Improvement of fixture design using SQC tools

Abstract

In recent years, many organizations have looked upon continuous improvement and total quality management (TQM) within manufacturing as the means by which they could maintain a competitive edge. Now, only manufacturing is not responsible for success of any company but it is matter of complete supply chain. A manufacturing supply chain is an integrated set of business functions, encompassing all activities from raw material acquisition to final customer delivery. Even though much attention has been focused on supply chain management (SCM) concepts in recent years, its interlinking with the quality management perspective is often limited and tangential in nature. While the importance of quality management is universally recognized, academic researchers need a more focused approach in evaluating quality management issues within the internal and external supply chain contexts. Consequently, in this study all the critical factors of supply chain in a world leading automotive OEM is well discussed and analyzed and critical factors and their sub factors of quality management in supply chain also discussed and prioritized. Organizations in the automotive struggle with two key issues: quality management for better meeting customer expectations, supply chain management for more effectively working with suppliers and dealers to provide a seamless service to customers. Excellence in these key aspects of business is the hallmark of great companies. This can be achieved through good Planning and improvements in Processes through involvement of the People. Further analyses, an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) approach is employed to suggest a generic hierarchy model for organizations to prioritize the relative importance of seven critical factors and forty two sub factors of quality management in supply chain. This study contributes to priorities the key factors and sub factors of Quality Management, so that company can formulate strategies for implementing QM in supply chain and seeks to understand how quality can be managed using a supply chain perspective of an automobile original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to sustain competitive edge.