Module 2: Quality Systems

Imandi Aparna Devi

 WHAT IS A QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM?

A quality management system (QMS) is a formalized system that defines and documents an
organization’s processes, procedures, and responsibilities for achieving quality policies,
practices, and objectives. It helps an organization coordinate and direct its activities to meet
customer and regulatory requirements, as well as continuously improve its effectiveness and
efficiency.
 WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF A QMS?

Meeting customer requirements, which helps instill confidence in the organization, in turn leading to more customers, sales,
and repeat business

Meeting the organization's requirements, which ensures compliance with applicable regulations and provides products and
services in the most cost and resource-efficient manner, creating room for expansion, growth, and profit

These benefits offer additional advantages, including:

● Defining, improving, and controlling processes

● Reducing waste
● Preventing mistakes
● Lowering costs
● Facilitating and identifying training opportunities
● Engaging staff
● Setting organization wide direction
● Communicating a readiness to produce consistent results
 WHAT ARE SOME QMS FRAMEWORKS?

Several frameworks exist to guide QMS development, including

● ISO 9001
● ISO 9000 series
● ISO 14000 series (environmental management systems)
● ISO 13485 (quality management systems for medical devices)
● ISO 19011 (auditing management systems)
● IATF 16949 (quality management systems for automotive-related products)
● AS 9100 (quality management systems for aviation, space, and defense)
Furthermore, several industries also have developed standards, built upon ISO 9001, that offer
specific direction regarding additional expectations that are uniquely associated with their
operations.
ISO 9001 is the most recognized and implemented quality management system standard in the
world. ISO 9001 specifies the requirements for a QMS that organizations can use to develop
their own programs.
 WHAT ARE SOME QMS FRAMEWORKS?

The standard is structured around seven quality management principles.

Quality management principles are the guiding beliefs that, when used for organizational decision-
making, ensure long-term success from the perspective of customers, employees, and other
stakeholders.
The quality management principles demonstrate the depth of the organization’s commitment to
quality.
Well-formulated principles should be timeless, not dependent on temporary circumstances.
The ISO 9001:2015 principles are:
1. Customer focus
2. Leadership
3. Engagement of people
4. Process approach
5. Continuous improvement
6. Evidence-based decision making
7. Relationship management
 ELEMENTS AND REQUIREMENTS OF A QMS

Each element of a QMS helps achieve the overall goal of meeting customer and
organizational requirements. A QMS should address an organization’s unique needs, but
many of the QMS systems have common expectations, including:
● Leadership
● Planning, commitment, and review
● The system spans the breadth of the organization
● Metrics and feedback
● Communication, education, and training
● Risk management
● Teamwork
● Compliance to requirements
● Continuous improvement
 IMPLEMENTATION OF QMS
Every organization has its own culture, which influences which QMS methods are most efficient and effective.
Instead of developing a QMS by addressing each expectation described in a selected model, organizations should
outline the approaches currently in use for managing quality and meeting customer expectations.
A basic model for gathering customer expectations can be structured in the following four steps: plan your customer
data system, gather customer data, understand the data, and deploy (make use of) the data.
Next, map those approaches against the appropriate QMS framework or model. For each identified gap, the
organization should determine whether it would benefit from addressing the opportunity, and must clearly
understand the potential benefit before implementing any changes.
The QMS design should be influenced by the organization’s objectives, needs, products, and services. This structure
is based largely on the plan-do-check-act cycle and allows for continuous improvement to the product and QMS.

