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Supplier Quality Management Course @ Udemy

 For those who seek or want to advance their #career in #supplier #quality #management, Would like to share this  course on seven essentials on supplier quality management  in Udemy .   I have put in more than 20 years of knowledge and experience into creating this course. I am an authority in this area where I have wrote books on this subject.

This course will help to prepare for interview which you will outshine your competitor supplier quality manager or engineer post.

You will have life access to this course where you can take your time to finish the course. This is an investment you must make to get ahead in your career as supplier quality management professional. 

Click on the image below or scan the QR code to find out more details

#career #interview #supplier #quality #management 






 

Which quality cost should be the primary focus of your company? Part 1



A few weeks ago I had run a poll in linkedin group 360 Proactive Quality Engineering  to find out which quality cost get the least attention from quality engineering practitioner.   (please refer to embedded link on quality cost to learn more on quality cost)  79% had  selected prevention cost follow by appraisal and internal cost  which reflects the actual situation in the industry.  

Most companies had failed to look into #prevention cost due to quality problem is seldom a pain point during the development stage as the biggest challenge to launch a new product would be time to market.  The development and marketing team would prefer less interaction with other groups to shorten the design cycle, and less work involves to plan in quality in this silo over the wall approach where I design it and you build it.  Sad to say this is still practice in some company till today.   Typically, the quality problem will only show up during mass production or worst during customer integration.  Every organization who are serious about their profitability should understand the cost of correcting a problem at the customer end is more than thousands times more than rectifying problem during design stage.  The table below an example of how quality cost grows in the different product life cycle.  Therefore, preventive cost should be the primary focus, especially product with the short product life as product development happens almost every quarter.  These types of companies should adopt advance quality planning approach to plan quality into every stage of product life.  All quality #engineers should show this table to your management if quality planning is not yet the primary focus of the company.  This is also the best proactive approach to adopt.  

 

Product Life

 Cost of correcting problem

Design phase

$ 35

Before buying the parts

$177

Before start of mass production

$368

During Mass production

$5900

After shipped to customers

$590000 (many parts could have shipped)

 

In my next article,  I shall share on which cost should be a primary focus where in situation that prevention cost cannot be the primary focus anymore.


Channel Evelyn7E premiere – appreciate the support to subscribe



New YouTube channel Evelyn7E premiere today on 7 Dec 2020 especially created for process, quality & management professional.   I will share 30 years of my engineering and management experience on hacking into key areas to achieve good results proactively  in  this channel.  There will be video on application quality and management tools and some insights on what to control in specific manufacturing process such as PCBA,  mechanical assembly to get stable product.  Scan the QR code or click on the video below to go to my channel and subscribe to my channel.  Appreciate the  sharing with all who can benefit from this channel.   


#quality
 #management #sharepost #engineering


Thank You





2020 World Quality Day - Creating Customer Value

 

World quality day which falls on the second Thursday of Nov was created by the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI) since 1990.  This special day was established to bring the awareness and recognition of the quality professionals contribution in delivering quality products to the world.   Quality professionals are committed not only in customer quality but also safety in most of the organizations.  Many companies around the world will celebrate this momentous occasion in Nov every year.  This year theme is creating value to the customer.

Customers are getting more sophisticated over time with upgraded needs & wants, and their voice can be heard over social media.  A delighter attribute today might be a must-have in the future according to Kano analysis model on product feature.  Every organization should involve quality engineering professional right from the start of product design to ensure quality is plan into the product through the rigour of using the correct quality tools such as kano analysis, quality function deployment and advance product quality plan.  A capable quality professional must ensure that the quality voice is heard throughout the organization and drive all functions put in effort in achieving quality at a minimal cost.  In my previous LinkedIn article, I have mentioned that quality problem is always hidden and it takes a lot of resources to rectify a problem at customer end.

The customer wants, and needs can evolve, however, one thing that never changes is the customer always require a product which works well to solve their pain point at the lowest cost possible.

Creating value to the customer also this is one of the foundations in lean.  This is translated into producing consistently good quality, a defect-free product with minimal quality cost and waste. 

May Quality professionals be inspired to create customer value by ensuring quality and safety design into the product and achieve a balance in the voice of the business, the voice of the process and voice of the customer. 

Note:  CQI and IRCA had prepare an excellent resources to celebrate world quality day @  https://www.quality.org/wqd20-toolkit




The hidden rainbow in 7 manufacturing process inputs - how to find it

Did you know that even if a product is well designed, there are numerous factors that can cause variations in each process input? It's like a Pandora's box of potential problems waiting to be unleashed! The table below provides a glimpse into some of these issues, but trust me, it's just the tip of the iceberg. There could be even more lurking beneath the surface.


