ABSTRACT
Quality in the
present scenario is a customer determination, not an engineer’s determination
or a general management determination. It is based upon the customer’s actual
experience with the product or service measured against his or her requirement.
Quality just does not happen. It must be built into the product or service
being marketed. The present paper deals with the application of Quality
Function Deployment (QFD), a tool for listening to customer’s voice for Quality
improvement. As a case problem, an attempt is made to apply the technique to
major components of centrifugal pump.
INTRODUCTION
Many
a times efficiently generated products that are sound from technical point of
view fail to achieve acceptance by customers, in such cases defect likely
resides in the organization’s perception of its relationships with the market
and individual customers.
This implies
that at the time of developing a new product, the relationship among customer’s
requirements, design and manufacturing, assembly and inspection, the feed back
of quality information must be maintained.
Quality has
become the fundamental strategy for competitiveness today. With the evolution
of recent high standard global competitive environment which has experienced
rapid changes in economic environment, the field of quality engineering which
had been playing vital role since the ancient times, has witnessed the
evolution in recent times, in the form of new innovative procedures which are
collectively called as TQM. This new revolutionary approach which has started
to cause great excitement and furor in the industrial world is poised towards a
conversion process which takes the organization from traditional ‘Inspection based quality system ‘ to ‘Prevention based quality system’.
TQM
means not only the quality of product, but also the quality in each and every
stage of manufacturing activity. It highly stresses for highest quality at
lowest possible cost. TQM involves an organization’s wide effort to a
continuous pursuit for quality improvement, quality planning to meet full
customer satisfaction. It is a race
without a finish line.
TQM is the
application of quantitative methods and human resources to improve material
services supplied to an organization, all the process with in the organization,
and the degree to which the needs of the customers are met, now and in the
future. ‘Total’ in this context means the involvement of every one and
everything in the organization in a continuous improvement effort. ‘Quality’ is total customer
satisfaction. Total customer satisfaction is the focus of TQM.’Management’ is the leadership of an
organization. Management creates and maintains TQM environment.
Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is
excellent tool, for listening to the voice of the customer during initial
planning of the product. QFD is a methodology and collection of tools by which
customer needs can be back propagated into design and manufacturing.
FOCUS ON
CUSTOMERS:
Only customers can determine total customer satisfaction. In
order to know whether the customer is satisfied intense observation is
necessary. Only through observation, communication – especially listening and
measurement - the organization can determine total customer satisfaction.
Quality Function Deployment is excellent for listening to the voice of the
customer. Since customers are the main source of income, they are the focus of
all total quality management efforts. Without customers the organization ceases
to exist. Therefore, every organization and every one in the organization must
constantly strive to satisfy the current customers and to create new customers
for the future.
DEFINITION
OF QFD:
It
is “an overall concept that provides a means of translating customer
requirements into the appropriate technical requirements for each stage of
product development and production (i.e., marketing strategies, planning,
product design and engineering, prototype evaluation, production process
development, production, sales).
QFD
begins with two principles:
§
Conformance to customers’ valid
requirements.
§
Searching out those things attractive
to customer that can be used to differentiate the company’s product from the
competitor.
Key elements of QFD:
·
WHAT----------------------- the output
that we seek
·
HOW--------------------------that which
causes the WHAT to happen.
·
RELATIONSHIP-----------How much each
HOW relates to each WHAT
·
HOW MUCH ---------------The measure of
HOW.
Features of
QFD:
QFD is concerned with systematic collection of customers’ likes,
dislikes, views, opinions, etc. in either precise or vague forms. Converting
these into technical requirements must have to pass through the development of
the following:
1.
Planning matrix
2.
Deployment matrix
3.
Process plan and quality control charts
4.
Operating instructions.
The features
of the above documents are briefly discussed in the following section.
PLANNING
MATRIX:
It translates the voice of the
customer into counterpart control characteristics; i.e. it provides a way of
turning general customer requirements drawn from market evaluations;
comparisons with competition, and marketing plans into specified final product
control characteristics.
DEPLOYMENT
MATRIX:
It translates
the output of planning matrix i.e., the final product control characteristics
into critical component characteristics. Thus it moves one step farther back in
the design and assembly process.
PROCESS
PLAN AND QUALITY CONTROL CHARTS:
These two
documents identify critical product and process parameters, as well as control
or checkpoints for each of those parameters.
