Longxi Machinery Works
Longxi Machinery Works – Quality Improvement
Issues Mr. Shi, Manager of the Quality Management Department at Longxi Machinery Works (Longxi) received a report regarding quality concerns with the production of a critical part used in the engine called duo-gear shaft (DGS). This was not the first time that quality concerns about this part had come to Shi’s attention. The immediate task is to lower the defect rate of the production of DGS to a satisfactory level. The basic issue lies on the motivation system at Longxi for the production workers and technicians. The people side, equipment side, and method side of Longxi’s motivation system will be addressed below.
Decision Criteria / Parameters As a machinery factory, Longxi should focus on reduce cost and time spending on the production. Whether the proposed alternative actions are easy to implement should be another criterion to consider. Ultimately, the projected actions should bring either immediate outcomes or long-term solutions to the problem.
Analysis We can say that the immediate issue of Longxi is extremely important and highly urgent and, hence, has to be addressed immediately. However, it can not be resolved without touching the basic issue, which is to deal with some problems in Longxi’s management of its motivation system to the employees. To start, we need to look into the people, equipment, and method side of the motivation system.
People: It seemed Longxi had enough technicians. (350 technical staff, 30 percent of these employees have “Senior Engineer” title which means they have more than 15 years of technical work experience). The problem was that these technicians need to be motivated. Sometimes they failed to solve technical problems sooner or they can not foresee any problems in production line equipment.
Equipment: The operation of the older equipment in Longxi still relied heavily on human judgement. For this very reason, often the products were not standard (quality defect).
Issues Mr. Shi, Manager of the Quality Management Department at Longxi Machinery Works (Longxi) received a report regarding quality concerns with the production of a critical part used in the engine called duo-gear shaft (DGS). This was not the first time that quality concerns about this part had come to Shi’s attention. The immediate task is to lower the defect rate of the production of DGS to a satisfactory level. The basic issue lies on the motivation system at Longxi for the production workers and technicians. The people side, equipment side, and method side of Longxi’s motivation system will be addressed below.
Decision Criteria / Parameters As a machinery factory, Longxi should focus on reduce cost and time spending on the production. Whether the proposed alternative actions are easy to implement should be another criterion to consider. Ultimately, the projected actions should bring either immediate outcomes or long-term solutions to the problem.
Analysis We can say that the immediate issue of Longxi is extremely important and highly urgent and, hence, has to be addressed immediately. However, it can not be resolved without touching the basic issue, which is to deal with some problems in Longxi’s management of its motivation system to the employees. To start, we need to look into the people, equipment, and method side of the motivation system.
People: It seemed Longxi had enough technicians. (350 technical staff, 30 percent of these employees have “Senior Engineer” title which means they have more than 15 years of technical work experience). The problem was that these technicians need to be motivated. Sometimes they failed to solve technical problems sooner or they can not foresee any problems in production line equipment.
Equipment: The operation of the older equipment in Longxi still relied heavily on human judgement. For this very reason, often the products were not standard (quality defect).