What is Autonomation

Autonomation:
Described as "intelligent automation" or "automation with a human touch.” If an abnormal situation arises the machine stops and the worker will stop the production line. Prevents the production of defective products, eliminates overproduction and focuses attention on understanding the problem and ensuring that it never recurs.

what is Andon

Andon - Definition
A device that calls attention to defects, equipment abnormalities, other problems, or reports the status and needs of a system typically by means of lights – red light for failure mode, amber light to show marginal performance, and a green light for normal operation mode.

What is A3 thinking

A3 thinking- Definition

Forces consensus building; unifies culture around a simple, systematic methodology; also becomes a communication tool that follows a logical narrative and builds over years as organization learning; A3 = metric nomenclature for a paper size equal to 11”x17” 

What is 6S -

6S - Definition
Used for improving organization of the workplace, the name comes from the six steps required to implement and the words (each starting with S) used to describe each step: sort, set in order, scrub, safety, standardize, and sustain.

Statistics -2 - Data Collection - Types of Data

The first step of any statistical enquiry is the collection of relevant numerical data. The data used for statistical purposes is mainly of two types.

Primary Data - Data collected for the purpose of the given inquiry is called as Primary Data. These are collected by the enquirer, either by his own or through some agency set up for this purpose, directly from the field of enquiry. This type of data can be used with greater confidence because the enquirer himself decides upon the coverage of the data, definitions to be used and as such will have a greater control over the reliability of the data.

Secondary Data  - The data already collected by some other agency or for some other purpose and available in published or un published form is known as secondary data. The user has to be perticularly careful about using using such data. The user must clearly understand the nature of the data, their coverage, the definitions used for the data and their reliability.

The usage of secondary data is generally preferred if the conditions mentioned above are clear and usable. This will reduce the time taken for the analysis, also reduces cost of the analysis.

usage of Sampling -  The big question is weather the collection of data should be done by complete population or by sampling. If sample is used, care should be taken that this is a representative of complete population. A sample designed with care can produce results that may be sufficiently accurate for the purpose of enquiry. A Carefully designed sample can save a lot of time and money. 

Methods of Data Collection : The methods used to collect data are Questionnaire Method, Interview Method and Direct Observation Method. Any one or a combination of these are used to collect data.
Usage of Data :  The data collected should be subjected to a thorough scrutiny to see if they may be considered correct. The success of the analysis depends on the reliability of the data. However excellent the statistical method of data analysis may be, they cannot bring out useful and reliable information from faulty, unreliable of mistaken data. Especially, this is more applicable in case of usage of secondery data.

Like this?? - Go on the visit the next column - Statistics - 3: presntations and Organization

What are Principles of Quality Management Systems

The function of Top Management include Management of Quality Management along with other disciplines. To succeed in Business, the top management can utilize the quality management principles identified by the International Standards like ISO 900 Family. The Same principle apply for the other standards like AS 9100, TS 16949 which are supplement to ISO9001. They are

Customer Focus

The Organization depend its our customers and therefore should understand the current and future customers’ needs, should meet their requirements, and strive to exceed their expectations.

The organization must ensure that:

Customer needs & expectations are determined

Customer needs are converted into specific requirements

Customer requirements are fulfilled with the aim of “exceeding” expectations to “enhance” customer Satisfaction.

Customer Satisfaction : Customer’s perception of the degree to which the customer’s requirements have been fulfilled”(Ref: ISO 9000:2000, 3.1.4)

Customer Complaints are a common indicator of low customer satisfaction, but their absence does not necessarily imply high customer satisfaction. Even when customer requirements have been agreed with the customer and fulfilled, this does not necessarily ensure high customer satisfaction.Research shows that fewer than 5% of dissatisfied customers actually complain.

Leadership

Leaders establish a unity of purpose and the direction of the organization.  They must create and maintain the internal environment in which all employees can become fully involved in achieving the organizations objectives. There is a need for “Top Management” to play an active role in the operation & performance of the QMS.

“Top Management” involvement in the implementation & improvement of the QMS will be checked by external auditors.

Involvement of People

People at all levels are the essence of the organization and their full involvement enables their abilities to be used for the organization’s benefit. the most valuable assets of an organization is its Human Resources. The organization should create an internal environment for people at all levels feel the ownership of their task and improving it to achieve the desired customer satisfaction.

