Using RFID / TQM Methods to Improve a Selected Industrial System & Total Quality Management Audit
Author: Karan Jhaveri
Email:kvj4@njit.edu
Class code: IE673 Live
Date: December 9, 2009
eLearning Pack ID: IE673-Fall2009-70-08
This assignment is done exclusively by Karan Jhaveri
Contents
· Introduction
· Objectives
· Methodologies Applied
· RFID Technology
· RFID Integration in CIMpgr Process Model
· RFID Inclusion in CORA
· RFID Influence on PFRA
· Quality Audit
· Addressing Audit Issues
· Social Networking
· Contributions of our Collaborators
· Summary
· Further/Proposed Work Needed
· Data Dictionary
· References
Introduction
CRUSCARE is committed to being the world’s leading manufacturer of green power wheelchairs. The company will be responsible for the product design, sales and servicing. By choosing CRUSCARE wheelchairs you are guaranteed better mobility with comfort and value for money.
CRUSCARE serves to alleviate the problem of the environment by manufacturing green wheelchairs. Green manufacturing to CRUSCARE means creating designs that endure structurally and artistically - to last for generations, without harming either the environment or the people that make or use them.
Objectives
The first objective in this part is integrating RFID technology in CIMpgr process model, including RFID in component oriented requirement analysis and finding out the effect of RFID influence in Process Failure Risk Analysis.
The second objective is to see how Total quality management tools like PFRA, CORA and CIMpgr that have been implemented by Cruscare can be incorporated together and improve Cruscare to meet its high standard and excellent quality products and services. This will be a part of an audit.
Methodologies Applied
In order to manufacture high quality and reliable power wheelchairs, it is very important that Cruscare adopts latest technologies. It is very important that Cruscare understands how to work with these revolutionary technologies to its advantage.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is one such technology that is going to have great impact in the near future. This technology helps businesses in collection of data and improves the efficiency of inventory tracking and management. Cruscare is aware of the advantages and benefits of RFID and is going to make its product RFID-powered from the very beginning. Therefore, it has decided to integrate this emerging technology to their project as to increase customer satisfaction and reduce overhead expenses that are associated with wasteful practices within the company.
Also in this document, Cruscare has performed TQM (Total Quality Management) Audit by following ISO 9001:2008 audit procedure to review all the methodologies applied, and to find out problem which were not addressed earlier.
RFID Technology
RFID is basically an identification tag (chip) containing electronically coded data that is attached to an object. It communicates data over the radio frequency (RF) to a reader as the object moves around the defined areas. The reader then decodes and validates the RF signal before transmitting associated data to a central database server of the company. Most of the RFIDs are one way communicators. They do not take data once they are in use.
RFID tags are placed on the assets to be monitored. Depending on the asset type and application requirements, the tags may be active or passive RFID. Active tags have a battery, beacon on a periodic basis, and can be read from distances of several hundred feet depending on the antenna type and surrounding environment. Passive tags derive their power when they are within the field of the reader. While they are considerably less expensive than active RFID tags, they have considerably less read range capability, with most having maximum read ranges of 10 feet or less. Because of these differences in cost, read ranges, mounting locations and life span, among others, care must be taken and time invested to choose the proper tag given the application.
RFID Integration in CIMpgr Process Model
The addition of RFID tags has improved the traceability tremendously. Using CIMpgr process modeling, the whole system of production, validation, sales & marketing of power wheelchairs is re-designed to integrate RFID technology. In this course of action, production process (A4) is powered with RFID to trace the flow of raw-materials within the production cycle and to forward the finished products to Validation process (A5). The RFID in Validation process directs the products requiring adjustments to Design Assembly process (A2) and controls the flow of inspected products. Similarly, with the help of RFID, Sales & Marketing process (A6) directs products for packing and places them in storage places according to their designs and keeps track of their location in storehouse and updates information when they are ready-to-market to improve inventory management.
Revised CIMpgr process model for Cruscare (Click on the image)
RFID Inclusion in Component Oriented Requirement Analysis
Cruscare along with Carrera, Bosch, Demo 3D and Mega has redone the component-oriented requirements analysis (CORA) as to study the effect of RFID integration over the customer requirements. The revised CORA spreadsheet clearly shows a positive significant effect on the project. Computer Aided Assembly, use RFID to determine the changes required in production for each group of products. Whereas, Quality Control and Risk Analysis utilize this technology to boost the process failures detection capability into the system as to minimize the risks involved in each failure. Similarly, Market Assessment, and Cost Management show great improvement with the introduction of RFID Technology. These improved engineering solutions in turn led to an improved customer satisfaction thereby, increasing the rating of our product. Using RFID helped us to improve the rating of cost efficiency, product warranty, on –time delivery and aesthetics.