The basic steps to implementing a QMS are:

1. Design
2. Build
3. Deploy
4. Control
5. Measure
6. Review
7. Improve
QMS development, establishment, implementation, and monitoring should be accomplished under
the approach of applying the Juran Trilogy. The Juran Trilogy focuses on the three critical
processes of quality management—namely quality planning, quality control, and quality
improvement. By taking this approach, organizations can maximize their potential to operate in the
most strategic, efficient, and effective manner possible.
 IMS
To manage quality and overall business performance, a company needs an integrated
management system (IMS), the structure of which is linked to actual business processes and
documentation systems.
An Integrated Management System (or “IMS”) can benefit your organization through
increased efficiency and effectiveness, and cost reductions while minimizing the disruption
caused by several external audits. It also shows your commitment to increased
performance, employee and customer satisfaction, and continuous improvement.
With an integrated management system, your management systems work together, with
each function aligned behind a single goal: improving the performance of the entire
organization. Instead of silos, you have a coordinated effort which is greater than the sum of
its parts and is not only more efficient but more effective. An integrated system provides a
clear, uniform image of your entire organization, how they impact each other, and the
associated risks. Efficiency is gained from less duplication, and it becomes easier to adopt
new systems in the future.
 In Other Words
An integrated management system (IMS) is a management system, which integrates all
relevant components of a business into one coherent system so as to enable the
optimal achievement of its business objectives.
The integrated approach requires combining all the internal business management
practices into one system.
For the different systems to be properly integrated, rather than simply being separate
systems joined together, there have to be effective linkages so that the boundaries
between processes are seamless.
The fundamental components of the system include the organisation, resources and
processes. Therefore, people, equipment and business culture are part of the system
as well as the documented policies and practices.
 What can be integrated?
Any system, which is required by the effective running of a business, can
be integrated either totally or partially under a unified management
structure. In essence any system, which has an impact on overall
business performance should be part of the integrated management
system.
 Benefits of an IMS
1. Improving Performance
2. Eliminating Redundancies
3. Accountability
4. Establishing Consistency
5. Reducing Bureaucracy
6. Cost Reduction
7. Optimize Processes and Resources
8. Reducing Maintenance
9. Integrated Audits
10. Facilitating Decision Making
To ensure this is done effectively, the steps listed below should be
followed:

● Define the Business Model and Primary Functions

● Analyse business processes using flow charts, standards and
failure mode analysis techniques
● Formulate operational policies which will govern the processes
and their inter-linkages
● Develop internal business procedures to control each business
process which define who does what and where, when and how
● Implement the new and improved practices, if required
● Identify optimum documentation needs by linkage to the control
procedures
● Document the system
 How should systems be integrated?
There are several approaches, which can be taken, depending on an
organisation's current position. However, all systems should eventually share the
following processes:

● Management review
● Document development and control
● Monitoring, analysis and review
● Internal audit
● Training
● Continual improvement (Corrective and Preventive Actions)
 What is required to ensure effective integrated management systems?
To ensure effective systems, the following functions must be performed:

Risk Assessment- this should address customer perceptions, health & safety risks, environmental
concerns & impacts and process failure modes. By having a common approach it will be easier to
compare risks occurring in different parts of the business.
Norms & Regulations Management - to capture norms and regulations with respect to product
specifications, environment and health & safety and their impacts on the business.
Continual Improvement Management - this should focus on specific improvement programmes related
to quality, health & safety and environment.
Stakeholders Awareness - this should address needs of both customers, staff and general public with
respect to quality, health & safety and environment
What is the best approach to take?
Whether an organisation has an existing formal system or not, it is best to adopt the business process
approach to management system development. The benefits are that one coherent system can be
built which serves business needs and does not tie the organisation to a particular standard. The
standards are used to assist identify tasks and processes. This approach starts by looking at the
business as a whole and establishing its objectives, mission and core processes which deliver the
objectives and achieve this mission.
 What types of systems can be integrated?
All systems relevant to the business, whether certifiable or otherwise, can be
included. These could include: Quality (ISO 9001); Environment (ISO 14001);
Occupational Health & Safety (ISO 45001 & BS 8800); Food Safety & Hazard
Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP); Ethical Trading Practices (SA
8000); Social & Ethical Accounting, Auditing and Reporting (AA 1000);
Investor in People (IIP); Law Society Practice Management Standard
(LEXCEL), European Directives and CE Markings; Information Security (BS
7799); Quality System Requirements for Automotive Industry Suppliers
(ISO/TS 16949 & QS 9000); Quality System Requirements for
Telecommunications Industry Suppliers (TL 9000); and Business Excellence
Model (BEM).
 Why should management systems be integrated?