Process Approach

A desired result is achieved more efficiently when activities and related resources are managed as a process.

What is a “Process”? : “an activity using resources and managed in order to enable the transformation of inputs to outputs”. Often the output from one process directly forms the input to the next.

Systems Approach to Management

Identifying, understanding and managing interrelated processes as a system contributes to the organizations effectiveness and efficiency in achieving its objectives. Though this term looks similar to the previous one Process approach, there is distinct difference between them. to Identify clearly, “A set of processes interacting symmetrically will become a system”.

continual Improvement

Definition : Recurring activity to increase the ability to fulfill requirements (ref. ISO 9000:2000, 3.2.13)

The organization Shall strive to enhance its overall performance and this should be a permanent objective of the organization. There is a scope for everyone in the organization to Working in the business ( doing their Job) and Working on the business(improving the efficiency)

Factual Approach to Decision Making

Appropriate data should be identified, gathered and analyzed for trending and tracking in order to provide opportunities for improvement. This will lead to effective decision making.

Mutually beneficial Supplier Relations

An organization and its suppliers are interdependent and a mutually beneficial relationship enhances the ability of both to create value.

If an organization buys in poor (good) quality, it can negatively (positively) affect the organization’s performance.

The above principles identified by the ISO 9000 Family of standards as the basis for any Quality Management Systems.

If these principles are used effectively, the organization will have a sound quality management system and will lead to success.

What is AS 9100? What is the History of Aerospace Quality Management System (QMS) Standards?

AS 9100 is the most accepted, adapted and standardized Quality Management System (QMS) Standard, addressing the requirements of Aerospace Industry.

History of AS 9100

During the decade of Nineties, Aero Space Industry does not have a standard requirement of QMS. Each major organization has a basic requirements of ISO 9000 and developed its own documentation/Specific Standards. One such Standard is D1-9000 used by Boeing to evaluate its suppliers. The other contractors have developed their own supplementary standards.This has resulted in difficulties in enforcing or compliance issues.

This has resulted in Major Aerospace Contractors coming together to establish a Single, Unified QMS Standard Acceptable to all of them. This is released as AS 9000, by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) in 1999.

The relation to ISO 9000 Came in 2000, when the rewrite of ISO is being undertaken for its 2000 version. This time AS Group worked closely with ISO and the standard is based on ISO 9000 family of standards and principles. The additional requirements of safety and Regulatory requirements are added.

The current revision of AS 9100 is Rev C which has been released in Jan 2009. This revision incorporates compatibility with the latest ISO Standard ISO 9001:2008 and some additional requirements specific to defense aviation are added.

The AS Family of Standards

AS 9100 :  Quality Management Systems – Requirements for Aviation, Space and Defense Organizations.

AS 9110 : Quality Management Systems – Requirements for Aviation Maintenance Organizations

AS 9120 :  Quality Management Systems – Requirements for Aviation, Space and Defense Distributors.

Cost of Quality

 

The term “Cost of  Quality” is generally misunderstood as the cost to create a quality product or service. The actual definition of this term is the cost incurred by not creating a quality product or service.

What can be included in cost of Quality (bad Quality)

Cost of Quality includes the cost to the organization to rectify the non conforming product or service. This includes following example

Cost incurred in reworking of a manufactured item, the men, Material and other resources.

costs incurred in skipped delivery schedules, the penalties etc.

Cost incurred in retesting of an assembly, rebuilding of a tool.

The correction of a bank statement.

The reworking of a service, such as the reprocessing of a loan operation or the replacement of a food order in a restaurant.

Warranty Claims

The biggest cost incurred by an organization on account of poor quality is the loss of customer loyalty.

In short, any cost that would not have been expended if quality were perfect contributes to the cost of quality.

The cost of Quality is only a part of Total Quality Costs which includes the following

The costs incurred by

Investing in the prevention of nonconformance to requirements.   

Appraising a product or service for conformance to requirements.

Failing to meet requirements.(Cost of Bad Quality)

The details which can be included in Total Quality Costs

Prevention Costs

The costs of all activities specifically designed to prevent poor quality in products or services.

