CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS
4.2 Research analysis
4.2.4 Process Management
4.2.4.1 Current Manufacturing Processes: The first aspect that this study needs to find out is how the current manufacturing processes affect product quality, and this study finds out that each interviewee thinks that the current processes have nothing to do with product quality because the all products are handmade in which cannot be perfectly controlled; therefore, most of the quality problems came from employees’ mistakes, but Ms. Passamon said that each employee has to make sure that process alignment is arranged correctly every time; otherwise, product quality will not be sufficient, and also the staff can possibly produce wrong products as well. Then, interviewees agree that the company has done things to improve product quality; for example, all aluminum molds for pressing process were readjusted or modified because after applying pressure for quite some time, the molds are bent, then they cannot hold wood core in correct position, and make the final product defected. Besides, the company already replaced electronic instruments that control temperature of heating plate in pressing process to ensure that the heating plate would not burn wakeboard’s surface, and interviewees said that measures help the company to improve product quality.
4.2.4.2 Incentive System: According to Table 4.1, all respondents agree that incentive system can motivate them to improve product quality because if production staff do not have to focus on their own well-being, they can focus more on product quality, so the company should provide good quality of life for employees so that they can continue producing good product quality. Since the company is still small, the company has not assessed employees’ quality performance in systematic and documented ways yet, but the top management assesses performance by observation, and provides incentives according to their performance. As a matter of fact, incentives should related to quality performance of employees, however, the company still needs to develop quality performance assessment, then links performance to incentives. Nevertheless, incentive system is the tool for continuous improvement for the reason extra incentives can motivate employees to continue product good product quality since they realize that if they perform well, the company do not forget to pay extra earnings to show appreciation for their good performances, therefore, incentive system can be a tool for continuous improvement for the company. Incentive is based on quality performance of each employee in each process, and the performance is evaluated by numbers of qualified and rejected product. More qualified products employees produce, more incentives they can gain, that is why incentive is a part of process management. However, rewards and recognition are not extra intensive because they can be in the form of raise in salary or complement which measured based on overall performance not specifically measured in each work-piece.
In addition, for a small company such as Aqua Vis Co., Ltd, incentive system is a simplest continuous improvement tool for the reason that the company has not yet been developing sophisticated system for continuous improvement due to lack of resources and knowledge about continuous improvement. Moreover, the products of the company are mostly hand-made; therefore, employees’ morale is a critical factor for quality improvement. As a result, incentive system is a tool for continuous improvement in the early stage of quality improvement in order to keep employees motivated to continue produce high quality products, and according to Measuring Business Excellence (2002), an incentive system is appropriate for developing organization or small-sized businesses where systematic processes have not yet been developing.
Moreover, T. Thiagarajan and M Zairi (1997) also stated that incentives can improve
morale and productivity of employees because they tends to concentrate more on quality if they know that they will get incentives in return. Consequently, these previous researches support the result regarding to incentive system can improve product quality, and since the company can be considered as developing organization, incentive system is the simplest method to use as continuous improvement tool.
4.2.4.3 Statistical Process Control (SPC): Although check sheets are provided to each process in production line, the company has not collected the data for statistical analysis in order to determine how well product quality is.
However, interviewees agreed that SPC can help the company to identify the weak spot in manufacturing processes, and if the company can eliminate weak spot, better product quality is very likely to be possible. According to Caulcutt (1996), SPC can improve product quality for the reason that SPC provides statistical production records, so the employees understand where and why defects occur in the processes, the company can deploy solutions to countermeasure quality problems. As a result, the company can reduce scraps which will directly reduce production costs, then the company can deliver more consistent product quality to the customers because the company can find eliminates causes of defects which helps the company to maintain profitability.
Consequently, the result regarding to SPC can improve product quality showing in Table 4.1 agrees with research from Caulcutt (1994) that SPC can improve product quality.
4.2.4.4 Design Reviews: Design reviews can help the company to improve product quality because according to all respondents, design reviews can enhance production staff’s understanding about product designs and specifications, then all production staff will be on the same direction so that they can look after each other to prevent mistakes. According to Burgess (1999), design reviews have to be performed before actual manufacturing processes for the reason that designs still have flexibility and change acceptance. If designs are changed during manufacturing processes, they can cause confusion among employees on what direction they would go, then they can make mistakes during the production which will eventually affects product quality.
Furthermore, the management team agreed that design reviews are useful before actual manufacturing process because they enhance employees’ understanding of products designs and specifications, and also designs and specifications can be
changed in early stage of the processes when those changes will not interfere with manufacturing processes which is consistent with research from Burgess (1999)
4.2.4.5 Preventive Maintenance: Another important aspect in process management is preventive maintenance, this aspect can help to company to ensure that equipment is always in good condition. Equipment breakdown has effect to product quality because it causes production delay especially in CNC process which it is the beginning of the whole process. Then the staffs have to rush producing the products so that they can be delivered on time. As a result, defects occurs more often because the staffs cannot focus on quality due to insufficient timeframe. Another drawback of equipment breakdown is that the company has to proceed with the production outsourced, this incident costs the company a lot of capital because normally outsourcing is expensive in this industry, and usually outsource provides the component that does not meet specifications in which the company cannot afford this incident to happen.
After asking all respondents about how to resolve equipment breakdown problem, they agree that the company should develop maintenance schedule; for example, according to Mr. Anon, CNC specialist, he said that all equipment should be checked daily before start working, and the top management should provide check sheet for daily equipment check. Besides, thorough maintenance should be provided at least twice a year by manufacturers of the equipment to make sure that all equipment are in good condition. According to Table 4.1, all respondents agree that preventive maintenance is an important factor for quality improvement which supported by a research from Ahmed, Hassan, and Taha (2004) in which stated that preventive maintenance is an integral part of TQM since machine breakdown can cause both defects and delayed delivery. According to this research, the most common methods to improve preventive maintenance are check sheet and process flow diagram to evaluate equipment condition where the machine is applied (Ahmed, Hassan and Taha, 2004).