CHAPTER FIVE:

METHODS FOR CONTINUOUS QUALITY

IMPROVEMENT

5/17/2022 By Yonas H 1
5.1. Introduction
 Quality improvement is a process for reducing deficiencies
in products or services and process.
 Quality improvement to increase income may consist of
such actions as:
– Product development to create new features
– Business process improvement to reduce the cycle time
– Creation of “one-stop shopping” to reduce customer frustration
over having to deal with multiple personnel to get service
 Quality improvement to reduce deficiencies such actions
as:
– Increase of the yield of factory processes
– Reduction of the error rates in offices
– Reduction of field failures
 Improvement can be broken down between continuous
improvement and innovation
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 Cont..intro

1. Kaizen
– It is a Japanese word meaning “ continuous
improvement”
– Small improvements carried out on a continuous
basis by involving all the people in the
organization
– Kaizen means improvement in the production
of customer focus, improvement of all
processes in the value chain of business
activities and reducing costs.

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 Cont..intro
– The basis of kaizen are constituted by 5s concept:
• seiri-(selection): preparation of a suitable workplace,
manner and instrument of work; with the elimination of
everything useless
• seito-(order): preparation of every required tools in the
manner enabling simple and quickly utilization
• seiso-(cleaning): allowing on increase of safety of
workplace, control of equipment and responsibility for
the means of production
• seiketsu-(standardization): reminding employees about
their duties in the aspect of care of used tools and
equipment
• shitsuke- (self-discipline): adaptation of employees to the
principles accepted by the organization
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 Cont..intro

2. Innovation
– Innovation is defined as the adoption of an idea or
behavior, whether a system, policy, program,
device, process, product or service
– It involves step-change (volatile or abrupt change)
improvement
– It requires a large investment in new technology
and/or equipment or a radical change in process
design
Example: Business Process Reengineering
– Innovation is a crucial competitive weapon in
today's global market place
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 Cont..intro

Improvement in quality can be achieved by

identifying and correcting causes of troubles in:
– products or services of an organization
– management practices
– Human resources
– Production process
– Design of Quality management system
– In problem solving process

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5.2. Management Practice Improvement
 Managers and supervisors play an enormously critical role
in achieving and maintaining high standards of quality by:
– creating the culture of worker “ownership "of the improvement
process.
– creating the culture that enables workers to feel comfortable
enough to recommend changes.
– developing the strategic plan for implementing the quality
initiative.
• For instance , allocation of resources necessary to fund the process of
change
– making additional investments in tools, machinery, equipment,
and materials
• Quality parts cannot be produced on worn-out or obsolete equipment
– facilitating training programs to enhance individual
performance.
– hiring qualified and skilled employees
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 Cont.. Management practice improvement

Benchmarking is a methodology used in

management to evaluate various aspects of their
processes in comparison to best practices,
usually within their own sector
Benchmarking allows organizations to develop
plans on how to make improvements or adopt
best practices, usually with the aim of increasing
some aspect of performance
Benchmarking is often treated as a continuous
process in which organizations continually seek
to challenge their business practices

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 Cont..management practice improvement

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 Cont..management practice improvement

Benchmarking can be done

– externally, with other organizations
• a comparison with your competitors
– Internal , within your organization,
• a comparison of similar operations

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5.3. Product And Service Improvement
Value Engineering is a proven management
technique that can make valuable
contributions to value enhancement and cost
reduction
Value Engineering is a significant methods to
improve product quality, reduce product cost
Value analysis process review is a concern to
identify and eliminate product and service
features that add no true value to the customer
or the product but incur cost to the process of
manufacturing or provision of the service

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 Cont ..product and service improvement

The VA process is therefore one of the key

features of a business that understands and
seeks to achieve Total Quality Management
(TQM) in all that it does to satisfy customers.
The key to realizing these returns is
knowledge, of the customer requirements, the
costs of the product, and an in-depth
knowledge of manufacturing process and the
costs associated with failures due to poor or
inadequate product design.
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 Cont.. Product improvement

• Stages of product value analysis

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 Cont..product and service improvement

Related Tools and Technique

– Concurrent/Participative Design/Engineering
– Quality Function Deployment (QFD)
– Process Mapping
– Design for Manufacture/Assembly
– Design FMEA
– Taguchi Method
– Target Pricing \ Costing
– Computer Aided Design

5/17/2022 By Yonas H 14
 5.4. Production Process Improvement

What is production process?

