SOME MANAGERIAL, TECHNOLOGICAL AND PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF QUALITY IN MANUFACTURING

Abstract

In this thesis, a study was done on three aspects of quality, namely, quality management; quality technology; and the practical aspect of quality. A complete study of quality should include all these three aspects of quality because they are essential in the implementation of a quality plan. For the quality management aspect, a study was conducted on the quality programs in Singapore's manufacturing companies. A literature review on the roots of modem quality programs started off the project. This was followed by a survey of the types of quality programs organized by quality promoters in Singapore industries and eight case studies of companies that adopted quality programs were conducted. Some analyses were then done and suggestions given to overcome some difficulties. As for the quality technology aspect, a new method for controlling and monitoring low non-conforming processes referred to as the "Pattern Recognition Approach", was introduced. This method is based on the patterns of the occurrence of the non-conformity samples in a certain number of latest samples. Its effectiveness in terms of average run lengths (ARLs) was studied. Analytical and empirical results on its ARL were presented. A practical example using this approach is also given. Finally, in a practical study of quality, the author was involved in a joint project between the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. NUS and a company in Singapore to define and prioritize the quality characteristics of the company's drum manufacturing process according to their statistical and technical criticalities. In depth studies on the higher priority characteristics can be conducted in the later stage of the project. The project focused on the initial Process Capability Study (PCS) which considered important details such as the method of-determining the quality characteristics, the measuring procedure, the sampling procedure, the planning of the sampling schedule, and manpower needs. The data analysis and the prioritization procedure were presented. However, in depth study on the stability of the processes were excluded in the initial PCS.