Process input

Potential source of variation

Man

Emotion, absent from work, fatigue, no proper training process

Machine

Wear and tear, natural shift or drift of machine

Method

No written work instruction, unclear work instruction, complicated work instruction

Material

Material from multiple suppliers, not able to control supplier process input

Measure

Measure process not set up properly, operator not train to measurement, natural shift of measuring equipment

Environment

Product sensitive to changes in temperature and not proper control in place


Are you aware that one misstep during the setup of a manufacturing process can have disastrous consequences for the final product? Imagine all your hard work ending up as a rejected item at the customer's doorstep. That's a nightmare no one wants to experience! 

But fear not, because there's a solution. By taking a proactive approach and meticulously setting up and controlling each process input, you can minimize the risk of encountering quality issues in your end product. And that's not all – monitoring the process output effectively can provide early warnings, giving you the opportunity to address any potential problems before they escalate.

Exciting news awaits! I've prepared a comprehensive blueprint that focuses on process inputs. It's a treasure map, leading you to uncover the hidden rainbow that will guide you straight to your pot of gold – a flawless manufacturing process. And guess what? I want to share this valuable resource with all of you on this website.

Ready to unlock the secrets to manufacturing success? All you need to do is fill in your details in the form below to receive this extraordinary gift absolutely free. Get ready to embark on an exhilarating journey towards manufacturing excellence!






The hidden rainbow in 7 manufacturing process inputs


The manufacturing process is a series of work which transform materials in a repetitive large-scale environment to a finished product that customer is willing to pay for.   All man-made product we use every day from the simplest product such as a toothbrush to a sophisticated high technology product will go through many manufacturing processes in multiple factories.  Multiple manufacturing entities, together with transportation and logistic form a long supply chain. 

A process must consist of a series of actions that transform process input into the process output per figure below:- 


Figure 1. Process input vs process output


The process output can be, in turn, become a process input in the subsequent process. Typical manufacturing process inputs are materials, man, methods, machine, measure and environment known as 5Ms and 1E.  Product design is one more process input which will impact the process output. The process output can be, in turn, become a process input in the subsequent process.

Each process input must be set up and control properly to achieve the desired process output either as a finished good or a process input to a subsequent process. Remember garbage in garbage out.  An end consumer product could go through hundreds if not thousands of transformation process per figure below from one manufacturing entity to another per the figure above.   A product which had gone through 100  transformation processes with seven process input would have 700 opportunities for error which impact the product quality.   There could be a potential of scrap or rework cost, which of quality cost if the process input is not setup correctly.

Even a simple toothbrush will consist of multi-tier supplier’s product transformation.

Therefore setting up process input properly is critical to all production process.  The next question is, what does it take to set up the manufacturing process inputs correctly to get to the end of the rainbow🌈 .  More in the next article.


Book Release with two free gifts : -7 Essentials in Supplier Quality Management

Click on the photo below!!👇

I have decided to start my first book base on my subject matter of expertise in supplier quality management.  Two decades of my experience in systematically managing supplier quality to achieve consistently good quality products is shared in this book.

Company success relies heavily on the quality of material received from the supplier along the supply chain. Many organizations had been struggling with low-quality incoming part from suppliers and pay way above the actual material cost to manage those inferior quality parts.   Imagine an organization have a customer who is ready to buy the product; however, there is no material to transform the product into sales. Almost all supplier delivery problem is associated with the supplier having quality issues which had caused limited supply or inferior quality product. It is nearly impossible to turn defective materials into good quality products.  

Organizations are paying way above the actual material cost due to poor quality as additional cost are incurred in the following areas:-

  1.  Defective material inventory cost
  2.  Transportation of poor quality material
  3.  Storage space to store poor quality material
  4.  Hire more workers to screen inferior quality parts
  5.  Compensation cost to customer due to late delivery

This book focuses on a systematic approach in 7 essentials of area supplier quality to achieve defect-free product from supplier process. This single system would help to reduce variation in managing different suppliers which also leads to consistent results.  In turn, this will enable an organization to receive consistent good quality part to feed the manufacturing process can convert the product into sales and revenue. There are a total of 16 figures and five tables to summarize a large amount of information which enhance the reading experience of this book.   This book is written by a supplier quality practitioner like me for a supplier quality practitioner. 

Two exclusive gifts are included on

  • Guide on how to build a supplier audit checklist and
  • Excel format sample checklist.  The reader can directly use the excel checklist to create final quality audit checklist. 

Finally appreciate the support for this book from audiences in this website.  

