CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research Background

Collateral to the rapid growth of the industries and the manufacturing

sector internationally, the quality aspects of every production has becoming a
major factor that should not be taken easily and must be handled with the right
standard operating procedures to avoid disappointment and unsatisfaction of the
customers. Quality Control is a last juncture of the manufacturing process and it
is the most important station to ensure that each and every products and outputs
were made accordingly.

"The quality planning process and its associated methods, tools, and
techniques have been developed because in the history of modern society,
organizations have rather universally demonstrated a consistent failure to produce
the goods and services that unerringly delight their customers," (Joseph M. Juran,
2010). The tools that are being used in the Quality Control process was developed
incorporating with the latest developments. This is to prevent any malfunctions
and defects so that the customers' satisfaction can be fulfilled.

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 Flawless manufacturing process is impossible to be achieved. Every
production will certainly come with defected output; this situation however, can
be improvised by minimising the defect at the Quality Gate Station. Every defect
that was overlooked at the Quality Gate Station may affect and caused an
unwanted tragedy to the end user. By using the suitable and appropriate tools and
by following the right method of procedure, the quality of the product will be
immediately be intensified. This will bring the quality measurement to the next
level and customers' satisfaction and expectation can easily be attained.

1.2 Problem Statement

Nowadays defects outflow from the manufacturer side is effecting

severely to the end customer. Some defects sometime are related to safety issue
of the customer and the customer’s life is likely to be affected.

By studying this problem, the students were exposed to the real situation
of the industrial field by participating a industrial visit. The students need to study
about the issues that Quality Control department faced to prevent defect outflow
to the end customer.

The defect outflow to next customer is the major failure to the Quality
Control in the Manufacturing Industry. All manufacturing companies need to have
a strong system in Quality Gate to prevent the product with defects being delivered
to the customer.

A defected product that is being received by the customers is one of the

example of the failure and unsuccessfulness of the Quality Control gate. When

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the quality gates failed to obtain zero defects to the customers, the defect will
increase the Down Time trending to the customers' production. This will affect
the whole production process and it will render the increase in terms of the
production costs. Therefore, all defects must be minimised in accordance with
manufacturing law and standard. A single product that is being delayed by the
customers’ production is prohibited so that the manufacturer's objective and target
achieve certain numbers of output can be accomplished

Downtime per Unit (DPU) is a one of the major problem that could happen
in the production line. Downtime will cause a delayed in the cycle time thus it will
increase the cycle time and at the same time increasing the cost of the production.
Downtime in the production line can be minimised or eliminated by using a
suitable method or tools. The minimising efforts also need cooperation from the
top management, engineer and workers to work together in order to reduce
downtime.

The Quality Gates Station needs to go through the checking process in

thorough manner by following all method and procedure that has been
predetermined by the manuals. This is to ensure there is no defect outflows to the
customers. The ideal Quality Control Gate Station will minimise the possibilities
and will do the utmost to make sure that no defect outflows will occur at the
Quality Gates Station. This is to ensure zero defect goals is attained.

1.3 Objectives

1.3.1 To analyse the root cause in current Quality Control system in order to
select the most effective methods to improve Quality Gate System.

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1.3.2 To proposed new method to improve Quality Gate System after the
thorough study is has been completed.

1.4 Scope of Project

1.4.1 The System or tools in the Quality Gate Station

In the manufacturing industry, there are a lot of Quality Control tools that already
been created and being implemented in the production line in order reduce the
quality defect. Joseph Moses Juran is an engineer and a management consultant.
He has made many contributions regarding quality aspect in the manufacturing
industry. He has written many books regarding the quality aspect and the most
famous book he wrote is Juran’s Quality Control Handbook. His philosophy is to
contribute in the development of Japanese manufacturing industry. Japan is one
of the great manufacturer based country after the World War II. They changed
from military based power to the manufacturer based country. According to the
philosophy idea from Juran, they created a lot of quality tools that can overcome
defect and reach a high standard of quality of a product. Toyota Production System
(TPS) is one of the great tools that has been created by a Japanese manufacturer.
It is then being followed by many manufacturer companies around the world
because of the effectiveness of the tools to handle with overburden aspect (MURI)
and inconsistency aspect (MURA) and also to eliminate waste (MUDA).

1.4.2 Limitation

Quality is an important aspect in order to fulfil customer satisfaction. The 7 QC

Tools are simple statistical tools used for problem solving. These tools were either

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were developed in Japan or were introduced to Japan by the Quality Gurus such
as Deming and Juran. In terms of importance, these are the most useful. Kaoru
Ishikawa has stated that these 7 QC tools can be used to solve about 95 percent of
all problems. “These tools have been the foundation of Japan's astonishing
industrial resurgence after the Second World War,” (Varsha M. Magar, 2014).

In manufacturing industry, quality is one of the substantial facets that can't

be managed without using the conventional and correct method and procedure.

By choosing a suitable method in 7 QC Tools, the defect outflow can be

minimised and eventually be eliminated in order to achieve a zero defect
accomplishment. Pareto Diagram can be referred to ensure all collected data is
sorted accordingly. The data will be the guidance in order to inspect the factor that
leads to the arising problem. “This tool is used in SPC and quality improvement
for prioritizing projects for improvement, prioritising setting up of corrective
action teams to solve problems, identifying products on which most complaints
are received, identifying the nature of complaints occurring most often,
identifying most frequent causes for rejections or for other similar purposes,”
(Varsha M. Magar, 2014).

The cause and effect diagram; also known as Ishikawa Fish Bone or
Ishikawa Diagram is one of the tools to study the flow of any problems that
occurred. This tool shows the systematic relationship between a result or a
symptom or an effect and its possible causes. It is one of the great tools theat being
invented to identify and generate ideas about causes of each problem in the shape
of fish bone. By using Ishikawa Fishbone, a manufacturing team can gather and
brainstorm together to identify and suggest ways to eliminate the entire problem
that occurred. The causes are usually broken down into the origin of work
methods, materials, measurement, people and management.

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 Check sheet is made to prepare data for collecting and analysing purpose.
It can be widely use on variety occasions and problems. It also is one of the tools
to ensure that all of the data are collect carefully and accurately. The defective
product that is been detected by the Quality Control Gates can be collected by
using check sheet. It does not need any skills personnel to handle the check sheet
but it does need to be observed regularly to maintain its efficiency.

1.5 Significances of Study

By managing and applying viable inspection over quality checking

processes at the Quality Gate Station, the customers Down Time trending can be
minimised and eliminated. The zero defect-goals are then achieved. The end-user,
will not experience any malfunction of the product that they purchased, hence, the
customer’s satisfaction is definitely will be increased. In a competitive emporium
where businesses compete for customers; customer satisfaction is seen as a key
distinguisher. The increased in customers’ satisfaction can leads to loyal
customers build up.

Since safety is one of the keys to a successful business operation, Quality

Control is the most crucial element in the manufacturing process. The quality
checking process at the Quality Gate Station plays the main role to prevent
outflow of the defective product from reaching to the end user. The defective
product is not safe to be used as it will definitely experience one or more
malfunctions. These malfunctions are feared to cause any unwanted accidents to
the end user. All feasible and practical efforts are made to prevent this incident
from happening.

