Quality Assurance--5 tips

What is not QA?

Srinivasan Nenmeli-K

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What is not Quality Assurance?

Dear Friends, Firstly , let me answer this question. Even after half a century of Deming's, Juran's and Feigenbaum's work ,there is still mix up in the minds of practising engineers and managers about: "What is QA?" Testing and inspection are not QA work.They are 'quality control' work ---just QC. They are needed, but as you 'install' QA programs, QC must decrease--period. QC is "finding defects and fixing it"--defect detection in the first place..That is not QA! You will do QC at various stages mainly to weed out defectives-defective products...Won't you like to reduce this weeding work? That is achieved by QA.[in many industries, the QC and QA NKS 2 QA roles are mixed up.QA people do only never ending QC

What is Quality Assurance?

QA is Defect prevention, not defect detection. QA is process oriented, not just product oriented QA is finding the causes and installing 'prevention systems' QA requires training of all employees at various jobs QA focuses on 'customer satisfaction'--not inspector satisfaction QA keeps looking at customer feedback and responsesQA is delighting the customer,not just fighting your competitior.
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The key to QA

There is only ONE KEY for quality assurance or defect prevention. Focus on the process--whether done by humans or machines or your computer-software in the machine. Take a simple example.You have a small bakery to make cakes. The major processes are: getting the ingredients of proper quality or inputs mixing the dough baking What are the critical factors in each?Take baking: QA NKS Are you setting limits on baking temperature and

Process control

Process control is what you do in QA. Keep this in mind always....not product control. Control the process in so many ways. Here are the 5 tips The first and foremost method is: Standardise-revise the standards if they are not suitable now. Train people in quality concepts Train people in specific skills/tasks Analyze the defects,find the causes and rectify them Listen to the customer
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The Deming Cycle-The PDCA cycle

Edwards Deming introduced a simple,but basic cycle of work for QA---Plan,Do,Check and Act..the PDCA cycle.You repeat this cycle over and over again for 'Continuous improvement'.
Every QA work requires some planning,then 'do'--create a new procedure or method ,then 'check' against the initial objective of this task;if it is okay, 'act' -- a better word is 'implement' which means institute or install the new procedure.

You repeat the cycle,take on other QA tasks. Deming gave this cycle as a simple program to follow:Note that the step 'check' is very important. Deming believed in 'continuous improvement'.Quality improvement is a long journey--not a quick fix to today's problems.That is why commitment from top management is essential for any QA program. QA NKS 6 The Japanese believed in Deming.!It is remarakable how this

Tip 1 -Standardise
Juran once remarked that most developing countries have very few standards and use them very little.!
Take a simple example: You know that there should be a ramp for wheel chairs at the entrance to hospitals/clinics.Do you have a standard for their width and slope? If it exists, do you insist on using it?

--Write simple clear standards for many process features ,train people in using it...this may add slightly to the cost ,but you will benefit enormously over the years. --Review and update the standards. --Pick up standards from others--even your QA NKS 7 competitors.

Tip2- Train Employees in Quality Concepts

Almost every one has heard about and use the word 'quality'.We 'expect' quality from others.But very few have clear concepts about quality. What the quality gurus did was to focus on the concepts--techniques came later. Quality is achieving 'customer satisfaction'--not just meeting specification,getting more orders or satisfying your boss. All employees, right from your janitor, must learn the quality concepts --from articles,books, short lectures,informal discussion groups,training sessions and so on----not just from posters which may be misleading or misunderstood. The employees must become 'quality conscious'--otherwise they create more defects which they should clean up or some one has to do...this adds to cost. They must all learn to use the magnificent seven QC tools in a routine QA NKS manner---not just your QA/QC team' alone use them. {this is what Quality
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Tip3 Train Employees

Training for specific skills/knowledge is an essential means in any QA program. Be specific in any training program with well-stated objectives for training--Apply QA principles to training too. Get feedback from employees on training over short and long period.Many training programs have long range effects. How much training? One week or 2 weeks per year or more...You decide based QA NKS on your needs and present

Tip4-- Analyse and learn from defects 1 Collect data about defects/faults/mistakes..analyse them--use simple 'seven QC tools'- like histograms,checksheets.... 2 Find the root causes--discuss with concerned people--this is a difficult step-don't go by politically correct reasons given by 'yes' men. 3 You may discover 'Pareto rule'.80%of defects come from 20% or a few causes-QA NKS

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Tip 5 --Listen to customers

Customers always want better things for less money.QA programs should work towards that. Customer feedback and its scrutiny is the most important step. Most customer needs can be met by simple design changes. Special needs should be studied.This may lead to new product lines. Make your product fail-safe and failure -proof. Discuss with really bad customers! Document carefully the customer complaints
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Effectiveness of QA
How to measure QA effectiveness? This is really easy . With effective QA, QC should decrease.Defects should come down,especially the critical and major ones. You must be able to reduce testing and inspection staff and costs. Customer complaints must drop exponentially--except positive comments. In Hardware items,you must be able to increase warranty period, reduce maintenance costs for customers. Customers must be happy and increase--the market QA NKS 12 share should go up.

Besterfield et al ---Total Quality Management

[Easy to read,simple,clear classic text book]

J M Juran The Quality Handbook [ The standard reference book for all times]

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CONTACT

If you liked this presentation,though brief, contact me for further details and useful tutorials/presentations. emailID: nksrinivasan@hotmail.com

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