SMT.KAMALA MEHTA COLLEGE OF
COMMERCE AND MANAGEMENT.
A PROJECT ON
QUALITY MEASUREMENTS
BY
KKRISHNA.KAPOOR (01)
DEEPAK.KARANDE. (02)
LOVEKESH.PHUTANE (03)
FROM
S.Y.B.M.S
SUBMITTED TO
PROF. MITESH.GALA
IN THE YEAR
2006-2007.
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT
A Report on
Quality Assurance
DECLARATION
WE THE STUDENTS OF SMT. KAMALA MEHTA COLLEGE OF COMMERCE OF S.Y.B.M.S. (SEMESTER IV) HEREBY DECLARE THAT WE HAVE COMPLETED THIS PROJECT ON QUALITY MEASUREMENTS IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2006 – 2007. THE INFORMATION SUBMITTED IS TRUE AND ORIGINAL TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE.
DATE:
PLACE: (SIGNATURE OF THE STUDENTS)
CERTIFICATE
I Prof. MR. MITESH GALA HERE BY CERTIFY THAT STUDENTS OF SMT. KAMALA MEHTA COLLEGE OF COMMERCE AND MANAGEMENT OF S.Y.B.M.S. (SEMESTER IV) HAS COMPLETED THE PROJECT ON QUALITY MEASUREMENTS IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2006 – 2007. THE INFORMATION SUBMITTED IS TRUE, ORIGINAL AND AUTHENTIC TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE.
SIGNATURE OF PRINCIPLE SIGNATURE OF PROJECT GUIDE
(Prof. ADAND.NAIR) (MR. R.C.KAPOOR)
INDEX
Sr No. Topic Page No.
1. Executive Summary 3
2. Introduction to QA 6
3. Quality Assurance vs. Quality Improvement vs. Quality Control 8
4. Objectives of Quality Assurance 10
5. Tools of Quality Assurance 12
6. Quality Assurance Methods & Standards 18
7. Organization wide Approaches to QA 23
8. QA in Strawberries- A Case Study 34
9. Conclusion 39
10. Bibliography 40
Introduction to Quality & Quality Assurance
“Quality means the ability of a set of inherent characteristics of a product, system or process to fulfill requirements of customers and other interested parties”
(AS/NZS ISO 9000:2000).
Quality is not just the responsibility of one person or one department. Everyone involved indirectly in the production of a product or a service has a role to play. Thus, what is required is a system that will ensure that all procedures designed to produce a quality product or a service are effectively and being followed rigorously and religiously. This is precisely the role and process and purpose of quality assurance.
Thus Quality Assurance can be defined as: -
“All those planned and systematic actions necessary to provide confidence that a product or service will satisfy given need.”
Both management and customers are interested in quality assurance; since they can’t oversee operations for themselves. Quality assurance builds confidence both in customer and management that company’s operations are capable of producing quality or service and adequate control exits thereby avoiding constant intervention.
QA is used in almost every industry and business imaginable. QA is often also referred to as Quality Engineering. The goal of QA is to assure that products meet or exceed the demands of clients and consumers.
Quality Assurance may be viewed as Corporate Quality Control. Unlike quality control it does not measure the quality of products but measures the quality of business and thereby assure management and customers of the quality of product and quality. Assurance of quality can be gained through following management actions: -
Declaring the organization’s plans for achieving quality.
Formulating a plan, which identifies key steps to achieve assurance of quality.
Organizing resources to implement the plan of quality assurance.
Establishing the organizations proposed products and services possess characteristics, which will satisfy customer’s needs.
Evaluating organizations process and assessing where and what quality risks are.
Establishing whether organization’s quality plans make adequate provisions for the control, elimination and reduction of the identify risks.
Measuring the degree of implementation of the organization plans and its effectiveness to contain the identify risks.
Establishing whether products or services being supplied conform to the prescribed characteristics.
Thus Quality Assurance may be defined as all those planned systematic actions to provide confidence that a products or service will satisfy the given need.
Quality Assurance Vs Quality Improvement Vs Quality Control
Quality Assurance
Quality assurance is a process oriented to guaranteeing that the quality of a product or a service meets some predetermined standard. Quality assurance makes no assumptions about the quality of competing products or services. In practice, however, quality assurance standards would be expected to reflect norms for the relevant industry. The process of quality assurance therefore compares the quality of a product or service with a minimum standard set either by the producer or provider or by some external government or industry standards authority. By rights, this standard should bear some relationship to best practice, but this is not a necessary condition. The aim in quality assurance is to ensure that a product or service is fit for the market.
Quality Improvement
Quality improvement is concerned with raising the quality of a product or service. The type of comparison that is made when engaged in quality improvement is between the current standard of a product or service and the standard being aimed for. Quality improvement is concerned with comparing the quality of what is about to be produced with the quality of what has been produced in the past. Quality improvement is therefore primarily concerned with self rather than with others. Processes focused on quality improvement are also focused more on specific aspects of an organizational unit’s performance than on overall performance. It is usually the case that constraints dictate that efforts at improvement need to be targeted at areas of greatest need.
Quality Control
Quality Control is the technique by which products of uniform acceptable quality are manufactured. In engineering and manufacturing, quality control or quality engineering is a set of measures taken to ensure that defective products or services are not produced, and that the design meets performance requirements. Quality control includes all the execution procedures and actions undertaken in order to fulfil the demands for quality products or services tailored to suit the final users' needs. The aim is to reach a satisfactory, appropriate, economical and reliable quality. Quality control is a comparison between the control parameters from one assay run and the corresponding parameters from the reference assays.
Quality Assurance goes beyond Quality Control by examining the processes that shape the organisation. It is the process of enforcing Quality Control standards and working to improve the processes that are used to create the image of the organisation. With Quality Assurance the emphasis is on process. Quality Control focuses on what comes out of the manufacturing process, Quality Assurance focuses on what goes in to the manufacturing process as well as the process itself. However there is also a goal of improving output. When good Quality Assurance is implemented there should be an improvement in usability and performance and lessening rates of defects. Quality Assurance focuses on an organisation’s ability to meet a benchmark.
Objectives of Quality Assurance
The objective of the quality assurance function is to have a formal system that will continually survey the effectiveness of the quality philosophy of the company. Quality assurance includes all those planned or systematic actions necessary to provide confidence that a product or service will satisfy given needs.
• Accuracy
Accuracy is the measure of the agreement between an observed value and an accepted reference value or true value. The accuracy of an analytical procedure can be determined by analyzing a sample containing a known quantity of material, and is expressed as the percent (%) of the known quantity, which is recovered or measured. The accuracy of the analyzed relative to the detection limit of the analytical method is also a major factor in determining the accuracy of the measurement.
• Precision Precision is a measure of the agreement between two or more measurements. Precision is usually stated in terms of standard deviation, but other estimates such as the coefficient of variation (relative standard deviation), range (maximum value minus minimum value), relative range, and relative percent difference (RPD) are common.
• Completeness
Completeness is a measure of the amount of valid data obtained from the sampling program compared to the amount of data that were expected.
• Representativeness
Representativeness is the degree to which data accurately and precisely represent a characteristic of a population, parameter variations at a sampling point, a process condition, or an environmental condition.
• Comparability
The objective for data comparability is to generate data for each parameter that are comparable between sampling locations and comparable over time. Data comparability will be promoted by using standard approved methods, wherever possible.
Thus the organizations needs to focus on the above tools to improve, achieve and assure quality. These tools emphasize on vital details such as customer needs, problems, variables, waste reduction and quality improvement arena. Thus it is an organization's quality management tools that provides a common language for quality improvement and learning.
Quality Assurance Tools
Since Quality Assurance aims at providing evidence and establishing confidence about product quality, it needs to evaluate the product as well as collect data on product performance. Inspections and testing occupy the most important place in quality assurance. It must be carried out in accordance with the quality plan and documented procedure to provide evidence of conformance. Acceptance testing at site or at factory as per agreed standards of performance ensures that the product is performing as per specifications.
The main tools of Quality Assurance are explained in detail:
• Benchmarking
• Concurrent engineering
• Taguchi methods
• Deming’s P-D-S-A cycle
Benchmarking
Benchmarking is defined as, “A continuous, systematic process of evaluating and comparing the capability of one organization with others normally recognized as industry leaders, for insights for optimizing the organizations processes.”
The European Benchmarking Code of Conduct defines benchmarking as "Regularly comparing aspects of performance, functions or processes with best practitioners, identifying gaps in performance, seeking fresh approaches to bring about improvements in performance, following through with implementing improvements, and following up by monitoring progress and reviewing the benefits."
The four steps involved in benchmarking are
• Understanding in detail one’s own processes
• Analyzing the processes of others
• Comparing your own performance with that of others analyzed, and
• Implementing the steps needed to close the performance gap.
Types of Benchmarking
There are essentially three types of benchmarking: strategic, data-based, and process-based benchmarking. They differ depending on the type of information you are trying to gather. Strategic Benchmarking looks at the strategies companies use to compete. Benchmarking to improve improvements in business process performance generally focuses on uncovering how well other companies perform in comparison with you and others, and how they achieve this performance. This is the focus of Data-based and Process-based Benchmarking.
Benchmarking is a term that is now widely used within the quality arena. Benchmarking involves comparing a set of products or services against the best that can be found within the relevant industry sector.
Concurrent engineering
Concurrent engineering is a business strategy, which replaces the traditional product development process with one in which tasks are done in parallel, and there is an early consideration for every aspect of a product's development process. This strategy focuses on the optimization and distribution of a firm's resources in t he design and development process to ensure effective and efficient product development process.
Need for Concurrent Engineering
In today's business world, corporations must be able to react to the changing market needs rapidly, effectively, and responsively. They must be able to reduce their time to market and adapt to the changing environments. Decisions must be made quickly and they must be done right the first time out. Corporations can no longer waits time repeating tasks, thereby prolonging the time it takes to bring new products to market. Therefore, concurrent engineering has emerged as way of bringing rapid solutions to product design and development process.
Concurrent engineering is indisputably the wave of the future for new product development for all companies regardless of their size, sophistication, or product portfolio. In order to be competitive, corporations must alter their product and process development cycle to be able to complete diverse tasks concurrently. This new process will benefit the company, although it will require a large amount of refinement in its implementation. This is because, concurrent engineering is a process that must be reviewed and adjusted for continuous improvements of engineering and business operations.
