Asian Journal on Quality

Sinsup Cho; Jeong Hyeong Lee

2002 Asian Journal on Quality

doi: 10.1108/15982688200200001

On control chart, one may use regression, cusum and exponential smoothing methods to detect any change in the trend of the process. When the data is observed with equally spaced time interval we show how to obtain the estimates of the trend for each method. Three different estimation methods are compared through simulation in terms of efficiency, MSE, MAPE and MAD. It is observed that OLS performs well in general. Cusum is found to be most sensitive to the outliers even though it is simple to compute. We recommend the use of the EWMA method when the error distribution is heavy tailed.

Lian Yu Zheng; Kwai Sang Chin; Li Wei

2002 Asian Journal on Quality

doi: 10.1108/15982688200200002

Most process FMEA systems in the market simply fill out the worksheet/form, and can not effectively express, organize, and utilize process failure knowledge of production process during process planning. This paper proposes a knowledge‐enriched representation model for enhancing process FMEA in process planning. This model can effectively represent the process FMEA knowledge other than specific process failure instances or data. Furthermore, in order to effectively utilize the previous process FMEA knowledge, an algorithm is proposed to calculate the similarity among process failure problems based on “concept distance”. A knowledge‐enriched process FMEA tool has been developed by adopting Web technique so as to provide cooperative process FMEA services for process planner on the Internet or Intranet.

Kit Fai Pun

2002 Asian Journal on Quality

doi: 10.1108/15982688200200003

Recent studies advocate that there is a positive relationship between levels of employee involement (EI) and the productivity and long‐term financial performance of organisations. The adoption of EI practices has been recognised as a means of drive organisations towards performance improvement. This paper discusses the constituent elements of EI and the integration of EI and total quality management (TQM) practices with respect to improving the organisational performance in manufacturing enterprises with respect to improving the organisational performance in manufacturing enterprises. Incorporated they key findings of an empirical study with a sample of 166 organisations in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta region of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the paper addresses two problem statements: Do the information sharing, knowledge training, pay/reward systems and power/authority sharing affect the adoption of EI practices? Does the integration of EI/TQM practices contribute to better organisational performance as perceived by manufacturing enterprises? The need to interweave both EI and TQM efforts into organisational performance improvmement is also discussed.

Chin‐Tsai Lin; Chie‐Bein Chen; Che‐Wei Chang

2002 Asian Journal on Quality

doi: 10.1108/15982688200200004

Silicon wafer slicing manufacturing process exhibits several characteristics. They are: (1) the product type is small batch production, (2) saw cutting must be very precise, (3) the process run time is long, and (4) inspecting samples is difficult. Furthermore, the process involves several synchronously occurred multiple quality characteristics, such as thickness (THK), bow and warp, which must be closely monitored and controlled. Synchronously monitoring multiple quality characteristics is more expensive than monitoring a single quality characteristic in the manufacturing process. The sizes of inspected samples in the existing process are difficult to maintain the quality control chart. Grey situation decision method is used to screen the worst quality control chart. Grey situation decision method is used to screen the worst quality characteristic from the synchronously occurred multiple quality characteristics to monitor the process. Finally, a case study is presented to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of proposed decision method. The exponential weighted moving average (EWMA) control chart is used to verify that the process quality is more reliable.

M.L. Huang; K.S. Chen; R.K. Li

2002 Asian Journal on Quality

doi: 10.1108/15982688200200005

Process capability indices can be viewed as convenient and excellent tools to measure and define process output. Several capability indices including C p , C pu , C pl , C pk , C pm and C pp have been widely used in manufacturing industry to provide common quantitative measures on process potentials and performance. Process capability inex C pp can be used to measure product capability with respect to process targeting. “The larger the better” is the general rule for the application of process capability indices C p , C pu , C pl , C pk and C pm . However, those researchers take accounts for processes with single quality characteristics only and cannot be applied to a product family with different models, types or sizes simultaneously. the approach of this paper is to propose a concise and applicable methodology that measures the entire process capability of a product family with several models. For convenient and practical application to product engineers, a simple procedure of hypothesis test for entire process capability of a PVC pipe product familiy is well established.

Jing Sheng; Zhen He; Xing Shi

2002 Asian Journal on Quality

doi: 10.1108/15982688200200006

Quality Functioni Deployment (QFD) is a useful planning process in new product development. It achieves the maximum custom satisfaction through translating Voice of the Customer (VOC) into voice of the engineer in the House of Quality (HOQ), and ensures the customer focus from house to house translation. In QFD, the relationship matrix and correlation matrix are important pars, which will influence the final priorities of the technical response. According to the traditional methods, these matrices are determined by the people’s experience and filled with ordinal numbers. It would inevitably result in inaccuracy and curtness. Design of Experiments (DOE) is employed to determine the effect of variables on the process. In this paper, the author puts forward the idea of integrating DOE into the process of QFD. This integration helps to produce scientific decision and robust product design. A famework on QFD/DOE is presented and explanations are also made.

Hasan Akpolat; Jichao Xu

2002 Asian Journal on Quality

doi: 10.1108/15982688200200007

The implementation of management systems such as the quality, environmental and occupational health and safety management systems to the national and/or international standards I 9000, ISO 14000 and AS/NZS 4801 has been well researched and studied in the past. However, since the release of the completely revised quality system standard ISO 9001 in December 2000, there has been only few publications and studies about the integration of these three management systems. This paper discusses not only the methods that can be used for ingtegration of management systems but also gives practical examples of its impelementation and benefits to the organisations. It is not the intention of this paper to investigate the similarities and differences of the three standards. However, the above mentioned standards also include some information and references on compatibility, if further study is required.

Seong‐Dae Kim; Young‐Taek Park

2002 Asian Journal on Quality

doi: 10.1108/15982688200200008

Since there are fundamental contradictions in difficult engineering problems, most solutions have been trade‐offs between conflicting requirements. In those cases, an improvement of a system parameter causes deterioration of another parameter in the system. TRIZ, a structured method for creative problem solving, is used to obtain breakthrough solutions resolving or eliminating the contradictions. In this paper, it is examined that the engineering‐based TRIZ approach can be successfully used in inventory management. The result shows that there is good chance of applying TRIZ to managerial problems.

Jing Sun

2002 Asian Journal on Quality

doi: 10.1108/15982688200200009

Many enterprises didn’t ask to involve the module of Quality Management in ERP system, even an enterprise having implemented ERP successfully thought about to implement Quality Information System (QIS) again. A lot of quality information provided by ERP system is wasting. The key of resolving this problem is Quality Process Reengineering based on the modern quality management customer‐oriented and process‐oriented. But at first, quality functions, not only during the conentional manufacturing process but also purchasing and sales & distribution process, must be identified. Then relationship between quality management and these processes will be made clear.

Te‐King Chien; Chao‐Ton Su

2002 Asian Journal on Quality

doi: 10.1108/15982688200200010

Customer satisfaction is one of the important goals of Total Quality Management (TQM). The outcome of a customer satisfaction activity has a decisive effect on an enterprise’s operational performance and its future development. For ordinary enterprises, their failure to establish a reasonable “Customer Satisfaction Evaluation System” that manages customers’ real voices and reflects the performance of a customer satisfaction activity has resulted in an unneccessary waste of their resources and a decline within their operational performance. This article will present a framework for an evaluation system for a customer satisfaction activity by elucidating the rationalization of the said framework through the analysis of a successful case model that demonstrates excellence in management. It will further illustrate the effectiveness of the “Evaluation System” operational process to elevate an enterprise’s willingness to develop a customer satisfaction activity and stimulate its progress toward success.