OPERATING
INSTRUCTIONS:
These are
based on the critical product and process parameters; these instructions identify
operations to be performed by plant personnel to assure that important
parameters are achieved.
Thus QFD
envisages the systematic translation of customers needs which are expressed in
non-technical terms into technical language at different levels and positions.
Major Steps in Product Improvement
Using QFD Approach:
1.
Market research- collection of
customers’ requirements.
a)
Identifying customer needs
b)
Identifying the potential market.
The
information regarding the product requirements in customer terms comes from a
variety of sources:
i) Market research data
ii) Dealers input
iii) Sales department wants
iv) Special customer opinion surveys.
1.
This is the most critical part of the
process and it is usually the most difficult, because it requires obtaining and
expressing what the customer truly wants and not what we think he/she expects.
2.
Finalizing the customer requirements.
3.
Prioritizing the product design
requirements.
4.
Establishing critical part/process
characteristics.
5.
Prediction of potential failures and improvements
action.
6.
Product evaluation at different stages.
CASE
PROBLEM:
As mentioned,
QFD is a systematic approach to incorporate the “voice of the customer” into
total product cycle involving
·
Product planning
·
Product Design
·
Manufacturing
·
Assembly
·
Service
This
facilitates the identification of system response needed to implement specific
actions necessary to prevent defects from being produced or processed any where
in the organization .In the present paper an attempt is made to apply the
concept of QFD to Centrifugal Pump to develop Planning matrix, Cross-functional
matrix, Deployment matrix, Process plan and quality control charts, Work
instructions.
In
developing the matrices a likert scale of 1 to 5 is used to establish the
relationship between customer expectations and product characteristics. The
numerical values assigned indicates the degree of relationship as
0---------------
no relationship
1
--------------- Weak relationship
3
-------------- Medium relationship
5
-------------- Strong relationship
The vertical
section of the planning matrix
contains customer expectations like probability, reliability etc., and
horizontal axis incorporates alternate design features closely related to the
customer needs such as shaft, motor, coupling etc. The varying degrees of
correlation between customer needs and a design feature is established by
developing a weighted scale of 1-5. The individual needs are ranked for
importance and the cumulative effect on each of the design features is
obtained.
Deployment matrix,
which identifies critical component characteristics affecting final product
characteristics, is developed. Process
plan and quality control charts incorporating control point, checkpoint and
monitoring method are developed for centrifugal pumps.
The cross-functional matrix shows the
relationships between individual components of the product and different
functions of manufacturing organization. Numerical values assigned indicate the
degree of relationship. The individual components of the product are ranked for
importance. From the cross functional matrix it is evident that besides design
and production, procurement, installation and operation and maintenance play a
significant role in meeting the ultimate customer satisfaction. The work
instructions are developed for design, production, procurement, inspection and
testing department.
WORK
INSTRUCTIONS:
1) DESIGN:
·
Get details about leakage from the
testing center.
·
If you are informed that leakage is not
more than 0.001lit/hr does not attempt any modifications.
·
If the pump over heats and seizes
eliminate rubbing of stationary and rotating parts.
2) PRODUCTION:
COMPONENT: IMPELLER
·
Set the job in the 4-jaw chuck of the
lathe machine and then check the setting with the help of surface gauge to
ensure proper setting.
·
Do the turning operation up to the
required dia and then check the dia with outside calipers.
·
Do the turning, facing operation and
check the width and dia with the help of ring gauge.
·
Perform the keyway operation.
3) PROCUREMENT:
·
Incorporate quality requirements in
purchase orders.
·
Maintain communication and coordination
between designers, production engineers to discuss problems and to overcome
them.
·
Adopt 100% inspection for bearings.
CONCLUSION:
TQM is a
journey without destination except for a wish to continuously improve .As
customer is the main source of income, he is considered the king of the market
and his voice should be given more priority in the development of the product.
QFD serves, as a best tool for incorporating customer needs in the design of
the product for quality improvement and long term survival of the organization.
REFERENCES:
1. A.V.Feigenbaum, ‘Total Quality
Control’, Tata Mc-Graw Hill, New Delhi
2. John Bank “Essence of TQM” Prentice
Hall, New Delhi
3. H - Lal “Total Quality Management-A
practical approach-Wiley Eastern Ltd., New
Delhi
4. Juran &Gryna-“Quality Planning &
Analysis”- Tata Mc-Graw Hill, New
Delhi
5. T. Amrine & Ritchey - Manufacturing
Organization & management-Prentice Hall, New Delhi
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