The Concurrent Engineering Approach
Concurrent engineering is a business strategy, which replaces the traditional product development process with one in which tasks are done in parallel, and there is an early consideration for every aspect of a product's development process. This strategy focuses on the optimization and distribution of a firm's resources in the design and development process to ensure an effective and efficient product development process. It mandates major changes within the organizations and firms that use I t, due to the people and process integration requirements. Collaboration is a must for individuals, groups, departments, and separate organizations within the firm. Therefore, it cannot be applied at leisure. A firm must be dedicated to the long term implementation, appraisal, and continuous revision of a concurrent engineering process.
Strategic Plan of Concurrent Engineering
Concurrent engineering is recognized as a strategic weapon that businesses must use for effective and efficient product development. It is not a trivial task, but a complex strategic plan that demands full corporate commitment, therefore strong leadership and teamwork go hand and hand with successful concurrent engineering programs.
Taguchi methods
Robust Design method, also called the Taguchi Method was pioneered by Dr. Genichi Taguchi and it greatly improves engineering productivity. By consciously considering the noise factors (environmental variation during the product's usage, manufacturing variation, and component deterioration) and the cost of failure in the field the Robust Design method helps ensure customer satisfaction. Robust Design focuses on improving the fundamental function of the product or process, thus facilitating flexible designs and concurrent engineering. Indeed, it is the most powerful method available to reduce product cost, improve quality, and simultaneously reduce development interval.
The Robustness Strategy uses five primary tools:
1. P-Diagram is used to classify the variables associated with the product into noise, control, signal (input), and response (output) factors.
2. Ideal Function is used to mathematically specify the ideal form of the signal-response relationship as embodied by the design concept for making the higher-level system work perfectly.
3. Quadratic Loss Function (also known as Quality Loss Function) is used to quantify the loss incurred by the user due to deviation from target performance.
4. Signal-to-Noise Ratio is used for predicting the field quality through laboratory experiments.
5. Orthogonal Arrays are used for gathering dependable information about control factors (design parameters) with a small number of experiments.
Robust Design method is central to improving engineering productivity. Pioneered by Dr. Genichi Taguchi after the end of the Second World War, the method has evolved over the last five decades. Many companies around the world have saved hundreds of millions of dollars by using the method in diverse industries like automobiles, xerography, telecommunications, electronics, software, etc.
Deming's P-D-S-A cycle
The PDSA cycle is also known as the Deming Cycle, the Deming wheel or Spiral of continuous improvement. Its origin can be traced back to the eminent statistics expert Mr. Walter A. Shewart, in the 1920’s. He introduced the concept of Plan, Do and See. Deming modified the cycle of Shewart towards: PLAN, DO, STUDY and ACT.
The Deming Cycle is a model for continuous improvement of quality. It consists of a logical sequence of four repetitive steps for continuous improvement and learning: PLAN, DO, STUDY (CHECK) and ACT. The Deming Cycle is related to Kaizen thinking and Just-in-time manufacturing.
The model can be used for the ongoing improvement of the production processes and it contains the following four continuous steps: Plan, Do, Study and Act.
In the first step (PLAN), based on data, a problem is identified to effect improvement. The specific desired changes are clearly defined, after taking into account the current status. Numerical measures are set for the future target.
In the second step (DO), the plan is carried out, preferably on a small scale. The process owners on the team are identified. A hypothesis is formed of possible causes that are related to the current performance results. A quality tool such as a fish-bone diagram or an affinity diagram would be useful at this stage. The strategy to bring about the change is implemented.
In the third step (STUDY), the data is monitored and effects of the plan are observed. Trends, if any are identified. A gap analysis may be conducted. Comparisons or benchmark [best practice] data may be used. If there is a negative result, another cycle of PDSA may be undertaken.
In the last step (ACT), the results are studied to determine what was learned and what can be predicted. If positive data result, standardize the process/strategy. Standardize and keep the new process going. The cycle can be repeated starting with PLAN to define a new change.
Quality Assurance Methods & Standards
A quality assurance instruction sheet is an absolute necessity for adequate quality assurance. The development of the instruction sheet may be best described by outlining a step-by-step approach to it. The following procedure can then be applied to the items that require extensive planning for quality.
1. Product Quality Value Analysis
The first step is to make a cursory analysis of the quality investment justified for the item. This process is termed Product Quality Value Analysis (PQVA). It means that the item should be viewed in terms of the total quality cost savings to be realized by making the investment in planning for and measuring the quality of the item.
The greatest quality costs that can be saved are failure costs. Data on the components of failure quality cost are seldom gathered. Hence approximation is often a necessity. In cases where no data are available, the best alternative is to set a committee of people from all affected department together to make consensus estimates of the failure quality costs for each item.
The quality costs of each item are listed in descending order, with the highest cost at the top and the lowest on the bottom. Assuming that the investment in quality planning and measurement is the same for each item, the greatest return will come from a quality assurance investment in the items at the top of the list.
The figure below is an example of such a breakdown of data in tabular form. It is evident that this is the application of Pareto’s law to failure costs. Arbitrary division lines are drawn as shown and the items fall into either of groups I, II, or III. All other things being equal, the greatest return on investment will be realized by extensive quality assurance planning for, and quality measuring of the group I items. The failure costs per item of group I items make up 72% of the total costs, although only 25% of the items are in dispute. At the other extreme group III items, although they make up 45% of the product lines account for only 7% of the failure costs. Quality assurance investments in these items should be low. Group II is the intermediate group which comprises borderline items. Quality investments in these is dependent on the investments in group I that is they are second on the priority list.
Product Line Annual failure cost (*10000) Cumulative percent of cost
A
8.00 22.8
B 6.50 41.5
C 4.50 54.5
D 3.50 64.3
E 2.75 72.3
F
1.75
G 1.50
H 1.25
I 1.00
J 1.00
K 0.75 93
L
0.50
M 0.40
N 0.35
O 0.30
P 0.25
Q 0.25
R 0.25
S 0.15
T 0.05 100
Distribution of item Failure Costs by product line- Tabular Breakdown
This method of product quality value analysis lends itself to importance identification of product line manufacturing documents (purchase orders, drawings, and so on.) so that the other manufacturing functions may also give attention to the product lines on a proportional basis.
Once the key product line has been isolated, each of the lines may be broken down in to subassemblies and components which are, in effect, inspection points. The same type of analysis may be used within a product line as well as between product lines.
At this stage of planning the items for inspection should be viewed in terms of acceptance rather than control. After the acceptance quality requirements have been established, the type of quality control mechanisms needed to meet these requirements may be considered.
2. Classification of defects procedure
The next step in this development of classifications of defects or demerits lists for each of the items of inspections. To develop a classification of defects for an item, it is necessary to secure all the contractual material that covers the item. Such material would normally include the contract or purchase order, drawings, specifications, and any other governing documents. Also, the quality engineer should attempt to get all the information he can about the function the item is to serve.
The next step is to classify the characteristics into categories of seriousness of defects or to assign them to demerit groups. These are as follows
Critical. A critical defect is one that judgment and experience indicate could result in hazardous or unsafe conditions for individuals using or maintaining the product; or, for major end item units of product, such as ships, aircraft, or tanks, a defect that would prevent performance of their tactical function.
Major. A major defect is a defect, other than critical, that could result in failure, or materially reduced the usability of the unit of the product for intended purpose.
Minor. A minor A defect is one that does not materially reduce the usability of the unit of product for its intended purpose, or is a departure from established standards having no significant bearing on the effective use or operation of the unit.
3. Specification of inspection method
The next step is to specify the inspection method and any pertinent remarks for each characteristic to be measured. For an item such as this, fixed gages and visual inspection are the most logical and economical means.
When the quality standards have been specified and used in conjunction with standard sampling tables, this provides the instruction sheet for acceptance inspection of the item. Verbal descriptions rather than drawing dimensions and tolerances and used on the classification of defects. If the latter were used, engineering drawing changes would require changes in the classifications of defects. With verbal descriptions, such changes are minimized. Drawing dimensions may be indicated, but they should be advisory only. Also, each characteristic has a code number.
One method of codification is to reserve the numbers 1-99 for Critical, 100-199 for Majors, and 200-299 for Minor A’s.
4. Setting standard quality levels
The next step is to set standard levels of quality for either each characteristic or each class of characteristics. For this purpose, a standard level of quality for each class is determined. In the demerit system the defects are classified into weighted demerits groups.
There are various types of acceptance quality standards. Those generally used are:
• AQL. The acceptable quality level, which is a nominal value expressed in terms of percent defective or defects per 100 units, whichever is applicable, specified for a given group of defects of a product. The AOL is usually in the range 85-99% of lots expected to be accepted.
• AOQL. The average outgoing quality level, which is the quality level resulting from the acceptance – rectification features of an acceptance sampling plan.
The AQL is demerit standard for incoming quality; the AOQL is a standard for outgoing quality.
Several bases are use for arriving at a quality standard. The most common bases used are:
1. Historical Data. Past data are analysed to arrive at a historical estimate of the process quality average.
2. Empirical Judgment. Standard is set at a level approximating a proven satisfactory level for a similar item..
3. Experimental. Tentative standard is set and adjusted as indicated by quality performance.
4. Consistence. Each category has a set standard which does not change.
Empirical judgement is one of the preferred methods for setting a quality standard as there are few substitutes for genuine satisfactory experiences.
The experimental standard is usually used for items where the desire is to accumulate historical evidence so that an equitable standard may be set.
Once the acceptance quality standard is set, the process quality standard can be determined.
Organization-Wide Approaches to Quality Assurance
1. Six Sigma
Six Sigma is an example of a statistically based QA system that focuses on defect prevention. Six Sigma is a methodology that provides businesses with the tools to improve the capability of their business processes. This increase in performance and decrease in process variation leads to defect reduction and vast improvement in profits, employee morale and quality of product.
Six Sigma emphasizes organization-wide training in statistical thinking and targets key people for advanced training in project management and statistics.