Integration is designed to:

● Ensure focus on business goals & objectives
● Harmonise and optimise practices
● Reduce risks to the business and increase profitability
● Balance conflicting objectives
● Eliminate conflicting responsibilities and relationships
● Create consistency
● Reduce duplication and therefore costs
● Improve communications
● Facilitate training and development
 BENCHMARKING
● Benchmarking is a systematic method by which organizations can measure themselves
against the best industry practices.
● It promotes superior performance by providing an organized framework through which
organizations learn how the “best in class” do things, understand how these best practices
differ from their own, and implement change to close the gap.
● The essence of benchmarking is the process of borrowing ideas and adapting them to gain
competitive advantage. It is a tool for continuous improvement.
● These standards stipulate that quality goals and objectives be based on competitive
products and benchmarking, both inside and outside the iindustry.
 Definition of Benchmarking
Benchmarking is the systematic search for best practices, innovative ideas, and highly
effective operating procedures. Benchmarking considers the experience of others and uses
it. Indeed,- it is the common-sense proposition to learn from others what they do right and
then imitate it to avoid reinventing the wheel.
Implicit in the definition of benchmarking are two key elements.
First, measuring performance requires some sort of units of measure. These are called metrics and are
usually expressed numerically. The numbers achieved by the best-in-class benchmark are the target. An
organization seeking improvement then plots its own performance against the target.
Second, benchmarking requires that managers understand why their performance differs. Benchmarkers
must develop a thorough and in-depth knowledge of both their own processes and the processes of the
best-in-class organization. An understanding of the differences allows managers to organize their
improvement efforts to meet the goal. Benchmarking is about setting goals and objectives and about
meeting them by improving processes.
Benchmarking measures performance against that of best-in-class organizations,determines
how the best in class achieve those performance levels, and uses the information as the basis
for adaptive creativity and breakthrough performance.
 Reasons to Benchmark
It is not a panacea that can replace all other quality efforts or management processes.
Organizations must still decide which markets to serve and determine the strengths that will
enable them to gain competitive advantage.
Benchmarking is one tool to help organizations develop those strengths and reduce
weaknesses.
Benchmarking can inspire managers (and organizations) to compete
It is hard to argue that an objective is impossible when it can be shown that another
organization has already achieved it
Benchmarking is time and cost efficient because the process involves imitation and adaptation
rather than pure invention
Best-in-class performance is a moving target
Useful technological breakthroughs can be located and adopted early.
 Process

Organizations that benchmark, adapt the process to best fit their own needs and culture.
Although the number of steps in the process may vary from organization to organization,
the following six steps contain the core techniques.
1. Decide what to benchmark.
2. Understand current performance.
3. Plan.
4. Study others.
5. Learn from the data.
6. Use the findings.
 Pitfalls and Criticisms of Benchmarking

1. The most persistent criticism of benchmarking comes from the idea of copying
others. How can an organization be truly superior if it does not innovate to get
ahead of?

