To eliminate quality defects, you can do this

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01. How can quality supervisors control human misjudgments and improve inspection efficiency? Question: I am a Quality Manager. I would like to ask the experts: How can human misjudgments be effectively controlled? How can we further improve inspection efficiency within the scope of our department’s responsibilities? Answer: To ensure proper control over the production quality process, a complete control system is necessary. First, a control plan must be developed. Within this plan, the key process indicators (KPIs), as well as a reasonable sampling frequency, sample size, the types of control charts and inspection methods to be used, should be clearly defined. Additionally, an Out-of-Control Action Plan (OCAP) must be established. Next, the supervisor will conduct statistical analysis based on the collected data and information to achieve continuous improvement. Effective control of human error is achieved through the following aspects: standardized operations, PokaYoke error-prevention methods, and measurement system analysis. As we all know, product quality is achieved through manufacturing rather than inspection; therefore, our goal should be to have zero inspectors. In other words, once the manufacturing process is improved and becomes good enough, we can consider reducing the number of inspectors and further improving inspection efficiency. 02. How to reduce human errors? Question: Employees fail to follow the established procedures; for example, they forget to carry out regular maintenance tasks, and sometimes they even forget to close important valves when switching equipment pipelines. There are many more such minor issues that cannot be resolved due to the existence of rules and regulations! Some managers also often fail to complete tasks on time, or clearly do a sloppy job. I’ve been wondering whether it’s a matter of competence, or whether managers at all levels aren’t doing their jobs properly I would like to ask the experts how to manage such a situation. Answer: SOP procedure documents, operating instructions, strict rules and regulations, etc., are all just written guidelines. They can only tell our employees what to do, when to do it, and how to do it; however, they cannot guarantee that our employees won’t make mistakes during implementation. And we all know that whenever there is human intervention, mistakes are bound to happen. Therefore, at this point, we can only think of implementing more error-prevention measures to address this issue. For example, in the case mentioned above where \"one sometimes forgets to close important valves when switching equipment pipelines\", can we use a fault-prevention device to prevent such forgetting of closing the valves? It is absolutely impossible to switch the equipment pipelines without closing the valve first. Additionally, we must also have a complete control plan. 03. How to collect information on defective products? Issue: The company’s products are fabrics. We do not have a dedicated IPQC personnel member to randomly inspect the products in accordance with the established sampling method; instead, we rely mainly on feedback from frontline workers in the production department. Managers in some production workshops can provide effective solutions, while others always rely on QA for advice. It is also difficult for us to standardize the recording of information on defective products and the implementation of improvement measures. How can I collect information on defective products? For example, how do I determine which information needs to be recorded? Answer: Records are merely a collection and preservation of information and data. But which ones are important and which ones are unimportant? In fact, all of these should be clearly defined in the control plan. As quality managers, we first need to know what our KPIs are, and only then can we conduct proper sampling and collect data to provide a basis for subsequent statistical analysis. After a period of continuous process improvement, the sample size and sampling frequency can be readjusted based on the actual quality level of the process; it is even possible to eliminate some unnecessary inspections or sampling. Therefore, it is very important to develop a good control plan. 04. How do quality engineers get involved in R&D? Question: I am a quality engineer who is involved in the development of a product at my company. However, the R&D department doubted the professional capabilities of the quality engineers and ostracized them. Is there a better way to get involved in the product development process? (Questioner: Yang Xiao (Jun)) Answer: It is highly necessary and important for quality engineers to be involved in the R&D process. When a company’s performance reaches above 5σ, our designers must consider design for manufacturability. At this point, a quality engineer with extensive experience can use appropriate statistical methods or quality tools to analyze experimental data, provide numerous constructive suggestions, effectively avoid and prevent various problems that have occurred in the mass production of similar products in the past, and further optimize the design. Designers often lack the ability to effectively analyze data using statistical tools, so the two can complement each other. To enable quality engineers to effectively participate in the product development process, we must clearly define their responsibilities at each design stage in the development SOP documents. 05. How to handle customer complaints? Question: The company’s procedure for handling customer quality complaints is as follows: sales staff submit the customer complaints, and the responsible department analyzes the causes and proposes corrective actions. However, the responses from the responsible departments were merely rhetorical statements; they failed to achieve genuine corrective and preventive effects, nor could they meet the customers’ requirements. How should we establish an audit system for responding to customer complaints? Or which stage should be designated as responsible for the audit within the system’s operation? Answer: The issue you mentioned is one that many companies encounter. The root cause of this problem lies in the system programming. Firstly, customer complaints should be linked to the performance of the relevant responsible personnel in various departments, and indicators for customer satisfaction should be established; this will help improve the effectiveness of corrective actions and work efficiency. Then reevaluate the customer complaint handling procedure. The procedure documents for handling customer complaints should clearly specify who is responsible for receiving and collecting complaint information, who analyzes and takes corrective and preventive actions, who provides feedback to the customers, who tracks and verifies the effectiveness of those corrective measures, and within what time frame a 8D report should be sent to the customers. The best approach is to establish a direct and good communication channel between the quality department and the customer, minimizing intermediate steps as much as possible. (The so-called 8D refers to a team-oriented problem-solving process that includes eight steps, from D1 to D8.) 06. How should special products be sampled for inspection? Problem: The raw materials used in our company’s production are special products that come in rolls; they can only be inspected using the first and last samples. During sampling/100% inspection, only surface-level examination can be carried out; it is not possible to truly assess the conditions inside. In this way, no problems can be detected during the sampling process, but many problems arise during production. How can a sampling system be established in a more reasonable manner? Answer: For such products, we rely more on controlled processes to ensure product quality rather than monitoring the products themselves. We know that control types generally fall into two main categories: one is the monitoring of products, and the other is the monitoring of processes. Therefore, we must strengthen process control to replace product monitoring. For instance, regarding key parameters of machinery and equipment, we should analyze the relationship between their input factors (parameters, etc.) and outputs (product characteristics). Therefore, for the inspection of these expensive products, we should minimize sampling as much as possible, and the control technique that can be used is the I-MR Chart, a single-point moving range chart. 07. How to standardize and manage product codes? Question: My friend’s company is a large-scale manufacturer in China’s lighting industry, offering dozens of categories and thousands of different product variants. Due to the wide range of products and the fact that they are sold both domestically and internationally, the product coding system has always been chaotic. I would like to ask experts: how should product codes be standardized and managed? Answer: Typically, our product clients provide a product name (for example, “Cat”). Each product name usually refers to a series of products with different specifications, such as 1W, 2W, etc. Therefore, we can add codes after the product name, like Cat1W, Cat2W, and so on. If the client does not provide a name for a new product, our company can come up with one through brainstorming. The name can be based on animals, plants, or other elements. After that, we use the same numbering method as described above. In this way, we can create SOP standard operating procedure documents to standardize and control things, thereby effectively avoiding repetition and chaos.