The History of Six Sigma
The roots of Six Sigma as a measurement standard can be traced back to Carl Frederick Gauss (1777-1855) who introduced the concept of the normal curve. Six Sigma as a measurement standard in product variation can be traced back to the 1920's when Walter Shewhart showed that three sigma from the mean is the point where a process requires correction. However the credit for coining the term "Six Sigma" goes to a Motorola engineer named Bill Smith.
In the early and mid-1980s, Motorola engineers decided that the traditional quality levels -- measuring defects in thousands of opportunities -- didn't provide enough clarity. Instead, they wanted to measure the defects per million opportunities. Motorola developed this new standard and created the methodology and needed cultural change associated with it. Since then, hundreds of companies around the world have adopted Six Sigma as a way of doing business.
Commonly defined as 3.4 defects per million opportunities, Six Sigma can be defined and understood at three distinct levels: metric, methodology and philosophy.
1. Metric: 3.4 Defects Per Million Opportunities. DPMO makes it possible to take complexity of product/process into account. Rule of thumb is to consider at least three opportunities for a physical part/component - one for form, one for fit and one for function, in absence of better considerations.
2. Methodology: Six Sigma employs a DMAIC Quality Assurance process:
D- Define out of tolerance range,
M- Measure key internal processes critical to quality,
A- Analyze why defects occur and find opportunities for improvement,
I- Improve processes to lie within tolerance and
C- Control processes to remain true to goals.
3. Philosophy: It aims at reducing variation in business and taking customer-focused, data driven decisions.
The Six Sigma Organisation
The deployment of people to implement Six Sigma is critical. The Six Sigma Team has five levels of hierarchy. The ground level is divided into teams and each tem has 6 to 8 members, led by Green Belts. Black Belts assist Green Belts and Master Black Belts come to the help of Black Belts. At the top are the Champions and Sponsors who provide the requisite support and leadership.
1. Champions: Senior management personnel- Vice Presidents, Presidents, Directors and Heads of different Business Units- act as champions whose responsibility is to lay down policies and guidelines regarding functioning of the Six Sigma teams and to improve the operational effectiveness of the organization. This function is typically separated from the manufacturing or transactional processing functions in order to maintain impartiality.
2. Master Black Belt (MBB) - Master Black Belts are typically assigned to a specific area or function of a business or organization. It may be a functional area such as human resources or legal, or process specific area such as billing or tube rolling. MBBs work with the owners of the process to ensure that quality objectives and targets are set, plans are determined, progress is tracked, and education is provided. In the best Six Sigma organizations, process owners and MBBs work very closely and share information daily.
3. Black Belts (BB) - Black Belts are the heart and soul of the Six Sigma quality initiative. Their main purpose is to lead quality projects and work full time until they are complete. They lead the teams in measuring, analyzing, improving and controlling the key processes. Black Belts also coach Green Belts on their projects, and while coaching may seem innocuous, it can require a significant amount of time and energy.
4. Green Belts (GB) - Green Belts are employees trained in Six Sigma who spend a portion of their time completing projects, but maintain their regular work role and responsibilities. Depending on their workload, they can spend anywhere from 10% to 50% of their time on their project.
Future of Six Sigma
Six-Sigma has maintained momentum for over ten years now. However, the key question remains as to how long will Six-Sigma retain its importance? The answer is that it will remain front-page news as long as it delivers front-page results. A second, and related question is: how might the initiative morph and evolve in order to remain relevant going forward? This suggests that several emerging trends will continue, such as migration to financial services and healthcare, standardisation of Design for Six-Sigma (DFSS), and further globalisation. Thus, in a long time perspective, the key challenge appears to be integration into normal operations, rather than managing Six-Sigma as a separate initiative. Eventually, Six-Sigma needs to become part of an organisation's overall quality or business improvement system.
2. ISO 9000 – Quality Assurance Standard
In 1987, respected industry representatives from around the globe assisted the International Standards Organisation (ISO) to develop the ISO 9000 quality assurance series of quality system standards. ISO 9000 standards address organizational needs in training, quality auditing and quality management areas. The emphasis of ISO 9000 is on meeting compliance with regulatory bodies and pursuing continual QA improvement. ISO 9000 is often thought of as a beginning step in establishing an effective QA process. ISO 9000 can be applied to any industry. Additionally, standards for specific needs such as aerospace and environmental organizations have been developed.
In 1994, organizations could be certified to one of three Quality Assurance standards: ISO 9001, ISO 9002, or ISO 9003.
The 2 most commonly used standards in the ISO 9000 quality series were ISO 9001 and ISO 9002:
ISO 9001 Sets out the requirements to be met by the Quality System when a business is involved in design, development, production, installation and/or servicing.
ISO 9002 Sets out the requirements of the Quality System when a business is involved in development, production, installation and/or servicing.
The only difference between the 2 quality standards was the "Design" element. As typical cleaning businesses are not normally involved in detailed design, ISO 9002 should be the appropriate standard to be used.
In December 2000, the International Standards Organisation released an upgraded version of the Quality Assurance Standard: ISO 9001:2000. This standard effectively replaced the previous 3 quality standards and made the choice of standard simpler for organisations wanting ISO 9001 quality assurance certification.
ISO 9000 is concerned with "quality management". This means what the organization does to enhance customer satisfaction by meeting customer and applicable regulatory requirements and continually to improve its performance in this regard.
These standards have been recognized and are in use in over 99 countries including the United Kingdom, the European Community, the USA, Asia and Australia and are now the most popular standards series in use. By the end of this year nearly 250 Indian companies would have registered for ISO 9000..
Quality Assurance Audit
After an organisation implements the ISO 9001 Quality Assurance system, and is confident that it complies with the quality standard, it needs to arrange for certification assessment i.e. it needs to implement a Quality Assurance Audit.
This is when another party audits the Quality manual and quality procedures to make sure that they comply with the ISO 9001 standard. It also involves an audit of various business operations to make sure that the business is following the quality procedures.
Quality Assurance Certification is important for the following reasons:
1. It provides the organisation confidence that its quality system is correctly implemented to the ISO 9001 standard.
2. It instills the same confidence in the customers.
3. The regular audits give staff the motivation to keep the Quality Assurance system up to date and not to cut corners.
For the certificate to have real value, people must have confidence that only businesses with processes that comply with the ISO 9001 quality standard can receive the certificate. Thus, the audit process needs to be very thorough. Typically the auditor comes to the orgnisation and spends sufficient time going through the quality procedures, watching the staff at work and checking records of previous jobs, training records, inspection records, internal audit records, etc.
There are two main types of certification:
• Second Party Certification - where a customer audits the organisation’s Quality Assurance System (eg. A government department or a large corporate client).
• Third Party Certification - where an independent certification organization audits the Quality System.
Once an organization achieves quality certification, regular internal audits are required to be conducted to ensure that the quality assurance system remains up to date and adhered to. Regular external audits are also provided by the auditing body to ensure that the quality assurance system continues to comply with the ISO 9001 quality assurance standard.
The future evolution of ISO Standards
In order for the ISO 9000 family to maintain its effectiveness, the standards are periodically reviewed to benefit from new developments in the quality management field and also from user feedback. ISO/TC 176 (ISO's Technical Committee no.176), which is made up of experts from businesses and other organizations around the world, monitors the use of the standards to determine how they can be improved to meet user needs and expectations when the next revisions are due in approximately five years' time.
ISO/TC 176 will continue to integrate quality assurance, quality management, sector specific initiatives and various quality awards within the ISO 9000 family. ISO's commitment to sustaining the ISO 9000 momentum through reviews, improvement and streamlining of the standards guarantees that ISO 9000 will continue to provide effective management solutions well into the future.
Quality Assurance certificate in India:
AGMARK: Grade set under the rules relating to various agricultural commodities are known as 'AGMARK' (AG for Agriculture and MARK for: Marketing). The Agricultural Produce (Grading & Marketing)' Act, 1937 prescribes grades, Quality standards for various agricultural commodities.
The grades standards are based on physical characteristics and internal qualities such as weight, size, shape, colour, moisture etc
Commodities sold under AGMARK for example. Ghee, edible oils, gur, butter, rice, eggs, fruits, tobacco, wool etc. are strictly as per grade specifications prescribed by the government. Consumers are assured of the quality and safety of these agricultural goods marked 'AGMARK'. Thus the chances of consumer's grievances are minimised in case of AGMARK' branded goods.
ISI MARK: The Indian Standards Institute, New Delhi has its ISI mark applied to standardised and graded products of industry. The mark indicates that
* ISI certified goods are subjected to strict quality control. checks and tests.
* They are produced as Indian standards
* They are the best safe guards against impure, bogus, and substandard commodities.
HACCP:
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point is a quality management system. The major objective of HACCP is to provide as close to 100% assurance that food products will not contain bacteriological, chemical and physical hazards by identifying possible problem areas (critical control points) and then minimizing risk through the efficient management of the possible problem areas.
The theory of HACCP consists of seven principles. They are:
Principle 1: Conduct a hazard analysis by identifying potential hazards.
Principle 2: Identify the Critical Control Points (CCP) in the process using a decision tree.
Principle 3: Establish critical limits, which must be met to ensure that each Critical Control Point is under control.
Principle 4: Establish a monitoring system to ensure control of each of the Critical Control Points by scheduled testing or observations.
Principle 5: Establish the corrective action to be taken when monitoring indicates that a particular Critical Control Point is moving beyond control.
Principle 6: Establish documentation concerning all procedures and records appropriate to these principles and their application.
Principle 7: Verify that HACCP is working effectively.
3. Total Quality Management (TQM)
Total Quality Management is an approach to the art of management that originated in Japanese industry in the 1950's and has become steadily more popular in the West since the early 1980's. Many of the TQM concepts originated with the work of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the American statistician, who guided the Japanese industry's recovery after World War II and who formed many of his ideas during World War II when he taught American industries how to use statistical methods to improve the quality of military products.
TQM emphasizes a total organizational approach to improving products, processes, work ethics and culture. TQM uses both statistical analysis and Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) principles. PDCA is basically a continual cycle of planning the operations by identifying the problems and coming up with ideas to solve them, implementing changes on a small scale to test them, checking the results of changes, and finally acting to implement changes on a large scale. TQM has lately evolved to include concepts of customer satisfaction in its approach to QA.