The book is available through this link:.  You can also click on the photo above to get the link.

https://www.amazon.com/author/evelyntan


Is Quality free - Do not shed a tear until they see the coffin

In my previous article,  we already know the 3 main reasons why quality is not free which are all related to design.

In the past most of the manufacturing processes are very much dependant on human where most of the defect have direct cause are human error, therefore emphasis on “do it right the first time” was focused on the manufacturing process.

If a further root cause analysis is done,  the final cause is actually due to design per the example below. 

A simple example would be doing a 5 why analysis



From the figure above,  it seems that the manufacturing cause is the cause of the component damage when we deep dive the root cause is pointed to the design issue where the component is designed too near to the edge of the board and cause handling damage.

This will increase the cost of manufacturing due to extra control, rework, more inspection and risk of shipping defect to customer. 

We can move towards quality is free by understanding how to prevent or minimize the  4 types of quality cost

Category 

Description

Suggested Mitigation  Plan

Appraisal cost

Cost of performing test and inspection on a product to screen out potential defect include inspector.

·       Create testing which replicate customer environment

 

Internal failure cost

Cost of rework or scrapped product which does not comply to the spec

·       Product design that are error proof

 

External failure cost

Cost of poor quality at customer site which involve warranty cost, product recall, lost of customer trust

·       Plan in quality per prevention cost plan, then quality is really free

 

Prevention cost

Cost of preventing a defect through quality planning of design in quality and build in quality

·       Ensure quality function gets involved during the early design stage

·       Benchmark on predecessor product if any to correct the problem

·       Proper FMEA involve all downstream function such as production and customer quality

·       Study how product being used in customer environment and design the part for customer convenience

 


From the table above,  it is shown that by focusing on preventive cost through proper quality planning would have minimized the appraisal cost and even eliminate failure cost.  Bear in mind quality issues design stage will on 1/1000 of the failure cost at the customer site.

Unfortunately, many organizations choose not to put in effort in quality planning during the design stage and hope the problem will never surface during manufacturing or customer site.   The management mindset does not shed a tear until they see the coffin (不見棺材不落淚 ) had caused them to pay for enormous quality cost especially if failure happens at customer integration. 


Is quality Free - What are the reasons prevent quality from being free?

Many years ago Philip B, Crosby a famous quality guru  wrote a book title "Quality is Free" where he advocates for do it right the first time in the manufacturing process.

To understand the concept of  quality is free, we have to know what are the four categories cost of quality to understand the concept of quality is free per table below:-

Category 

Description

Appraisal cost

Cost of performing test and inspection on a product to screen out potential defect include inspector

Internal failure cost

Cost of rework or scrapped product which does not comply to the spec

External failure cost

Cost of poor quality at customer site which involve warranty cost, product recall, lost of customer trust

Prevention cost

Cost of preventing a defect through quality planning of design in quality and build in quality

 

Among all the four components of quality cost,  most organization pay the least attention to the prevention cost.   Zero defect product does not happen by chance as there are many errors which could happen to throughout the product life cycle from birth to grave.  A very prevalent example that very little attention is being given on quality planning during the design phase would be a software product where there are always patches to correct the program.  I am sure all computer user would experience this all the time.  

Often organizations only think that do it right the first time is only applicable during the manufacturing of the product to achieve quality is free.

They are ignorant that product design is the main culprit of the cost of poor quality until it is too late.  

Many organization will never achieve quality is free due to 3 main reasons:-

1.  No attention is given to quality during the early design stage

 
Throughout concept/design till validation phase,  design and marketing team only focus on what is special innovation which will delight customer and customer is willing to pay for it. The normal design approach would be over the wall with little or no collaboration at all with another cross-functional team.  This mean quality planning is neglected.  During the production phase only quality control of inspection/test to filter out the non-conforming product during production which results in the high appraisal, internal failure cost and expensive external failure cost.  It is a ripple effect when there is no investment being made in prevention cost will subsequently result in other 3 quality cost.
 
2.  Unable to surface potential quality problem

The quality issue is always hidden and will only visible under certain circumstances.  Most quality problems happen at customer integration  as

there was a limited user interface study being done on how a customer could use or integrate into the macro environment. 

Another concealed quality problem would be there are not enough sample which represents the population to test out whole range spec. 

DFMEA and PFMEA  which unable to cover all aspect of a potential problem.  A good FMEA requires team member who specializes in quality engineering. 

3.  Short time to market

This is the most classic reason where organization always push for a product launch at the shortest time without taking into account where adequate testing and planning.  

 

Interested to know what does it take to achieve “quality is free”. More in an upcoming article.   


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