Article-Mr. BS Khosa
- 1. IMPROVING PRODUCTS QUALITY THROGH REDUCING THE OCCURANCE OF DEFECTS By: BS KHOSA Introduction This study was based on improving products quality through reducing occurrence of defects. The study seeks to introduce tools and techniques to improve the products quality through reducing product defects in an organisation which will be generated from collected data obtained from employees and managers of steel industry. The research which was done on this company started by defining and analysing the problem, identifying the advantages of eliminating the problem and investigating each department involved in the manufacturing process in order to gather more information which can be used when the study is being carried out. Customers are central to an organization’s prosperity. Without them an organisation along with other major corporate would not be able to satisfy their market requirements or generate revenue to globalise their brand. John (2010) A lot of theories support this by suggesting that methods and techniques should be readily available to an organisation to utilise. The study suggests that organizations should not to only focus on exclusively creating production sales but also deal with customers issues of which if not attended may lead them to lose bunch of customers, hence many studies are now focusing on ensuring that customers’ needs are met. David (2002) Once production process is done and does not go as planned it leads to failure to meet the standard of quality and if such problem is not given much attention it shows failure during the use of products and leads to accident or some sort of damages, In wide-ranging, producers of these products Orientation: The local South African Steel Industries are faced with improving the occurrence of products defects. As a result, steel industries seek strategies on how they can deal with such issues. This study was conducted at a South African steel industry. Research purpose: To investigate factors that influenced the occurrence of products defects and at the same time recommended ways to enhance preventive methods that was already put in place. Motivation for the study: To comprehend the factors that can contribute drop of customers within the steel industry and to outline the improvement of the strategies that an organisation can implement in order to manage this problem. Research design, approach and method: Mixed approach that emerge both qualitative and quantitative data, surveys and interviews was employed. The surveys included five open-ended questions structured in a simple as a way of reducing the likelihood of obtaining error responses. Surveys were handed out to steel industries employees and managers. Main findings: The findings stated that the steel industry implements methods and techniques the way it has to be implemented as result this has led to decline in customer interests. Practical/managerial implications: Collected data proposed that although steel industry would like to manage the occurrence of defects that will be impossible unless they know the application of the relevant methods to deal with such issue. Contribution/ value –add: The study investigates a specific steel industry where strategies of managing products defects are implemented in an ineffective manner. This study can underwrite to the expansion of dealing with occurrence of products through relevant methods and techniques.
- 2. are held accountable when injuries are caused during production process. Product defect issues differ due to variety of reasons which include the nature of the defects, time and place where it was manufactured and the people who were involved during production time. Industrialized defect titled various issues which defend challenges encountered during manufacturing process. An overview of relevant literature Products defects are the injuries on the products which affect the quality of the product and are caused during the operation of the products which leads to the product to fail its purpose. In general, employees during manufacturing have liability for the defects caused on the products during the operation process. Defects it is unwanted injury on the products which is caused during or after the operation of the products, of which if the company does not take further actions in dealing with such problem it may ruin the image of the company. That will happen when customer loose or are not satisfied with the products being manufactured, they will tell other valuable customers about the problem that they have encountered at the company which will however leads the company too loose its customers through such problem. Therefore this research study present the framework for methods and practices in the company which include journals from quality management Systems which mainly covers the issue of improving products quality with an intension to achieve level of remarkable adjacent on zero defects manufacturing output through reducing occurrence of defects which affect the interest of customers into buying their products from the steel industry. Factors influencing quality products Quality management Systems Sherring, 2005) investigated that quality management system (QMS) are the systems or tools aimed at consistently meeting customer requirements or enhancing their satisfaction or to reduce defects in company’s product, aimed at “doing it right the first time” . He also defines the organizational arrangement, policies, procedures, processes and resources which are needed to implement quality management or improve quality systems in an organization. His report is giving further explanation on reducing products defects of which is serious case in a lot of an organisation where some organisation turn to loose large number of customers if such problem is not handled accordingly BUT There is limited conclusive evidence and direct cause of poor quality which lead to customer dissatisfaction. Quality Management System influence particularly process element of which an organizational QMS, put a lot of emphasis on the a results achieved through applied standards “ISO9001:2000” where standard organization compliance or certification are defined as the processes which form part of QMS and the sequence, interaction of these processes Furthermore experiments were carried out and concluded that electrode size was the cause of