Why TQM?
TQM refers to an integrated approach by management to focus all functions and levels of an organization on quality and continuous improvement. Over the years TQM has become very important for improving a firm's process capabilities in order to achieve and sustain competitive advantages. TQM focuses on encouraging a continuous flow of incremental improvements from the bottom of the organization's hierarchy. TQM is not a complete solution formula as viewed by many - formulas can not solve managerial problems, but a lasting commitment to the process of continuous improvement.
Total Quality is a description of the culture, attitude and organization of a company that aims to provide, and continue to provide, its customers with products and services that satisfy their needs. The culture requires quality in all aspects of the company's operations, with things being done right first time, and defects and waste eradicated from operations.
In the late 1970's to mid-1980's U. S. companies were seeking ways to survive in an environment of back-to-back recessions; deregulation; a growing trade deficit; low productivity; downsizing; and an increase in consumer awareness and sophistication. Ford Motor Company had operating losses of 3.3 billion between 1980 and 1982. Xerox, which had pioneered the paper copier, saw its U.S. market share drop from 93% in 1971 to 40% in 1981. Attention to quality was seen as a way to combat the competition.
Benefits of TQM
TQM results in ultimate satisfaction of customers and even helps in the developing customer base and a brand image of the company. TQM can result in the following improvements-
Greater customer satisfaction
Lower cost of manufacturing
Lower inventory investment
Reduction in product development time
Shorter throughput time
Lesser cost of procurement
Lesser cost of inspection
New trends in the TQM process
TQM encourages participation amongst shop floor workers and managers. There is no single theoretical formalization of total quality, but Deming, Juran and Ishikawa provide the core assumptions, as a "...discipline and philosophy of management which institutionalizes planned and continuous improvement and assumes that quality is the outcome of all activities that take place within an organization; that all functions and all employees have to participate in the improvement process; that organizations need both quality systems and a quality culture.
Quality Assurance for Strawberries: A Case Study
The two most important factors for quality assurance of strawberries are temperature and rapid marketing. Fresh strawberries are one of the most popular items in the produce case; however, strawberries are also one of the most perishable of fresh commodities.
The berries are very fragile and susceptible to mechanical injury, their thin skin results in rapid loss of water in low humidity environments and strawberries have one of the highest respiration rates of all fresh commodities. For these reasons, establishment of a successful quality assurance program is essential to a profitable marketing program for strawberries.
The quality factors for strawberries
The factors which are important for strawberry quality include:
• Degree of ripeness, generally judged by percentage of pink or red color
• Gloss, an indication of freshness and absence of water loss
• Absence of defects such as decay, bruising, and shriveling
• Flavor, determined by sugars, acidity and flavor volatiles
• Berry size and uniformity
• Firmness, absence of soft, overripe or leaky berries
• Price and availability
Determining quality specifications
The first step in setting up a quality assurance program is to determine the company’s criteria for quality for the product. What do your customers want? Are they more concerned with price and availability than quality? Is ripeness and flavor important or is appearance most important? There may be different quality factors for different types of customers. Once the critical quality factors are determined, develop objective means to measure those quality factors. Keeping records of quality-related factors can allow evaluation of company performance and assist in management decisions regarding quality assurance.
Varieties and ripeness at harvest
Quality assurance for strawberries begins in the field with variety selection. Strawberry varieties vary greatly in berry firmness when ripe, sugar and acid content, disease susceptibility, and yield. Selection of the varieties to grow can have a tremendous impact on potential fruit quality. Fruit with better flavor may have lower yields or less disease resistance. Management must determine which varieties will be grown and at which stage of ripeness fruit will be harvested to best meet their goals for fruit quality. Strawberry fruit do not continue to ripen after harvest and will not increase in sugar content. Therefore, riper fruit will have higher sugar content and better flavor quality. Several commodity groups have found that a percentage of customers will pay more for riper fruit with higher sugar content (soluble solids content).
To supply consistent flavor quality to these customers, soluble solids content (SSC) should be monitored and cold storage rooms can allow for more efficient cooling. If the refrigeration system cannot keep cooler air temperatures near 0°C (32°F), additional refrigeration capability may be necessary, requiring a capital investment in quality. Cooler air temperature and pulp temperatures of the warmest berries upon removal from the cooler should be monitored regularly. Cold storage air temperatures should also be monitored and records maintained.
Management of shipping temperatures
Management must also determine the temperature at which fruit will be allowed to be shipped. It is highly recommended to cool berries to 0°C (32oF) before shipment, especially if pallet covers and modified atmosphere (MA) are to be used. Transport vehicles do not have the capability to cool product but only have the capability to maintain product temperature. This is a critical area where commitment to quality must be balanced with market demands and volume flow. Shipping strawberries across country at temperatures warmer than 0°C (32°F) will greatly reduce fruit quality and shelf-life.
Truck loading
Careful attention to the transport vehicle at product loading is essential. Trucks should be cooled to near 0°C (32°F) prior to product loading. The condition of the insulation, doors, refrigeration system and air delivery shoot should be checked on each load. Strawberries should be center loaded, to prevent warming or freezing of product during transit, and well secured. If the truck condition fails to meet the criteria established to maintain fruit quality during shipment, the buyer should be notified that the seller cannot guarantee the arrival condition of the fruit due to truck conditions.
Wholesale and Retail Quality Assurance
The Incoming product should be inspected immediately for pulp temperature. If berries are warmer than 4°C (39°F), fruit quality would be benefited by forced-air cooling. A small, portable forced-air cooler can be used in the cold room to recool strawberries which have warmed during transit. Alternatively, pallets or trays can be spread in the cold room to facilitate rapid cooling. Cooler temperature should be maintained at 0°C (32°F) with 90 to 95% relative humidity. The condition of the transport vehicle should also be checked, including incoming air temperature. If MA pallet bags are present, they should be checked for arrival condition and then removed to allow for product ensure a minimum SSC is reached. A minimum of 7% SSC is recommended for strawberry and 10% would be excellent. The level of ripeness should be monitored in harvested trays to check picker performance.
Cultural practices affect quality
Cultural practices and pre-harvest disease control can have a tremendous influence on post-harvest quality and storage life. Because post-harvest fungicides are not used on strawberries, pre-harvest disease control is very important. Low light intensity has been associated with lower levels of ascorbic acid, red color and SSC. High nitrogen fertilization has been associated with softer fruit, lower SSC and less flavor.
Avoiding berry injury and diseased fruit
Careful handling and sorting during harvest to prevent berry injury and avoid placing injured or diseased berries in the tray is needed. Training and supervision is critical. Harvesters should be given an incentive to harvest with care. Monitoring of harvested trays for the presence of defects provides critical information to crew supervisors to give them the tools necessary to improve overall harvested quality.
Rapid cooling and prompt marketing are critical
After harvest, the most critical factors to monitor for strawberry quality maintenance are pulp temperatures and time delays in the system. The faster the fruit are cooled and the closer the pulp temperature is maintained to 0°C (32°F), the higher the fruit quality and the longer the shelf life. Low temperatures slow fruit softening and slow growth of decay-causing pathogens. The time between harvest and cooling of the berries is critical for quality and shelf life. A record of harvest time and picker number should be kept with each tray harvested. The elapsed time from harvest to cooler should be recorded along with fruit pulp temperatures. A management decision must be made regarding the acceptable time from harvest to cooler. Less than a one hour delay is recommended to avoid losses in strawberry quality and post-harvest life. An investment in additional small trucks and drivers may be necessary to ensure more frequent trips to the cooler.
Cooling of berries
Upon arrival at the cooling facility, pallets should be transported immediately to the forced air cooler. Cooler temperature should be maintained at -1 to 0°C (30 to 32°F) and 90 to 95% relative humidity. Fruit should be cooled to 0 to 1°C (32 to 34°F) before movement to the cold storage room. Separate cooler re-cooling. After product has been transferred to the cooler, an inspection of berry condition should be conducted. Fruit should be evaluated for color, firmness, gloss, shrivel and decay. If decay is discovered, trays should be repacked as quickly as possible avoiding excessive warming of the fruit during this period. The temperature of outgoing product and the condition of delivery vehicles should also be carefully monitored, as described previously for shippers.
Discarding inferior product
One of the most important quality assurance decisions that management must make is to determine the minimum level of quality at which product will continue to be marketed. The difficult decision to discard inferior quality product, especially when additional product is unavailable and demand is high, requires a firm commitment to quality. The causes of product losses should be recorded as this information can be useful for management decisions to improve product quality. The length of time product is held in the cooler should also be recorded. At the retail level, strawberries should be displayed in refrigerated cases or returned to the cold storage room at night. If relative humidity in this room is lower than 85%, placing clean, plastic film over the strawberry trays may help to reduce water loss by creating a humid environment around the trays.
Conclusion
The importance of the quality aspect in business has maintained momentum for several years now. The market today is a global buyer's market. Organizations thus need to focus on two tools to improve, achieve and assure quality by using tools like the Pareto principle and the cost of poor quality (COPQ). The Pareto principle focuses on vital details such as customer needs, problems, variables, etc. The COPQ emphases on the waste reduction and quality improvement arena. Too many quality professionals are trying to be cost cutters and don't understand the importance of focusing on the costs of poor quality first.
It is an organization's quality management system that provides a common language for quality improvement and learning. It becomes obvious here that there are no gimmicks to having a quality management system that works. This is about effectively managing risks related to achieving product and service satisfaction focused on the customer. Objective assessment is the starting point, followed by defining the strategies and initiatives to achieve the goal. Implementation requires marshalling resources and organization knowledge to get the job done, minimizing complexity and redundancy, and staying on track.
However, the key question now is that how can the Quality Assurance initiative morph and evolve in order to remain relevant. This suggests that in a long time perspective, there has to be integration into normal operations, rather than managing Quality Assurance as a separate initiative. Eventually, Quality Assurance needs to become part of an organisation's overall business improvement system.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Juran’s Quality Control Handbook- J. M. Juran
• Quality Control & Application- Hansen, Ghare
• Production (Operations) Management- L. C. Jhamb
• Elements of production planning & Control- Samuel Eilon
• Production and operations management- S. N. Chary
COMMERCE AND MANAGEMENT.