Examples are the costs of: New product review, Quality planning , Supplier capability surveys, Process capability evaluations, Quality improvement team meetings, Quality improvement projects, Quality education and training

Appraisal Costs

The costs associated with measuring, evaluating or auditing products or services to assure conformance to quality standards and performance requirements.

These include the costs of:  Incoming and source inspection/test of purchased material, In-process and final inspection/test, Product, process or service audits, Calibration of measuring and test equipment, Associated supplies and materials

Failure Costs

The costs resulting from products or services not conforming to requirements or customer/user needs. Failure costs are divided into internal and external failure categories.

Internal Failure Costs : Failure costs occurring prior to delivery or shipment of the product, or the furnishing of a service, to the customer.

Examples are the costs of: Scrap, Rework, Re-inspection, Re-testing, Material review, Downgrading

External Failure Costs : Failure costs occurring after delivery or shipment of the product — and during or after furnishing of a service — to the customer.

Examples are the costs of:  Processing customer complaints, Customer returns, Warranty claims, Product recalls,

Total Quality Costs:

The sum of the costs listed above. This represents the difference between the actual cost of a product or service and what the reduced cost would be if there were no possibility of substandard service, failure of products or defects in their manufacture.

MUDA- An activity that is wasteful and does not add value – The Seven Wates

MUDA is a Japanese term which means that un productive or wasteful. It does not add value. An effective way to increase profitability is reduce waste. It is one of the key wastes adopted by Toyota in its Production system apart from Mura(Unevenness)  and Muri (overburden).

Toyota's Chief Engineer, Taiichi Ohno identifies the following 7 wastes while developing the Toyota Production System.

1. Over Production

Over production is To produce Manufacturing too much sooner, too early or “Just in Case” faster or in greater quantities than the absolute customer demand. This  discourages a smooth flow of goods or services, Takes the focus away from what the customer really wants, Leads to excessive inventory

What are the causes of Over Production?

Large batch sizes, Poor people utilisation, Lack of customer focus

What are the effects of over production

It Costs money, Consumes resource ahead of plan, Creates unnecessary inventory

Hides inventory/defect problems and leads to excess Space utilisation

 

2. Inventory

Excess inventory is defined as “Any raw material, work in progress (WIP) or finished goods which are not having value added to them”

what are the causes of this waste?

un even production schedule, Inaccurate forecasting, Excessive downtime/set up Large batch sizes and Unreliable suppliers

what are the effects of Inventory

It Adds to costs. It needs extra storage space. It takes extra resource to manage Can become damaged and losses due to expiry of shelf life

3. Motion

Motion in this context is the movement of “man”. Waste motion occurs when individuals move more than is necessary for the process to be completed

What are the causes of this waste?

The Main reasons are non availability of standard operating procedure, Poor housekeeping, Badly designed work area, Inadequate training

What are the effects

It adds to costs and increases the production time. It interrupts production. Can cause injury.

4. Waiting

This waste is defined as People or parts that wait for a work cycle to be completed

What are the causes?

Ineffective production planning, Shortages & unreliable supply chain, Lack of multi-skilling/flexibility, Downtime/Breakdown, Quality,design,engineering Issues. Shortage of capacity

What are the effects

Poor workflow continuity, Stop/start production, Causes bottlenecks, Long lead times, Failed delivery dates.

5.  Transportation

Unnecessary movement of parts between processes

What are the causes?

It can be caused by badly designed process/work place, Poor value stream flow,  Complex material flows, Sharing of equipment

What are the effects

It consumes resource & floorspace, Increases production time, Poor communication, Increases work in progress, Potential damage to products.

6. Over-Processing

This is defined as processing beyond the standard required by the customer

By improving processing efficiency we ultimately use less resource to achieve the same customer satisfaction

What are the causes?

Out of date standards,  Attitude , Not understanding the process, Lack of innovation & improvement, Lack of standard operation procedures

What are the effects

It consumes resource, It increases production time,  It’s work above and beyond specification, Can reduce life of component

7. Non-Right First Time (Scrap, Rework and Defects)

A defect is a component which the customer would deem unacceptable to pass the quality standard

Do it Right first time is the key

What are the causes

Out of control/Incapable processes, Lack of skill,training & on the job support,  Inaccurate design & engineering, Machine inaccuracy, 

What are the effects

It adds to costs, It interrupts the scheduled. It consumes resources .It creates paper work. Reduces customer confidence if it happens in field. Skipped deadlines.