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1.6 Summary

Defect outflow can be minimised and eliminated using a controlled

method and a set of procedure. With the enhancement of today’s technology, a
defect can be controlled with a better understanding and knowledge.
Manufacturing industry has developed to a certain level of quality. For example
the implementation of ISO in Malaysia that requires a standard level production.
This is to ensure that the end product has a same quality in comparison with any
manufacturing production. Japan has become one of the biggest manufacturing
based countries after the World War 2. They created many useful quality tools in
the manufacturing production. The Japanese footsteps are then is followed by
many manufacturer in the entire region of the world. The quality aspect of the
output product also will satisfy the customer. The quality tools on the other hand
will ensure that the quantity of manufacturing defect can be minimised and at the
same time eliminate the return item from the customers.

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 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

In Chapter 2, the aspect that will be reviewed are Defects per Unit (DPU), Lean
Manufacturing that consist of Cycle Time, Takt Time and Lead Time. In this Chapter,
Defects per Unit (DPU) will be touched only based on manufacturing industry. Cycle
Time and Takt Time will only be explicated briefly in this Chapter. On the other hand,
Downtime will be explained in detailed manner as Downtime factor plays a big role to
determine the defect outflow to the customers.

2.2 Defects per Unit (DPU)

Defects per Unit are the number of defects in a sample divided by the number of
units sampled. Defects per Unit also can determine the average number of defects

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observed when sampling a population. It is one of the Six Sigma Program or tools to
observe the relationship between production and defect in the production. The tools will
help direct the team's decisions to the most effective and efficient improvements. This
will help to avoid losing valuable time on the lesser significant inputs to not only improve
the process but in very efficient way.

𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝐷𝑒𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝐷

DPU = (2.1)
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑈𝑛𝑖𝑡 𝑈

Figure 2.1: Defects per Unit calculation.

2.3 Lean Manufacturing

Lean manufacturing is one of the greatest tools created to eliminate any not useful
steps in the manufacturing process that can increase cost of the production. Henry Ford
was one of the first people to develop the ideas behind Lean Manufacturing in the
American Automotive Industry. He used the idea of "continuous flow" on the assembly
line for his Model T automobile, where he kept production standards extremely tight, so
each stage of the process will be fitted together with every stage, perfectly. This resulted

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in very subtle waste. Then, the Japanese car manufacturer brought up Ford’s idea in his
team. The lean manufacturing method byFord’s is then was applied onto his production
called the Toyota Production System (TPS). Lean manufacturing can be divided into
several parts, which are Cycle Time, Takt Time and Lead Time.

2.3.1 Toyota Production System (TPS)

In Toyota Motor Corporations, a system that called as Lean Manufacturing or

Just-In-Time (JIT) system is being practiced. It then became the guidance and reference
to the other manufacturing company around the world. The TPS system has undergo
several changes for many years since the system was founded. With significant amount
of major enhancement and Kaizen that being applied to the system, it is getting better as
the time went by in order to achieve the targeted objective that is to deliver vehicles as
quickly as possible. Toyota Production System (TPS) was established based on two
concepts. JIDOKA in Japanese means automation by human touch. It means that when a
problem occurs, the equipment stops immediately, preventing defective products from
being produced. The other concept is Just-In-Time concept; each of the production
process will only produce the product with specific quantity and amount based only on
the need of the customer. This can ensure the next process is in continuous flow.

2.3.1.1 Jidoka - Highlighting/visualization of problems

 Jidoka means that a machine safely stops when the normal processing is
completed. It also means that, should a quality / equipment problem arise, the
machine detects the problem on its own and stops, preventing defective products
from being produced. As a result, only products with satisfying quality standards
will be passed on to the following processes on the production line.

 Since a machine will automatically stops when the process is completed or when
a problem arises, the machine will communicate with the humans via the "andon"
(problem display board). The operators then can confidently continue performing

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 their work at another machine if needed. The operator also can identify the
problem's cause easily by referring to the andon board to prevent its recurrence.
This means that one operator can be in charge of many machines, resulting in
higher productivity, while continuous improvements lead to greater processing
capacity.

2.3.1.2 Just-In-Time - Productivity improvement

In order to deliver a vehicle to the customer quickly, the process must be running
smoothly without affecting the end product quality. In automotive manufacturing
industry, these rules can be used when
 When an order is received, a production instruction must be issued to the
processing line in accordance to start of the vehicle production process as soon
as possible.

 The assembly line must be stocked with required number of all needed parts so
that when the orders come in, the vehicle can be assembled in time.

 The assembly line must replace the parts that were used by retrieving the same
number of parts from the parts-producing process (the preceding process).

 The preceding process must be stocked with small numbers of all types of parts
and produce only the numbers of parts that were retrieved by an operator from
the next process.

2.3.2 Cycle Time

Cycle Time is the total time from the beginning to the end of the process, by
referring to the beginning of the manufacturing process until the receiving rite of the
products to the customers. Cycle Time includes the process time, during which a unit is
acted upon to bring it closer to an output, and delay time, during which a unit of work is
spent waiting to take the next action. Cycle time is a period of time for the product to

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finish from the beginning or start of line of a production. It is included with the process
needed for the product to complete. Cycle time can be calculated by using the formula.

Time per Cycle

Cycle Time = (2.2)
Quantity per Cycle

Or

Average Time
Cycle Time = (2.3)
Completion of Units

Cycle time calculation in a continuous process example is as follow:

Consider a manufacturing facility, which is producing 100 units of product per 40 hour
week. The average throughput rate is 1 unit per 0.4 hours, which is one unit every 24
minutes. Therefore the cycle time is 24 minutes on average.

2.3.3 Takt Time

Literally, Takt is a German word that is defined in English as rhythm or pace. In

Manufacturing, Takt Time can be delineated with the rate of time taken to produce a
product in order to fulfil the customer demand. It also can be explain by understanding
average time between the start of production of one unit and the start of production of the
next unit, when these production starts are set to match the rate of customer demand. Takt
time can be calculate by using the formula.

T = Takt Time

Ta = Net time available to work

D = Customer Demand

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 𝑁𝑒𝑡 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑣𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑏𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘
T= (2.4)
𝐶𝑢𝑡𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑟 𝐷𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑑

Example of Takt Time calculation:

If there are a total of 8 hours (or 480 minutes) in a shift (gross time) less 30 minutes
lunch, 30 minutes for breaks (2 × 15 minutes), 10 minutes for a team briefing and 10
minutes for basic maintenance checks, then the net Available Time to Work = 480 - 30 -
30 - 10 - 10 = 400 minutes. If customer demand were 400 units a day and one shift were
being run, then the line would be required to output at a minimum rate of one part per
minute in order to be able to keep up with customer demand.

2.3.4 Lead Time

A Lead Time is the latency between the initiation and execution of a process. For
example, the lead time between the placement of an order and delivery of a new car from
a manufacturer may be anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months. In industry, lead time
reduction is an important part of lean manufacturing. In manufacturing industry, also can
be relate with the time required to ship the product from the supplier. Manufacturer need
to know the availability of the raw material for the material requirement planning. It is
also possible for lead time to include the time it takes for a company to process and have
the part ready for manufacturing once it has been received. The time it takes a company
to unload a product from a truck, inspect it, and move it into storage is non-trivial. With
tight manufacturing constraints or when a company is using Just In Time manufacturing
it is important for supply chain to know how long their own internal processes take.

