week we shall discuss on another major function of the industry i.e. QA & QC.

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ERP Functions: Production 2

Last week we moved to execution part of the industry, i.e. Production. We discussed about the definition of Production and then the information that the production departments are getting from Planning and Design departments.

This week we shall look into how the production is measured? What are the parameters involved in measuring productivity? What are the issues involved in production and how to record them in a system and track down for analysis and prevention?

Planning department provides the Production plan for execution. Based on that plan, Stores will issue materials (raw materials) to the production department. The production processes on the raw materials get started. The subsequent production processes follows one after another as per the routing card. Now we already know that in routing card the descriptions of process are mentioned. It also contains the machines that can perform the process and time required for the machine to complete the processes. This is called as Cycle Time In actual production due to various reasons machine may not produce as per the cycle time defined for it. The comparison of Theoretical Cycle time and Actual Cycle is called as Performance of Production.

The products produced may not be 100% matching with specification of the standard required product. In such cases the product is said to be "Not Ok" and considered as rejection. This verification is primarily done by production process owners, but finally approved by Quality department. This rejected product can be reworked in order to make it OK product, otherwise it is scrapped. The comparison of OK Qty produced with Total Quantity produced is called as Quality of Production.

Thirdly there is one more parameter which effects the production is the available time for production. Many industries run continuously 24 hrs a day in 3 shifts. So the maximum available time for production in any industry for a day is 24 hrs. But the workers are to be given minimum of 30 mins break in each shift for having food as per labor law and also humanity. So in 24 hrs 1.5 hrs is to be deducted to get the total available time for production.i.e. 22.5 hrs. Running the production for 22.5 Hrs is ideal for any production department. But there are various disturbances which can cause stoppage of production. Major among them are
1. Lack of Materials, Tools & Fixtures
2. Machine Break down. (Due to power, repair etc)
3. Lack of Manpower
4. Quality Inspection of sample productions
Many other small reasons will consume the time from 22.5 hours. So actual available time will be less than ideal. The comparison between Actual Available tile and Total Available time is called Availability of Production.

Combining all these we will get overall efficiency of the production. There is one term for this measurement called as
O.E.E = Overall Equipment Efficiency = Performance X Quality X Availability.
The O.E.E provides the measure of production performance of the industry.

Next week we shall see go in detail about issues involved in these parameters and how the data collection will help managers to reduce issues and increase efficiency of production.

Keep watching space.

ERP Functions: Production

So far we have discussed on Getting Order from Customers, Planning the production, procurement of materials. Now we shall move ahead on execution of production.

Production is sequence of processes carried out on raw materials to get final sale-able product. The sequence of processes varies from industry to industry. However certain parameters involved in them remains almost same. We first shall discuss on how production department gets information and later we shall see the execution of it.

As discussed earlier each product has its own defined Sequence of process with Bill of Material. Clubbing these two we call it as Routing Card. When a new product is taken in for to start production routing card has to be made. This is done by Product Design or Engineering Department. Usually roughly they do at the time of feasibility study of the new product. Finally when the order gets confirmed proper executable Routing Card is made by them. This also contains the parameters of processes like speed, feed along with major instructions of processes.This Routing Serves as master copy to all the production departments. Routing Card is to be strictly followed by production departments.

Then comes the execution process. We also discussed that Planning department does the Capacity Planning stating sequence of production processes for the products for the month. This Monthly Production plan is given to production department. Production department already have the Routing card for the production of the products. Now with the monthly production plan they are ready to execute the Monthly Production Plan. Only thing is proper supply of Raw Materials and other materials from Purchase and Stores from MRP and Min-Max Material Planning.

This is about information flowing into production department for the execution of production. In coming week we shall see the parameters involved in production execution and how they will keep track on their performance and improve it.

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