Make recommendations for where operations management tools and techniques might be applied to achieve improved performance

Answer

Introduction

            The automotive industry and the suppliers are usually guided by strict requirements when it comes to reliability, cost-efficiency, and even the production facilities quality (Cole & Flynn, 2009). This is because the resulting product will serve a purpose whereby it can cause death or alternatively protect the passengers. Vehicle parts are developed separately in specific production units. Before the parts are brought forward to the assembly unit; quality control must first take place to ensure that the final product is indeed designed and developed as required (Cole & Flynn, 2009). For instance, the door of a vehicle may be inspected to make sure that it will fit and shut as expected. It will also be inspected for any missing parts, such as the button for opening or closing windows. Presently, I work with Isuzu, a car manufacturing company that has been amongst the industry giants for years. I work under the quality control operation of the company, as my role is to actively help in determining the faults of products before they move on to the next stages.

Company background

            Isuzu Motors Ltd. manufactures markets and sells commercial vehicles, as well as diesel engines. The engines of this company are used by renowned manufacturers such as Ford Motor and Renault-Nissan Alliance. The sophisticated technological strength of this company is what contributes to its competitive advantage. To ensure the safety of all customers, Isuzu tailors its technologies to suit unique commercial vehicles. The foundation of the company philosophy is formed by three pillars; environmental performance that creates room for reliability, economic advantages that are designed to make reliability affordable to consumers, and lastly, global quality standards that ensure further developments will be achieved. These guidelines are what this company uses to aid in its quest to meet the needs of both present and future generations.

            The goal of this company is to always be the first to create excellent products and offer tools that will enable the efficient management of the products. Isuzu aims to be renowned as a visionary company. Therefore, it continues to grow and evolve basing on its three pillar philosophy. Here, it is believed that it is the role of the company to offer safety, both actively and passively. Thus, it is the reason why quality control is a very important operation in the company. Technology is used unlimitedly to ease the quality control operation.

Quality Control

            Quality control is a common operation in all industries. Before a company can release a product to the market, quality control is needed to rule out and correct any flaws that may eventually impact the company negatively. In the food and drink industry, quality control usually features testing whether the product is safe for human consumption and that the taste is as expected. In the automotive industry, quality control consists testing various parts of the vehicle, and the final product, to ensure that no faults are present.

            For Isuzu, uncompromising quality is considered its heritage. To ensure that all its plants located at various sites all over the world manufacture a uniform quality, the company constantly raises the workforce quality, as well as that of the manufacturing system. In this company, nothing is more important than quality. To give consumers reassurance, a strict quality control system is followed every single day. The parts of a vehicle are examined one by one to determine versatility. For instance, the chassis and engine of a vehicle usually feature over 10,000 parts. If only the final product is tested, the company is bound to suffer from a great loss due to the wastage of time and resources (Cole & Flynn, 2009). This is why various checkpoints have been put in place. If a part does not pass the quality test at a checkpoint, it will be taken apart and rebuilt, before being passed through the checkpoint once again. Since the operation is handled by human beings, Isuzu has made sure to instill a culture whereby a product must be 100% qualified to pass on to the next step. The line staff, therefore, already knows that unless all standards are passed, there is no way they will let the product through.

Engine Quality Control

            When developing the engine, several questions need to be asked to act as guidance for the quality control operation. These questions can be categorized into two; leak testing and engine testing.

Leak Testing

            Examples of questions to ask are; Are there any leaking vales now before the engine is completely assembled? Are there any oil drops on other surfaces of the engine? If any leakage is present, it means that there has been a failure in either the assembly unit or the component. To ensure that the consumer will not find any faults, the leak is addressed immediately. If an air leak is suspected, a robot led sniffling sensor or eve a hydrogen based method of testing will be applied (Cole & Flynn, 2009). These will either confirm or deny whether any air is being leaked.