A PROJECT ON
QUALITY MEASUREMENTS
BY
KKRISHNA.KAPOOR (01)
DEEPAK.KARANDE. (02)
LOVEKESH.PHUTANE (03)
FROM
S.Y.B.M.S
SUBMITTED TO
PROF. MITESH.GALA
IN THE YEAR
2006-2007.
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT
A Report on
Quality Assurance
DECLARATION
WE THE STUDENTS OF SMT. KAMALA MEHTA COLLEGE OF COMMERCE OF S.Y.B.M.S. (SEMESTER IV) HEREBY DECLARE THAT WE HAVE COMPLETED THIS PROJECT ON QUALITY MEASUREMENTS IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2006 – 2007. THE INFORMATION SUBMITTED IS TRUE AND ORIGINAL TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE.
DATE:
PLACE: (SIGNATURE OF THE STUDENTS)
CERTIFICATE
I Prof. MR. MITESH GALA HERE BY CERTIFY THAT STUDENTS OF SMT. KAMALA MEHTA COLLEGE OF COMMERCE AND MANAGEMENT OF S.Y.B.M.S. (SEMESTER IV) HAS COMPLETED THE PROJECT ON QUALITY MEASUREMENTS IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2006 – 2007. THE INFORMATION SUBMITTED IS TRUE, ORIGINAL AND AUTHENTIC TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE.
SIGNATURE OF PRINCIPLE SIGNATURE OF PROJECT GUIDE
(Prof. ADAND.NAIR) (MR. R.C.KAPOOR)
INDEX
Sr No. Topic Page No.
1. Executive Summary 3
2. Introduction to QA 6
3. Quality Assurance vs. Quality Improvement vs. Quality Control 8
4. Objectives of Quality Assurance 10
5. Tools of Quality Assurance 12
6. Quality Assurance Methods & Standards 18
7. Organization wide Approaches to QA 23
8. QA in Strawberries- A Case Study 34
9. Conclusion 39
10. Bibliography 40
Introduction to Quality & Quality Assurance
“Quality means the ability of a set of inherent characteristics of a product, system or process to fulfill requirements of customers and other interested parties”
(AS/NZS ISO 9000:2000).
Quality is not just the responsibility of one person or one department. Everyone involved indirectly in the production of a product or a service has a role to play. Thus, what is required is a system that will ensure that all procedures designed to produce a quality product or a service are effectively and being followed rigorously and religiously. This is precisely the role and process and purpose of quality assurance.
Thus Quality Assurance can be defined as: -
“All those planned and systematic actions necessary to provide confidence that a product or service will satisfy given need.”
Both management and customers are interested in quality assurance; since they can’t oversee operations for themselves. Quality assurance builds confidence both in customer and management that company’s operations are capable of producing quality or service and adequate control exits thereby avoiding constant intervention.
QA is used in almost every industry and business imaginable. QA is often also referred to as Quality Engineering. The goal of QA is to assure that products meet or exceed the demands of clients and consumers.
Quality Assurance may be viewed as Corporate Quality Control. Unlike quality control it does not measure the quality of products but measures the quality of business and thereby assure management and customers of the quality of product and quality. Assurance of quality can be gained through following management actions: -
Declaring the organization’s plans for achieving quality.
Formulating a plan, which identifies key steps to achieve assurance of quality.
Organizing resources to implement the plan of quality assurance.
Establishing the organizations proposed products and services possess characteristics, which will satisfy customer’s needs.
Evaluating organizations process and assessing where and what quality risks are.
Establishing whether organization’s quality plans make adequate provisions for the control, elimination and reduction of the identify risks.
Measuring the degree of implementation of the organization plans and its effectiveness to contain the identify risks.
Establishing whether products or services being supplied conform to the prescribed characteristics.
Thus Quality Assurance may be defined as all those planned systematic actions to provide confidence that a products or service will satisfy the given need.
Quality Assurance Vs Quality Improvement Vs Quality Control
Quality Assurance
Quality assurance is a process oriented to guaranteeing that the quality of a product or a service meets some predetermined standard. Quality assurance makes no assumptions about the quality of competing products or services. In practice, however, quality assurance standards would be expected to reflect norms for the relevant industry. The process of quality assurance therefore compares the quality of a product or service with a minimum standard set either by the producer or provider or by some external government or industry standards authority. By rights, this standard should bear some relationship to best practice, but this is not a necessary condition. The aim in quality assurance is to ensure that a product or service is fit for the market.
Quality Improvement
Quality improvement is concerned with raising the quality of a product or service. The type of comparison that is made when engaged in quality improvement is between the current standard of a product or service and the standard being aimed for. Quality improvement is concerned with comparing the quality of what is about to be produced with the quality of what has been produced in the past. Quality improvement is therefore primarily concerned with self rather than with others. Processes focused on quality improvement are also focused more on specific aspects of an organizational unit’s performance than on overall performance. It is usually the case that constraints dictate that efforts at improvement need to be targeted at areas of greatest need.
Quality Control
Quality Control is the technique by which products of uniform acceptable quality are manufactured. In engineering and manufacturing, quality control or quality engineering is a set of measures taken to ensure that defective products or services are not produced, and that the design meets performance requirements. Quality control includes all the execution procedures and actions undertaken in order to fulfil the demands for quality products or services tailored to suit the final users' needs. The aim is to reach a satisfactory, appropriate, economical and reliable quality. Quality control is a comparison between the control parameters from one assay run and the corresponding parameters from the reference assays.
Quality Assurance goes beyond Quality Control by examining the processes that shape the organisation. It is the process of enforcing Quality Control standards and working to improve the processes that are used to create the image of the organisation. With Quality Assurance the emphasis is on process. Quality Control focuses on what comes out of the manufacturing process, Quality Assurance focuses on what goes in to the manufacturing process as well as the process itself. However there is also a goal of improving output. When good Quality Assurance is implemented there should be an improvement in usability and performance and lessening rates of defects. Quality Assurance focuses on an organisation’s ability to meet a benchmark.
Objectives of Quality Assurance
The objective of the quality assurance function is to have a formal system that will continually survey the effectiveness of the quality philosophy of the company. Quality assurance includes all those planned or systematic actions necessary to provide confidence that a product or service will satisfy given needs.
• Accuracy
Accuracy is the measure of the agreement between an observed value and an accepted reference value or true value. The accuracy of an analytical procedure can be determined by analyzing a sample containing a known quantity of material, and is expressed as the percent (%) of the known quantity, which is recovered or measured. The accuracy of the analyzed relative to the detection limit of the analytical method is also a major factor in determining the accuracy of the measurement.
• Precision Precision is a measure of the agreement between two or more measurements. Precision is usually stated in terms of standard deviation, but other estimates such as the coefficient of variation (relative standard deviation), range (maximum value minus minimum value), relative range, and relative percent difference (RPD) are common.
• Completeness
Completeness is a measure of the amount of valid data obtained from the sampling program compared to the amount of data that were expected.
• Representativeness
Representativeness is the degree to which data accurately and precisely represent a characteristic of a population, parameter variations at a sampling point, a process condition, or an environmental condition.
• Comparability
The objective for data comparability is to generate data for each parameter that are comparable between sampling locations and comparable over time. Data comparability will be promoted by using standard approved methods, wherever possible.
Thus the organizations needs to focus on the above tools to improve, achieve and assure quality. These tools emphasize on vital details such as customer needs, problems, variables, waste reduction and quality improvement arena. Thus it is an organization's quality management tools that provides a common language for quality improvement and learning.
Quality Assurance Tools
Since Quality Assurance aims at providing evidence and establishing confidence about product quality, it needs to evaluate the product as well as collect data on product performance. Inspections and testing occupy the most important place in quality assurance. It must be carried out in accordance with the quality plan and documented procedure to provide evidence of conformance. Acceptance testing at site or at factory as per agreed standards of performance ensures that the product is performing as per specifications.
The main tools of Quality Assurance are explained in detail:
• Benchmarking
• Concurrent engineering
• Taguchi methods
• Deming’s P-D-S-A cycle
Benchmarking
Benchmarking is defined as, “A continuous, systematic process of evaluating and comparing the capability of one organization with others normally recognized as industry leaders, for insights for optimizing the organizations processes.”
The European Benchmarking Code of Conduct defines benchmarking as "Regularly comparing aspects of performance, functions or processes with best practitioners, identifying gaps in performance, seeking fresh approaches to bring about improvements in performance, following through with implementing improvements, and following up by monitoring progress and reviewing the benefits."
The four steps involved in benchmarking are
• Understanding in detail one’s own processes
• Analyzing the processes of others
• Comparing your own performance with that of others analyzed, and
• Implementing the steps needed to close the performance gap.
Types of Benchmarking
There are essentially three types of benchmarking: strategic, data-based, and process-based benchmarking. They differ depending on the type of information you are trying to gather. Strategic Benchmarking looks at the strategies companies use to compete. Benchmarking to improve improvements in business process performance generally focuses on uncovering how well other companies perform in comparison with you and others, and how they achieve this performance. This is the focus of Data-based and Process-based Benchmarking.
Benchmarking is a term that is now widely used within the quality arena. Benchmarking involves comparing a set of products or services against the best that can be found within the relevant industry sector.
Concurrent engineering
Concurrent engineering is a business strategy, which replaces the traditional product development process with one in which tasks are done in parallel, and there is an early consideration for every aspect of a product's development process. This strategy focuses on the optimization and distribution of a firm's resources in t he design and development process to ensure effective and efficient product development process.
Need for Concurrent Engineering
In today's business world, corporations must be able to react to the changing market needs rapidly, effectively, and responsively. They must be able to reduce their time to market and adapt to the changing environments. Decisions must be made quickly and they must be done right the first time out. Corporations can no longer waits time repeating tasks, thereby prolonging the time it takes to bring new products to market. Therefore, concurrent engineering has emerged as way of bringing rapid solutions to product design and development process.
Concurrent engineering is indisputably the wave of the future for new product development for all companies regardless of their size, sophistication, or product portfolio. In order to be competitive, corporations must alter their product and process development cycle to be able to complete diverse tasks concurrently. This new process will benefit the company, although it will require a large amount of refinement in its implementation. This is because, concurrent engineering is a process that must be reviewed and adjusted for continuous improvements of engineering and business operations.
