This Clean Plus Corporation case focuses on the second of three major areas of manufacturing management: Manufacturing Information Systems*, Quality Control, and Purchasing*. The approach is to audit these areas for compliance with the policy of this multinational corporation.

The Clean Plus Corporation is an international company producing and selling cleaning products in Europe, North and South America. Each subsidiary has its own factory producing for the home market. The International Operation Management defined a new industrial strategy in order to produce Just in Time (JIT) operations. JIT concepts, which have been imported from Japan, aim to serve customers in terms of quality, quantity, and diversity of products within the shortest timeframe and at the lowest costs. Improving quality, reducing lead times, and reducing inventories and costs are the critical objectives of JIT implementation. Factories were then asked to focus on "four zero" management (zero defects, zero inventory, zero wastage, zero industrial lead times.)

Quality Control Strategy

The company aims to produce finished goods directly with 100% quality and thus reduce quality control operations after production. Indeed, the factories are required to detect defects directly on the production line in order to immediately stop poor production rather than waiting for the end of production to find out that the quality required was not attained and that finished goods must be destroyed. This on-line quality assurance requires installing appropriate automatic detection tools on the production lines, training production people on quality control and developing relevant indicators measuring the quality control efficiency of the lines.

Automatic Detection Tools

Each time a packaging item is placed or filled on the production line, a defect detector should verify that the operation occurred correctly. For instance, when a container is filled, the amount filled could be controlled by weighing the product immediately after filling. If the weight does not correspond to what is required, the bottle could be automatically ejected. Then after five or six rejections close to each other, the production line could be automatically stopped and a sign, a light or a bell could indicate to production employees that the filling machine needed adjusting.

With this brief example, we can see that placing a detector on a line is not enough. Quality ranges must be clearly defined and programmed into the detector, a visible sign must indicate to production people that quality is not being achieved, and production employees working on the line must know where the detectors are, how they function, how they identify substandard operations, and how quality problems can be resolved on the line.

Quality Training

When quality is measured (controlled) during production, the workers must know how to correct defective operations. They should also be able to follow the quality performance of their production line over a mid-term period, notice the common quality problems, and report them to the mechanics. Very often production operators do not have significant qualifications to insure the performance of such tasks. They will need to receive training to improve their skills as well as their motivation for quality operations.

Production employees know the little improvements that could be easily installed on a line to improve quality. Therefore, production management must encourage them to make suggestions and then quality circles can be organized.

Management Indicator

The Clean Plus Corporation proposed that its factories record some performance indicators such as the finished goods destruction rate, the defects rate, the quality control lead-time, the top fifty defects observed in the factory, and the results (output) of those defects. A major defect is a defect which does not prohibit the sale but detracts from the brand image. It could be a dirty or damaged package. The minor defects could be a little scratch, overweight, or a slight discoloration of the package. Minor defects do not forbid sales nor detract from the brand image.

Case Purpose

The purpose of this case is to audit the quality assurance implementation in the factory and to propose improvements to correct its quality strategy. Although quality assurance must be installed in the manufacturing as well as the packaging workshops, only quality in packaging floors will be studied here.

Training and Quality Circles

The packaging floor employees of each production center were divided into five groups to receive quality control training consisting of eight classes of one hour each. One mechanic was added to each group in order to provide technical advice. The production and quality managers explained to the group why quality was important for the company and how to produce the finished product with good quality. This training program terminated a year ago. After the termination, the groups were transformed into quality circles. They were asked to meet at least twice a month in order to analyze the work of each production line, to list all the potential defects of each line and to identify those already noted on a form called The Potential Defects form. Three months later, the groups were asked to write procedures for the production employees, including a checklist to be completed when beginning, running, and finishing operations.

After the first interviews with packaging operators and the quality department, auditors gathered the following information:

• The packaging operators were happy about the training program they received and their work with quality circles. However, when they submitted a list of the potential quality defects occurring during production to the production centers manager, no action was taken. No improvements had been implemented on the lines to reduce the risk of defects and the number of defects has increased from 1.5% to 2.21% during these last months.

• The managers of production centers thought that the quality circles had done a terrific job. The defects they submitted were already known but, according to the managers, these lists should emphasize the major areas where defects could appear so that production employees could pay attention to them. However, the defects mentioned on the lists have not been corrected.

REQUIRED

1. What precipitated each of the issues?