AN APPROACH FOR EFFECTIVE QUALITY ASSURANCE AND IMPROVEMENT

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1 AN APPROACH FOR EFFECTIVE QUALITY ASSURANCE AND IMPROVEMENT Yohanes Kristianto Universitas Katolik Darma Cendika / PT. ISM Tbk Bogasari Flour Mills y_kristianto@hotmail.com / QA.Surabaya@bogasariflour.com ABSTRACT With the global competition without border and constraints across countries in modern business, the need of quality excellent is also increasing. Consequently, one central activity for quality assurance (QA) is to ensure that few, if any, defects remain in the product when it is delivered to its customers or released to the market. Furthermore, one wants to ensure that, if possible, these remaining defects will cause minimal disruption or damage. Most modern business systems beyond limited personal use have become progressively larger and more complex because of the increased need for automation, functions, features, and services. It is nearly impossible to completely prevent or eliminate defects in such large complex systems. Instead, various QA alternatives and related techniques can be used in a concerted effort to effectively and efficiently assure their quality. Testing is among the most commonly performed QA activities for product. Inspection, on the other hand, directly detects and corrects product problems without resorting to execution. This study examines the new approach to deal with defects and classifies QA alternatives accordingly. Existing QA alternatives are compared by their cost, applicability, and effectiveness under different application environments. The result shows a significant improvement in effectivity and cost reduction. This research also concludes a recommendation for effective quality assurance and improvement. Keywords: Error removal, product safety assurance, preventive actions, risk identification technique INTRODUCTION Defect-Related Definitions The term defect generally refers to some problem with the product, either with its external behavior or with its internal characteristics. The IEEE Standard (IEEE 1990) defines the following terms related to defects: Failure: The inability of a system or component to perform its required functions within specified performance requirements Fault: An incorrect step, process, or data definition in a computer program Error: A human action that produces an incorrect result The term failure refers to a behavioral deviation from the user requirement or the product specification; fault refers to an underlying condition within product that causes certain failure(s) to occur; error refers to a missing or incorrect human action resulting in certain fault(s) being injected into product. Sometimes error is also used to refer to human misconceptions or other misunderstandings or ambiguities that are the root cause for the missing or incorrect actions. With these definitions, one can see that failures, faults, and errors are different aspects of defects

2 Customer value. The product or service would be successful if it delivers added value and satisfaction to customer. Customers choose among different kinds of products or services on basis of which is perceived to deliver the most value. Value is defined as a ratio of what the customer takes and what he/she gives. The customer takes benefits and assumes costs. The benefits include functional benefits and emotional benefits. The costs include monetary costs, time costs, energy costs, and physics costs. Thus value is given by: Value = Benefits = Functional benefits + emotional benefits Costs Monetary costs + time costs + energy costs + psychic costs Customer satisfaction. During and after the consumption and use of a product or service, customer will develops satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Customer satisfaction is defined as the overall customers attitude have toward a good or service after they have acquired and used it. It is a post-choice evaluative judgment resulting from a specific purchase selection and the experience of using/consuming it. From managerial perspective, maintain and/or enhancing satisfaction is critical. The result revealed that satisfied customer positively influences a company s future cash flows. Managers should therefore create programs to increase customer satisfaction in overall of business process. Product usage / consumption Expectations of product performance/quality Expectancy confirmation / disconfirmation Product performance/ quality evaluations Evaluations of exchange equity Emotional response Attributions of cause Customer satisfaction/ disatisfaction Figure 1. A model of customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction What are factors that contribute to customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction? Figure 1, presents a model of customer satisfaction that shows customer perception a good or service. Based on this experience, they evaluate its overall performance. This action has been found to be closely related to the ratings of quality of product and/or service. Customer compares their perceptions of product/service quality after using the product to their expectation before they purchased it. Depend on how actual performance stacks up to expected A-20-2