The Concurrent Engineering Approach
Concurrent engineering is a business strategy, which replaces the traditional product development process with one in which tasks are done in parallel, and there is an early consideration for every aspect of a product's development process. This strategy focuses on the optimization and distribution of a firm's resources in the design and development process to ensure an effective and efficient product development process. It mandates major changes within the organizations and firms that use I t, due to the people and process integration requirements. Collaboration is a must for individuals, groups, departments, and separate organizations within the firm. Therefore, it cannot be applied at leisure. A firm must be dedicated to the long term implementation, appraisal, and continuous revision of a concurrent engineering process.
Strategic Plan of Concurrent Engineering
Concurrent engineering is recognized as a strategic weapon that businesses must use for effective and efficient product development. It is not a trivial task, but a complex strategic plan that demands full corporate commitment, therefore strong leadership and teamwork go hand and hand with successful concurrent engineering programs.
Taguchi methods
Robust Design method, also called the Taguchi Method was pioneered by Dr. Genichi Taguchi and it greatly improves engineering productivity. By consciously considering the noise factors (environmental variation during the product's usage, manufacturing variation, and component deterioration) and the cost of failure in the field the Robust Design method helps ensure customer satisfaction. Robust Design focuses on improving the fundamental function of the product or process, thus facilitating flexible designs and concurrent engineering. Indeed, it is the most powerful method available to reduce product cost, improve quality, and simultaneously reduce development interval.
The Robustness Strategy uses five primary tools:
1. P-Diagram is used to classify the variables associated with the product into noise, control, signal (input), and response (output) factors.
2. Ideal Function is used to mathematically specify the ideal form of the signal-response relationship as embodied by the design concept for making the higher-level system work perfectly.
3. Quadratic Loss Function (also known as Quality Loss Function) is used to quantify the loss incurred by the user due to deviation from target performance.
4. Signal-to-Noise Ratio is used for predicting the field quality through laboratory experiments.
5. Orthogonal Arrays are used for gathering dependable information about control factors (design parameters) with a small number of experiments.
Robust Design method is central to improving engineering productivity. Pioneered by Dr. Genichi Taguchi after the end of the Second World War, the method has evolved over the last five decades. Many companies around the world have saved hundreds of millions of dollars by using the method in diverse industries like automobiles, xerography, telecommunications, electronics, software, etc.
Deming's P-D-S-A cycle
The PDSA cycle is also known as the Deming Cycle, the Deming wheel or Spiral of continuous improvement. Its origin can be traced back to the eminent statistics expert Mr. Walter A. Shewart, in the 1920’s. He introduced the concept of Plan, Do and See. Deming modified the cycle of Shewart towards: PLAN, DO, STUDY and ACT.
The Deming Cycle is a model for continuous improvement of quality. It consists of a logical sequence of four repetitive steps for continuous improvement and learning: PLAN, DO, STUDY (CHECK) and ACT. The Deming Cycle is related to Kaizen thinking and Just-in-time manufacturing.
The model can be used for the ongoing improvement of the production processes and it contains the following four continuous steps: Plan, Do, Study and Act.
In the first step (PLAN), based on data, a problem is identified to effect improvement. The specific desired changes are clearly defined, after taking into account the current status. Numerical measures are set for the future target.
In the second step (DO), the plan is carried out, preferably on a small scale. The process owners on the team are identified. A hypothesis is formed of possible causes that are related to the current performance results. A quality tool such as a fish-bone diagram or an affinity diagram would be useful at this stage. The strategy to bring about the change is implemented.
In the third step (STUDY), the data is monitored and effects of the plan are observed. Trends, if any are identified. A gap analysis may be conducted. Comparisons or benchmark [best practice] data may be used. If there is a negative result, another cycle of PDSA may be undertaken.
In the last step (ACT), the results are studied to determine what was learned and what can be predicted. If positive data result, standardize the process/strategy. Standardize and keep the new process going. The cycle can be repeated starting with PLAN to define a new change.
Quality Assurance Methods & Standards
A quality assurance instruction sheet is an absolute necessity for adequate quality assurance. The development of the instruction sheet may be best described by outlining a step-by-step approach to it. The following procedure can then be applied to the items that require extensive planning for quality.
1. Product Quality Value Analysis
The first step is to make a cursory analysis of the quality investment justified for the item. This process is termed Product Quality Value Analysis (PQVA). It means that the item should be viewed in terms of the total quality cost savings to be realized by making the investment in planning for and measuring the quality of the item.
The greatest quality costs that can be saved are failure costs. Data on the components of failure quality cost are seldom gathered. Hence approximation is often a necessity. In cases where no data are available, the best alternative is to set a committee of people from all affected department together to make consensus estimates of the failure quality costs for each item.
The quality costs of each item are listed in descending order, with the highest cost at the top and the lowest on the bottom. Assuming that the investment in quality planning and measurement is the same for each item, the greatest return will come from a quality assurance investment in the items at the top of the list.
The figure below is an example of such a breakdown of data in tabular form. It is evident that this is the application of Pareto’s law to failure costs. Arbitrary division lines are drawn as shown and the items fall into either of groups I, II, or III. All other things being equal, the greatest return on investment will be realized by extensive quality assurance planning for, and quality measuring of the group I items. The failure costs per item of group I items make up 72% of the total costs, although only 25% of the items are in dispute. At the other extreme group III items, although they make up 45% of the product lines account for only 7% of the failure costs. Quality assurance investments in these items should be low. Group II is the intermediate group which comprises borderline items. Quality investments in these is dependent on the investments in group I that is they are second on the priority list.
Product Line Annual failure cost (*10000) Cumulative percent of cost
A
8.00 22.8
B 6.50 41.5
C 4.50 54.5
D 3.50 64.3
E 2.75 72.3
F
1.75
G 1.50
H 1.25
I 1.00
J 1.00
K 0.75 93
L
0.50
M 0.40
N 0.35
O 0.30
P 0.25
Q 0.25
R 0.25
S 0.15
T 0.05 100
Distribution of item Failure Costs by product line- Tabular Breakdown
This method of product quality value analysis lends itself to importance identification of product line manufacturing documents (purchase orders, drawings, and so on.) so that the other manufacturing functions may also give attention to the product lines on a proportional basis.
Once the key product line has been isolated, each of the lines may be broken down in to subassemblies and components which are, in effect, inspection points. The same type of analysis may be used within a product line as well as between product lines.
At this stage of planning the items for inspection should be viewed in terms of acceptance rather than control. After the acceptance quality requirements have been established, the type of quality control mechanisms needed to meet these requirements may be considered.
2. Classification of defects procedure
The next step in this development of classifications of defects or demerits lists for each of the items of inspections. To develop a classification of defects for an item, it is necessary to secure all the contractual material that covers the item. Such material would normally include the contract or purchase order, drawings, specifications, and any other governing documents. Also, the quality engineer should attempt to get all the information he can about the function the item is to serve.
The next step is to classify the characteristics into categories of seriousness of defects or to assign them to demerit groups. These are as follows
Critical. A critical defect is one that judgment and experience indicate could result in hazardous or unsafe conditions for individuals using or maintaining the product; or, for major end item units of product, such as ships, aircraft, or tanks, a defect that would prevent performance of their tactical function.
Major. A major defect is a defect, other than critical, that could result in failure, or materially reduced the usability of the unit of the product for intended purpose.
Minor. A minor A defect is one that does not materially reduce the usability of the unit of product for its intended purpose, or is a departure from established standards having no significant bearing on the effective use or operation of the unit.
3. Specification of inspection method
The next step is to specify the inspection method and any pertinent remarks for each characteristic to be measured. For an item such as this, fixed gages and visual inspection are the most logical and economical means.
When the quality standards have been specified and used in conjunction with standard sampling tables, this provides the instruction sheet for acceptance inspection of the item. Verbal descriptions rather than drawing dimensions and tolerances and used on the classification of defects. If the latter were used, engineering drawing changes would require changes in the classifications of defects. With verbal descriptions, such changes are minimized. Drawing dimensions may be indicated, but they should be advisory only. Also, each characteristic has a code number.
One method of codification is to reserve the numbers 1-99 for Critical, 100-199 for Majors, and 200-299 for Minor A’s.
4. Setting standard quality levels
The next step is to set standard levels of quality for either each characteristic or each class of characteristics. For this purpose, a standard level of quality for each class is determined. In the demerit system the defects are classified into weighted demerits groups.
There are various types of acceptance quality standards. Those generally used are:
• AQL. The acceptable quality level, which is a nominal value expressed in terms of percent defective or defects per 100 units, whichever is applicable, specified for a given group of defects of a product. The AOL is usually in the range 85-99% of lots expected to be accepted.
• AOQL. The average outgoing quality level, which is the quality level resulting from the acceptance – rectification features of an acceptance sampling plan.
The AQL is demerit standard for incoming quality; the AOQL is a standard for outgoing quality.
Several bases are use for arriving at a quality standard. The most common bases used are:
1. Historical Data. Past data are analysed to arrive at a historical estimate of the process quality average.
2. Empirical Judgment. Standard is set at a level approximating a proven satisfactory level for a similar item..
3. Experimental. Tentative standard is set and adjusted as indicated by quality performance.
4. Consistence. Each category has a set standard which does not change.
Empirical judgement is one of the preferred methods for setting a quality standard as there are few substitutes for genuine satisfactory experiences.
The experimental standard is usually used for items where the desire is to accumulate historical evidence so that an equitable standard may be set.
Once the acceptance quality standard is set, the process quality standard can be determined.
Organization-Wide Approaches to Quality Assurance
1. Six Sigma
Six Sigma is an example of a statistically based QA system that focuses on defect prevention. Six Sigma is a methodology that provides businesses with the tools to improve the capability of their business processes. This increase in performance and decrease in process variation leads to defect reduction and vast improvement in profits, employee morale and quality of product.
Six Sigma emphasizes organization-wide training in statistical thinking and targets key people for advanced training in project management and statistics.
