Polaroid Case Study
BACKDROP
Polaroid is manufacturer of photographic equipment, accessories and related items used in instant photography. The organization was divided into two main divisions – The Consumer Photography Division and the Technical and Industrial Division with each of these divisions contributing around 40% of Polaroid’s revenues of $ 1.3 billion in 1984.
The company produced two main types of films:
1. The peel apart film which required the user to physically pull the film out of the camera and,
2. The integral film, which came out of the camera automatically.
The integral films were manufactured in the R2 building at the Waltham Massachusetts site. The operations at R2 included production of sheet metal springs, pods, plastic cartridges and plastic end caps and then assembled these into film cartridges. R2 ran three shifts, five days a week, employing approximately 900 workers out of which 700 were part time.
QUALITY AND PROCESS CONTROL PROCEDURES AT R2
All films were vetted by the Quality Control Department before being released into the market. The QC procedure included sampling of 15 finished cartridges (each containing 10 frames) out of every lot of 5000 cartridges. If the sampled cartridges contained defects in excess of allowable limits, the lot was held and further testing was done. Additional testing usually led to reworking, or rejection of a portion or all of the lot. Subsequent lots were the subjected to even more rigorous testing by increasing the sample size tested.
Quality checks were not the sole responsibility of the QC department. The operators usually sampled around 32 samples out of every lot. If the measurements went against the knowledge of the operator, the sample was rejected.
After process control was initiated in R2 in the late 1970’s, process engineering technicians were made responsible for gathering data and making rough analyses.
PROBLEMS WITH EXISTING QUALITY CONTROL
Polaroid is manufacturer of photographic equipment, accessories and related items used in instant photography. The organization was divided into two main divisions – The Consumer Photography Division and the Technical and Industrial Division with each of these divisions contributing around 40% of Polaroid’s revenues of $ 1.3 billion in 1984.
The company produced two main types of films:
1. The peel apart film which required the user to physically pull the film out of the camera and,
2. The integral film, which came out of the camera automatically.
The integral films were manufactured in the R2 building at the Waltham Massachusetts site. The operations at R2 included production of sheet metal springs, pods, plastic cartridges and plastic end caps and then assembled these into film cartridges. R2 ran three shifts, five days a week, employing approximately 900 workers out of which 700 were part time.
QUALITY AND PROCESS CONTROL PROCEDURES AT R2
All films were vetted by the Quality Control Department before being released into the market. The QC procedure included sampling of 15 finished cartridges (each containing 10 frames) out of every lot of 5000 cartridges. If the sampled cartridges contained defects in excess of allowable limits, the lot was held and further testing was done. Additional testing usually led to reworking, or rejection of a portion or all of the lot. Subsequent lots were the subjected to even more rigorous testing by increasing the sample size tested.
Quality checks were not the sole responsibility of the QC department. The operators usually sampled around 32 samples out of every lot. If the measurements went against the knowledge of the operator, the sample was rejected.
After process control was initiated in R2 in the late 1970’s, process engineering technicians were made responsible for gathering data and making rough analyses.
PROBLEMS WITH EXISTING QUALITY CONTROL