3 performance, they will experience positive, negative, or neutral emotions. These emotional responses act as inputs into their overall satisfaction/dissatisfaction perception. The level of satisfaction/dissatisfaction will also be affected by customer s evaluation of the equity of the exchange, as well as by their attributions of the cause of the product s performance. METHODOLOGY In the research, a specific theoretical approach was used, which, in contrast with an empirical one, requiring extensive interaction with people, is based on intensive research of sources. In the first place, an overview of literature, documents on TQM will be provided with an aim to point to parallels in the theoretical research and to aspects related with the development of TQM. In the procedure that follows, a deductive approach, in which substantial properties of objects or phenomena are separated from the not substantial ones, is used. A precondition for a correct deduction is the analysis of an object in relation with its environment. This condition was applied by the examination of effectiveness factors and by defining a sigma value in the effectiveness of establishing an effective quality assurance and improvement. Attributes. Referring to customer value, functional benefits are defined as product quality attributes and emotional benefits are defined as service attributes. Table 1, presents the both of product quality and service attributes. Flour quality Protection to foreign material Flour packaging Flour safety and quality warranties Fortification Product Quality Service 1. Product Variety Handling of 1. Ease to call 2. Moisture customer 2. Responses 3. Color complaint 3. Solutions 4. Smoothness 4. Anytime product taking 5. Consistency 5. Reachable station Product 6. Foreign material (metal, plastic, availability 6. Ease to order yarn) 7. Brown spot 7. Deliver in place 8. Product clump 8. Ease to get information Product 9. Insect 9. Production code information 10. Unpleasant odor 10. Brochure 11. Variety of weight 11. Training / exercise 12. Stacking ability 12. Partnership Assistances 13. Leak proof packaging 13. Entrepreneur consultancy 14. Leak proof sewing 14. Sample product 15. Imitation proof 15. Cooking contest 16. Weight accuration 16. Cooking demo Sales 17. Halal promotion 17. Advertising 18. Healthy 18. Joint exhibition 19. International standard 19. Discounts 20. Iron/mineral Prize, Bonus & 20. Prize 21. Vitamin rewards 21. Rewards 22. Credit terms and payment period Table 1. Attributes of product quality and service that is used in Research In this study, some of those attributes are used as a performance indicators to defect prevention. A-20-3

4 Implementing Quality Assurance Strategy TQM. One of the major value customer expect from vendors is high product and service quality. Today s executives view the task of improving product and service quality as their top priority. Most customers will no longer accept or tolerate average quality. If company wants to stay in the race, they have no choice except to adopt total quality management (TQM). There is an intimate connection among product and service quality, customer satisfaction, and company profitability. Production Marketing Customer Human Resources Finance Figure 2. Evolving Views of Marketing s Role in The Company Alternative 1: Defect Prevention Based on Technologies, Tools, Processes, and Standards Besides regular quality control methods that is familiar to us, appropriate use of other product technologies can also help reduce the chances of fault injections. For example, the use of the intelligent group decision making (Kristianto, 2002) can help reduce the complexity of problem interfaces and interactions among different organization components, thus reducing the possibility of interface or interaction problems. A better-managed or more suitable process can also eliminate many systematic problems. Not following the selected process, however, also leads to some faults being injected into the product. For example, not following the defined process for system configuration and revision control may lead to inconsistencies or interface problems among different product versions or components. Therefore, ensuring appropriate process selection and conformance helps eliminate such error sources. Similarly, enforcement of selected product or development standards also reduces fault injections. Alternative 2 : Root-Cause Analysis for Defect Prevention Notice that many of the error-removal activities implicitly assume that there are known error sources or missing/incorrect actions that result in fault injections, as follows: If human misconceptions are the error sources, education and training should be part of the solution. If imprecise designs and implementations that deviate from product specifications or design intentions are the causes for faults, formal methods should be part of the solution. A-20-4

5 If nonconformance to selected processes or standards is the problem that leads to fault injections, then process conformance or standard enforcement should be part of the solution. If there is empirical or logical evidence that certain tools or technologies can reduce fault injections under similar environments, these tools or technologies should be adopted. Therefore, root-cause analyses are needed to establish these preconditions, so that appropriate defect prevention activities can be applied for error removal. These analyses usually take two forms: logical analysis and statistical analysis. Logical analysis examines the logical link between the faults (effects) and the corresponding errors (causes), and establishes general causal relations. This analysis is human intensive, and should be performed by experts with thorough knowledge of the product, the development process, the application domain, and the general environment. Statistical analysis is based on empirical evidence collected either locally or from other similar projects. These data can be fed to various models to establish the predictive relations between causes and effects. Once such causal relations are established, appropriate QA activities can then be selected and applied for error removal. Alternative 3 : Risk Identification and Defect Reduction Fault distribution is highly uneven for most product products, regardless of their size, functionality, and other characteristics. These problematic components can generally be characterized by specific measurement properties about their design, size, complexity, change history, and other product or process characteristics. Because of the uneven fault distribution among product components, there is a great need for risk identification techniques to analyze these measurement data so that inspection, testing, and other defect detection and reduction activities can be more effectively focused on those potentially high-defect components. Appropriate risk identification techniques can be selected to fit specific application environments in order to identify high-risk product components for focused inspection and testing. Activities Improvement product quality: Enhance TQM by systems and process approach based on ISO 9001:2000 requirements and ISO9004:2000 guidance: Defect Prevention by Root Cause Analysis Based on Technologies, Tools, Processes, and Standards that is conducted through regular inspection and internal quality audit in entire area of manufacturing and commercial Risk Identification and Defect Reduction by re-evaluate control points inline by Validation and Verification Program to ensure the program effectiveness Implement TQM activity more qualifier: Improve employee awareness about the importance of quality and food safety along providing material and supporting service to both of new and current employees Conduct regular Management Review to analyze and follow up the current level of quality and food safety performance that is needs to be corrected or improved as customer requirements Provide qualified human resources Sharpen skill in design deployment, such as manufacturing planning and production planning. A-20-5