- 3. products defects. The root cause analysis method solves problems by attempting to identify and correct the root cause of the events, instead of just addressing their symptoms. Recurrence can be prevented by focussing correction on root cause. The objective of this investigation was to evolve and test several strategies to eliminate defects thus improving the products quality. Gopal Krishna, (2010) investigated on ways to eliminate products defect occurrence in most of the manufacturing companies particularly non conformity materials. The Author put a lot of emphasis on the ways to minimize such issues of product defects. He also investigated the solution on how to tackle such problem as it seems to be major problem in number of companies especially in manufacturing industry. This method is a statistical method which is fully aimed at developing and improving the quality of manufactured products. Theories developed by management pioneers Frederick W. Taylor (1915) & Henry Gantt (1919) have outlined how the absence or presents of certain factors can largely impact on job satisfaction. Anton (2006) investigated that management of products defects ensures that an organization, is consistent and is divided into components or subgroups: quality planning, quality assurance, quality control and quality improvement. Hoyle (2005) explained quality policy as written document that develop by management (Quality Manager or any other personnel in the Management) and quality experts to define or highlight the quality objectives or principle of the organization, the acceptable level of quality and the duties of specific departments to ensure quality. Non- conformance can ruin the organisations reputation, shatter financial performance and Destroy careers, families and lives this is according to Alexander, Timm (2013). Poka yoke (Error Proofing) Shigeo Shingo (2012) introduced poka-yoka which was used to prevent error or defects from happening that can be performed by manufacturing process, equipment, and tools so that an operation literally cannot be performed incorrectly, He developed the method with the aim to manage products defects especially in manufacturing industry. It is techniques which were developed out of the Toyota Production system through Automation. It is a device which any company can afford to buy which prevents defects from being simple made and the advantage about it is that it can simple spot a defects so that it is not pass to the next operation. Summary It’s time for management to work hand in hand in improving products quality through reduction of occurrence of defects. Managing such issue through implementation of tools and techniques should be as natural to a business as breathing is to a human being. Many organisations are money oriented but fail to maintain what keeps their business going. Managers do not listen to the opinion and inputs of their employees in managing the problem that company is going through. There is no flow of information in the organization. The secret to success is easy. Appreciate what you have and invest in it. That will open a lot of doors for an organisation to reach where it want to be in the near future. Research Design The research design applied in this study is qualitative method or research which provides information that was not numerical, or did not provide measurements of elements of study.
- 4. Nolan (1997) stated that the choice of an appropriate methodology is based on the nature of the research problem. This study adopted both the qualitative and quantitative approaches also known as mixed approach. Data was collected then analysed based on literature reviewed. Given the nature of the problem and research objectives, the mixed approach seemed to be the most appropriate to weigh or rate the influence of factors of customer retention. The author believes that research design is the “blue print” of a study. Research setting The research was conducted at steel industry of South Africa. An organisation depends on employees for daily operations. Sampling The study made use of non-probability sampling design where convenience sampling was conducted. Creswell (2003) argues that Sampling is the act, process, or technique of selecting a suitable sample, or a representative part of a population for the purpose of determining parameters or characteristics of the whole population. The purpose of sampling is to draw conclusions about populations from samples, we must use inferential statistics which enables us to determine a population`s characteristics by directly observing only a portion (or sample) of the population. We obtain a sample rather than a complete enumeration (a census) of the population for many reasons. Obviously, it is cheaper to observe a part rather than the whole, but we should prepare ourselves to cope with the dangers of using samples. This technique is normally used when the researcher wants to compare things especially in a case of selecting purpose of large group of elements. John McColl (2014) argued that is method which is used to choose number of samples from bigger collection of samples. Data Collections methods Samson & Mike (2009), explained data collection as method which can be applied to collect data from the respondent who is willing to participate. Questionnaires can be asked to collect data from the respondent, surveys can still be distributed and interviews can be conducted. In the process the researcher used survey and interview as tool used to collect data from respondent because it does not consume a lot of time and it allows researcher to receive high rate of answers Data analysis The data obtained the researcher make use of descriptive statistics was used. The data was distributed into frequency tables then plotted into graphs.
