Process management is central to the production process. It ensures that goods or services produced are of superior quality. Also, process management helps in the identification of areas for improvement. This improves customers’ satisfaction. Process management consists of three processes these are, design, control, and improvement. This paper aims to build a process for managing the quality of a product.
Provision of quality goods and services is of the essence in business. The process of developing quality products is a complex interrelationship of various attributes. It entails identification of customer requirements, identification technical requirements, relating the customer requirements to the technical requirements, evaluating competing products or services, evaluating technical requirements, developing targets, and determining the technical requirements to deploy in the remainder of the production/delivery process.
This process design is comprehensive since it takes in to account all necessary functions of process management. It improves the quality of goods and services produced. In developing the process design, assume a hypothetical product X. This product is manufactured. Therefore, I work in a manufacturing company which produces this product. The company works for the Army as the potential customer for the product. At the company, product X goes through assembling at various stations.
A manufacturing process goes through three distinctive steps. These steps are the reception of input, the transformation of input, and output. Similarly, the company receives inputs which are semi-processed goods. The company imports inputs from international and national companies located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It relies on three suppliers from UAE. This ensures a reliable supply of raw material. Also, it uses a Just-In-Time production strategy for ordering inputs.
This strategy reduces in-storage cost. In addition, since the inputs can easily be corroded when they get into contact with other chemicals, the ordering strategy maintains the quality of inputs. Transformation stage comprises of assembling of the inputs. Assembling is divided into stations. The final stage involves verification and transportation of output for storage.
Before, delivery of the final product, the customer, that is, the army, needs to test the functionality of the batch and proof it. At this stage, the company gains from the customer’s feedback. This is because the feedback enables them to improve the product. In all the production stages, management of the company ensures adherence to Operating Instructions, Standard Operating Procedure, Material Safety Data Sheet and general quality standards.
Since inputs are critical in determining the quality of output, the company uses a Poka-Yoke device to detect corrosion of input from inside. The company uses this device at the reception of the inputs from overseas suppliers. This device detects mistakes early and enables the company to correct. Other than checking inputs, the management also uses the device during the entire production process. Use of this device in the entire production process helps in the detection of human or machine error, such as forgetfulness, misunderstanding, absentmindedness, delays, malfunctions, or errors in identification. This helps in the correction of the errors early.
The final stage of process design is critical. It entails an evaluation of the entire process to point out areas for improvement. Besides, during this stage, the management can compare targets with the outcome and note variances. After evaluation of the production of product X, we recommend that if the company receives inputs from suppliers according to the specifications and quality standards, time will not be wasted on rectification.