2. Benchmarking is also not a substitute for innovation; however, it is a source of

ideas from outside the organization.
 Types of Benchmarking

1. Strategic Benchmarking
2. Performance Benchmarking or Competitive Benchmarking
3. Process Benchmarking
4. Functional Benchmarking or Generic Benchmarking
5. Internal Benchmarking
6. External Benchmarking
7. International Benchmarking
 Benefits of Benchmarking
● Step changes in performance and innovation;
● Improving quality and productivity; and
● Improving performance measurement.
● Raised awareness about performance and greater openness about relative strengths and
weaknesses;
● Learning from others and greater confidence in developing and applying new approaches;
● greater involvement and motivation of staff in change programmes;
● Increase in willingness to share solutions to common problems and build consensus about what is
needed to accommodate changes;
● Better understanding of the ëbig pictureí and gaining a broader perspective of the interplay of the
factors (or enablers) that facilitate the implementation of good practice; and
● Increasing collaboration and understanding of the interactions within and between organisations.
 Quality Function Deployment
● Dr. Mizuno, professor emeritus of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, is credited with initiating the
quality function deployment (QFD) system.
● The first application of QFD was at Mitsubishi, Heavy Industries, Ltd., in the Kobe Shipyard, Japan,
in 1972.
● After four years of case study development, refinement, and training. QFD was successfully
implemented in the production of mini-vans by Toyota.
● Using 1977 as a base, a 20% reduction in startup costs was reported in the launch of the new van
in October 1979, a 38% reduction by November 1982, and a cumulative 61% reduction by April
1984.
● Quality function deployment was first introduced in the United States in 1984 by Dr. Clausing of
Xerox.
● QFD can be applied to practically any manufacturing or service industry. It has become a standard
practice by most leading organizations, who also require it of their suppliers.
Quality Function Deployment
 Quality Function Deployment
# Food for thought
Imagine that two engineers are working on two different components of a car sunroof simultaneously but separately. The
‘insulation and sealing’ engineer develops a new seal that will keep out rain, even during a blinding rainstorm. The
‘handles, knobs and levers’ engineer is working on a simpler lever that will make the roof easier to open. The new lever is
tested and works well with the old seal. Neither engineer is aware of the activities of the other. As it turns out, the
combination of heavier roof (due to the increased insulation) and lighter lever means that the driver can no longer open the
sunroof with one hand, thereby violating a quality characteristic expected by the consumer. It is hoped that the problem will
be detected in prototype testing before the car is put into production. At that point, one or both component will need to be
redesigned. Otherwise, cars already produced will need to be reworked and cars already sold, will have to be recalled.
None of these alternatives is pleasant, they all involve considerable costs.

Shared Information: design project knows the design objectives and is aware of the inter-relationships of the
various parts of the design.
 What is QFD and why is it used?
Definition of QFD
Quality Function Deployment may be defined as a system for translating consumer
requirements into appropriated company requirements at every stage, from research
through product design and development, to manufacture, distribution, installation and
marketing, sales and service.
In simpler terms……
It is a structured process is needed that will translate the ‘voice of the customer’ to
technical requirements at every stage of design and manufacture. Such a process is
called Quality Function Deployment (QFD).
 Objective of QFD
To ensure that the voice of customer is common, continuous thread of information going
through all stages of the product lifecycle, from design concept, component, design, process
and manufacture through to the eventual user
 Benefits of QFD
(i) Promotes better understanding of customer demands;
(ii) Promotes better understanding of design interactions;
(iii) Involves manufacturing in the design process;
(iv) Breaks down barriers between functions and departments;
(v) Focuses the design effort;
(vi) Fosters teamwork;
(vii) Improves documentation of the design and development process for product improvement
through technical benchmarking.
(viii) Increase customer satisfaction.
(ix) Reduces the number of engineering changes.
(x) Brings new design to the market faster.
(xi) Reduces the overall costs of design and manufacture.
House of Quality
 Cost of Quality
Cost of quality is the amount of money a business loses because its product or service was
not done right in the first place.
A quality cost is considered to be any cost that the company would not have incurred
if the quality of the product or service were perfect.
Cost of Quality (COQ) has two main components:
1. Cost of Conformance and
2. Cost of Non-Conformance
The companies estimate quality costs for the following reasons:
a) To quantifying the size of the quality problem in the language of money improves
communication between middle managers and upper managers.
b) To identify major opportunities for cost reduction.
c) To identify the opportunities for reducing customer dissatisfaction and associated threats
to product salability.
 Cost of Quality
Categories of Quality Cost
Many companies summarize quality costs into four broad categories. They are :
a) Internal failure costs - The cost associated with defects that are found prior to transfer of
the product to the customer.
b) External failure costs - The cost associated with defects that are found after product is
shipped to the customer.
c) Appraisal costs - The cost incurred in determining the degree of conformance to quality
requirement.
d) Prevention costs - The cost incurred in keeping failure and appraisal costs to a minimum.
 Zero Defects

