FEBRUARY 20198QUALITY: BREATH OF BUSINESS!By S. Prabha Shankar, VP ­ Manufacturing Engineering, Creative Synergies IndiaWith a dynamic career spanning over 26 years, Prabha has catered to various programs of Automotive Body Line engineering with Fixture designs (BIW), providing turnkey solutions for Body shops, Press Tool Design, Mold Designs and moreFocus on Design Engineering Services:Design and Engineering functions have become the node of Innovations & Technological solutions for the today's production needs. They are the brain for the manufacturing industries. However all the Engineering needs are not fulfilled by the lean team in the companies and thus the Engineering is outsourced to the Services companies. The reason for Outsourcing could be the technology / tool requirements of the sheer volume to time line requirements.Invariably the Services industry becomes the extended Engineering departments of the manufacturing industry. The expectations of outcome are also similar to that of an In-House engineering department. Quality Outputs play the vital role which will reduce the efforts of the buyers, who expect the engineering outputs from the services company to be used directly for production without a re-check.Quality in Design Engineering ServicesQuality is today an integral part of the Customer Requirements. Every delivery made to the customer, be it be a 3D concept, 2D drawing or a process document, is being looked for the higher quality levels. Quality with respect to Standards must be applied from start to end.A quality deficiency that occurs in the beginning of the process would be carried through the final delivery. Though quality needs to be in every aspect of the business, it needs to be identified, measured, mitigated and monitored through every execution process. Quality goes in hand with the Delivery Lead time. Maintaining quality in the given timeline is the challenge.Quality builds the Brand, and is the key contributor for a company's growth.Classification of Quality Issues Quality outputs for a design or a drawing can be classified in the following waysAesthetic: The way the deliverables are presented. The first feeling of quality comes through the way the document is presented. A Neat Model / Drawing already represent the quality of the drawing.Accuracy: The precision in which the deliveries are given. This encompasses completeness of the work, and the control of deviations as required by the work.Assurance: Compliance to all the standard requirements and manufacturing feasibilities. The quality of the deliverables should always fulfil the standards and specifications given for a particular program. Example: File Naming, Folder Structures, etc.Quality Issue - Impacts For the Supplier the Impact of Quality Issues are Rework / Rejection, Waste of Time ­ Impacts on delivery dates, Cost implications ­ Efforts overshoots reduces margins, Opportunity Costs ­ Loss of additional revenues, Brand impact ­ Loss of repeat business, Penalties.For the Customers the impact of Quality Issues are Frustration on inadequate details and delays, Doubt on the quality ­ Increased in-house checks, Rework drawings internally as there is no confidence, Cost implications, Manufacturing errors, higher rework costs, Delays in delivery to end customer, Penalties & Non-approval of work for Billing.Quality Improvement PlansQuality Culture ­ Spread across the needs of quality and the impact of quality over the business requirements. Quality given IN MY OPINION
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