- 5. Findings and discussion Defective Products Survey research was conducted to evaluate the impact of product defects where 100 employees from steel industry were randomly selected to participate in the survey distributed. 48% indicated that they are uncertain about the causes of the defects and 35% agreed that they know the causes of products defects at an organization whereas 17% of the employees did not respond at all. See Figure 4.1 below . Figure 4.1 Defective Products (Data collected August 2016) Issues leading to defective products After carefully analyses the researcher discovered influences of product defects that are standing in way of progress of which if they are carefully dealt with the organisation will no longer experience this issue in near future. Issues leading to product defects are presented in table below. After carefully analyses the researcher discovered influences of product defects that are standing in way of progress of which if they are carefully dealt with the organisation will no longer experience this issue in near future. Issues leading to product defects are presented in table below. Figure 4.2 Issues leading to defective products (Data collected August 2016) 35% 17% 48% Yes Explained Responses No 0 20 40 60 80 Agree Disagree Strongly Agree Strongly Disagree
- 6. Factors affecting product quality Lack of Communication After analyses have been done the researcher discovered that in terms of lack of communication as one factor which contribute in producing defective product (70%) of the employees agreed that lack of communications between management and employees is the reason why an organization produce defective products. (35%) of employees disagreed that lack of communication will not lead to that. The researcher collected the views of the participant obtained through the one on one interview session conducted. Where the respond of the participant was as followed. “I have worked in number of organization before but I have never been in situation where my opinions are ignored, I felt disappointed now” With this information it shows that an organization still lacks knowledge of that they need hand in gloves with teams to achieve the objective of an organization. No Inspection Researcher went to the organization and asked if supervisors does inspection regularly (55%) of the employees disagreed, (25%) agreed, (13.5%) strongly agreed and (17.5%) strongly disagreed. After carefully analyzed the researcher discovered that 42.5% agreed that lack of inspection lead to occurrence of products defects whereas (57.5%) stand against what has been said by other participant. Another participant said: “Since we have no one to monitor our us and we are not sure if we are doing the right thing and that influences a lot of mistakes” No Proper Training After the researcher visited the organization, the researcher distributed the survey and received the following response with regard to issue of training, if it also contribute to product defects (45%) agreed, (25%) disagreed, (10%) strongly agreed, (0%) strongly disagreed. In total 55% of the employees whereas the remaining (45%) still disagree. After the interviews was conducted this is what the one of the respondent said: Response Received from the participant: “There is no way you will be competent at work if you are not given proper training to operate machines, No wonder why an organization is experiencing the issue of product defects” No maintenance of Machine After being asked if maintenance of machine was done, their response was: (15%) strongly agreed, (35%) agreed. (10%) strongly disagreed (8.5%) disagreed. Their feedback with regard to maintenance shows that inspection should be done regularly to ensure that employees do not do the same mistakes.
