The root causes of quality accidents deserve careful consideration!

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With all these problems arising, how should we improve them? How can we be good managers? How should we do it? I hope this article can offer you some insights. Inspection is an important part of quality management! The most common problems are also the ones hardest to correct; they serve as reasons for making mistakes. The following 8 problems are things we often encounter in quality management. When the following errors no longer occur, it at least indicates that everything is done properly internally. Mistake 1: Let’s forget about it this time; it’s better to avoid trouble. Most inspectors don’t like to issue defect reports, and of course suppliers prefer that even more, because after issuing such a report, they have to take the defective products to various supervisors for their signatures, and they also need to inform the purchasing department ； When the supplier comes to the factory for rework, it is necessary to confirm the method of reworking; after the rework is completed, further inspections must be carried out in accordance with the standards. Rejecting one batch takes more time than conducting normal inspections on three batches. Therefore, in many cases, when inspectors encounter a small number of defective items, but that number still meets the AQL rejection standard, it is incorrect to label them as qualified and allow them to proceed to the next stage. With the inspectors I used to work with, basically every new inspector had to go through this experience: during inspections only a few defective items were detected, but during production, a large number of defects appeared, leading to production halts and other problems. Therefore, when the sample inspection reaches the AQL rejection level, it is necessary to issue a rejection order. Some inspectors are afraid of the hassle involved in issuing reports. When defects are detected, the purchasing department says that it’s sufficient to have the supplier come and redo the work, so there’s no need to issue a report – after all, it’s troublesome to do so. When such situations occur, inspectors usually are willing to help and work with the purchasing department to keep the issue under control. As a result, suppliers fail to handle things in a timely manner, which leads to production lines coming to a stop due to a lack of materials; in some cases, materials have been delivered for three days yet no order has still been placed. If the superior is unaware of it, it will be considered that the inspector failed to conduct the inspection, and issues related to the inspector’s timeliness will arise. Therefore, after detecting defects, the inspector should issue a report promptly. Error 2: The procurement, business, technical, and production departments said it was okay to include it, so I did. You should know that the basis for inspectors to conduct inspections is the inspection standards, which include drawings, approval documents, inspection standard sheets, samples, and so on ； If you find anything that does not meet the standards, you should confirm it with your supervisor. It’s not the case that other departments can just say it’s okay. The management and performance evaluation of inspectors are all handled by the Quality Department; since you listen to other departments, then just transfer you to those departments. I’ve encountered such a case before: the inspector found that the material was substandard, but the purchaser said it wasn’t a problem, adding that they had informed the production line and that they were willing to proceed with production without filing any complaints against you. As a result, the inspector didn’t report the issue to his superiors and simply applied a \"qualified\" label to the material, allowing it to be used in production. This leads to complaints on the production line and line shutdowns, and procurement will not take responsibility for this. When issues arising from problems with the materials entering production cause difficulties, other departments will only ask how the inspectors carried out their inspections, without blaming people from other departments. The consequences of failed results fall solely on the inspector. Therefore, when an inspector detects defects, the decision must be followed based on the instructions of the direct supervisor; and if the supervisor decides to approve the item despite the defects, the reason for this change must also be noted in the defect report. Error three: I thought… When an inspector fails to fulfill his duty of oversight, and is asked why things got out of control, he always starts by saying “I thought…”. Inspectors should not say “I thought”. When you say “I thought,” you start looking for reasons and excuses for your mistakes; after finding those excuses, you commit the same mistakes again. Furthermore, if a problem cannot be confirmed, one should first consult and get confirmation from a superior. Therefore, I ask my employees that after making a mistake, they should not say “I thought.” All I want to know is the reason why it wasn’t detected this time, and what they will do in the next inspection to ensure it is caught. For example: This time my sampling method was incorrect. A total of 6,000 units arrived, distributed across 5 pallets and 200 boxes. According to the requirements, 32 boxes should have been sampled, with an average of 6 boxes sampled from each pallet ； 6 samples per box ； And I only inspected one pallet, a total of three boxes in all. The defective items were not concentrated on this pallet, which is why I didn’t pick any up. Going forward, I will conduct random inspections using standard inspection methods. Error four: Relying on experience and building relationships, assuming that this material won’t have any problems and thus doesn’t need to be inspected. This is a common mistake made by experienced inspectors. It’s fortunate that inspectors know how to carry out their work and what the key points of inspection are, but their methods are incorrect. There have been no problems until now; inspections can be reduced, but they