RDS Pvt Ltd received an order from ABC for 100,000 hollow pins but was required to first provide a sample of 100 pins. RDS produced 200 sample pins but only sent the 100 defect-free pins to ABC after two rounds of inspection. ABC was impressed with the quality but later discovered RDS's manufacturing process was actually incapable of consistently producing defect-free pins. It became clear RDS had only delivered the high-quality sample by sorting out defects, not through process capability. As a result, ABC chose not to give RDS the bulk order since their process could not reliably assure quality. The case study demonstrates that inspection alone does not guarantee quality—a good process is needed.

1. Need For Process - A Case Study
Introduction
Whether you are running a IT firm or a manufacturing firm,
you cannot stay away from the “process” of doing
business.
The organization that get it right have a propensity to have
increased productivity, lower working costs, decreased
errors/defects, less inventory, and increased resource
utilization.
The process assures to deliver consistently good quality
than seldom great quality.
Lets define what is a process? A process is a set of
dependent or independent task(s) to create an expected
output. These tasks may be carried out by people, nature,
or machines using resources.
At task level, it helps to effectively handle a problem that is
faced on day to day basis and implement the required
solution.
Finally out of 130qty defect free
products, 100qty was sent to ABC as
Case Study on importance of Process per the committed schedule.
Company ABC invited RDS Pvt Ltd for On receipt of receiving the hallow pins,
1,00,000qty of hallow pin for tractor chain. To ABC conducted an internal inspection
finalize on the order, ABC had asked for 100qty with process capability analysis. The
sample hallow pin to okay the bulk order within a results were amazing! 100% defect free
stipulated time frame. products with no variation, where UCL
The requirement spec and design was provided and LCL were almost zero.
by ABC to RDS - Off course the ABC were not aware of
RDS Pvt Ltd celebrated the business lead and the two round of inspections were
initiated the manufacturing process. carried out at RDS and only the defect
The manufacturing process started off well and free products were delivered to them.
with safeguard 200qty of sample hallow pin was
produced.
In-order to guarantee, no defective product is sent
to ABC, two rounds of inspection was carried out.

2. The amazed ABC was inquisitive to know the RDS's manufacturing process that produced 100%
defect free product.
Consequently ABC approached RDS to provide their manufacturing process.
Ironically the manufacturing process clearly pointed out the usage of low end machines being used
which could hardly ever produce 100% defect free product due to its low process capability. The
only way the close to 100% defect free product was achievable was by usage of high precision
machines with higher process capability.
Hence it was apparent that RDS's manufacturing process was not capable to produce good quality
product.
Considering the above facts, the bulk order was finally not given to RDS.
Lessons Learnt
Inspection does not mean Quality assured.
Inspection will only segregate Good and Bad in a product.
Quality can be assured by good process
In the above case study it is evident that the issue was with RDS manufacturing process which needs to be
fixed. Process enables growth and takes the business to next level. International standards like ISO 9001,
CMMi provides the guidelines to setup such good processes in an organization and continuously mature
over the period.
About the Author
Madhavan.K is Quality Head for an IT firm at Bangalore. A Lean Six-Sigma Black Belt practitioner, ISO
9001:2008 Lead Auditor and CMMI ATM.
E:mail: madhavan5002@gmail.com