The History of Six Sigma
The roots of Six Sigma as a measurement standard can be traced back to Carl Frederick Gauss (1777-1855) who introduced the concept of the normal curve. Six Sigma as a measurement standard in product variation can be traced back to the 1920's when Walter Shewhart showed that three sigma from the mean is the point where a process requires correction. However the credit for coining the term "Six Sigma" goes to a Motorola engineer named Bill Smith.
In the early and mid-1980s, Motorola engineers decided that the traditional quality levels -- measuring defects in thousands of opportunities -- didn't provide enough clarity. Instead, they wanted to measure the defects per million opportunities. Motorola developed this new standard and created the methodology and needed cultural change associated with it. Since then, hundreds of companies around the world have adopted Six Sigma as a way of doing business.
Commonly defined as 3.4 defects per million opportunities, Six Sigma can be defined and understood at three distinct levels: metric, methodology and philosophy.
1. Metric: 3.4 Defects Per Million Opportunities. DPMO makes it possible to take complexity of product/process into account. Rule of thumb is to consider at least three opportunities for a physical part/component - one for form, one for fit and one for function, in absence of better considerations.
2. Methodology: Six Sigma employs a DMAIC Quality Assurance process:
D- Define out of tolerance range,
M- Measure key internal processes critical to quality,
A- Analyze why defects occur and find opportunities for improvement,
I- Improve processes to lie within tolerance and
C- Control processes to remain true to goals.
3. Philosophy: It aims at reducing variation in business and taking customer-focused, data driven decisions.
The Six Sigma Organisation
The deployment of people to implement Six Sigma is critical. The Six Sigma Team has five levels of hierarchy. The ground level is divided into teams and each tem has 6 to 8 members, led by Green Belts. Black Belts assist Green Belts and Master Black Belts come to the help of Black Belts. At the top are the Champions and Sponsors who provide the requisite support and leadership.
1. Champions: Senior management personnel- Vice Presidents, Presidents, Directors and Heads of different Business Units- act as champions whose responsibility is to lay down policies and guidelines regarding functioning of the Six Sigma teams and to improve the operational effectiveness of the organization. This function is typically separated from the manufacturing or transactional processing functions in order to maintain impartiality.
2. Master Black Belt (MBB) - Master Black Belts are typically assigned to a specific area or function of a business or organization. It may be a functional area such as human resources or legal, or process specific area such as billing or tube rolling. MBBs work with the owners of the process to ensure that quality objectives and targets are set, plans are determined, progress is tracked, and education is provided. In the best Six Sigma organizations, process owners and MBBs work very closely and share information daily.
3. Black Belts (BB) - Black Belts are the heart and soul of the Six Sigma quality initiative. Their main purpose is to lead quality projects and work full time until they are complete. They lead the teams in measuring, analyzing, improving and controlling the key processes. Black Belts also coach Green Belts on their projects, and while coaching may seem innocuous, it can require a significant amount of time and energy.
4. Green Belts (GB) - Green Belts are employees trained in Six Sigma who spend a portion of their time completing projects, but maintain their regular work role and responsibilities. Depending on their workload, they can spend anywhere from 10% to 50% of their time on their project.
Future of Six Sigma
Six-Sigma has maintained momentum for over ten years now. However, the key question remains as to how long will Six-Sigma retain its importance? The answer is that it will remain front-page news as long as it delivers front-page results. A second, and related question is: how might the initiative morph and evolve in order to remain relevant going forward? This suggests that several emerging trends will continue, such as migration to financial services and healthcare, standardisation of Design for Six-Sigma (DFSS), and further globalisation. Thus, in a long time perspective, the key challenge appears to be integration into normal operations, rather than managing Six-Sigma as a separate initiative. Eventually, Six-Sigma needs to become part of an organisation's overall quality or business improvement system.
2. ISO 9000 – Quality Assurance Standard
In 1987, respected industry representatives from around the globe assisted the International Standards Organisation (ISO) to develop the ISO 9000 quality assurance series of quality system standards. ISO 9000 standards address organizational needs in training, quality auditing and quality management areas. The emphasis of ISO 9000 is on meeting compliance with regulatory bodies and pursuing continual QA improvement. ISO 9000 is often thought of as a beginning step in establishing an effective QA process. ISO 9000 can be applied to any industry. Additionally, standards for specific needs such as aerospace and environmental organizations have been developed.
In 1994, organizations could be certified to one of three Quality Assurance standards: ISO 9001, ISO 9002, or ISO 9003.
The 2 most commonly used standards in the ISO 9000 quality series were ISO 9001 and ISO 9002:
ISO 9001 Sets out the requirements to be met by the Quality System when a business is involved in design, development, production, installation and/or servicing.
ISO 9002 Sets out the requirements of the Quality System when a business is involved in development, production, installation and/or servicing.
The only difference between the 2 quality standards was the "Design" element. As typical cleaning businesses are not normally involved in detailed design, ISO 9002 should be the appropriate standard to be used.
In December 2000, the International Standards Organisation released an upgraded version of the Quality Assurance Standard: ISO 9001:2000. This standard effectively replaced the previous 3 quality standards and made the choice of standard simpler for organisations wanting ISO 9001 quality assurance certification.
ISO 9000 is concerned with "quality management". This means what the organization does to enhance customer satisfaction by meeting customer and applicable regulatory requirements and continually to improve its performance in this regard.
These standards have been recognized and are in use in over 99 countries including the United Kingdom, the European Community, the USA, Asia and Australia and are now the most popular standards series in use. By the end of this year nearly 250 Indian companies would have registered for ISO 9000..
Quality Assurance Audit
After an organisation implements the ISO 9001 Quality Assurance system, and is confident that it complies with the quality standard, it needs to arrange for certification assessment i.e. it needs to implement a Quality Assurance Audit.
This is when another party audits the Quality manual and quality procedures to make sure that they comply with the ISO 9001 standard. It also involves an audit of various business operations to make sure that the business is following the quality procedures.
Quality Assurance Certification is important for the following reasons:
1. It provides the organisation confidence that its quality system is correctly implemented to the ISO 9001 standard.
2. It instills the same confidence in the customers.
3. The regular audits give staff the motivation to keep the Quality Assurance system up to date and not to cut corners.
For the certificate to have real value, people must have confidence that only businesses with processes that comply with the ISO 9001 quality standard can receive the certificate. Thus, the audit process needs to be very thorough. Typically the auditor comes to the orgnisation and spends sufficient time going through the quality procedures, watching the staff at work and checking records of previous jobs, training records, inspection records, internal audit records, etc.
There are two main types of certification:
• Second Party Certification - where a customer audits the organisation’s Quality Assurance System (eg. A government department or a large corporate client).
• Third Party Certification - where an independent certification organization audits the Quality System.
Once an organization achieves quality certification, regular internal audits are required to be conducted to ensure that the quality assurance system remains up to date and adhered to. Regular external audits are also provided by the auditing body to ensure that the quality assurance system continues to comply with the ISO 9001 quality assurance standard.
The future evolution of ISO Standards
In order for the ISO 9000 family to maintain its effectiveness, the standards are periodically reviewed to benefit from new developments in the quality management field and also from user feedback. ISO/TC 176 (ISO's Technical Committee no.176), which is made up of experts from businesses and other organizations around the world, monitors the use of the standards to determine how they can be improved to meet user needs and expectations when the next revisions are due in approximately five years' time.
ISO/TC 176 will continue to integrate quality assurance, quality management, sector specific initiatives and various quality awards within the ISO 9000 family. ISO's commitment to sustaining the ISO 9000 momentum through reviews, improvement and streamlining of the standards guarantees that ISO 9000 will continue to provide effective management solutions well into the future.
Quality Assurance certificate in India:
AGMARK: Grade set under the rules relating to various agricultural commodities are known as 'AGMARK' (AG for Agriculture and MARK for: Marketing). The Agricultural Produce (Grading & Marketing)' Act, 1937 prescribes grades, Quality standards for various agricultural commodities.
The grades standards are based on physical characteristics and internal qualities such as weight, size, shape, colour, moisture etc
Commodities sold under AGMARK for example. Ghee, edible oils, gur, butter, rice, eggs, fruits, tobacco, wool etc. are strictly as per grade specifications prescribed by the government. Consumers are assured of the quality and safety of these agricultural goods marked 'AGMARK'. Thus the chances of consumer's grievances are minimised in case of AGMARK' branded goods.
ISI MARK: The Indian Standards Institute, New Delhi has its ISI mark applied to standardised and graded products of industry. The mark indicates that
* ISI certified goods are subjected to strict quality control. checks and tests.
* They are produced as Indian standards
* They are the best safe guards against impure, bogus, and substandard commodities.
HACCP:
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point is a quality management system. The major objective of HACCP is to provide as close to 100% assurance that food products will not contain bacteriological, chemical and physical hazards by identifying possible problem areas (critical control points) and then minimizing risk through the efficient management of the possible problem areas.
The theory of HACCP consists of seven principles. They are:
Principle 1: Conduct a hazard analysis by identifying potential hazards.
Principle 2: Identify the Critical Control Points (CCP) in the process using a decision tree.
Principle 3: Establish critical limits, which must be met to ensure that each Critical Control Point is under control.
Principle 4: Establish a monitoring system to ensure control of each of the Critical Control Points by scheduled testing or observations.
Principle 5: Establish the corrective action to be taken when monitoring indicates that a particular Critical Control Point is moving beyond control.
Principle 6: Establish documentation concerning all procedures and records appropriate to these principles and their application.
Principle 7: Verify that HACCP is working effectively.
3. Total Quality Management (TQM)
Total Quality Management is an approach to the art of management that originated in Japanese industry in the 1950's and has become steadily more popular in the West since the early 1980's. Many of the TQM concepts originated with the work of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the American statistician, who guided the Japanese industry's recovery after World War II and who formed many of his ideas during World War II when he taught American industries how to use statistical methods to improve the quality of military products.
TQM emphasizes a total organizational approach to improving products, processes, work ethics and culture. TQM uses both statistical analysis and Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) principles. PDCA is basically a continual cycle of planning the operations by identifying the problems and coming up with ideas to solve them, implementing changes on a small scale to test them, checking the results of changes, and finally acting to implement changes on a large scale. TQM has lately evolved to include concepts of customer satisfaction in its approach to QA.
