Longxi Machinery Works Quality Improvement (A)

Based from this Article, Longxi Machinery are having problem on their end product which is the multi-cylinder engine used in agricultural sector. One particular component of this product, called DGS (Duo-gear Shaft) was considered as the main cause of failure. There were 14 incidents of breakdown that were correlated to the failure of the DGS. Based from this article, the company was losing profit because they were force to cover the cost of sending a technical personel to replace the broken part (DGS) or in case of major breakdown replacing the engine itself. From this current situation of Longxi Machinery, I focused my reaction paper in their Quality System, particularly on the process of making the DGS. Based from our TQM discussions, we can say that a quality system is reactive when an inspection process occur after the product has been released from the production area, It is usually called defect detection system. This system was very expensive and not good for business. But when a product was released from the production area and directly shipped to the customers,then the system can be called proactive quality system. In a proactive quality system controls are incorporated in all the process of the production area. Each process undergoes analysis and controls are put in place to assure that each product are within the target specification. Going to the process of making DGS, There are 5 major process with many sub-process before we can make this component reliable. Since it was identified as the most likely to fail component, we will identify a process that we can improve and apply some controls. Based from Inspection department of the company, numerous quality problem had occured in the Thermal treatment Workshop (TTW) and engineers were unable to determine the cause of quality problems. The TTW plays a critical role in terms of the hardness and reliability of the material. Thus unmeasurable specification will require a little technology to standardized procedures of measurement and inspection. In process 4: sub-process # 3 (refer to process mapping chart) , Plunging DGS to water to dropped the temperature from 850cs to 200c-300c was critical because the monitoring requires visual capability and require extensive experience in the process, wrong judgement will lead to a softer or more brittle material. Thus to standardized this process and put control, we must have a standard time on how long a material should be submerged in water. Thus, 1st control here is time. The second control here must be on the temperature, at a certain period of time the material will have a certain temperature while it was submerged. To measure temperature relative to time, they must invest in an infrared thermometer to capture the temperature of DGS at any given time. Then to have a standard control for the process, the operator must determine how long it should take for the material to reach the target temperature that will provide a more reliable material. As Tom Marco quoted: You cant control what you cant measure. Thus, having unit of measurement for this process will allow us to control variability on the process. Another thing I notice was the inspection controls per process. Having too many visual inspection will allow your quality system to be fallible, this due to human factor related to inspection. Oneway to mitigate this risk is to motivate people to perform their job. Implementing controls is easy but sustaining it was the big challenge. People usually failed to capture rejects due to lack of motivation. Management should find ways to motivate their people. As for the case of Longxi Machinery, they motivate their poeple by having a good reward system incorporated to their quality performance. Angelo Santos Page 1