Revised CORA Spreadsheet for Cruscare
RFID Influence on PFRA
The Process Failure Risk Analysis (PFRA) report is also revised as to measure the influence of RFID in improving the overall quality of processes and minimizing potential process failure risks. Since, RFID technology has strengthened the product traceability throughout the product life cycle, the likelihood of detecting any process failure has gone extremely high. As a result, three out of eleven potential failures compared to the previous report, marked with high risks, are extraordinarily influenced by the presence of RFID technology. This conclusion is deduced by considering drastic differences in the RPN (Risk Priority Number) if compared with the previous PFRA spreadsheet.
Revised PFRA Spreadsheet for Cruscare
Quality Audit
It is through the application of CIMpgr process models, execution of Component Oriented Requirements Analysis (CORA), development of Statistical Process Control (SPC) Charts, and realization of Process Failure Risk Analysis (PFRA) that Cruscare is able to meet and improve quality standards even further in its organization. To improve the quality even further Cruscare has implemented RFID in major processes.
An Audit is a systematic, independent and periodic examination to determine whether quality activities and related results comply with planned processes and arrangements, and whether or not these arrangements are implemented effectively, and are suitable to achieve management objectives. Audit information is used to establish new reference points against which reports are generated and to correct resulting from the performance of certain quality activities due to misinformation.
Addressing Auditing Issues
A quality audit was conducted, to ensure the conformance to ISO 9001:2008 quality principles. The audit team consisted of members from Cruscare, and our four collaborating companies. The results and some of their recommendation of their audit are presented below.
PURCHASE CONTROLS
Cruscare’s selection of suppliers for the company should be exclusively dependent on quality of products that the suppliers offer. Existing and quality proven organizations who are ISO 9001: 2008 will always be given priority. New vendors and new relationships can be established, but not without the proper consideration of all the necessary factors. The comparison of vendors can be done by using references from previous clients. Cruscare’s Quality department will make sure that the products supplied by the suppliers are safe and that they comply with the standard regulations and international standards.
FAT and SAT
There will be a factory acceptance test as well as site acceptance test conducted for all the parts that we order. This will ensure that the quality focus is not compromised in any way. This will be a formal process for continual improvement and by doing FAT and SAT one can provide an added value to the process and its products as well as maintain the highest quality of products.
NON-CONFORMANCE
There needs to be a well-established process for cases in which the materials do not meet the requirements and established standards. Cruscare can clearly outline the course of action needed with non-conforming materials so that it does not negatively affect the project and the customers. A well-defined non-conformance process will assist in identifying the reason for non-conformance, so it can be avoided in the future. The CIMpgr process models can be very useful in such situations as it describes each process in detail. It becomes very easy to identify where the non-conformance was.
TRACEABILITY
Without the ability to trace processes, components and tools efficiently, there’s a greater likelihood of a compromise in quality. Cruscare would like to work with our partners to integrate RFID technology into the products we are endorsing. Through RFID technology there will be assurance that there won’t be a compromise in product quality and every aspect and/or component could be traced to the origin. Also, RFID provides real-time information making it easier to address issues in a timely manner before they affect the quality of the product.
CONTROLS OF PRODUCTION DOCUMENTS
Cruscare follows Good Documentation Practices as required by the FDA. Every process and its components involved in the production of power wheelchairs must be documented. All the original documents, as well as their respective revisions, need to be properly labeled and stored. A formal process that includes creation, flow, required approvals and disposition of all documents that are created and their respective revisions has to be established. Electronic documents are shared with our collaborating companies.
CONTROLS OF PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT
There is a need of responsibility and accountability established for each phase and component of the production equipment control phase. The design of process control charts and other tools that can facilitate the process needs to take place. Government entities should be involved whenever necessary. Cruscare conducts periodic training in order to maintain the qualification and ensures that all the staff, technicians and engineers are signed up for this training.
PRODUCT RELEASE
Only after careful evaluation of every phase and ensuring the quality of the end product that the decision of releasing a product can be made by Cruscare team. This decision should not rest on the shoulders of one particular individual but should be a combined decision of a group of experts representing from each collaborating company in each area.
PRODUCT REALIZATION
It helps to evaluate the extent to which the requirements are being met. In other words, it determines if Cruscare and its power wheelchairs are living up to the customer expectations or not. If not, then what controls are required to bring a positive change and how will that be achieved. It has already been discussed that Cruscare only deals with reputable firms who understand that meet the ISO 9001:2008 standards. At Cruscare, most control changes should be preventive. And if the end product shows any deviation from planned cycle, the collaborative team studies the deviation to determines if it is an improvement to the original plan.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Cruscare’s customer service team answers queries that may arise from the customer regarding the power wheelchair that was delivered. It is not only answering the questions, but also doing so in a timely manner and to the full satisfaction of the customer. In addition, complaints and questions must be fully documented for future reference. Cruscare conducts periodic training for new and current employees to update them on policy changes instituted by our company and government.