● Total Safety Systems seek to achieve a zero risk objective

● Safety under TQM follows an innovative approach taking incremental steps to
improve, modify or change existing arrangements with task simplification, task
integration for organisational objectives and with a value-added approach
towards the fulfillment of organisational objectives.
● TSS also present a case of behaviour modification for interaction between
technical system and people system
● TSS introduce the concept of Zero Risk which is so essential for the pursual
of Zero Defect (ZD), right from first-time strategies.
● It has to depend on the contribution of other practices such as Total
Preventative Maintenance (TPM) and Total Safety Systems.
 Continuous Improvement
● Continuous process improvement is designed to utilize the resources of the organization to achieve a quality-driven
culture.
● Individuals must think, act, and speak quality.
● An organization attempts to reach a single-minded link between quality and work execution by educating its constituents
to “continuously” analyze and improve their own work, the processes, and their work group.
Improvement is made by
• Viewing all work as a process, whether it is associated with production or business activities.
• Making all processes effective, efficient, and adaptable.
• Anticipating changing customer needs.
• Controlling in-process performance using measures such as scrap reduction, cycle time, control charts, and so forth.
• Maintaining constructive dissatisfaction with the present level of performance.
• Eliminating waste and rework wherever it occurs.
Investigating activities that do not add value to the product or service, with the aim of eliminating those activities.
• Eliminating nonconformities in all phases of everyone’s work, even if the increment of improvement i small.
• Using benchmarking to improve competitive advantage.
• Innovating to achieve breakthroughs.
• Incorporating lessons learned into future activities.
• Using technical tools such as statistical process control (SPC), experimental design, benchmarking, quality function
deployment (QFD), and so forth.
 Process Model
Process refers to business and production activities of an organization. Business processes such as purchasing, engineering, accounting,
and marketing are areas where nonconformance can represent an opportunity for substantial improvement.

At this point it is important to define an improvement. There are five basic ways to improve: (1) reduce resources, (2) reduce errors, (3)
meet or exceed expectations of downstream customers, (4) make the process safer, and (5) make the process more satisfying to the
Kaizen
Kaizen relies heavily on a culture that
encourages suggestions by operators who
continually try to incrementally improve their job
or process.

