INGENIEUR
In this way, action can be taken before a
deficiency occurs. Figure 4 shows a typical
control chart.
Figure 4: Control Chart
ii. Quality circle group or formation of small group
of shop floor employees. This initiative was
championed by Toyota who believes employees
working at production lines know the work
and process best. Therefore, they should be
empowered and encouraged to recommend
quality improvement as part of their work
assignments. Employees are not considered as
just workers but as members of an improvement
team. They are encouraged to contribute ideas
and recommend actions to reduce defects as
well as to improve productivity.
External Failure cost (EF-cost)
EF-costs are those costs incurred when deficiency
is found after delivered to customer. It includes
warranty costs, compensation costs, after service
costs and business trip expenses to send staffs or
engineers to support customers on quality issues.
At times when deficiency is too serious, the entire
product batch is returned and the cost involved
is also considered in the EF-cost calculation.
The main factors that contribute to EF-costs are
human or equipment errors that lead to defects
slipping through to the customer. Therefore, the
following quality improvement initiatives should
be implemented:
i. Institute regular training programmes to
upgrade operator skills and knowledge,
followed up by practical tests to ascertain their
competency level. Only operators who pass
the test and are certified should be allowed
to work on the production line. In this way,
defect creation and slippage to downstream
processes or the customer can be controlled.
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VOL 55 JUNE 2013
ii. Wherever possible, manual work should be
automated to help establish quality consistency
and avert human error. This initiative may incur
additional expenditure but will result in long
term quality improvements which may more
than cover the initial investment cost.
iii. Periodically flow dummy defective test parts
through defect filtering process or machine
in order to instil quality awareness among
operators and evaluate the reliability of
machine performance. The ultimate objective
is to stop defective parts at the processing
station and avoid slippage through to the
customer.
Appraisal cost (A-cost)
Appraisal costs include all those costs involved
in measuring, evaluating or auditing product
components and purchased materials to
ensure they conform with the standards and
specifications. These appraisal activities generally
require human effort. As such, the cost of quality
inspectors or personnel who are assigned to
perform the following activities:
i.
Incoming quality inspection of raw
materials and/or parts,
ii.
Outgoing quality inspection on finished
goods before shipment, and
iii.
Quality inspection gates inside the
process or production lines
These constitute a large portion of A-cost.
Other components of A-cost are fees paid to the
quality standard or product safety regulatory
bodies ( ISO, BSI, CCE etc) that audit and issue
certificates of compliance to the company. Quality
improvement initiatives for A-cost are mainly to cut
down inspection tasks and reduce the number of
inspector positions. These may include:
i. Engaging and supporting material suppliers
in improving their quality systems which will
result in then delivering quality materials, thus
eliminating or minimising incoming quality
inspection tasks.
ii. Streamlining all inspection tasks and
eliminating any redundant ones. Value stream
mapping technique (Rother & Shook, 2003)