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Lead Time is consists of:

Preprocessing Lead Time

It represents the time required to release a purchase order (if you buy an item) or create
a job (if you manufacture an item) from the time you learn of the requirement.

Processing Lead Time

It is the time required to procure or manufacture an item.

Postprocessing Lead Time:

It represents the time to make a purchased item available in inventory from the time you
receive it including quarantine, inspection, loading, and shipping.

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 Figure 2.2: The cumulative lead time.

2.4 Downtime

Downtime in manufacturing can be defined as the occurrences of any unplanned

event that leads to the interruption of the manufacturing process and eventually it will
caused the process to stop. The Downtime is precipitated due to several factors. There are
many factors that will lead to the Downtime including the materials, unskilled workers
on the operation line and also the shortcomings that happen at the Quality Gate Station.
In the manufacturing industry, Downtime is one of the single largest sources of lost
production time. In the line of production where the production is running more than 20
hours per day, Downtime is one of the abysmal that will give a negative impact to the
output. This is because when one or more machines stopped working unexpectedly; the
production of the product plunged thus affecting the monthly target of a product. In the
context of the outflow to the customer, Downtime could happen when defect is rooted out
and it is not being controlled as required. Usually this happened because the merit of the
modus operandi provided by the manufacturer is neglected.

2.4.1 Quality of the product.

One of the reasons of downtime in the manufacturing production is quality.

Quality plays a big role to determine the defect outflow to the customers. "QC
accomplishes its missions by doing an inspection. As a basic operational technique and
one of the earliest aspects of QC, inspection plays an important role in a production
system to gain the information about the demonstrated product quality." (Nani Kurniati,
2015). Downtime that is caused by quality aspect is normal in the production line.
Inspection can be carried out when there is too many defect outflows to the next station
or customer. Inspection from the top management or quality department simultaneously
will stop the production thus it increase the downtime. “There are two reasons for the

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necessity of Quality Control system. First, Quality Control is an effective daily
management process; and second, Quality Control is a requirement for developing quality
improvement program, it is imperative that the process is initially controlled,” (Joel R.
Evans, 2002). Besides, too many inspection points on the product will cause downtime in
the production line. Quality engineer need to have ability to improvise the checking point
on the product without ignoring the quality standard or spec given on the product. When
there is too many point need to be check by the workers on the Quality Gate Station, it
will increase the cycle time on the production and minimal downtime will increase
simultaneously.

2.4.2 Workers

Labour or workers is important in the manufacturing production. Their

availability of skills and understanding the manufacturing production will affect the
production target, quality and downtime. Insufficient amount of workers will affect the
total production in the production line thus it will cause downtime to the next station or
customer. The amount of labour needed must be calculated correctly to meet the
requirement. The specific target is based on the customer demand without ignoring the
quality standard and defect outflow to the customer. Understanding the defect can reduce
the outflow of defected products to the next station and customers. Workers who work in
the Quality Gate Station need to accomplish a certain level of understanding the defect
on the product. When there is defect happening on the next station, automatically the
production line need to stop thus it will simultaneously causing downtime on the
production line.

2.5 7 MUDA

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 Muda is a word that is originated from Japan that has the same meaning as
waste. “Waste or muda is anything that does not have value or does not add value,”
(Domingo, n.d.). Some exemplification of waste includes the not needed time and effort
throughout the manufacturing process or unsuitable performance measurement system
or any other things or occurrence that will cause the lost of profit to the company. In 7
Mudas, the type of waste includes transportation waste, inventory waste, motion waste,
waiting waste, over processing waste, over production waste and defects. The act of
getting rid of waste is the foremost objective of any lean system. To eradicate waste, it
is a must to perceive the intended meaning of waste and its existence. The management
should not only focus on the obvious waste but also the hidden waste. “Waste that is not
seen cannot be eliminated,” (Domingo, n.d.). In manufacturing process especially, the
waste removal is considered as a necessity since this is the process where the product is
created where lion’s share of the wherewithal is spent here before they reach to the end
user. Below are the detailed explanations about the 7 categories of mudas.

2.5.1 Transportation waste

Transportation waste is defined as the unnecessary movement of the material,

tools and equipment during the manufacturing process. This unnecessary movement
happened because of the poor route planning, line imbalanced, disorganised workplace
and any shortcoming that comes from the person in charge of planning the whole
manufacturing process. The movement of transporting and handling the material, tools
and equipments will put all those objects at risk of damage and it is deemed as an open
door for the quality to weaken. Furthermore, transportation of the objects does not make
any revamp to the products that the end user will pay for. Besides not getting paid for
what had been done, this unnecessary movement also will cause the severe time loss as
the process can be delayed and detained. This will subsequently leads the manufacturing
process to be inefficient.

2.5.2 Inventory waste

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 Taiichi Ohno defined inventory waste as the excessive process that causes the
galore of the work-in-progress (WIP) tag that will give the express result of
overproduction and pending of the entire manufacturing process. “Inventory wastes come
from the purchasing, issuance, storage of excess or excessive supplies, materials, and
other resources,” (Domingo, n.d.). The situations that lead to inventory waste occurrences
are the lack of planning and failure to accord purchases with the veritable consumption
or usage rate of a specific expedient. “Excess inventory tends to hide problems on the
plant floor, which must be identified and resolved in order to improve operating
performance,” ( EMS Consulting Group, 2003). Smooth and continuous work between
work stations and workers seems to be the key of getting rid of the inventory waste in
order to achieve lean manufacturing process.

2.5.3 Motion waste

Motion is defined as an act or process of moving according to Merriam-Webster

Dictionary. Motion waste therefore is the act of the unnecessary movement of the workers
including bending, stretching, walking, lifting, reaching and running. In contrast to the
negative attributes of the workers, this category of waste is actually related to the
ergonomics of the workplace. The manufacturing process requires an efficient
environment so that the job can be done effectively without any interruption. Since the
manpower is one of the most important assets of the company, this type of waste must be
cut off completely. The company should redesign any task with excessive motion and the
company should continuously provide the workers with seminars that related to
occupational health and safety. This is to give the workers the knowledge of how exactly
they need to do when they are on duty in order to maintain the safe environment. Other
than that group briefing every now and then can ensure the workers mental readiness and
to avoid any unwanted event. For instance workers that have the knowledge of smart
lifting practices are less likely to suffer from back injuries rather than the workers that lift
any heavy object recklessly. By practicing smart lifting practices the company can save
the cost of their medical bills and will not burden other workers to taking care of the
injured worker’s task. This will give a huge impact of the others’ metal health. When all
workers’ mental health is in a good condition, the quality of the work that they done will

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increases. When the threshold of the work quality is at the optimum level, only then the
motion waste is completely gone.

2.5.4 Waiting waste

Waste of waiting occurs when there is tons of processes that need to be run while
the machines and manpower is limited, some of the process will be paused. This situation
is being called as waiting waste. Factors that contribute to this problem include not
synchronized processes, unscheduled machine downtime and poor material flow.
Heaping of delayed process is set aside to be worked on. When this happen the
manufacturing cost will be amplified in so many outlook. “Linking processes together so
that one process can be feeds directly into the next process can dramatically reduce
waiting,” ( EMS Consulting Group, 2003).

