Ucl Shirt

Ucl Shirt

SQC: An effective tool for product development

Introduction

The term SQC was first introduced by W. A. Shewhart. SQC means Statistical Quality Control. It is a method of planned collection and effective use of data for studying causes of variation in quality either in between processes, methods, materials, machines and management etc over certain period of time. This cause-effect analysis is then fed back into the system with a view to continuous action on the processes of handling, manufacturing, packaging, transporting and delivery at destination. Hence a quality control system performs inspection, testing and analysis to conclude whether the quality of each product is as per laid quality standard or not .SQC makes inspection more reliable and at the same time less costly. It controls the optimum quality level of the outgoing products.

SQC is a program evaluation and review technique (PERT) with three factors viz. management, methods and mathematics. There are six important elements for PERT. They are

• Management
• Standard/Specification
• Measurement/Comparison
• Action on process/product/system
• Information from Quality Information Service(QIS)
• R&D with better quality standard or economical quality standard and better means for achieving the standard

In SQC there are two types of causes. The two causes are chance causes and assignable causes. The variation due to chance causes are beyond the control of human being and can not be prevented or eliminated under any circumstances. This type of cause arises due to some minor causes that occur randomly. The variation due to chance cause is called allowable variation. The range of such variation is called natural tolerance. Assignable causes arise due to non-random causes like defective raw materials, new techniques, improper handling of equipments, unskilled technical staff etc. They may occur at any stage of the production process, right from the arrival of the raw materials to the final delivery of goods. The variation due to this cause is called preventable variation. These types of causes arise due to the variation in the quality of manufactured product in the repetitive process in the any production process.

Objective

• Determine the role of SQC for product development
• Determine function of SQC
• Determine the function of quality control in industry

Function of SQC

The main objective of SQC is to develop some statistical techniques which would help in separating the assignable causes from the chance causes. The important functions of SQC are as follows.

• Examine the quality level of raw materials, production process and of finished goods.
• Judging the conformity of the process to established standards taking suitable action when some deviations are found.
• Examine the optimum quality which is obtainable under certain given conditions.
• Examine the quality and productivity by various process control and experiment.

Tools of SQC

There are certain statistical tools which are helpful in data analysis in quality control in case of the manufactured products. They are as follows.

• Frequency Distribution
• Shewhart’s control chart for variables-It is useful for those variables which can be measured quantitatively and the variables are continuous type and follow normal probability law. It is useful for the measure of location as well as measure of dispersion. Under this two types of control charts are used. They are Control charts for mean and range and Control charts for mean and standard deviation.
• Shewhart’s control charts for fraction defective or p-chart-In this type of control chart only those variables are considered which can be identified by their absence or presence from the product or by classifying the product as defective or non-defective.
• Shewhart’s control charts for number of defectives or d-chart-In this type of control chart instead of fraction defective, the sample proportion defective will be taken.
• Shewhart’s control chart for the number of defects per unit or c-chart-This is useful when the characteristic representing the quality of a product is a discrete variable. Examples of c-chart are the number of defective rivets in an aircraft wing, number of defects observed in a roll of coated paper or a sheet of photographic film.
• Acceptance sampling plan-Acceptance sampling by attributes is the most effective common type of sampling. A predetermined number of units (sample) from each lot is inspected by attributes. Acceptance sampling can be performed in a number of different situations where customer-producer relationships exist.
• Regression and correlation analysis-Regression analysis is the mathematical measures of two or more variable in terms of original data. Correlation analysis is the linear relationship between two variables. Correlation is of two type’s viz. positive and negative correlation.
• Tests of significance- It is a powerful tool for testing of hypothesis. It is used to test under certain conditions the assumption that was made is either accepted or rejected.
• Design of experiments-It is the logical construction of the experiment in which the degree of uncertainty with which the inference is drawn may be well defined.

Usage of SQC

• It provides better quality assurance at lower inspection cost
• It reduce wastage of time and material
• It helps in identification of many production bottlenecks that occurs during the production process
• It helps in improvement in quality
• It helps in reduction of scrap and rework
• It helps in decreased inspection cost
• It helps in scientific evaluation of quality and production
• It helps in reduction in customer complaints

Major stages of Production process

The way that businesses create products and services is known as the production process.  A production process is said to be in a state of statistical control if it is governed by chance causes alone. There are three main parts to the production process as Input,Process and Output stage.

A firm must purchase all the necessary inputs and then transform them into the product (outputs) that it wishes to sell. For example a football shirt manufacturer must buy the fabric, pay someone for a design, invest in machinery, rent a factory and employ workers in order for the football shirts to be made and then sold. How well-organized a firm is at undertaking this transformation process will determine its success. This is known as the productive efficiency of a firm and it will want to be as efficient as possible in transforming its inputs into outputs (i.e. using the minimum number of inputs as possible to achieve a set amount of output). This will reduce the cost per unit of production and allow the firm to sell at a lower price. Hence the objective of the production process is to create goods and services that meet the needs and wants of customers. The needs and wants of customers will be met if a business can produce the correct number of products, in the shortest possible time, to the best quality and all at a competitive price.