Production system ?
1. Just In Time production system
 Just in time is a production control technique in
manufacturing organization focused on improving:
– Timeline
– Quality
– Productivity
– Flexibility
 Various methods of work simplification and waste
elimination are utilized.
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 Cont. Process improvement

In the starting phases of its development, this

system aimed at elimination or reduction of
inventories, work in process, finished products
and goods
 But nowadays, its focus spread to elimination of
all kinds of business waste.
Companies apply JIT business system with the
purpose of:
• Elimination Of Non-value-added Activities
• Zero Inventories
• Zero Defects
• Zero Breakdowns And
• A 100% On-time Delivery Service
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 Cont.. JIT
 Reorganization of the production process
– by grouping of products and
– by grouping of different types of machines
 Engagement and keeping of employees that possess
knowledge and skills
– various operations and tasks can be carried out by one
employee
 Business in accordance with the system of Total Quality
Management (TQM)
– So that Defects can be eliminated
 The emphasis is on the reduction of time necessary for the
production preparation, as well as the production "lead"
time
 Careful selection of suppliers
– who deliver raw materials at right quality, right amount and
right time
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 Cont..JIT

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 Cont..production process

2. POKA YOKE
Mankind is an animal which makes mistake
Which idea do you take ?
Admitting( affirm ) Hating( deny ) mistake
mistake and hating( deny
and admitting( affirm )
) those who made
mistake. those who made mistake.
What does POKA YOKE mean ?
POKA – careless mistakes
Mistake Proof
YOKE – to avoid
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 Cont..production process

 POKA YOKE is a production system used for Early Defect

Detection
 How does a mistake (POKA) take place?
– POKA by careless
– POKA by misunderstanding
– Poka by brief look
– Poka by lack of training
– Poka by mal-function
– Poka by forgetting etc.
 For example, if four nuts were required to be tightened the
machine would count each operation and automatically
stop the process if it counts less than four.
 diskette is carefully engineered to be slightly asymmetrical
so that it will not fit into the disk drive in any orientation
other than the correct one
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 Cont..production process

Poka yoke can be made as::

Sign and mark system jig system Automatic system

Make easy to detect by Give ideas to jigs so that A machine stops
Indicating lamps or wrong wares can’t be automatically in case of
different Color fixed Or processing wrong processing
doesn’t start in case of
Example: miss-fixing Example:
A following process checks A machine proceeds
the results of preceding Example: processing after
process and lamps off in Work pieces can’t be fixed correcting miss –work or
case of wrong work. to the jig in case of wrong miss-operation
work automatically.

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 Cont..production process

Example 1: Set standard weight for an accepted

article and then detect defective one by
comparison with the standard weight.

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 Cont..production process

Example 2: Set standard by dimension such as

length, height, thickness and diameter, and
then detect defective one by comparison with
the standard.

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 Cont..production process

Example 3: Set standard of correct article by

making use of distinctive shape such as, hole,
edge, projection, bend or quality of material,
then detect defective one by comparison with
the standard.

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 Cont…production process

Example 4: In a certain process, when a worker did

not follow a standard and missing work would
happen, the following work could not be continued.

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5.5. Improvement of Human Resources
Human resources issues can be at the core of
the quality philosophy
– Employee involvement and commitment is
essential for the successful introduction and
implementation of:
• Quality Initiatives
• Quality Programs
• Quality Practices
• Quality Management Techniques
• etc

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 Cont…

It is widely accepted that Total Quality

Management has a high human resource
context
Quality movement recognizes the importance
of human resources utilization
 Quality movement states well-defined image
concerning human behavior and motivation
If the actions and reactions of employees
become quality related, then expensive
failures can be reduced or even prevented
altogether
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 Cont ..
Continuous quality improvement can be
achieved through human resources
improvement by applying methods such as:
1. Training of human resources:
– Skills training are necessary to provide adequate
education and training for operators
– This skill requires an understanding of basic
quality improvement tools and quality program

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 Cont..

2. Empowering and involving of workers in

decision making system
3. Recruiting competent workers
4. Re-designing of jobs which will provide
them with challenge, responsibility and
control
5. Developing a team based working
system

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 Cont..

For instance, formation of quality circles

6. Periodical evaluation of workers’ performance
7. Giving timely recognition and motivation for
workers performing good.
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 Cont..

Now let’s apply POKA-YOKE!!!!!!!!

Hoping prosperity of our country's companies.
5/17/2022 By Yonas H 32