Kaizen traditionally involves slow incremental

improvements

KAIZEN refers to improvement AND ongoing or

continuity.
 5S
● Efficient work and quality require clean environment, safety and
discipline. T
● he Japanese 5S are simple, effective rules for tidiness.
● The 5S are prerequisites for any improvement program.
● As waste is potential gain, so eliminating waste is a gain.
● 5S Philosophy focuses on effective workplace organization, simplifies
work environment, reduces waste while improving quality and safety.
● There is no hope for efficiency or quality improvement with dirty
workplace, waste of time and scrap.
● The 5Ss stand for the five first letters of these Japanese words, Seiri,
Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu and Shitsuke.
Seiri (Sorting Out)
5S
● Sorting, keep the necessary in work area, dispose or keep in a distant storage area less frequently used items,
unneeded items are discarded.
● Seiri fights the habit to keep things because they may be useful someday.
● Seiri helps to keep work area tidy, improves searching and fetching efficiency and generally clears much space.
● Seiri is also excellent way to gain valuable floor space and eliminate old broken tools, obsolete jigs and fixtures,
scrap and excess raw material.
Seiton (Systematic Arrangement)
Systematic arrangement for the most efficient and effective retrieval.
A good example of Seiton is the tool panel. Effective Seiton can be achieved by painting floors to visualize the dirt, outlining
work areas and locations, shadow tool boards. For improving changeover time with Single Minute Exchange of Dies
(SMED) or reduce machine downtime through Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) it is necessary to have tools at hand.
So a specific mobile tool cart was designed.
Seiso (Spick and Span)
Cleaning.
Cleanliness is also helpful to notice damages on equipment such as leaks, breakage and misalignment. These minor
damages, if left unattended, could lead to equipment failure and loss of production.
Regular cleaning is a type of inspection. Seiso is an important part of basic TPM; Total Productive Maintenance and Safety
matter through cleanliness is obvious.
 5S
Seiketsu (Standardizing)
Standardizing. Once the first three Ss have been implemented, it should be set as a standard so to keep these
for good practice work area.
Without it, the situation will deteriorate right back to old habits. Have an easy-to-follow standards and develop a
structure to support it. Allow employees to join the development of such standards.
The 3 first Ss are often executed by order. Seiketsu helps to turn it into natural, standard behavior.
Shitsuke (Self Discipline)
Finally, to keep first 4 Ss alive, it is necessary to keep educating people about maintaining standards.
By setting up a formal system; with display of results, follow-up, the now complete 5S get insured to live and be
expanded beyond their initial limits, in an ongoing improvement way; the Kaizen way.
The effect of continuous improvement leads to less waste, better quality and faster lead times.
 PDCA Cycle
● The basic Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle was first developed by Shewhart and
then modified by Deming. It is an effective improvement technique.
● The Plan-do-check-act cycle is a four-step model for carrying out change.
● Just as a circle has no end, the PDCA cycle should be repeated again and again
for continuous improvement. The PDCA cycle is considered a project planning tool
.
 When do you use PDCA?
● Starting a new improvement project
● Developing a new or improved design of a process, product, or service
● Defining a repetitive work process
● Planning data collection and analysis in order to verify and prioritize problems
or root causes
● Implementing any change
● Working toward continuous improvement
 How do you use PDCA?
1. Plan: Recognize an opportunity and plan a change.
2. Do: Test the change. Carry out a small-scale study.
3. Check: Review the test, analyze the results, and identify what you’ve learned.
4. Act: Take action based on what you learned in the study step. If the change did
not work, go through the cycle again with a different plan. If you were successful,
incorporate what you learned from the test into wider changes. Use what you
learned to plan new improvements, beginning the cycle again.
 Juran’s Trilogy
● Planning: Plan your Customers, Develop Voice of Customers using Tools like
QFD, Chalk out Features and Finally, Determine the Processes Involved
● Control: Control is used by operating forces to help meet the product, process,
and service requirements. It uses the feedback loop and consists of the following
steps:
1. Determine items/subjects to be controlled and their units of measure.
2. Set goals for the controls and determine what sensors need to be put in place to
measure the product, process, or service.
3. Measure actual performance.
4. Compare actual performance to goals.
5. Act on the difference.
 Juran’s Trilogy
Process improvement involves planning. It has three components: planning, control, and improvement, and is referred to
as the Juran Trilogy.
 Crosby’s 10 Points
Based on 4 Tenets:
 Deming's 14 Points

1. Create and Publish aims of purposes of organisation: Long term goals, innovation
against obsleteness, ever evolving, family feeling
2. Learn new Philosophy: Priority, Non conformance refusal, Prevention than
Detection, all Levels involvement
3. Understand the purpose of Inspection: Mass inspection= Managing Failure, Defect
Prevention = Managing Success, Use of Statistical evidence for self and supplier
4. Stop Awarding Business Based on Price Alone: L1 without quality has no meaning,
Single Supplier, Relationships of trust and loyalty, PLM feedback to supplier
5. Improve Constantly and Forever the system:Continual Strive using Control Charts,
Responsibility to teams to remove causes
6. Institute Training:Statistical Methods Training
7. Teach and Institute Leadership: Clear Communication and Pride of workmanship
 Deming's 14 Points
8. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.

9. Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team, to foresee
problems of production and in use that may be encountered with the product or service.

10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity. Such
exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system
and thus lie beyond the power of the work force.

11a. Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Substitute leadership.

11b. Eliminate management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers, numerical goals. Substitute leadership.