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
To achieve the goal of meeting customer requirements and provide complete customer satisfaction, the company needs to establish communication with its customers. This can be done with the help of customer surveys and feedback forms. Once this information is gathered, Cruscare uses the CORA tool. This helps the company to get an insight on how the customer needs can best be addressed and what engineering solutions will fulfill them completely. By using a survey approach the company can accurately predict where customer desires will be with the next year or two.
RECALLS
We hope that through PFRA analysis, Cruscare will identify risks and correct them in the design stages. The cost of making changes at this stage is minimal compared to the cost of a recall. Use of the RFID technology can enable use to be flexible and react rapidly to product recalls in the event that they happen. If the recall is the result of one of the suppliers’ part/raw-material/intermediate product, Cruscare will ask the supplier to stop supply & production for that part.
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
Continuous improvement is not only necessary, but it is one of the guiding principles of ISO9001: 2008. Cruscare accomplishes this by actively reviewing its standard that have been implemented within purchasing controls, FAT and SAT, incoming inventory inspection, non-conformance issues and customer satisfaction. Through the continuous analysis of our processes, using the tools that we have learnt in this class, we can reduce the variability in our processes, and achieve total quality.
ECOFRIENDLINESS
Cruscare makes an attempt to reduce the amount of pollution that is produced during the manufacturing of power wheelchairs. As a result, the company has undertaken a massive initiative to create an environmental friendly facility. We are also working on improving our ability to recycle. This is important in reducing our carbon footprint.
Social Networking
As part of social networking, I have initiated various topics on Highlander like and Getting to know yourself. In this topic 8 people replied and I got to know more about them, their interests and career goals. Below is the screenshot for the same.
Carbon Footprint Calculations:
If it had not been for social networking, then one would have had to travel to different places in order to attend meetings and also discuss different aspects of manufacturing products. Since carbon emission is very dangerous to our atmosphere, we should be very careful. We should not add to the already existing problems.
Contributions of Our Collaborators
Carrera is the world’s largest manufacturer of high performance slot cars and precision race track systems. It is a good model company to design our wheelchairs. The wheelchairs are modified according to the customer’s requirement and Carrera helps us achieve that successfully. With Carrera’s reputation for precision in design, there will be very less defects and also very less return rate.
The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of technology and services in the areas of automotive and industrial technology, consumer goods, and building technology. We have a tie up with Bosch for the battery pack that they manufacture. The battery pack is light in weight and is incorporated into the design easily. The batteries are rechargeable and long lasting.
Demo3D is an industry-leading software development and sales management company focused on providing responsive solutions to well-defined industrial requirements. The quality focus commitment of our company is evident by collaboration with Demo 3D. We use the software that Demo 3D have made for our manufacturing facility. With this we can come to know our production capabilities and can meet all the deadlines on time.
Mega™: Megabrands is a very creative brand that appeals the families world over. By collaborating with them, we will market our products in a very innovative way and spread the message of “Green Planet” and the green designs used in our product.
Summary
In this assignment, we have shown how Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology could be used in Cruscare to improve our performance and quality. This improvement was demonstrated through updates to the following TQM tools: CIMpgr Process Models, Component Oriented Requirements Analysis (CORA) matrix, and the Process Failure Risk Analysis (PFRA) spreadsheet. Moreover, to provide a customer-oriented product, a new quality focus is developed with the integration of ISO 9001:2008 standards in combination with the previous Total Quality Methods learned.
Finally a quality audit was conducted by Cruscare and our collaborating companies, to determine whether or not International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001:2008 principles were being applied to their business functions.
Further work needed/proposed
The recommendations made by the auditing team should be applied to Cruscare, so that all business functions adhere to the principles described in the ISO 9001:2008 standards. Doing so will help our company continue down its path towards becoming a world-class organization, which focuses on quality. Cruscare will still try and improve, learn and will be open to innovative ideas which will make Cruscare even better.
Data Dictionary
· PFRA: Process Failure Risk Analysis
· FMEA: Failure Mode & Effect Analysis
· CORA: Component Oriented Requirements Analysis
· RPN: Risk Priority Number
· TQM: Total Quality Management
· ISO: International Organization of Standards
· RIR: Relative Importance Rating
· AIR: Absolute Importance Rating
References
· http://www.cimwareukandusa.com/All_IE673/IE673Fall2009.html
· E-learning pack ID: IE 673-Fall2009-70-08
· www.wikipedia.org