Flow Chart

What is a flow chart

A flowchart is a common chart / diagrammatic representation that represent an algorithm or process showing the sequence of  steps using various symbols and their order by connecting the operations performed within a system & sequence in which they are performed.

Shows inputs, tasks/actions and outputs of a process.

Can be used for business processes as well as production processes.

Flow charts are used in analyzing, Designing, Documenting or managing a process or program in various fields.

The first structured method for documenting process flow, the ‘Flow Process chart’ was introduced by Frank Gilberth to members of ASME in 1921 as the presentation process chart and quickly found way in to industrial Engineering curriculum

Flow chart describes what operations required to solve a problem. It is akin to blue print of a bldg. A programmer prefer to draw flow chart prior to writing a computer programming. They can help identify process that need improvement

The flow chart helps decide what steps need to be controlled & where the overall process require improving

what are the uses of a flow chart

Enhances the common understanding of a process.
Standardizes and documents reliable processes.
Helps identify measurement points.
Identifies bottlenecks.
Helps identify sources of variation in the process.
Helps generate ideas for improvement.
Aids in identifying waste and nonvalue-added steps.

Types of Flow Chart

1. Decision flow chart
2. Logic flow chart
3. Process flow chart
4. Document flow chart
5. Data flow chart
6. System flow chart
7. Program flow chart 

Types of flow chart commonly used in Quality improvement projects

–MACRO

–DEPLOYMENT  – Shows control in a program within a system

Deployment flow chart

The main difference in deployment flow chart is they assign steps of a process to the individual who performs them. Begin by making column for each member of the process.

–E.G. If the process step is ‘Patient arrives at the clinic’ put this step under the ‘Patient’ column with the phrase ‘arrives’ at clinic

How to construct a process flow chart

For Creating a flow chart, it is important you map the process as accurately as possible.

1)Define the process

2)Identify steps in the process

3)Draw the flow chart

4)Determine time or distance for each step

5)Assign a cost for each step

POKA YOKE – Mistake Proofing

A Japanese term “Poka Yoke”meaning Mistake proofing is very much helpful in avoiding operator mistake. This is Formalized and adopted by Shigeo Shingo as part of the  Toyota Quality Management System to achieve zero defects and eliminate the quality inspections.

This is not rocket science and can be seen in our daily life.

Some of the examples are below.

HOME

Automated Shut-Offs on Electric Coffee Pots

Ground Fault Circuit Breakers for Bathroom or Outside Electric Circuits

Questioning “Do you want to delete?” After Depressing the “Delete” Button on Your Computer.

Spell Check in Word Processing Software

 

Commercial

Dual Palm Buttons and Other Guards on Machinery

Tamper-Proof Packaging

Bar Coding at Checkout in Retail

Hotels wrap paper strips around towels to reduce unnecessary replacements.

SAFETY/HOSPITAL

Potassium Chloride in Intra Venous Bags - premixed to avoid fatal errors

Surgical Trays have indentations, preventing surgeon from leaving surgical instrument in patient.

Pre-filled syringes in hospitals to avoid mistakes in dosage.

To prevent “treatment” errors, banks require tellers to record the customer’s eye color on a checklist as they start transaction.

5S Methodology

The 5 S practice is a technique used to establish and maintain quality environment in an organisation. The name stands for 5 Japanese words
Mr. Hiroyuki Hirano, international consultant called the “5S’s” the Japanese “S” words
Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu and Shitsuke). The English translation for these words are Organisation, orderliness, cleanliness, standardised cleanup and discipline.
1. Seiri (organisation)
Organisation means clearly distinguishing between
•What is required and to be kept
•What is not required and to be discarded
Sort out items and discard the unnecessary
5 questions about Seiri:
1.Do you find items scattered in your workplace.
2.Are there boxes, papers and other items left in a disorganised manner.
3.Are there equipments and tools placed on the floor.
4.Are all items sorted out and placed in designated spots.
5.Are tools and stationery properly sorted and stored.
 