2.5.5 Over-processing waste

“Processing waste comes from unnecessary processing that does not add value to
the item being produced or worked on,” (Domingo, n.d.). This could be a result of
redundant manufacturing stages, operating the manufacturing process by outmoded and
unorthodox methods or not implementing standard work plans. Example of the over
processing waste is using expensive high technology equipment while the process is only
require low-cost simple equipment to be complete. This type of waste is actually the
hardest waste to be seen. Thus, the management should come out with good
manufacturing plan layout so that the waste can be reduced significantly.

2.5.6 Over-production waste

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 Over-production waste is related with poor timing management. The over-
production waste happen the manufacturer produce more products than it is really needed
in a immediate pace. “This often happens in manufacturing when, in order to absorb long
changeovers, an operator produces 100 widgets even though the customer ordered 25,”
(Pereira, 2009). “Over-production is highly costly to a manufacturing plant because it
prohibits the smooth flow of materials and actually degrades quality and productivity,” (
EMS Consulting Group, 2003). One of the factors that contribute to this situation is when
the company offers volume incentives. The workers will be over motivated and produce
more than what is needed. Other than that, poor productions planning also ante-up this
waste. To overcome this good planning is the key. “The concept is to schedule and
produce only what can be immediately sold/shipped and improve machine
changeover/set-up capability,” ( EMS Consulting Group, 2003).

2.5.7 Defects

Defect is the faulty product that is produced during the manufacturing process.
The defective product is considered as waste because of the processing of production of
defects leads to nothing but loss. Then the defective products need to undergo
reprocessing process due to the needs of repair of the defects. These two process using
double timeframe, materials used and the manpower also the workforce due to defect and
rework. Thus the cost is folding up. “Bad quality or defects do not only result in customer
dissatisfaction and damage to company image, but also in wastes due to additional costs
and time to recall, rework, repair, and replace the defective items,” (Domingo, n.d.).
“Through employee involvement and Continuous Process Improvement (CPI), there is a
huge opportunity to reduce defects at many facilities,” ( EMS Consulting Group, 2003).

2.6 Conclusion

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 Downtime in the production line is bad for the company financial because every
second or minutes of the downtime, it will turn to financial loss of the company. In the
business point of view, a major margin of loss in the company will affect the company’s
future financial position. One of the approaches to minimise the loss and downtime is by
inspecting the quality of the product before handing the products to the customer. Quality
aspect is also important in the manufacturing industry. In order to get a loyal customer,
the company need to win the customer’s trust. To achieve that the manufacturer must put
a high standard on their product quality to avoid any defective products from reaching to
the customer. The manufacturer also need to achieve Zero Defect on the customer side so
that the sales of the product will be hiking up and can be maintained making it the best-
selling items amongst the other companies product. At the same time the customer can
enjoy the quality, higher lifespan products without endangered their lives.

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 Chapter 3

Methodology

3.1 Introduction

In this chapter, the components that will be explained are about research flow,
how the data being collected and also the comparative study between PEPS-JV Sdn. Bhd.
and Perodua Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd. on how they minimise and at the same time
eliminate the defect outflow to the customers. After the industrial visits, it is safe to say
that the methods that are being used by both of the companies are about the same. The
differences of minimising the defect outflow operations of both companies are nickel-
and-dime. Below are the methods that are being used throughout the study.

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3.2 Flowchart

After the data collections, the sequence of actions or steps was identified. This
data will be presented in a flowchart. “A flowchart is a picture of the separate steps of a
process in sequential order,” (ASQ: The Global Voice of Quality, n.d.). When planning a
project, the overview of the entire project development must be seen clearly in order to
progress to the next level with regard to the study completion.

After choosing the project that is need to be worked on, the process of
understanding the study scope is made by gaining the information as much as possible so
that the general idea of the progression of the study can be visualised. At this stage, the
theory components of the study is already been mastered. As the saying goes, experience
is the best teacher; most of what we become skilled at is achieved through heuristic,
evidence-based practical experience and the interactions between the environments.
Hence an industrial visit was scheduled in the matter of real life fact-finding researching
purpose. Two manufacturing companies were chosen (PEPS-JV Sdn. Bhd. and Perodua
Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd.) so that a comparative study can be made in order to find out
the most effective method to prevent defects outflow to the end user. During the visit to
both companies, an observation is made at the production line. All processes were being
observed thoroughly by interacting with the environments through experiencing and
seeing the actual process. The observation process is also known as Genba (to be
explained later). In general, with accordance to preventing defects outflow to the end user,
several preventive measures have been implemented in both companies. The measures
will be explained further in the next subtopic. The flow of the study is illustrated in the
next page.

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 Final Year Project is
received. Title:
An independent study is
Improve Inspection made. Study material such
START Method At Quality Gate as reference book, journal
Station To Minimize Defect and articles were referred
Outflow To The Next
Customer

Thesis
writing were being drafted.
Introduction
and Problem Statement of
the study were identified
and listed
out to further the analysis
Comparative study
is done by

- Pareto Diagram
- Cause and Effect Data Analysis
.. Diagram

An Industrial visit is
scheduled to two factories.
Obesrvation of the
manufacturing process is
made and more data is
collected
(was done by Genba)

Inspection method to
prevent defect
outflow
- Genba Satisfied?
- Just-In-Time
- Henkaten Kanri

No Yes
END

Figure 3.1: Flow Chart of Methodology

24
3.3 Cause and Effect Diagram.

This diagram is also known as Ishikawa Fishbone. “This tool is devised by Dr

Ishikawa himself to show the systematic relationship between an indication, effect and
result and its possible causes,” (Varsha M. Magar, 2014). By using this tool, quality
engineer can work in a systematic way to overcome defect outflow to the customer at the
quality gates station.

Environment Method of
Checking

Avoid moist Minimise

and wet checking point

Good airflow Regular

Problem
for working supervision
Statement
from PIC
Minimise Defect
Monthly Defect test on Outflow to the next
Calibration workers customer.

Daily Regular
maintenance supervision
from PIC
Machine/Jig Man power /
Workers

Figure 3.2: Ishikawa Diagram or Fishbone Diagram

3.4 Pareto Diagram.

Pareto diagram or chart is a commonly use diagram in the manufacturing industry

to collect data. In quality prospect, Pareto diagram is used to collect defect occurrences
in the production line. It is easier to observe and to control the major defect in production

25
by using Pareto diagram. The highest defect case can be monitored from here and at the
same time any useful method or idea can be generated to eliminate those unwanted cases
efficiently. By aiming a certain target in the diagram, the defective products can be
minimised by using a suitable tools and method specified by the quality department.
Pareto diagram is also suitable form of diagram to be presented to the top management
during weekly meeting. They can identify the problem much more easily by referring to
the problem that is stated in the diagram. Hence the problems in the production line can
be curbed immediately.

Scrap Data 2015 VS Line

1.2 700

1 600
98% 100% 100%
94% 96%
88% 500
0.8 81%
73%
400
0.6 61%
300
48%
0.4
33% 200

0.2 100

0 0

Figure 3.3: Example of Pareto Diagram that been used in PEPS-JV Sdn. Bhd..

PEPS-JV Sdn. Bhd. Perodua Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd.

