Case 5-A Quality Management Case Study: Defects in Spacecraft

Please review the case and respond to the following:

1. Did the project have an effective quality management process in place? Please discuss.

2. Comment on their defect tracking and analysis to improve their manufacturing .

Abstract Production of spacecraft components presents a management challenge in that the systems are complex, costly to build and launch, and once a spacecraft is launched, it is extremely difficult and expensive to repair. For these reasons, strict standards for quality and reliability are essential. This paper presents a project quality management case study for the production of spacecraft electronics components as part of an overall spacecraft project. Printed circuit board data is examined by project managers using a Pareto analysis of different defect types to reveal process problems. Corrective actions to the production process that were implemented by project managers are explained, and ideas to improve future quality management studies, regardless of the industry, are discussed.

Conclusion Successful project management must include project quality management. As part of ongoing project quality management efforts for a large United States government contractor, a study was conducted of the manufacturing defects encountered during one year of production of spacecraft electronics components. Data was gathered from an extensive database produced by 100% inspection of all printed circuit boards manufactured by a production contractor. While this inspection system is costly, it is justified in the military space application because of the nature of the product produced. A Pareto analysis of the data was conducted and proved to be a valuable quality control tool by effectively identifying the key manufacturing problems and suggesting areas in which to implement corrective action. Cost-effective corrective actions were in fact implemented by the contractor and were successful in improving the manufacturing processes. In addition, questions for further study for future quality management efforts were identified. Although this quality management effort was for a spacecraft component production process, the ideas and approach presented can be of benefit to project managers across many fields and can be utilized on practically all quality management efforts