4.

0 QUALITY CONTROL
Quality control is a continuous practice or process of control to ensure quality goals and
requirements are achieved. In this case, quality control can be defined as to direct, regulate
and inspect work activities in order to fulfil valve manufacturing quality objectives. It is the
basic requirement for a successful management. Quality can helps to increase sales and
reduce cost. By producing good quality valve that is trusted by customers, the sales will
increase firmly. Company will have the greater ability to compete in the market.
To constantly produce high quality valve, good strategy and process control method has to be
applied. Efforts from all the level of management and manufacturing should be contributed to
ensure quality goals are being attained. Inspection and testing are necessary to be done to
check if the valve produced is good or defective in quality.
4.1 Inspection
Inspection is an important step as defective products are detected before it is being further
processed or being shipped to the customer. Valves with surface defects or dimension error
should be removed from the non-defective valves. Inspection should be done at several point
in the production process.
4.1.1 Raw material inspection
At the suppliers plant where the raw material (stainless steel) is produced, the material
should be inspected to check if the stainless steels follows the standard ASTM A182 / A182M
- 14b: Standard Specification for Forged or Rolled Alloy and Stainless Steel Pipe Flanges,
Forged Fittings, and Valves and Parts for High-Temperature Service. The materials should
conform to the required chemical composition and mechanical properties for the grade that
are ordered. The production process at the suppliers plant should also follows the
international standard. Upon receiving the raw materials from the supplier, they should be
checked if the materials have surface defects or inclusions
4.1.2 Inspection during production process
The dimension of the valve rod should be examined after the extrusion and cutting process.
Any valves with dimensional error should be removed to prevent wasted operation done on
these defective valve rod. Valves with forging defects, surface defects, faulty weld and other
defects should be detected and removed before next costly processes.
4.1.3 Inspection when production complete
Testing should be done on the completed valves. Standard measuring equipment such as
analog, digital, laser, video, ultrasonic and eddy current equipment are used to measure the
parameters of valves with greater degree of accuracy. The valves will be subjected to
ultrasonic testing to detect surface and internal faults such as cracks, pores and presence of
foreign objects in the valves.

4.1.4 Final inspection

The valves are inspected for the last time before being delivered out. The valves are
compared to the specification provided by the customer saved in the database. Database is
created to record data about the number of valves passed per work-order, the number of
rejections, reason for rejection and the process after which samples were rejected. These data
are significant for subsequent quality control and process improvement. The valves are then
be sent to be audited before they are dispatched to the customers.
4.2 Total Quality Management
Besides that, there are many methods and models created to manage the quality of a
particular companys goods. Out of these quality control methods, Total Quality Management
(TQM) approach will be used to manage the quality of valve production.
Total Quality Management is an approach in managing the quality at every stage of
operations, from planning and design through self-inspection, to continual process monitoring
for improvement opportunities. It combines quality and management tools in order to
increase business and reduce losses. Several concepts in TQM can be applied in controlling
quality of the valve production. In the following section, quality control methods are
explained in depth with their applications in a scenario which aims to decrease quantities of
defected valve being made in the production process.
4.2.1 Continuous improvement
Company confront challenges continuously, thus, an immediate response to the challenge is a
need. Improvement of all processes involving operations and work centers should be
monitored and implemented continuously. Upgrading machines, processes and tools are
essential to ensure the system is always ready for different challenge. Quality control can be
implemented by repeating a four-step cycle of plan-do-check-act, which is known as PDCA
so that continuous steps of improvement can be achieved. PDCA below shows

Plan
- Identify and analyse the causes of problem (defects) arises using cause-and-effect
diagrams and control charts.
- Identify potential improvements in the processes to decrease production of
defected valve.

Do
- Conduct a pilot project to test the operation.

Check
- Establish a trial period to verify the developing of new process.
- Monitor the process using tools like control charts.
- Study the results and compare it with the performance before changes are made.
- Modify the process if improvement fail to achieve expectation.
Act
- Implement the improvements permanently

Ensure that the problem is permanently solved, and embedded it in the system.

4.2.2 Tools of TQM

In order to conduct the approach of PCDA cycle, TQM tools are needed for gathering data
needed for planning and checking. TQM tools are being implemented to generate ideas,
organize data and identify problem during the process to ensure good quality valves being
produced and hence decrease losses to company.
4.2.2.1 Check Sheet
Check sheet is used to record data and enable user to easily analyse the data. Table below
shows an example of check sheet which record frequency of each type of defects occurs to
the valves:
Defects
Incorrect dimension
Crack or pores
Presence of metallurgical impurities
Forging defects
Faulty welds between stems and
heads
Incomplete heat treatment
Poor adhesion of chrome plating

1
2
1
0
3
3

Hour
2
1
0
1
0
1

3
0
2
1
2
0

4
1
1
0
1
1

5
3
1
1
2
2

6
3
0
1
3
2

7
4
2
1
0
1

8
2
3
1
1
0

0
1

1
2

1
0

2
0

0
2

0
2

1
1

0
2

4.2.2.2 Cause and Effect Diagram

The cause-and-effect diagram is used to identify process elements (causes) that might affect
an outcome. The diagram below shows the factors causes production of defected valves.

4.2.2.3 Flow Charts

Flow chart is used to describe the steps and flow of the process. It is important for process
improvement effort as it gives everyone an understanding of the process and hence facilitates
the communication between workers.

Extrusion and
cutting

Friction welding

Upsetting

Forging

Heat Treatment

Stellite Welding

Turning

Surface
treatment

Final Inspection

Packaging

4.2.2.4 Statistical Process Control Chart

Statistical Process Control (SPC) shows a statistical signal when assignable causes are
present so corrective action will be taken. Samples from the ongoing production process are
taken and used to create line charts of the variability in the samples. The charts are analysed
to check if the process is in control. Action will be taken to find out the cause of the problem
if the process is out of control.
Variable control chart is used. Two charts are used in this scenario. X-chart is used to control
the central tendency of the process while R-chart is used to control the dispersion of the
process. Below shows the control charts based on the length of sample valves taken.
Sample
number

Length of valve
(mm)

50.65

50.75

50.63

50.65

Mean

50.67

Hour

Day 1
X

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

50.67
50.73
50.69
50.74
50.75
50.73
50.69
50.72
50.63
50.75

R
0.12
0.04
0.05
0.04
0.09
0.07
0.08
0.07
LCL
0.08
0.11

UCL

Average Mean,

Average R,

For the mean chart:

A2 R

=
= 50.71 (0.729)(0.075)
= 50.655

A2 R
=
= 50.71 + (0.729)(0.075)
= 50.765
D3 R

= 0 (0.075)
=0
UCL

= 50.71

= 0.075

For the range chart:

LCL

D4 R
= 2.282 (0.075)
= 0.1712

X-chart
50.8
50.75
50.7

Mean length in mm

50.65
50.6
50.55

10

12

Hour

R-chart
0.18
0.16
0.14
0.12
0.1

Range in mm 0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02

10

12

Hour

X
All the plots are within the limits (UCL and LCL) in R-chart. However, in -chart, the ninth
plot is out of the lower control limit. Thus, the process is not in control. Assignable cause is
present and needed to be identified and eliminated.