Mixing with local, team idea, Japanese
and European to ensure quality in the
production.
70% robot automation and the balance is
human labour.
Using foreign workers in the line of
production.
Total Japanese standardization and
quality by using Japanese manufacturing
tools and method.
45% automation and the balance is
human labour.
Consist of local skills and professional
labour in the line of production.

26
 Cycle time implement at the Quality No cycle time at the Quality GateStation.
GateStation

Figure 3.4: Comparative Quality System in the Production between PEPS-JV Sdn.
Bhd. and Perodua Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd.

3.5 Henkaten Kanri (変化点管理)

Henkaten Kanri stands for Management of Changed Conditions. It is an important

tool to ensure the production flow is smooth without increasing cycle time and ignoring
the quality. 4M is stand for Man, Machine, Method and Material. Whenever the
abnormality or changed happen in the production line, it cannot effect the production flow
and quality and need to be taken care immediately.

Figure 3.5: Example of Henkaten Kanri

27
3.6 Just-In-Time (JIT)

Just-In-Time is a philosophy that is used to ensure a production that is produced

will met with customers demand exactly, in quality, quantity and time whether the
customers is a final purchaser or the process is further along in the production line. JIT
manufacturing has the capacity, when properly adapted to the organisation, to strengthen
the organisation's competitiveness in the marketplace substantially by reducing wastes
and improving product quality and efficiency of production. JIT management can be
applied to any manufacturing process and company. “It can reduce the fluctuations which
many manufacturing company experience contingent upon changing economic
conditions,” (Cheng, 1996). The philosophy can be divided into 3 major parts.

3.6.1 Increasing the ability to compete with rival manufacturer and remain
competitive in the long run.

A company who involved in any manufacturing production will always compete

with other companies in the same industry. To gain customer trust and to make the
customer buys their products, the company need to maintain competency to avoid the
outflow of the defect to the customer. By using this tool the goals can achieved.
Manufacturing company’s successfulness is depend on the customer rating in the long
run.

3.6.2 Increase the degree of efficiency.

With the high percentage of production efficiency it will decrease the amount of
defect and at the same time the costing for rework can reduce. It also can minimise
company loss due to defective or rejected product and downtime.

28
3.6.3 Reduced the level of waste material, time and effort.

By eliminating the unnecessary wastes, it will simultaneously reduce the costing

aspect. Good working environment also can be gained for the workers to work. This can
ensure the workers from ignoring and neglecting the defect outflow to the customer or to
the next station of manufacturing production line.

3.7 Stop Call Wait

Both of the manufacturing company; PEPS-JV Sdn. Bhd. and Perodua

Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd. are using this method to do some observation over the
production process. The usage of this method can help to identify where the defect take
place in the line. Stop call wait is a procedure when the defect or any abnormality is
detected on the production line, the production process need to immediately be stopped.
The person-in-charge must be called on the spot to check the detection of the defect. Wait
on the other hand is meant by holding up the production process for checking purpose
before the process is being continued again. If the machine or production is not being
stopped immediately upon sighting an abnormality, an unnecessary defect will be
produced thus resulting in waste.

3.8 Genba (現場)

Genba or Gemba is a Japanese word that has the meaning of real place in English.
In manufacturing industry, genba is defined as the observation that is made at the

29
production line by experiencing and seeing the actual process. The person who is
responsible to implement this, must understand well the method that being used and
brainstorming the idea of improvement before taking a step further bringing the figures
and data to the meeting program. An engineer must practice the genba element because
of the proven effectiveness. This will reign over to better a production quality
accordingly. The objective of genba is to understand what is really happening in
production line, the purpose of the method that is put into operation and the current
problem that arise when implementing the current method. With genba, the executive or
top management will learn and the idea of how to overcome the problem that happen in
the production line will be generated accordingly.

3.9 Judgement at the Quality Gates

At the Quality Gate Station, the judgement of Quality Gates can be divided into a
few types which are Content Decisions and Management Decisions. Content decision
works to control the quality of the output production and quality of the total activities
related to the process of the production. Management Decisions is related to planning,
organizing, controlling and directing the delivery of results. The availability of skilled
labours, tools and enough resources must be met so that the capability to deliver the
quality standard is attained.

30
 Figure 3.6: Levels of quality management.

3.10 Quality Gate Process

The primary focus at the Quality Gate Station is mainly on documentation and
assessment to avoid defect outflow to the next station and customer. It requires high skills
of understanding the defect so that the defect will not be ignored. The judgment making
is based on a certain standard and specification, for example in PEPS-JV Sdn. Bhd., the
judgement of product can be classified into several standards such as the appearance. For
instance, the Quality Gate at PEPS-JV Sdn. Bhd. has its own cycle time. Sometimes the
item received at the Quality Gate Station need to be reworked because of imperfect
quality before the items is being sent out to the customer. They created a new system by
placing ID and colour onto the defective items to categorized the type of defects in the
production line and to eliminate the defect simultaneously. A product that is on ongoing
production line is also need to be documented fully to verify the current status of the
product whether it is OK (Good) or NG (No Good). Incomplete documentation of the
31
product will increase the probability of the product to defect and increase the outflow
defect to the customer.

Figure 3.7: Example of quality criteria need to pass a certain standardization of

quality.

3.11 The Quality Management Gate Process

Quality Assurance will ensure a complete documentation of the product is

available and a statistical check of the Quality Control documentation against actual
products is performed. The risk assessment and judgement decision need to be made by
a group of specialist and top management. They need to be well informed about the
quality levels including Quality Control documentation. They also need to be
knowledgeable with downstream process and its resources. By choosing a suitable
resources or material, the defects in the production line can be minimised. For example
at Perodua Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd., the material for making a specific part need to
passed material lab evaluation to make sure it is suitable for it purpose. The top
management need to be capable of making and implementing the right decision for the
company. Judgment from the Quality Management can ensure the product has reach the
standard needed by the customer.

32
 Figure 3.8: Generic Quality Management Gate Process.

Figure 3.9: One of the Quality Gate Station at Perodua Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd.

3.12 Implementation of the Quality Gate Station

Quality at the Quality Gate Station is one of the important processes in the
production because it its located to the last station of the production line. It will become
the last barrier before the product being ship out to the customers. In order to setup the

33
quality system, the manufacturer must follow these steps to achieve the required quality
standard in manufacturing industry.

3.12.1 Gates Setup

Quality standard need to be defined in the Quality Management Team and any
improvement should be proposed in the meeting. Management team plays a big role to
develop the understanding standard to optimise the system. The system must include the
specific quality goals and agreed with quality program plan. Only then the decision should
be made before preparing the training to the program team members.

3.12.2 Team members training.

In this phase, after the decision has been made in the top management, a team is
formed. By explaining the goals, structure and the whole planning the instructor must
ensure the team mastered the knowledge that being taught. Though ensure this the
instructor can asked the team members to explain in detailed manner what is the target
and the proper tools or method to be use in the program plan. Team members also can
give decision to improve the whole system to achieve the goals and target.

3.12.3 Implementation of the quality program and corrective action.

This phase will determine whether the system that being applied will achieved its
goal in the context of reducing outflow defect. The program will be monitored and the
data or result will be collected. The efficiency of the program or system can be observed
in this phase after the program has been conducted in the production line. Any
unnecessary method can be improved so that it becomes more suitable to the real situation
in the production line.