6 Improvement service: CRM Application 1. Availability of Technical Representatives. Improve ability and knowledge of the Technical Representatives about flour product and its end product (eg : noodle, bread, biscuit, etc) Supply appropriate number of facilities and skillful human resource. 2. Provide Hotline in order to: Handle customer complaints and give information based on customer needs. Connect the customers to the specific lines to give the solution of their problems. 3. Establish customer satisfaction survey in order to gather information of customer requirements Result and Discussion Number of Process Control Findings Periode I Periode II Inspection period Figure 3. Decreasing of Process Control Price of Non Conformance Decreasing percentage of Final Product Findings 150% Percent of decreasing 100% 50% 0% Periode I Periode II Inspection Period Figure 4. Decreasing of Final Products Price of Non Conformance Weighing sigma level Alternative I Alternative 2 Alternative 3 alternative Figure 5. Sigma Level of Weighing System A-20-6

7 Quality parameter sigma level 3.6 sigma level Alternative 1 Alternative 2 Alternative 3 alternative Figure 6. Sigma Level of Quality Parameters Discussion Cost consideration before and after improvement (based on inspection findings): In this study, we concern to price of non conformance reduction in order to detect our process efficiency. The graph 3 and 4 show the significant descending of price of non conformance both of in-process and final product inspection up to 4 times and 60 percent. In this study, we do not break it down into each alternative, but from the such pictures, it can be summarized that in any attempt, there is an obvious pattern of improvement. Programs Effectiveness (based on process control data s): The graph 5 and 6 show the sigma level of quality and weighing with concern to 3 kinds of alternative. These are Defect Prevention Based on Technologies, Tools, Processes, and Standards, Root-Cause Analysis for Defect Prevention and Risk Identification and Defect Reduction. In our manufacturing process. Risk identification is better solution. This result is strongly valid to our company because our background is food industry, so that safety is crucial issue and risk identification is placed as main focus in production line. Moreover, safety issue is already integrated to quality in order to achieve manufacturing excellence. Conclusion 1. Three alternatives has been proposed to be applied in order to defect reduction and error removal because of their effectivity to reduce price of nonconformance. 2. No matter what is one of three alternatives would be used, the main point is suitable to our requirements and has been validated through a series of preliminary experiment. 3. The more and most important in quality assurance is how to linkage each process as a closed loop control system. A-20-7

8 4. Risk identification has to be a new approach in quality assurance as a guide toward defect reduction and error removal. References Besterfield, Dale H. and Besterfield, Mary, (1994), Total Quality Management. Prentice Hall International, Inc. Cohen, Lou, (1995), Quality Function Deployment, How to Make QFD work for you. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Churchill, Gilbert A., Jr. (1992), Basic Marketing Research, 2nd edition. Orlando : The Dryden Press. Fitzsimmons, James A., Fitzsimmons Mona J., (1994) Service Management for Competitive Advantage, Mc Graw Hill Inc. International Editions, Singapore. Hussey Jill and Hussey Roger(1997), Business Research A Practical Guide For Ungraduate and Posgraduate Students. London : Macmilan,. Juran, Joseph M. (1989), Press/Macmillan. Juran on Planning for Quality. New York : The Free Kotler, Philip and Amstrong, Gary. (1996), Principles of Marketing, 7th edition. New York : Prentice Hall Inc. Kotler, Philip., (2000), Marketing Management, International Edition, Prentice Hall International, Inc. Malhotra, Naresh K., (1999), Marketing Research an Applied Orientation, International Edition, Prentice Hall International, Inc. Moven, John C., Minor, Michael, (1998), Consumer Behavior, fifth edition, International Edition, Prentice Hall International, Inc. Pande, Peter S., Neuman, Robert P., Cavanaugh, Roland R., (2000), The Six Sigma Way: How GE, Motorola, and Other Top Companies are Honing Their Performance, McGraw-Hill. Urban, Glen L. and Hauser, John R., (1989), Design and Marketing of New Product. New Jersey : Prentice Hall Inc. A-20-8