            Another method that may be used to detect leaks is the “pressure decay” method (Cole & Flynn, 2009). Machines used for this test are manually loaded by operators. In case the parts are heavy, appropriate lifting equipment will be used. To simplify this operation and avoid human error, the employee is expected to use a handheld scanner that will scan the barcode on the engine. This will help in identifying and recording the variant of the product to be tested. All orifices that are being tested are covered with seals, usually O-rings on a tool. They are then closed onto the part with the help of pneumatic cylinders and manual clamps.

            After it has been detected as being “in space”, the operator presses the start button to initiate testing. After the test sequence has been completed, results are displayed as either pass or fail. If the product passed, it is cleared for the next stage of production. However, if it failed, the line managers may need to take it apart and start the development once again.

Engine testing

            There are two types of tests that can be conducted on an engine; they involve function testing and durability testing.

            Engine function tests are done for cooling systems, lubrication systems, cranktrain and bearings, coldstart and warmup, valve train and valve adjustments, and lastly belt drive systems and auxiliaries (Cole & Flynn, 2009). If any of these parts of the engine fails the set standards, then the product is considered to be of poor quality. It must, therefore, be repaired or destroyed in cases where repair cannot handle the problem. After corrections are made, the part is checked all over again to ensure that the repair was effective, and that no other problems were developed during the repair process.

The endurance tests, on the other hand, are done by putting the engine to trial by overloading it. This test is done after the engine is fully assembled as it will need to be running. Since the engine was developed under the guidance of specific standards, the latter are what will be used to compare and gauge whether or not the quality test is a pass or fail. For example, if the required standard was an engine that could run nonstop for over 30 hours, the test will leave it running so as to see the number of hours it can reach. If the standard is met, then the pass is 100%, however if not, the engine is considered of a poor quality. Other factors, such as overheating will also be noted, as these are some of the reasons why engines spoil suddenly and unexpectedly.

Automobile Quality Control

            For automobiles, quality control begins long before the production models are presented in the assembly line. When a new product is released, prototypes are built. These are the first to undergo the quality control as they are tested for weaknesses and mechanical problems among many others (Cole & Flynn, 2009). Once the prototype is polished thoroughly, the design is taken into production. An example of how quality control is performed for automobiles is driving the car on specially designed surfaces to test for how smooth it runs and how durable the suspension is. To test the mechanical components of the car, the sample is exposed to extreme heat and cold weather, while it is functioning. This test helps to predict how well it will function when exposed to similar conditions in the real world. To check whether the vehicle is airtight, as it should be, all windows and doors are shut before it is filled with smoke. If smoke manages to pass through, then the vehicle fails the test.

            Another example of a quality control test is the crash test. The purpose of this test is to ensure that the product and the installed safety system will work as they expected in the design. Here, a specially designed dummy is put in place to enable the recording of deformations that may occur in different parts. The prototype is then rammed through a brick wall, and the dummy records important data such as acceleration, deceleration, speed, impact force and even deformations on body parts (Cole & Flynn, 2009). This is what will be compared to the human body to note the level of damage, and whether or not the safety system works.

            The braking system of the vehicle also needs to be tested. To do so, the prototype is driven at a very high speed, before the brake is applied suddenly.  If the vehicle does not stop, or if it responds in a negative way such as rolling over or tripping, then the prototype fails the test, and the braking system will have to be corrected.

            Finally, the assembly of the vehicle will also be tested to see of all parts are fitted accordingly (Cole & Flynn, 2009). For example, assembly brackets can be inspected to see if they are precisely positioned. These are the connecting pieces in between the body of a vehicle and the roof. If the hard top appears compressed, or troublesome noises are made when opening and closing the doors, then the test is failed.

Conclusion

            The quality control operation is a very important part of this organization since consumers need to be offered with products that fully satisfy their needs. This operation basically works by comparing the set standards with what has actually been developed. Since Isuzu is strict with quality, it has developed a culture whereby employees cannot ignore even the simplest flaw that may not cause any harm.

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