- 7. Factors affecting the choice of customers Figure 1: Product defects approaches Customer relationship The researcher asked the respondents if the management have good relationship with their customer. Based on graph shown above it shows that (25%) disagreed, 18 (25%) agreed, (75%) strongly disagreed (15%) strongly agreed. In total the respondents who disagreed and strongly disagreed have an amount of 90%, with this information it shows that an organization is failing to build good relationship with its customers. Inspection Based on the literature review the only way an organization can get rid of defects is through inspection where preventative actions should be done, the respondents were asked if inspection are done at an organization responses were as follows. (80%) disagreed, (10%) agreed, (15%) strongly agreed and (15%) strongly disagreed. All respondents interviewed said they had never seen inspection done at an organization Meetings Arrangement (55%) disagreed, (20%) agreed, (20%) strongly agreed and (35%) strongly disagreed that the have been meetings arrange to discuss the of the. After analyzing data obtained from the interviews, there is total of 90% of those who disagreed and strongly disagreed was supported. All respondents who were interviewed indicated that no meetings have been conducted to discuss the future of an organization. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Customer relationship Inspection Meetings Arrangement Training programs Agree Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly disagree
- 8. Training Programs Respondents were asked if they have been offered training by an organizations and this was their response, (35%) disagreed, (40%) agreed, (15%) strongly agreed and 67 (10%) strongly disagreed. Conclusion The study was about conducting an investigation to find out about the issues which leads to product defects. Ensuring that customer needs are looked after is the way an organisation can succeed in reaching their goal. The intension of the study was to identify objective may lead to occurrence of product defects and as results leads to customer dissatisfaction. Based on data collected the study look at ways to implement strategies that maybe used to ensure that occurrence of product defects do not occur in future. Recommendations When the researcher conducted the study the problem seem minor at some point, BUT after carefully examining its impact, it shows a lot of negativity impact to the organisation. After the researcher studied the problem, the researcher then addressed the matter to management presenting the findings studied. The researcher then suggested that employees who are assigned to manufacture the products should spread over plaster into the hubs during the operation, hence lowering the rate of heat during manufacturing process. That was not the end of the road in finding a remedy that will help change the situation. The researcher then reviews his study to find a loop to solve the product defects crisis that is hindering an organisation throughout. Instead the researcher suggested that supervisor with plenty of experience should be hired to train and monitor employees who have no much experience in the manufacturing sector or steel industry in order to reduce occurrence of defects during production process. When the researcher visited the plant he discovered that there is misrun defect affecting the product quality which was caused by the unsatisfactory metal changeability, the researcher suggested that the only way to get rid of such defects is to reduce the metal carbon heat during the operation. The arrangement of the mounting going onto the counterpart dish should be repaired and given much attention where the proper moulding and closing jots should be used to remove the crack which also leads to cause the defects on the products. The researcher also emphasised that the only way an organisation can manage growth of sponginess is to make sure that the general technique for eliminating shrinkage fluid iron further down pressure remains toward the drift into the vacuums of rope. The researcher also discovered that there was no flow of information between management and employees, the researcher discovered this during data collection when some of the employees which participated into an interview were not aware of the quality policy and
- 9. objective of the organisation. The researcher argued that the flow of information is a very critical component for every organisation to be successful. Communication must be prioritized since it presents good deal of competence of an organisation doings. The Researcher also suggested that management should advice employees to use latest retorting radiant carbon manufacturers or carbon shippers through sophisticated volume of making radiant carbon. It was a good plan; because management loved it very much, and they promised that they will implement the researcher recommendations. *Below are photos of the researcher presenting the findings to the management* Due to time constraints, the study could not investigate the causes of customer dissatisfaction when it comes to factors affecting the image of an organisation. Avenues for further research work Further work on which strategies affect quality of products more can also be conducted. This will enable companies to focus on the best strategies. Acknowledgements The author would like to thank the supervisor for his meticulous and positive feedback. Competing interests The author declares that he has no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have unfortunately prejudiced him in writing this paper. Authors’ contributions BS Khosa was a B Tech: Quality student at the University of Johannesburg. As such, he conducted the fieldwork and wrote a project upon which this article is based.
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