34
3.13 Conclusion

With the participation from the top management and workers, the quality of
product can be maintained parallel with the company’s specific standard. For example,
although PEPS-JV Sdn. Bhd. is only a vendor, Perodua Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd. will
come for genba and the product in the production line will be observed. They will follow
the product from the beginning of the line until the cycle is completed. Perodua
Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd. then will propose any idea of improvement to the PEPS-JV
Sdn. Bhd. as a solution to any problem faced. In this situation, the customer and vendor
cooperation will lead to a better understanding. The customer’s demand is noted and the
vendor will put efforts to meet their needs.

35
 CHAPTER 4

RESULTS & DISCUSSION

4.1 Introduction

In this chapter, the particulars that will be covered are about the occurrence of the
outflow of the defective items to the next customers. The data that has been collected are
from Peps-JV Sdn. Bhd. during the second industrial visit on 25 th of October 2016. This
study is focused on how to improve the inspection method at the quality gate (QG) station
to minimize defect outflow to the next customer. 7 QC tools has been implemented to
collect all data during this study such as Ishikawa Fish Bone, cause and effect diagram
and check sheet. The main focus in this study is to decrease the outflow of weld nut
missing defect at the production line at Peps-JV Sdn Bhd. Pursuant to the high request
from the clients, the production line faced many issues and problems regarding the parts
and components manufacturing including the defect outflow to the customer. Thus, a
continuous study to achieved a positive Henkaten (changes) need to be made without
reducing manufacturing volume and order from customers.

36
4.2 Outline of The Analysis

In Plant 5 at Peps-JV Sdn Bhd, there are 7 lines of production that produce
different parts and product on each of every line. Figure 4.1 below, shows the item that
has been produced and the number of QG station that is being placed on the each of the
production lines.

PARTS NUMBER OF QUALITY GATE (QG)

D63D 1

CROSSMEMBER 2

CROSSMEMBER ALZA 2

CROSSMEMBER MYVI 2

WELD NUT 2

SUBFRAME SAGA 6

UPPER BODY 9

Figure 4.1: Item that been produced in the Plant 5 and number of Quality Gate
(QG) Station been placed on each of the production line.

37
4.2.1 Finding Based On Fish Bone Diagram

Inspection by Visual

Not to be covered in this case study

Figure 4.2: Cause and effect diagram for missing Weld Nut

To gain more understanding about the problem occurred, a cause and effect
diagram or also known as Ishikawa Fish Bone diagram is drawn. By using this diagram,
it will manifest the reason why the missing nut happen at production line. Figure above
(figure 4.8) shows the cause and effect for the weld nut missing problem. The main focus
of the factor that leads to the defect outflow is Man and Method. Each of the causes will
administer the outflow defect to the customer. While monitoring the workers do their
work, it is perspicuously seen that the method of inspection at the QG is not properly
being followed and the Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) is not implemented
correctly, where they didn't follow the SOP step by step. They tend to skip one or two
procedures as well as potentially will mixed all steps during checking process. This will
also lead to the defect outflow thus it need to be overcome to avoid outflow to the
customer. The workers are also being too dependent only by visual to detect the existence

38
of the nut in the QG station. Detection by visual is good but it will lead to human error
where the workers failed to identify the missing nut. It may cause by many factors for
example, the workers are working more than 5 hours thus their eyes becoming less
observant due to the limitation of human nature. They will pass the NG product to the
packing thus it will increase the outflow defect to the customer.

4.2.2 Disadvantages of Visual Inspection

The working environment should be critically analysed to identify any potentially

hazardous processes or situations that may result in eye damage (Australian Government
Publishing Service, 1989). By working 8 hours straight without break, it is very likely
that it can hinder the worker’s productivity. According to the research, it has been proven
that the long workdays were not sustainable and workers will become sick. For instance,
when the workers are forced to inspect the product to find all the defective items, the
workers tend to misapprehend their task since human eyes will be functioning less when
it started to feel tired. Each human being has a finite energy store available to them at the
beginning of each day. This then slowly becomes depleted as the day progresses (Davda,
2016). When the workers overused their eyes, they have a tendency to develop tired eyes.
That happened when they force their eyes to work harder than usual as they strain to focus
on. To follow the guidelines that the occupational safety and health personnel provides,
it is best to avoid visual inspection in order to save cost in the future as well as to take a
good care of the workers’ health, mentally and physically.

4.3 Defect Data.

During the visit at Peps-JV Sdn Bhd an observation was made by me with the aid
from Puan Normah; the Quality Control (QC) engineer. The data that was collected has
been studied in detailed manner to ensure the aim of the study is achieved. The aim of the

39
study is to understand the problem as well as the factor why the problem exists in Plant
5. By using the defects data from April 2016 to September 2016, all defects are gathered
and is simplified into a check sheet as suggested by the Puan Normah, the QC engineer.
I am focusing only on weld nut defects in this study. By filling in the check sheet, the
only thing that will be detected is the defects that occurred on weld nut production line
without interfering other significant cases that are unrelated to the study. Below in figure
4.2 is a simplified form of the check sheet focusing mainly on the weld nut defects.

Types of Defect on Weld Nut Production Line Frequency

Nut Detach I

Missing Nut III

Wrong Size Nut II

Extra Nut I

Figure 4.3: Defect data that been collected on weld nut production line into Check
Sheet

40
 1 • 7 Production
Lines

2 • Top focus line; Line 2-

TeSIAR

3 • Defect Detection at QG station

4 • Data Check Sheet

5 • Defects are choosen; Weld Nut

Figure 4.4: How is the case been study briefly to identify the problem happen in
the line.

Generally, by referring to the above figure (figure4.3), there are 7 production lines
that produced different parts and components on each line. Among the 7 lines, the
observation is made to monitor the top focus line i.e. the line with the most defects about
the weld nut outflow to the next customer. The top focus line is chosen according to
Troubleshooting and Information Action Report (TeSIAR) statistics. Based on the
TeSIAR, production line 2 has the most defects outflow in total. After the top focus line
is identified, the defect detection is being spotted. The defect here is about the
inefficiencies of the QG station detecting the defect, resulting in the defect outflow to the
next customer. To detect the QG inefficiencies, all defective products are gathered and is
simplified into a check sheet in order to prevent the defect slip through without being
noticed. By using check sheet, the frequency of the defect occurrence also can be known.

41
Based on the check sheet, conclusion can be made. Then the group of defect is chosen;
the weld nut.

4.4 Weld Nut

Weld nuts are made with a greater amount of material than other nuts so that
the nut's form is maintained after being welded to another object (Weld Nuts, n.d.). Weld
Nut by nature is a minor component of the whole product but it plays a quite big role in
the whole system. Peps-JV Sdn Bhd provides Perodua Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd. the weld
nut (already welded) components and Perodua Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd. will bring the
part to the assembly. After sending the part to Perodua Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd., the
components will first undergo an ongoing process called the body shop stage. On this
stage, there is still no detection of the defective part. For instance, in this case the weld
nut defects itself. After the work is done at the body shop stage, it will be subjected to the
next stage that is the paint shop. At this moment, the presence of the defective weld nut
is still unidentified because in the paint shop, the workers will be focusing only on the
painting job thus none of defective part will be detected. After the painting is done, it will
be send to the assembly stage. On the assembly stage, the workers will assemble all the
components and this is where the defective component is distinguished.

