Tiers 1 & 2
(including on-site paint shops)
Before thinking of inspection and testing methods at the end of the line, the focus should be to operate processes in a way that minimizes quality issues. Process control is the first step to focus on when equipment is involved (e.g. temperature, pressure, and time for
We help factories identify the process control parameters that are critical in their operations, we collect data and consult suppliers in order to decide on these parameters’ acceptable levels, and we teach the production staff to make good use of an SPC (Statistical Process Control) system.
We also need to reduce human mistakes. This is not easy but in many
This is typically the industrial engineers’ and the process engineers’ job. Unfortunately, most people in Chinese factories consider human mistakes unavoidable. This is the wrong attitude!
This is primarily an information management system. Operators should know as early as possible if they are not producing quality parts. This feedback loop is crucial not only for immediate containment of the bad
A good quality system also ensures feedback from customers is well correlated with the issues detected by internal inspections and internal audits. If you are regularly surprised by customer complaints, your system is not set up properly.
Your suppliers have a direct impact on your own products’ quality. As our consultants often say: "Your suppliers’ quality is your quality." Yet this is often neglected by manufacturers. We often see failure rates to the tune of 20% on some incoming QC reports, and yet most of these batches are released to production.
Helping suppliers with process control, mistake proofing, and quality systems might be the priority. A good complement is putting in place a strong supplier management system that pushes your purchasing department to improve your supplier pool over time.
One source of quality problems might be the product design. It might not be conducive to good manufacturability, and in turn that might affect quality. In some cases we can work with the production and the design departments to make changes without losing the original design and engineering intents of the design.
With these five elements in place, there is no reason the factory can’t make high quality products. In China, most factories can be coached into reaching a Cpk of 1.33. Reaching a Six Sigma quality level (Cpk above 1.5, and if possible of 2.0) is much more challenging and usually requires very deep changes.
