Quality for Sustainability, a Blog by Rizwan Jabbar.

  Parts per Million vs Percentage Error With the evolution of quality management processes in production industry and adaptation of lean manufacturing concept by the manufacturers, number of products with defects started to decrease with the time. Concept of 99.99% of accuracy is adopted by the developed countries. Once the concept of 0.1% of error was used by the manufacturers while defining the quality of their production. But now developed countries use the concept of parts per million to define the productivity of their process. Following figure can help to understand the difference between both concepts. In the above example, in a production out of 25,000 pieces, 50 pieces found to be defected. Now if we examine the both criteria: 1. Percentage Error If we look for percentage error, value is only 0.2% but as the denominator is 100 in this case which makes it look like an satisfactory/acceptable error in production. 2. Parts Per Million In this criteria, 50 pieces out of 25,000 m

  Production and Productivity Lean manufacturing is a concept used in manufacturing industry to reduce the waste and optimizing the process and maximizing the output without any increase in input. This is a concept where maximum productivity is achieved in a production. Production: In production of some product an input is provided to a system and output is achieved. This whole system is called production. Source: Youtube.com Productivity: Productivity is about how efficiently all the available resources are used to get the maximum output.   Productivity =  Output/Input  Lean Construction and Productivity: Similar to manufacturing industry, lean concept can be applied into the construction industry. Basic concept of lean is to minimize the waste and maximize the productivity. But unlike the manufacturing process, construction industry doesn’t have controlled environment, a combination of management system to achieve the lean construction concept. Source: 4BT.us

  Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) TPM or total productive maintenance is an approach which is essential to achieve the near perfect (99.99% error free) production. In this approach, goal is to make employees or operators aware of the fact that instead of unscheduled maintenance it is important to regularly maintain their equipment to avoid breakdowns. To simplify TPM, one can use the concept of “Zero BAD”. 1.     1.     Zero Breakdowns 2.      Zero Accidents 3.      Zero Defects By adopting this concept one can achieve the highest quality of product (99.99% error free). TPM emphasizes the proactive approach of maintaining the equipment by the workers and thus reducing the breakdown time and enhancing efficiency. Traditional TPM Pillars: Traditional TPM pillars were developed in 1960s and it uses 5S (Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardize, Sustain) as its foundation. Source: upkeep.com

  3Cs Concept in Warehouse   Effective warehouse management includes the effective inventory management. If managed poorly it can create a lot of issues for managers and thus resulting in a delayed product delivery and decreased efficiency of overall system. Large inventories are not easy to manage but different techniques are used to control and manage the warehouse like 5S, 3Cs etc. By implementing this technique, inventory management can be done in an effective manner.   What are these 3Cs in warehouse management? These 3Cs stands for 1.      Count Free There are plenty of items coming in a large warehouse on daily basis. As a manager you don’t want to count every item but develop such system where inventory can be counted in a time saving manner. 2.      Contact Free Some of the items in inventory could be susceptible to break in a contact with each other while unloading or storing in a warehouse. Contact free system allows managers to store items in more time and

  One Point Lesson (OPL) in Lean Manufacturing “Quality is achieving the 99.99% error free product or service.” Definition and Purposes: One point lesson is a straightforward technique used for conveying a single point on some problem using the maximum visual representation (80%) and minimum words (20%). It focuses usually by taking two pictures of an issue and depicting them as right and wrong and thus educating people on that specific one point. It has following purposes: 1.      It conveys information within minimum time and in a simplest way. 2.      It sharpens the knowledge and skill about a specific topic. OPL Format: OPL is performed on a specific format for ease of communication and better understanding. Source: leanmanufacturing.online OPL Types: 1.       1.  Basic Knowledge It shares the basic information about an operation or process required to increase the efficiency of a system. For example, in a processing unit a basic knowledge could be about housekeeping

  Kaizen Approach in Quality Management Quality: “To achieve the 99.99% error free product.” History: Kaizen was introduced after the World War II within the Japanese automobile company “Toyota.” Japan was first influenced by America in implementation of quality management systems for lean manufacturing process to reduce waste. Professionals like Edwards Deming first introduced the quality management concepts which were accepted by all over the world for lean manufacturing process. Decades later, America was then influenced by Japanese who worked with Toyota. Professionals like Masaaki Imai introduced the concept of “Kaizen” to the world. Definition: Kaizen is a Japanese term and is a combination of two words, “Kai” means change and “Zen” means good so the term Kaizen collectively meaning “change for good.” This term was introduced by Japanese in quality management system to achieve the continuous improvement by making changes on smallest levels of working.   Kaizen approac

  Customer Satisfaction Customer satisfaction is defined as the measurement that determines how happy are customers with the company’s product or service. In project management, customer satisfaction is part of project quality management which ensures that policies, objectives and responsibilities of the project satisfy all the stakeholders involved.   Measurement of customer satisfaction is different depending on the industry you are looking at. For example, for a smart phone company customer satisfaction will come with totally with the users. It could involve the satisfaction with the features, battery timing etc. But in some other project like construction, quality will be a widely relevant term depending upon the stakeholders. Customer satisfaction is important because it indicates whether your customer base likes what you are doing. Research shows that high satisfaction leads to the higher customer retention, higher lifetime value and a stronger brand reputation. There are dif

  ISO ISO is “International organization for standardization” It is an independent non-government organization with a membership of 162 national standard bodies. ISO's central secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland. With the help of its member bodies, ISO brings together the group of experts to share knowledge and develop voluntary, consensus based, market relevant International Standards that support innovation and provide solutions to global challenges. ISO has different series of standards. ISO has till now has brought  about 22521  International Standards, covering almost every industry, from technology to food safety, service, to agriculture and healthcare. However, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 are most generic ISO Standards, and they are applicable to most types of business and organizations . one of these is ISO 9000 defines, establishes and maintains an effective quality assurance system for manufacturing and services industry. Some other standards are ISO 27001 which is

Project Quality Management Quality management is the system or process which ensures that all the actions/activities necessary to carry out the project or manufacture a product which includes plan, design and implement are according to the purpose of the objective, its performance and requirements of customers/users. Project quality management is not a separate or independent system which happens at the end of a process or completion of an activity. Quality management is a continuous process which starts and ends with the project. It is more about avoiding and preventing than measuring and fixing the defects in quality. Regardless of how much longer the quality management system runs, the ultimate judgement is with meeting the requirements of end users/customers. Main principle of project quality management is to ensure the project will meet or exceeds the stakeholders’ expectations. Project team must develop a strong relationship with the stakeholders which includes both the ben