After the defect, has been identified on the assembly line, the production must be
stopped in order to scrutinized the whole batch of the production. This will thereby
increase the down time at Perodua Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd. Given a case, from the body
shop stage to the assembly line of production, it will produce 500 cars that requires three
shift of working and approximately two working days to be completed. To check all of
the defective components, the downtime of three hours that equivalent to 180 minutes
will be experienced. By referring to the data provided by the Peps-JV Sdn Bhd, one
minute of downtime is equal to 500 MYR. Therefore, the total amount of downtime need
to be paid to Perodua Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd. is about 90 000 MYR due to the minor
42
mistake that has been made on the weld nut production line at Pepes-JV Sdn. Bhd. This
will reveal that the nut defect is not a small subject that can be disregard. The total amount
of calculation is only for one day, and there could be happen again in the future if the
defect outflow cannot be solved. So, it need a proper counter measure and study to
eliminate the weld nut defect on the production line. Below in the fihure 4.4, is the
simplified form of the flows of the production process originated from Peps-JV Sdn. Bhd.
to the process of defects detection.

Peps-JV
Sdn Bhd

Perodua

P W T A
Press Shop Body Shop Paint Shop Assembly

 Stamping  Welding…  Painting.  Part………

 Blanking.  Hamming  Applying assembly
 Forming.  Brazing…. sealer

Figure 4.4: The significance of Weld Nut

43
 Weld nut is a process that is commonly used in the modern automotive
manufacturing industry. The weld nut is welded to the main objects so that it will be
maintained at where it should be. The quality of the process plays a big role to determine
the safety and reliability of a certain part in this case an automotive part. Figure 4.5 shows
the process of a nut weld being welded.

Figure 4.5: Workers operating machine in the Weld Nut process.

Weld nut is one of the line of production in Plant 5. It is a single process and the
simplest but it is also can caused the highest amount of defect outflow to the customer.
There are 4 lines of production that carries weld nut process; each line is for different
parts and components. Figure 4.6 is the process flow from the weld process (all 4 lines)
to the checking process of the defective components and lastly the packaging process.

44
 Packaging and
Checking at
Weld process send out to
the QG Station
the customer

Figure 4.6: Process flow at the weld nut production.

4.4.1 Weld Process

In this station, the components and parts ware being sent to the station by using
fork lift and all of them were checked in details by the line leader. The operator or the
workers has to identify the components and parts received before starting the weld
process. Here, the workers will weld the nut onto the subjected part, for example,
lowercase radiator. After the welding process is done, all components and parts will be
send to other station to be proceeded to the next process.

4.4.2 Weld Nut Quality Gate (QG) Station.

After the process at the first stage is done, the components and parts are being sent
here, at the QG station. Here is where the QG plays a big role. There is only one QG
station in this production before the part is send out to the next station that is the packaging
station. By using the observation and Genba, the part is checked by using a Mask. Below
in the figure 4.7 is a picture showing the worker using mask to check the existence of the
defects. Mask is a tool to check whether the part where the nut is weld is in an acceptable
form and at the same time the mask also is used to mark in order to labels the part.

45
Figure 4.7: A workers using mask to mark and check the part after the weld process.

4.4.3 Packaging

After being check at the QG gate, the components and parts are passed to the next
station that is the packaging process. Over here, the components and parts are carefully
being packed and are getting ready to be hand over to the courier service to be sent to the
customer. During the packaging process, there is no way the workers could identify the
defect since they were not trained to look for the defects. They either are
unknowledgeable to discover the defects or just too busy to achieved their target goals of
the number of components and parts to be packed since their supervisor will only count
their performance by checking the amount of the packaging total. The only way to identify
the outflow defect after this stage is by downtime from the customer or defect report. The
defect is still can be occurred during the process of sending out the components and parts
but the main focus of this study is to identify the problem during production in the
production line.

46
4.5 Nut Missing.

Weld nut missing is triggered into several factors. Many factors can cause this
problem to happen. One of them is the inspection methodology that has been chose.
Sampling, which uses statistics to estimate the process of inspection has its own flaws
that leads to the defects outflow. Other than that, during the process of Genba and
observation, the workers who are working on the production line could be very careless
and does not concentrate while they are working. They might be having conversation with
each other during their duty in the production that will interfere with their concentration
leading to their inefficiencies that caused the defect outflow to the customer thus QG gate
failed doing their jobs. This will increase cycle time and manpower that lead to higher
cost.

4.6 Result Analysis and Countermeasure

The outflow of the defective products to the next customers are prohibited because
it can prevail upon many major problem including safety. As an exemplar, a braking
system in a car is a Senkaku (Critical) parts that could engender an accident as well as
death if it failed to work properly. Even though weld nut is not listed as a Senkaku part,
but it is still would kindle many problems along with the lost that the company need to
bear. Thereby the defect outflow must be overcomes to achieve zero defect outflow to the
customers.

47
4.6.1 Fundamental of Photoelectric Sensor in Manufacturing Industry

A photoelectric sensor is being used globally in manufacturing industry. There is

plenty of raison d'être of the photoelectric sensor such as to discover the distance, and to
detect the absence or presence of a certain part by using light transmitter; often infrared
and photoelectric receiver. To eliminate the defect of the missing weld nut, the best thing
to do is by placing the presence or absence of a part on the QG station so that it can be
analysed. It is the best method so far to avoid the outflow of the defective products to the
customer and to put a stop to the company profit loss that caused by the downtime at the
customer production line.

There is various type of photoelectric sensor in the market. Each of the

photoelectric comes with a different function that can be choose according to the industry
necessity. The most common brand that are being use are Siemens, Allen-Bradley and
Omron. Photoelectric sensor is built by using an advanced technology that can detect
existence of the weld nut because it can be program to detect target that less than one mm
in diameter and from 60m away. This photoelectric sensor also is construct to detect long
range, close range, small and large target. To sum up all photoelectric sensor is operated
under similar principle. The target materials that can be detected by photoelectric sensor
includes metal, paper, plastic and silicone.

Figure 4.9: Basic principle of Photoelectric Sensor in Manufacturing Industry

48
4.6.2 Fundamental of Camera Sensor Detection in Manufacturing Industry

Camera detection in manufacturing industry is commonly used to identify a defect

at the QG station. It is developed to enhance human vison during inspection. An image
that been captured from a sensor of a camera can determine the presence of a weld nut
and at same time it will decrease the outflow defect to the customer. Camera detection is
control by several parameters such high contrast shadow. Camera detection uses 2D
camera that requires back lighting and target product to create a high contrast shadow that
works for edge detection. The reliability to this camera is only on product that has
necessary contrast but not on black - on - black target. A basic principle of a camera is
when a light travel though its lens and projected to the image sensor so it requires a
sufficient lighting so that the image that is captured can be detected.

