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INTRODUCTION
The application of quality tools throughout the study. A great number of tools were required in the Plan phase
in order to analyze the problem, define solutions and prepare an action plan.
The main objective of this research project is to improve the level of quality through the use of quality tools in
a company in the installation phase.
The presented methodology can help companies to increase the use of quality tools which, according to recent
study, continues to have little use. All tools have proved to be useful and effective. The application of the
Taguchi method to determine the optimum combination of factors of a station (together with other
improvement actions) caused a 50% decrease of the most critical defective component and an overall
reduction of 29% in the level of nonconformities in the preparation section.
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Basic Concepts of Continuous Process
Improvement
The benefits from quality and process improvements to all types of organizations including the construction
business are:
Improve Quality.
Costs decrease because of less rework, fewer mistakes, fewer delays, better use of machine-time and materials.
Productivity Improves.
Stay in Business.
Provide jobs and more jobs.
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Seven phases in the improvement process of
an organization:
Phase 1 - Identify the Opportunity for improvement
Phase 2 - Analyze the Current Process
Phase 3 - Develop Optimal Solutions
Phase 4 - Implement Changes
Phase 5 - Study the Results
Phase 6 - Standardize the Solution
Phase 7- Plan for the Future
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Fig. 3. Correlation of Delivered Compressive Strength with the Specified Value for the Ready-Mixed Concrete
Production Plant
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An innovative way all the quality tools and concepts mentioned previously and their range
or application in a typical manufacturing company developed by the author. Many of these
can be equally applied to the service industry. The personal experiences, problems,
benefits and common points are mentioned from the applications of some of Quality
Improvement Tools (QIT).
The main activities and application areas for QIT are mentioned below,
Education – Training.
Quality Function Deployment (QFD).
Design of experiments or Taguchi experiments (DOE).
Statistical process control and PC's (SPC).
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This methodology consists of three steps, wherein the first stage (Assessment of quality
management processes) there is an evaluation of the company’s quality management
processes to diagnose possible problems and limitations in these processes leading to
the identification of improvement opportunities.
The second step (General quality data analysis) aims to analyze the historical records of
occurrence of nonconformities in the entire production process in order to prioritize
actions to resolve the problems.
The third step consists of the application PDCA cycle (to solve a specific problem that
was considered a priority in the previous step).
At all stages, where appropriate, quality tools will be applied to increase the
effectiveness and efficiency of actions.
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References
[1] Crosby Philip, Quality is Free, McGraw Hill, 1979
[2] Davey Andrew, Total Quality Management Post Graduate Diploma,
The Polytechnic of Wales 1990, UK
[3] Hundy Brian, A Brief History of Quality, Manufacturing
Engineering Magazine, September 1991, UK, p.p 48-52
[4] Inshikawa Kaoru, Guide to Quality Control, Asian Productivity
Center, 1976
[5] Lucas Manufacturing Systems Engineering Handbook, Lucas
Engineering & Systems, Mini Guide, 1988, UK