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Operation Case Study: SomPack

Bram Manuel – Dewi Annisa – Fransiskus Allan – Teddy Hartanto


PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Sompack is a turkish manufacturer of cosmetics packaging product. Sompack faced several problems in
operating their business, namely: different customer’s operating procedures, inefficient financial
decision (such as purchasing machines with high expectation but disappointing result), software
problems (lost inventory tracks), product pricing decision, delayed orders, and complex outsourcing
decision for materials. However, the root of those problems is the fact that Sompack doesnt emphasize
a consistent quality planning, control, & improvement.
ANALYSIS & RECOMMENDATION
In order to be able to supply the customer the exact
products they need, company must understand,
control, and improve its product quality. The
Quality Cycle is a framework identifying the
interaction between customer and company in
terms the process of quality planning, control, &
improvement (Schroeder & Goldstein, 2017). The
main problem we found from the SomPack case is
that most of the time the company failed to
understand and interpret their customer needs.
Thus, leading to false decision in determining the
engineering specification and lack of quality
control. To continuously adapt with everchanging
customer needs, Quality Cycle Framework could be Fig. 1. The Quality Cycle (Schroeder & Goldstein, 2018).
a guidance for the company to plan, control, and
improve their products quality. Using the data and facts from the case, we conduct the analysis on
recommended SomPack Quality Cycle.

Customer Quality Needs


The development of the industrial world at this time force companies to compete between industries to
get customers. To win the competition, creating the better quality products from competitors are the
main key, so that customers will satisfied and then make customer doing repeat orders of these products
so that customers will remain loyal. Quality control is an important thing that must be done by the
company to minimize defective products. The production process is said to be good if the process
produces products that met established standards. But in reality in the production process there are still
frequent various irregularities and obstacles that result in the product being deemed defective.

Interpreting Customer Needs

Despite of facing low-cost competition from Chinese manufacturers and the credit crisis, Sompack
Management give very low prices for all equipment so that many customers do not seem to care about
lower product quality or high defect rates. Apart from having to compete based on price, SomPack
management must also maintain the quality of their products and processes. In addition, as the
Operation Case Study: SomPack
Bram Manuel – Dewi Annisa – Fransiskus Allan – Teddy Hartanto
development of the ordering trend is no longer large volume but orders in small quantities, making
Sompack must remain efficient despite the small order volume.

Specification & Quality Characteristic

In simple terms, defects (defects) are components that are not in accordance with customer specifications.
In order to decrease the probability of equipment’s defection, one of quality control process called “Six
Sigma” will help industries to create better equipment. Processes that are under Six Sigma control will
only produce no more than two defects from one billion units produced. This is often stated as 3.4
disabilities per million units. Six Sigma methods focus on defects and variations, starting with
identifying critical elements of quality (critical to quality) from a process to providing proposals for
improvement (improvement) related to defects that arise. The standard approach to the Six Sigma
method is the DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) methodology. According to Robert
Jacobs and Richard, Six Sigma is the philosophy and method used by a number of companies such as
General Electric and Motorola to eliminate defects in the products and processes they run.

Quality Control

Quality control is very important for companies to correct errors and irregularities in their production.
After the evaluation, it is expected that the company will be able to minimize good losses seen in terms
of quantity, quality or time. Although Sompack has advantages in quality, some facts show the number
of defects where there are many inefficiencies in several stages:
1. Specifications
The selection of Standard material where the price is very low turns out that the quality is bad because
in a few months, air can be permeable and thus affect the quality of the product. So that Sompack must
define starting from raw material used, not from India / China but detailed every critical parameter that
can affect product quality, so that some alternative suppliers can be found, which of course has a number
of source raw materials, avoidance of one supplier and prices can be controlled. Specifications of
Sompack’s Packaging Products also needs to be defined in detail and carried out in process control
checks and before being released to the market with the aim of minimizing defects. For customers from
Europe the product specifications will be different compared to local customers. Because European
customers need more control (20 parameters) that cannot be fulfilled by machines made in China)
2. Cost of Quality
Defined as all costs incurred to produce products that are not 100% perfect. In the Sompack case there
are several quality costs, including:
• Preventive cost: the existence of additional unloading robots is a quality of cost to reduce / prevent the
results of defect crack, modification of the line after automation
• External cost: costs due to changes in material SAN products, besides the cost of money but also reduce
the company's image and self-confidence of the marketing team
Facing competition with China where their cost of production is currently 50% lower than in Turkey,
the quality of costs that do not provide added value must be minimized so that Sompack can compete
with China.

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