A camera detection system required 4 basic elements which are a camera, light,
software and computer. Figure 4.10 shows the pathways of the camera sensor detection
system. The camera and light function correspondingly to each other to captured the
required image. This called the pre-processing phase. A software is needed to abstract
the information from the image captured and the computer will generate the image as well
as the information so that the defect can be detected. Before the system can be used, the
data of the defective product must be captured into the system so that it will learn to
identifies which product is defective and which product is not defective. This is where
the reading is being disclosed which is also known as the post-processing phase. In the
context of defect in the weld nut production line, the camera also can be set to monitor
several others defect to achieved zero defect at the QG station. After that, the assigned
workers will interpret the data that are shown in the computer. The workers will get some
figure of the defective components and parts total in number. This is the phase that we
called as the monitoring and alarm system.

49
 Monitoring
Pre Post
Camera and Alarm
Processing Processing
System

Figure 4.10: Basic Principle of Camera Sensor Detection in Manufacturing

Industry

4.7 DISCUSSION

PHOTO ELECTRIC TYPE OF SENSOR CAMERA DECTION

SENSOR SENSOR

Long range, small range, ACCURACY

small and large target
Slow microprocessors,
detection
limited sensor size, memory,
image processing functions
and network options

The amazingly high RESOLUTIONS 640 pixels wide by 480

resolution originates from pixels tall; 0.3 megapixels
advanced design
technologies that yielded a
very small spot beam and a
unique optical system for
receiving light.

50
 500mm with adjustable
Beam Spot; detect targets
less than 1 mm in diameter,
or from 60 m away
RANGE Smaller range; smart camera
had to have a very small field
of view, or defects had to be
relatively large to be visible
in the VGA images

Master calibration allows CONTROL INTERFACE Smart camera had to have a

users to teach the sensor all very small field of view, or
unstable detection defects had to be relatively
large to be visible in the
VGA images

Water, dust and dirt ENVIRONMENTAL Sensitive and limited to

resistance CONDITION favourable environment; not
suitable for high temperature
environment

Low installation cost but COST High installation cost but low
high but still reasonable maintenance cost
maintenance cost

Figure 4.11 Comparison between two types of sensors i.e. Photoelectric Sensor and
Camera Detection Sensor

Industrial sensors are the eyes and ears of the new factory floor, and they come in
all sizes, shapes, and technologies (Gary Frigyes, n.d.). Based on figure 4.11, the two
types of the most popular sensor in manufacturing industry are being compared in order
clarify and see which one has more advantages to be used in terms of the efficiencies and
effectiveness. A photoelectric sensor is a device that detects a change in light intensity
(Gary Frigyes, n.d.). Sensing ranges for photoelectric sensors far surpass the inductive,
capacitive, magnetic, and ultrasonic technologies (Gary Frigyes, n.d.). On the other hand,
a camera detection sensor, also being known as an image sensor is a type of sensor that
use a smart camera as the main device to capture and sensing the irregularities in the

51
production line at the QG station. Although this type of sensor seems to be an
uncomplicated device but it is very likely prone to temperature sensitivity.

Figure 4.12: Abilities to check any changes of appearance by using Keyence LR –

W series

Photoelectric sensor is one of the best sensor to be placed at the QG station that
can be choose to prevent defect outflow to the customer. It can be placed anywhere in the
factory especially at the QG station. In the scope of weld nut missing in the production,
the most suitable photoelectric sensor can be used is from a company named Keyence
that produce a model of Full Spectrum Sensor LR –W series. Based on figure 4.12, Full
Spectrum Sensor has the capabilities of detecting the irregularities from the simplest to
the most complex part if the standard appearance is changed. It also comes with the
features that will ratify the changes in colour and also material so that an information can
be translated and sent to the computing device. Even though this kind of features seems
useless in weld nut production, but it can be applied to other lines of production in the
futur
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 CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION

5.1 SUMMARY

This study was conducted solely based on theory and further research need
to be done to prove it in the real-life situation. The framework of this study including two
industrial visits to Peps JV Sdn. Bhd. and another one to Perodua Manufacturing Sdn.
Bhd., interviews and also meeting with authorized personnel from respective company
representatives. This study is carved up into two parts. On the first part, a visit is made to
Peps JV Sdn. Bhd. and also Peps JV’s customer; Perodua Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd. to
monitor and get to know the managerial style, working culture and their problem-solution
approach. Apart from the observation, small meetings with the staffs from both company
is held. Other than that, an interview session with the Quality Control Engineer of both
company to get further details about their downtime and ways to minimize the problems
is also being organised. With the details, the study is started up.

The intent of the study is defined as to improve the inspection method at quality
gate station to minimize defect outflow to the next customer. This is to analyses root cause
in current quality control system so that a new method to improve quality gate system can
proposed. Quality is an imperative characteristic in order to satisfy customers’ need

53
nowadays. The 7 QC Tools are simple statistical tools used for problem solving. This 7
QC Tools can be used to solve 95 percent of all problems. The & QC tools includes cause-
and-effect diagram, check sheet, control chart, histogram, pareto diagram, scatter
diagram, stratification. In this study, only cause-and-effect diagram; to show the
systematic relationship between a result or a symptom or an effect and its possible causes
and pareto diagram; to ensure all collected data is sorted accordingly are used from the 7
QC Tools and other methods are introduced such as Henkaten Kanri, Just-In-Time (JIT)
philosophy, Genba, judgement at the quality gates, quality gate process and lastly, the
quality management gate process.

In the second phase of the study the second industrial visit to Peps JV Sdn Bhd
was paid. During this visit, the observation was made to pay particular attention at quality
gate station. The actual defect data was collected and studied. Once again, a method from
7 QC Tools is being used which is a check sheet. The Production Manager, Mr. Fazriani
came to the campus for a short meeting and further study has been made. An inverted
triangle is drawn so that the actual problem can be seen more clearly to avoid slip-up.

Currently, Peps JV Sdn. Bhd. uses visual inspection as the method for quality
checking at the quality gate station. As mentioned above, visual inspection is not a
profitable method to be used. It is because, according to occupational safety and health
commandment, the human eyes are not designed to work for long hours without break. It
will lead to muscle straining which will causing harm to the workers’ eyes. Also, this will
root to the workers’ negative attributes where they will let the defective product slip
intentionally as the result of being tired.

After a long theoretical study is made, the best solution to be implemented at QG

station to overcome defect outflow to the next customer is by photoelectric sensor. It is
affordable, easy to maintain and has a high sensitivity to detect the defective products at
the QG station.

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5.2 RECOMMENDATION

As for the recommendation for this study, I would like to suggest a technical
equipment to be placed at the QG station. By using physical visual inspection combining
with the help of latest study; the technology and equipment, defect outflow to the
customer can be minimise and at the same time it is possible to eliminate it to achieve
zero defect to the customers. The implementation of the photoelectric sensor at QG station
can minimise defect outflow and at the same time can be applied to all type of production
line and it is adjustable to different objective.

Based on this study, there will be further research to be conducted in the future
regarding quality control in the manufacturing industry. The proper technique can be
carried out and be implemented to all scope of manufacturing industry. Photoelectric
sensor is not a new technology but it keeps on enhancing day by day in terms of its
technology level. The actual result of the implementation of photoelectric sensor at the
QG gate can be collected and viewed to get the actual data. With a proper observation
and in a securely controlled parameter in the production line that does not affect the total
production of a product it is safe to say that a double-checking method at QG station will
greatly impact the amount of defect outflow to the next customer. The number will be
significantly reduced and the aim of this study is achieved.

55
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