cannot be eliminated. At the very least, the markings on the outer box should be checked, and one product should be taken for a thorough inspection. Generally, for products that do not have any issues, the first box and the last box must be inspected. In this way, at least it can be ensured that there will be no batch-related issues with the materials. This manufacturer (the team leader) gets along well with me; he even bought me water to drink and cigarettes yesterday. I’ll overlook this defect this time and give it a PASS. This is a major no-no for inspectors, and it happens in most companies. Just to save face for a friend, I ended up getting myself into trouble. When these defective items are released, causing customers to return the products during inspection and creating problems for the production line, the first question that upper management will ask is how you carried out the inspection and why you failed to detect such issues It is not advisable to allow a matter of face to result in losses for the company. Error 5: This issue was revised and approved in previous orders; therefore, no order will be created this time, and a PASS result will be given directly. Sometimes, due to the urgency to get the materials onto the market, many revisions are made, which leads inspectors to mistakenly think that such conditions are acceptable. During the second inspection, the same issue was found, so no order was issued; this led to production complaints after the product went into use. The supervisor will make a new decision regarding this batch, taking into account various factors based on the actual situation; some involve communicating with clients, others with the production team, as well as selection processes – all of these apply to this specific batch. Therefore, after discovering non-conformities, although the previous batch was reclassified, an order should still be issued to reject it. Error 6: Missing inspection items. Since the materials were needed urgently and both the procurement and production departments were pressing for them, several necessary inspection items were not carried out. Assuming there would be no problems, a PASS label was applied and the materials were put into use. Every company, due to factors such as procurement lead times, faces issues with materials that need to be delivered urgently. For such materials, there is pressure to speed up the inspection process by the procurement inspectors; production and warehouse staff wait beside the inspectors until they finish inspecting the materials before releasing them, which puts significant psychological stress on inspectors who lack extensive work experience. Due to palpitations, some tests were not conducted, and the product was directly labeled as pass and sent on to production. As adverse issues were found in items that had not been inspected, production was halted and penalties were imposed. For items that are in urgent need, purchases usually involve making phone calls to suppliers to urge them to speed up production. As long as the goods can be delivered within the specified time frame, no attention is paid to other quality issues. In order to deliver the goods on time, suppliers work tirelessly to expedite production; so how good can the quality of the materials produced be? The more urgent the situation, the more carefully it needs to be checked. Generally, materials with rapid processing are more prone to quality issues. When personnel from procurement or other related departments urge the inspector to conduct the inspection promptly, they should be asked to wait in the designated area. The inspector must complete all required inspection steps and confirm that there are no defects before allowing the product to proceed to the production line. If defects are detected during the inspection process, relevant personnel should be notified promptly to handle them. Error 7: Failing to follow the procedures after identifying a problem. During the inspection process, defect A was detected; after an order was placed and corrective actions were taken (such as rework or special processing), defect B appeared again once production resumed. Inspectors conduct inspections in accordance with the inspection procedures; the general order of inspection is packaging, appearance, mechanical dimensions, and performance testing. Many times, when an inspector discovers a defect, they are pleased, stop the inspection, and immediately issue a non-conformity report. In previous quality management efforts, many problems arose as a result of this approach. When inspectors detected visual defects such as scratches, and in order to keep production moving forward, special approvals were given to proceed with manufacturing; yet another issue emerged later: dimension problems that made it impossible to assemble the products. Therefore, when inspecting products, inspectors should check all defective aspects thoroughly, record the inspection results, and only then issue an order after the inspection is complete. Error 8: Failure to reinspect the product after rework. If defects are detected during production, and the supplier or production team carries out rework, there should be no issues left; in such cases, minimal inspection should be conducted or the product should be approved directly. Many times, the heavy-duty workers sent by the suppliers do not work diligently; they want to go back early or go out to have fun after completing their tasks. As a result, they don’t even take a look at many of the materials, and some boxes remain unopened. When the inspector went to conduct the inspection, assuming that the supplier had completed all the rework, they carried out a symbolic sample check and then stamped it as PASS, allowing the supplier’s staff to leave. However, after the products were put into use, production complaints arose: the incoming materials were of poor quality. Therefore, for products that have undergone rework by the supplier, the inspector should also recheck the materials in accordance with the inspection requirements; if defects are found, the supplier should be required to carry out further rework until the products meet the standards.