Orderliness means organising the way required things  are kept so that anyone can find and use them easily. Arrange a place for everything. Everything in its place.
2. Seiton (orderliness)
5 questions about Seiton :
1.Are passage ways & storage places clearly indicated.
2.Are commonly used tools & stationery separated from those seldom used.
3.Are containers & boxes stacked up properly.
4.Are fire extinguishers & hydrants readily accessible.
5.Are there grooves, cracks or bumps on the floor which hinder work or safety.
3. Seisoh (cleanliness)
Clean your workplace thoroughly.
•Cleanliness is closely related to the ability to turn out quality products.
•Cleanliness means sweeping floors and keeping things in order.
•Cleanliness also entails saving labour by finding ways to prevent dirt, dust and debris from piling up in the workshop.
•Cleanliness should be integrated into daily maintenance tasks to combine cleaning check points with maintenance check points.
5 questions about Siesoh:
1. Are the floor surfaces dirty.
2. Are machines and equipment dirty.
3. Are wires and pipes dirty or stained.
4. Are machine nozzles dirty by lubricants and inks.
5. Are shades, light bulbs & light reflectors dirty.
4. Seiketsu (standardization)
Standardized cleanup means that organization, orderliness, & cleanliness are being maintained.
Maintain a standard.
Standardized cleanup differs from the first 3S.
5. Shitsuke (discipline)
•Discipline means always following specified (& standardised) procedures.
•Train people to be disciplined
•Discipline refers to social and safety conventions, such as friendly greetings among coworkers and wearing work uniforms, name tags and helmets.
•All of these contribute to safety, a clean work environment, and a positive work attitude.
•The first four S’s can be implemented thoroughly without difficulty if the workplace is maintained. Such a workplace is likely to enjoy high productivity and high quality.
•Discipline is a pivotal factor of the production system as a whole
The first three pillars can be thought of as activities whereas standardisation is a state or condition at certain point of time.

What is Six Sigma - History

Sigma is Greek for the letter 'S', and the term 'sigma' has been used for many years by statisticians, mathematicians and engineers, as a measurement unit of statistical variation till it was integrated into the quality System and business strategy by Motorola in 1987.

The seeds of this concept go back to 19790 when the Japanese management took over a TV manufacturing division of Motorola.  The Japanese concentrated on the quality of the output and actually reduced the defects to 5% of defects when the same unit was managed by Motorola. This result made the Motorola Management to take serious note of Quality.

The actual push came in Motorola only after 1981, When Bob Gavin became the CEO of Motorola. He targeted a 10 fold increase in performance within a 5 year period.

The Motorola Engineers Bill Smith or Mikal Harry - felt that measuring defects in terms of thousands was Not Sufficient for achieving a rigorous standard. They increased the measurement scale to parts per million, described as 'defects per million', which prompted the use the the 'six sigma' terminology and adoption of the capitalized 'Six Sigma' branded name, given that six sigma was deemed to equate to 3.4 parts - or defects - per million opportunities.

This has caught the eye of Gavin and launched the program Called “The Six Sigma Quality Program” on 15th Jan 1987. Stringent Targets were set to achieve Six Sigma Capability in 5 years. Astronomical Targets like 10 fold increase by 1989, and 100 fold increase by 1991 and Six sigma capability by 1992. A deep Sense of urgency was shown and every part of the organization was made to obsess with Six Sigma.

Soon after the success of Motorola, Allied Signal ( Now a part of Honeywell) plunged into this concept and achieved success.

The biggest push to Six Sigma was given by Jack Welch the CEO of General Electric (GE) in 1995. He believed the possible improvement that can be achieved by this change and imbibed into the culture of the company. There were rewards, targets and training which were incorporated. By 1998, GE Reported a savings of more than three quarters of billion in profits.

By the year 2000, Six Sigma was effectively established as an industry in its own right, involving the training, consultancy and implementation of Six Sigma methodology in all sorts of organizations around the world.

