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How Japanese Work

Controlling Quality

- By Madan Lamsal

The aim of quality control is to assure quality by controlling it.Controlling quality means implementing quality assurance using the Total Quality Control (TQC) approach by building quality including reliability into a product during its development stage. It starts from the planning of the new product. Then it includes carrying out properly enacted process control, and if necessary, performing inspection.

When implementing quality control, Japanese experts suggest to consider the five Ms (Men, Materials, Machines, Methods and Measurement) for their proper use.

As Japanese experts say, following are some of the basis for quality control and quality assurance (i) Consumer orientation (ii) The "quality first" approach (iii) Quality to be everyone’s business from top management down (iv) Continual improvement of quality (v) Quality assurance to be the responsibility of the producer or the seller (production department) not of the purchaser (inspection department) (vi) Quality should be extended from the hardware (i.e. the product) to the software (i.e. services work, personnel, departments, management, corporations)

As long as a corporation is producing and selling products or services, it must plan and design quality in the sense of what it should produce, and design the processes needed to produce that quality. We are now in an age of international competition in the development of new products that are based on a balance of customer demands and the various capabilities, especially process capabilities, of the corporate group including affiliated companies producing them. Customer demand and group capabilities must therefore both be considered. This is what is meant by group-wide quality control.

Starting with top management as policy, it is necessary to decide who should do what at every step (in particular, what investigation should be carried out and what kind of tests should be performed under what conditions in order to implement quality assurance) through data analysis, quality analysis and experiment – all using that QC approach.

This process is usually classified into seven broad steps. The important things to be done at each step are as follows, as suggested by Japanese experts:

I) The planning stage: This stage focuses on the preparation of new product plans and looks at factors including the kind of consumers being targeted, sales price and unit cost, sales volumes, quality and sales schedule. The items to be investigated include market information (consumer needs, their interests and complaints), technical information (existing technology, process capabilities, production capacities, research, design, technical capacity, presence or absence of these), personnel resources, financial capacity, existence of sales routes and sales and service capacity and capacity for materials procurement and subcontracting. These investigations should be carried out not just from the domestic view point but with an international approach, to obtain information to support the new product plans.

II) The design and fabrication stage: This step revolves around new product development plans, quality targets, unit cost targets, control of design, and research.

For this the following must be researched, developed and deliberated: manufacturing and production research, production technology, various types of process capability, product research, trials, investigation of methods of use and of evaluating and testing new products, practical tests, joint experiments with users, reliability tests, and serviceability considerations.

This step will also involve the selection of substitute quality characteristics, including review of testing and inspection methods, preparation of QC process, design review, visual design, packaging, test marketing, marketing techniques, distribution organization and the determination of design standards and design technology standards.

III) The pilot production stage: This is the stage where preparation of various standards takes place like final product, intermediate product and raw materials specifications, technical standards, operating standards, process control standards, equipment and its control standards, maintenance and control standards for jigs, tools, moulds, and dies, measuring instrument and measurement control standards, packing standards, and inspection standards for raw materials acceptance inspection, and intermediate, final, and pre-shipment inspections.

It is necessary to decide the following items before the commencement of pilot production: Cost of quality control methods, marketing methods, establishment of distribution organization, preparation of sales manuals like catalogs, instruction booklets, service manuals, education and training, test marketing and the like.

Factors like purpose of carrying out pilot production, dispersion in the product, either or not the parts are interchangeable, value of go – through rate, percentage of jigs, tools, moulds and dies to be used, should be checked properly to lead into actual production.

IV) The purchasing and subcontracting stage: The quality assurance, cost reductions, and delivery-date control will be impossible if raw materials and parts procurement and sub-contracting do not go smoothly. Good and reliable products can not be made with poor raw materials and parts. Therefore, basic long-term subcontracting and purchasing policy should be made. Raw materials and parts specifications, acceptance inspection standards, stock control standards also has to be made.

V) The production stage: Whether or not a new product starts off on the right foot depends on how well the source control consisting of steps 1 to 4 is done. The production department and the workplace are of course responsible for process control and improvement. To perform it properly, the pervious items must be clearly decided. Education and training should be given, control and improvement should be exercised through QC team and QC circle activities. Similarly, quality assurance should be perfected with the cooperation of the inspection department.

VI) The marketing stage: Customer satisfaction is the key factor for any product success. Sales and marketing personnel should have good understanding of the philosophy behind TQC, QC and QC circle activities. They should have an idea about the customer’s requirements and interests.

The decision of when to move from one step to the next is an important one. When this is done, in principle, all of the different jobs should have reached the same stage of progress and should be handed over to the next step simultaneously. Incomplete areas must be clearly identified as such when handing over to the next step.

At each step, the work must be compared with the new-product plans, which are the basic for the whole operation. The purpose of the various tests performed must be reviewed at each step and their methods and conditions, in particular, should be revised and augmented in the light of failures and complaints.

- Based on AOTs Training Course