Why TQM?
TQM refers to an integrated approach by management to focus all functions and levels of an organization on quality and continuous improvement. Over the years TQM has become very important for improving a firm's process capabilities in order to achieve and sustain competitive advantages. TQM focuses on encouraging a continuous flow of incremental improvements from the bottom of the organization's hierarchy. TQM is not a complete solution formula as viewed by many - formulas can not solve managerial problems, but a lasting commitment to the process of continuous improvement.
Total Quality is a description of the culture, attitude and organization of a company that aims to provide, and continue to provide, its customers with products and services that satisfy their needs. The culture requires quality in all aspects of the company's operations, with things being done right first time, and defects and waste eradicated from operations.
In the late 1970's to mid-1980's U. S. companies were seeking ways to survive in an environment of back-to-back recessions; deregulation; a growing trade deficit; low productivity; downsizing; and an increase in consumer awareness and sophistication. Ford Motor Company had operating losses of 3.3 billion between 1980 and 1982. Xerox, which had pioneered the paper copier, saw its U.S. market share drop from 93% in 1971 to 40% in 1981. Attention to quality was seen as a way to combat the competition.
Benefits of TQM
TQM results in ultimate satisfaction of customers and even helps in the developing customer base and a brand image of the company. TQM can result in the following improvements-
Greater customer satisfaction
Lower cost of manufacturing
Lower inventory investment
Reduction in product development time
Shorter throughput time
Lesser cost of procurement
Lesser cost of inspection
New trends in the TQM process
TQM encourages participation amongst shop floor workers and managers. There is no single theoretical formalization of total quality, but Deming, Juran and Ishikawa provide the core assumptions, as a "...discipline and philosophy of management which institutionalizes planned and continuous improvement and assumes that quality is the outcome of all activities that take place within an organization; that all functions and all employees have to participate in the improvement process; that organizations need both quality systems and a quality culture.
Quality Assurance for Strawberries: A Case Study
The two most important factors for quality assurance of strawberries are temperature and rapid marketing. Fresh strawberries are one of the most popular items in the produce case; however, strawberries are also one of the most perishable of fresh commodities.
The berries are very fragile and susceptible to mechanical injury, their thin skin results in rapid loss of water in low humidity environments and strawberries have one of the highest respiration rates of all fresh commodities. For these reasons, establishment of a successful quality assurance program is essential to a profitable marketing program for strawberries.
The quality factors for strawberries
The factors which are important for strawberry quality include:
• Degree of ripeness, generally judged by percentage of pink or red color
• Gloss, an indication of freshness and absence of water loss
• Absence of defects such as decay, bruising, and shriveling
• Flavor, determined by sugars, acidity and flavor volatiles
• Berry size and uniformity
• Firmness, absence of soft, overripe or leaky berries
• Price and availability
Determining quality specifications
The first step in setting up a quality assurance program is to determine the company’s criteria for quality for the product. What do your customers want? Are they more concerned with price and availability than quality? Is ripeness and flavor important or is appearance most important? There may be different quality factors for different types of customers. Once the critical quality factors are determined, develop objective means to measure those quality factors. Keeping records of quality-related factors can allow evaluation of company performance and assist in management decisions regarding quality assurance.
Varieties and ripeness at harvest
Quality assurance for strawberries begins in the field with variety selection. Strawberry varieties vary greatly in berry firmness when ripe, sugar and acid content, disease susceptibility, and yield. Selection of the varieties to grow can have a tremendous impact on potential fruit quality. Fruit with better flavor may have lower yields or less disease resistance. Management must determine which varieties will be grown and at which stage of ripeness fruit will be harvested to best meet their goals for fruit quality. Strawberry fruit do not continue to ripen after harvest and will not increase in sugar content. Therefore, riper fruit will have higher sugar content and better flavor quality. Several commodity groups have found that a percentage of customers will pay more for riper fruit with higher sugar content (soluble solids content).
To supply consistent flavor quality to these customers, soluble solids content (SSC) should be monitored and cold storage rooms can allow for more efficient cooling. If the refrigeration system cannot keep cooler air temperatures near 0°C (32°F), additional refrigeration capability may be necessary, requiring a capital investment in quality. Cooler air temperature and pulp temperatures of the warmest berries upon removal from the cooler should be monitored regularly. Cold storage air temperatures should also be monitored and records maintained.
Management of shipping temperatures
Management must also determine the temperature at which fruit will be allowed to be shipped. It is highly recommended to cool berries to 0°C (32oF) before shipment, especially if pallet covers and modified atmosphere (MA) are to be used. Transport vehicles do not have the capability to cool product but only have the capability to maintain product temperature. This is a critical area where commitment to quality must be balanced with market demands and volume flow. Shipping strawberries across country at temperatures warmer than 0°C (32°F) will greatly reduce fruit quality and shelf-life.
Truck loading
Careful attention to the transport vehicle at product loading is essential. Trucks should be cooled to near 0°C (32°F) prior to product loading. The condition of the insulation, doors, refrigeration system and air delivery shoot should be checked on each load. Strawberries should be center loaded, to prevent warming or freezing of product during transit, and well secured. If the truck condition fails to meet the criteria established to maintain fruit quality during shipment, the buyer should be notified that the seller cannot guarantee the arrival condition of the fruit due to truck conditions.
Wholesale and Retail Quality Assurance
The Incoming product should be inspected immediately for pulp temperature. If berries are warmer than 4°C (39°F), fruit quality would be benefited by forced-air cooling. A small, portable forced-air cooler can be used in the cold room to recool strawberries which have warmed during transit. Alternatively, pallets or trays can be spread in the cold room to facilitate rapid cooling. Cooler temperature should be maintained at 0°C (32°F) with 90 to 95% relative humidity. The condition of the transport vehicle should also be checked, including incoming air temperature. If MA pallet bags are present, they should be checked for arrival condition and then removed to allow for product ensure a minimum SSC is reached. A minimum of 7% SSC is recommended for strawberry and 10% would be excellent. The level of ripeness should be monitored in harvested trays to check picker performance.
Cultural practices affect quality
Cultural practices and pre-harvest disease control can have a tremendous influence on post-harvest quality and storage life. Because post-harvest fungicides are not used on strawberries, pre-harvest disease control is very important. Low light intensity has been associated with lower levels of ascorbic acid, red color and SSC. High nitrogen fertilization has been associated with softer fruit, lower SSC and less flavor.
Avoiding berry injury and diseased fruit
Careful handling and sorting during harvest to prevent berry injury and avoid placing injured or diseased berries in the tray is needed. Training and supervision is critical. Harvesters should be given an incentive to harvest with care. Monitoring of harvested trays for the presence of defects provides critical information to crew supervisors to give them the tools necessary to improve overall harvested quality.
Rapid cooling and prompt marketing are critical
After harvest, the most critical factors to monitor for strawberry quality maintenance are pulp temperatures and time delays in the system. The faster the fruit are cooled and the closer the pulp temperature is maintained to 0°C (32°F), the higher the fruit quality and the longer the shelf life. Low temperatures slow fruit softening and slow growth of decay-causing pathogens. The time between harvest and cooling of the berries is critical for quality and shelf life. A record of harvest time and picker number should be kept with each tray harvested. The elapsed time from harvest to cooler should be recorded along with fruit pulp temperatures. A management decision must be made regarding the acceptable time from harvest to cooler. Less than a one hour delay is recommended to avoid losses in strawberry quality and post-harvest life. An investment in additional small trucks and drivers may be necessary to ensure more frequent trips to the cooler.
Cooling of berries
Upon arrival at the cooling facility, pallets should be transported immediately to the forced air cooler. Cooler temperature should be maintained at -1 to 0°C (30 to 32°F) and 90 to 95% relative humidity. Fruit should be cooled to 0 to 1°C (32 to 34°F) before movement to the cold storage room. Separate cooler re-cooling. After product has been transferred to the cooler, an inspection of berry condition should be conducted. Fruit should be evaluated for color, firmness, gloss, shrivel and decay. If decay is discovered, trays should be repacked as quickly as possible avoiding excessive warming of the fruit during this period. The temperature of outgoing product and the condition of delivery vehicles should also be carefully monitored, as described previously for shippers.
Discarding inferior product
One of the most important quality assurance decisions that management must make is to determine the minimum level of quality at which product will continue to be marketed. The difficult decision to discard inferior quality product, especially when additional product is unavailable and demand is high, requires a firm commitment to quality. The causes of product losses should be recorded as this information can be useful for management decisions to improve product quality. The length of time product is held in the cooler should also be recorded. At the retail level, strawberries should be displayed in refrigerated cases or returned to the cold storage room at night. If relative humidity in this room is lower than 85%, placing clean, plastic film over the strawberry trays may help to reduce water loss by creating a humid environment around the trays.
Conclusion
The importance of the quality aspect in business has maintained momentum for several years now. The market today is a global buyer's market. Organizations thus need to focus on two tools to improve, achieve and assure quality by using tools like the Pareto principle and the cost of poor quality (COPQ). The Pareto principle focuses on vital details such as customer needs, problems, variables, etc. The COPQ emphases on the waste reduction and quality improvement arena. Too many quality professionals are trying to be cost cutters and don't understand the importance of focusing on the costs of poor quality first.
It is an organization's quality management system that provides a common language for quality improvement and learning. It becomes obvious here that there are no gimmicks to having a quality management system that works. This is about effectively managing risks related to achieving product and service satisfaction focused on the customer. Objective assessment is the starting point, followed by defining the strategies and initiatives to achieve the goal. Implementation requires marshalling resources and organization knowledge to get the job done, minimizing complexity and redundancy, and staying on track.
However, the key question now is that how can the Quality Assurance initiative morph and evolve in order to remain relevant. This suggests that in a long time perspective, there has to be integration into normal operations, rather than managing Quality Assurance as a separate initiative. Eventually, Quality Assurance needs to become part of an organisation's overall business improvement system.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Juran’s Quality Control Handbook- J. M. Juran
• Quality Control & Application- Hansen, Ghare
• Production (Operations) Management- L. C. Jhamb
• Elements of production planning & Control- Samuel Eilon
• Production and operations management- S. N. Chary