Function of Production process

The main objective of any production process is to control and maintain the quality of the manufactured product so that it conforms to certain specified quality standards. Any production process consists of two stages they are process control and product control.

Process control- The concept of process control was pioneered by W. A. Shewhart of Bell telephone laboratories in 1924 by using the concept of theory of probability and sampling. A typical control chart consists of three horizontal lines. They are

• A central line(CL), indicates the desired standard or the level of the process
• Upper control limit(UCL)
• Lower control limit(LCL)

Product control- The concept of product control was pioneered by Dodge and Romig by using the concept of sampling inspection plans. It means controlling the quality of the product by critical examination at strategic points. It attempts to ensure that the product marketed by sale department does not contain a large number of defective items.

Function of Quality Control

In SQC there is a term called quality. It plays vital role in statistical quality control. Quality control technique is a powerful tool or productive technique for effective diagnosis of lack of quality in any one of them like material, machine, or management etc. It is essential that the finished products must possess the optimum quality that the consumer expects of them. In quality control the term quality depends upon four M’s. They are as follows.

• Quality of material-Good quality of material reducing waste, smooth processing and increasing output. It will also provide better finish to end products.
• Quality of manpower-Well qualified and skilled personnel will increased efficiency of the any production process due to better quality production through the application of their skills and also reduce the production cost and time.
• Quality of machine-Good quality of machine will increased the production, reduce breakdown situation and reduce the cost of finished product.
• Quality of management- A good management is imperative for increase in efficiency, harmony in relations, growth of business and their related markets.

Usage of Quality Control in industry

The following diagram gives a summary of the usage of quality control in industry.

QUALITY CONTROL

APPROACH AND BENEFITS

Planned collection of data, analysis and interpretation

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Improvement in product quality and design

Reduction in operating costs and losses

Reduction in scrap

Savings in excess use of materials

Removing production bottlenecks

Reduction in inspection

Evaluation of scientific tolerances

Improvement of employee morale

Maintenance of operating efficiency

Quality consciousness

Greater customer satisfaction

?

ENHANCED PRODUCTIVITY

A gradual increase in productivity, savings in costs and improvement in quality of products are attainable in any industry by means of the application of quality control technique.

Conclusion

Thus Statistical Quality Control plays vital role in any production process by using various statistical tools. It also plays a vital role in all walks of life starting from the household to big engineering and service industries. It helps in improving the quality of finished goods and reducing total cost. In other words, the determination of both quality and quality costs can be achieved by using SQC.

References

Cowden, D. J. (1957), Statistical Methods in Quality Control, Prentice-Hall.

Duncan, A. J. (1986), Quality Control and Industrial Statistics, 5th ed., Irwin, Homewood, II.

Montgomery, D. C. (2000), Introduction to Statistical Quality Control, 4th ed., Wiley, New York, NY.

Naidu, NVR., Babu, KM. and Rajendra, G.(2006),Total Quality Management, New Age International (P) Ltd.

Shewhart, W. A. (1931), Economic Control of Quality of Manufactured Product, Van Nostrand.

About the Author

I did Ph.D. (Statistics) from Faculty of Science, Banaras Hindu University and Diploma in Information Technology from R.C.S.M.I had about six years of teaching experience. Ten of my research papers were published in reputed journals and the same were accepted aboard in the international conference. I have attended a number of international conferences. I have been selected in the panel of experts in a round table discussion on Wednesday, 10 December 2008, entitled, "State of the Nation: Science in Ireland.” My thrust areas are Statistics, Quantitative Methods, Marketing Research, Research Methodology and Operation Management. Recently, I have presented a paper titled An Empirical study on perception of consumer in insurance sector in 1st IIMA International Conference on Advanced Data Analysis, Business Analytics and Intelligence, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, held on June 6-7, 2009.A paper titled Branding: An innovative approach has been accepted for presentation at AMCON, 09, Asian Management Congress organized by Asian School of Business Management, Bhubaneswar.

Do you think the sale of Eto'o by Barca was a bad move? Star if you think so.?

I had many interesting exchanges about this with other Barca fans last summer. In addition to last night's UCL final result, consider this in the light of Eto'o going to the World Cup and Ibra is staying home. Even the greats make mistakes, but sending Eto'o and €40 million to Inter in exchange for Ibra just doesn't make sense. Maybe shirt sales?

Oh my, this is an easy one. Yes, si, oui, ndiyo... I don't know how to say yes in any other language.

When this exchange happened I heard my friends who support Barca talk up and down about how this was a great deal. I even read drivel from some of the best sports publications saying it was a good deal (see here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/224945-why-the-ibrahimovic-etoo-transfer-makes-good-sense-for-all-concerned). I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

Eto'o had just put in a huge number of goals in La Liga (30 in 36 games) and scored one of Barca's two goals in the Champions League final (as he had done in 2006). Anyhow, you can see his stats here: http://preview.goalface.com/players/samuel-etoo_2994/ Maybe if Inter had forked over the €40 million to Barca it would have been a great deal.

What are people saying today? Nothing. Nada. Niente. Hamna. It was a bad more. I am glad the madness of trying to defend the move has ended. As you say, maybe the only aspect of the deal that makes sense is shirt sales, but Barca are not that kind of a club.