What are the 7 Basic Quality Tools

These are the Most used basic tools in solving Quality related Problems. These are suitable for those people with little or minimal formal training on Statistics. These are the seven basic Graphical techniques which help in solving vast majority of problems.
The History of these tools is interesting.
In the 1950, Just after the 2nd world war, Japan was concentrating on rebuilding. One of the initiatives was invitation to the legendary American Quality Guru, W. Edwards Deming to Japan by the JUSE(Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers) to train hundreds of Japanese Engineers, Managers and Scholars on the subject of Statistical Process control. During the Hundreds of lectures delivered by Deming, the emphasis was on basic tools which were available on the process control.
Taking Cue from these, Kaoru Ishikawa, at the time an associate professor at the University of Tokyo and a member of JUSE, Developed these tools. His chief desire was to democratize Quality i.e  he wanted to make quality control comprehensible to all workers, and inspired by Deming’s lectures, he formalized the Seven Basic Tools of Quality Control. He believed that  90% of a company’s problems could be improved using these seven tools, and that  they could easily be taught to any member of the organization. This ease of use combined with their graphical nature makes statistical analysis makes interesting to all.
These are listed below.

1. Check Sheets – A generic Tool which can be used for collection and analysis of data. A structured and prepared form that can be adapted for wide variety of issues
2. Control Charts – This is a graphical technique,which can be used to study the changes to a process over time
3. Pareto Chart – This is another graphical technique, which can be used to identify the significance of individual factors
4. Scatter Chart – This is used to identify the relation between variables, by plotting pairs of numerical data, with one variable on each axis. The points will be falling on a line or a curve, if the variables are related.
5. Cause and Effect Diagram (Also called as Ishikawa Diagram or Fishbone diagram) – This can be used to structure the brain Storming Sessions. It is used to sort ideas into useful categories. Many Possible Causes are identified for a stated problem and the effect on the problem are identified
6. Flow Chart (Stratification Charts)- This tool is used to identify the patterns within the data collected from multiple sources and clubbed together. It is used to identify the meaning of the vast data by identifying patterns.
7. Histogram – It looks very much like a bar chart. it is used to identify the frequency of occurrence of a variable in a set of data. 

What is Quality?

I know i am opening the can of worms again on trying to define as what is quality. This discussion is as old as the term quality. We are still unable to define if this is  a noun or an adjective.
This is a term which has a variety of definitions. In fact if you ask 10 people in a group  and get ready for at least 15 unique answers.
If you look at the popular dictionaries you will find the following definitions
Oxford Dictionary : 1. the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something: 2. a distinctive attribute or characteristic possessed by someone or something:
Merriam-Webster's : 1. A peculiar and essential character 2. an inherent feature 3. A degree of excellence 4. A distinguishing attribute.
These definitions are not of help if you are looking as a quality professional.
Also the Gurus on this subject define it differently Now let us see what the Gurus on the subject matter say.
Anon  “Common sense set down on paper”
Joseph M. Juran: "Fitness for use." Fitness is defined by the customer.
"Quality" means those features of products which meet customer needs and thereby provide customer satisfaction”
"Quality" means freedom from deficiencies-freedom from errors”
Subir Chowdhury: "Quality combines people power and process power."
Philip B. Crosby: "Conformance to requirements."
Robert Pirsig: "The result of care."
Genichi Taguchi, with two definitions:

a. "Uniformity around a target value." The idea is to lower the standard deviation in outcomes, and to keep the range of outcomes to a certain number of standard deviations, with rare exceptions.

b. "The loss a product imposes on society after it is shipped." This definition of quality is based on a more comprehensive view of the production system.

Peter Drucker: "Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for."
W. Edwards Deming: concentrating on "the efficient production of the quality that the market expects,"
Gerald M. Weinberg: "Value to some person".
let us see what other say on this
ISO 9000: "Degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements."
Six Sigma: "Number of defects per million opportunities."
American Society for Quality: "A subjective term for which each person has his or her own definition. In technical usage, quality can have two meanings: a. The characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs; b. A product or service free of deficiencies."
JAA (Joint Aviation Authorities – Currently EASA) : “The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs” 
Now let me attempt my own
“Quality can be defined as the best and continuous effort of an organization or individual, to prove their capabilities to meet the expectations of those who are interested in it”
I tried to cover many of the definitions above. The interested parties can be the Organization themselves, their customers, the regulators everybody is interested parties.
I covered the needs by using the word “to meet the expectations”. customer wants value for money, or safety organization expects Profits, less defects, no complaints etc. the regulators want compliance and conformance.