Hank Kolb, recently appointed plant manager, pokes his head around the door of Mark Hamler. Mark has been the quality control manager for the plant for the last 15 years. When asked how things are Mark response as follows "Oh, just another typical quality snafu. We had a little problem on the Greasex line last week (a specialized degreasing solvent packed in a spray can for the high-technology sector. A lite high pressure was found in some cans on the second shift, but a supervisor vented them so that we could ship them out. We met our delivery schedulet Wanting more information Hank sat down and asked Mark to explain what happened "We've been having some trouble with the new filling equipment and some of the cans were pressurized beyond our AQL [acceptable quality levell on a psi rating scale. The production rate is still 50 % of standard, about 14 ca se per shift , and we caught it halfway into the shift. Mac Evans, the inspector for the line, picked it up, tagged the cases "hold", and went on about his duties. When he returned at the end of the shift to write up the rejects, Wayne Simmons, first-line supervisor, was by a pallet of finished goods finishing sealing up a carton of the rejected Greasex, the reject Thoid", tags had been removed. He told Mac that he had heard about the high pressure from another inspector at coffee break, had come back, taken off the tags, individually turned the cans upside down and vented every one of them in the eight rejected cartons. He told Mac that production planning was really pushing for the stuff and they couldn't delay by having it sent through the rework area. He told Mac that he would get on the operator to run the equipment right next time. Mac didn't write it up but came in about three days ago to tell me about it. Oh it happens every once in a while, and I told him to make sure to check with maintenance to make sure the filling machine was adjusted; and I saw Wayne in the hall and told him that he ought to send the stuff through rework next item. Wanting to determine if the above occurrence has become the norm Hank made enquires and learned the following information: From personnel: The operator for the filling equipment had just been transferred form shipping two weeks ago. He had no formal training in this job but was being trained by Wayne. on the job, to run the equipment. When Mac had tested the high-pressure cans, the operator Page 5 of 8 was nowhere to be found and had only beamed of the rejected material from Wayne after the shift was over From plant maintenance: This particular piece of automated filling equipment had been purchased two years ago for use on another product. It had been switched to the Greasex Iine six months ago and maintenance completed 12 work orders during the last month for repairs or adjustments on it. The equipment had been adapted by plant maintenance for handling the lower viscosity of Greasex, which it had not originally been designed for. This included designing a special filling head. There was no scheduled preventive maintenance for this equipment, and the parts for the sensitive filing head, replaced three times in the last six months, had to be made at a nearby machine shop. Nonstandard downtime was 15 % of actual running time. From purchasing: The plastic nozzle heads for the Greasex can, designed by a vendor for this new product on a rush order, were often found to have slight burrs on the inside rim, and this caused some trouble in fitting the top to the can. An increase in application pressure at the filling head by maintenance adjustment had solved the burr application problem or had at least forced the nozzle heads on despite burrs. Purchasing agents said that they were going to talk to the sale representative of the nozzle head supplier about this the next time he came in. From product design and packaging: The can, designed especially for Greasex, had been contoured to allow better gripping by the user. This change, instigated by marketing research set Greasex apart from the appearance of its competitors and was seen as significant by the designers. There had been no test of the effects of the contoured can on filling speed of filling hydrodynamics from a high-pressured filling head. Hand had a hunch that the new design was acting as a venturi (carrier creating suction) when being filed, but the packaging manager thought that was unlikely From the manufacturing manager: He had heard about the problem, in fact, Wayne had made a joke about it, ragging about how he best his production quota to the other foremen and shift supervisors. The manufacturing manager thought Wayne was one of the best foremen we have ... he always got his production out." His promotion papers were actually on the manufacturing manager's desk when Hank dropped by Wayne was being strongly considered for promotion to shift supervisor. The manufacturing manager, under pressure Page 6 of 8 form Morganthal for cost improvements and reduced delivery times, sympatized win Hund but said that the rework area would have vented with their pressure gauges what Wayne had done by hand. "But I speak with Wayne about the incident," he said From marketing: The introduction of Greasex had been used to market to beat competitors, and a major promotional advertising campaign was under way to increase consumer awareness. A deluge of orders was swanging the order taking department and putting Greasex high on the back order liat. Production had to turn the stuff out, even being a little of spec was tolerable because would be better to have on the shell than not there at all Who cares of the label is a little crooked or the stuff comes out with a little too much pressure? We need market share now in that high-tech segment What bothered Hank the most was the safety issue of the high pressure in the cans. He had no way of knowing how much of a hazard the high pressure was oe il Wayne had vented them enough to effectively reduce the hazard. The data from the car manufacturer, which Mark had showed him, indicated that the high pressure found by the inspector was not in the danger area. But again, the inspector had used only a sample testing procedure to reject the right cases Answer the following questions: 1. Compile a detailed, step-by-step maintenance approach for the plant which would prevent future instances of this type of fault occurring The reason for each of the steps much be clearly motivated from the case study (10) 2 Based on the information provided in the case study identify and discuss the core problem(s) that you can identify relating to product and process design integration, which manifested during the production process. What should Hank Kob do to fox the problems identified? Motivate your answer (10) Based on the information provided in the case study identity and discuss the core problem(s) that you can identify relating to job design. What should Hank Kol do to for the problems identified? Motivate your answer (10) 4 Based on the information provided in the case study identify and discuss the core problem(s) that you can identify relating to capacity. What should Hank Kolb do to fox the problems identified? Motivate your answer. (10) 3 5 Based on the information provided in the case study identify and discuss the core problem(s) that you can identify relating to the quality of the product received from the external suppliers. What should Hank Kolb do to fix the problems identified? Motivate your answer (10) Page 8 of 8