12a. Remove barriers that rob the hourly worker of his right to pride of workmanship. The responsibility of supervisors must be
changed from sheer numbers to quality.

12b. Remove barriers that rob people in management and in engineering of their right to pride of workmanship. This means, inter alia,
abolishment of the annual or merit rating and of management by objective.

13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.

14. Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is everybody's job.
 TPS: Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System
Toyota Production System (TPS), originally called “Just-in-Time production”

Its basic concept is the reduction of cost through elimination of waste and optimization of machine and human capabilities.

Only the necessary products, at the necessary time, in necessary quantities are manufactured.

Toyota has built up a system of respect for people ingrained in the TPS concept. It puts emphasis on the points as follows:

1. Elimination of waste movements by workers

2. Consideration for workers safety and
3. Self-display of workers capabilities by entrusting them with greater responsibility and authority

Just-in-Time and Jidoka are the main pillars of the Toyota Production System.

The main objectives of the TPS are to design out overload and inconsistency and to eliminate waste.

The most significant effects on process value delivery are achieved by designing a process capable of delivering the required
results smoothly, by minimizing inconsistency.

It is also crucial to ensure that the process is as flexible as necessary without stress or overburden since this generates waste
(e.g. waste of overproduction, waste of transportation, waste of making defective products etc.).
 Pillars of TPS
● The basic philosophy of the Toyota Production System is based on two pillars. The first pillar is jidoka―which can be
loosely translated as "automation with a human touch"―based on the concepts of stopping immediately when
abnormalities are detected to prevent defective products from being produced and improving productivity to eliminate
the need for people to be simply watching over machines.
● The second pillar is Just-in-Time, based on the concept of synchronizing production processes―linking all plants and
their production processes in a continuous flow―by making only what is needed, when it is needed, and in the
amount needed.
● The term Jidoka means to make the equipment or operation stop whenever an abnormal or defective condition arises.
In short, its distinctive feature lies in the fact that when an equipment problem or machine defect happens, the
equipment or entire line stops, and any line with workers can be stopped by them.

● Just-in-Time and Jidoka are the main pillars of the Toyota Production System. The main objectives of the TPS are to
design out overload and inconsistency and to eliminate waste.

● The most significant effects on process value delivery are achieved by designing a process capable of delivering the
required results smoothly, by minimizing inconsistency. It is also crucial to ensure that the process is as flexible as
necessary without stress or overburden since this generates waste (e.g. waste of overproduction, waste of
transportation, waste of making defective products etc.).
 Poka Yoke

Error Proofing
The Poka yoke devices are developed based on the answers to the following questions pertaining to a defect on a
product/part What is the defect? When is the defect discovered? What are the standard elements involved in making the
part or assembly? What mistakes or errors are made? Why are the mistakes made?

Characteristics of Poka Yoke

1. It is capable of being used all the time by all workers

2. It is simple to install which means that it is not requiring continuous attention from the operator and it is not burdensome
for the operator. It should work even if the operator is not aware of the necessity of its action to prevent defects.

3. It is usually installed with low implementation cost.

4. It provides instantaneous feedback, prevention or correction.

5. If a component is not having the correct shape or form, then the production process should detect it before performing
any operation on it.
 Poka Yoke

Levels of Poka Yoke

The application of Poka Yoke can be viewed at three levels as listed below.
1. Eliminating spills, leaks, and accidental losses at the source or prevention of a mistake from
being committed.
2. Detecting unintended loss that is in the process of occurring, but before it becomes a problem.
3. Detecting loss after it has occurred but before the contingency indicator is triggered.
Classification of Poka Yoke
Poka Yoke be classified in to prevention based poka yoke and detection based poka yoke.
a) Prevention based Poka Yoke
b) Detection based Poka Yoke
 Where to apply Poka-Yoke
● Manual operation where worker vigilance is needed.
● Where miss positioning and misalignment can occur.
● Where adjustment is required.
● Where team needs common sense tools.
● Where the application of statistical process control becomes difficult /
ineffective.
● Where attributes are important.
● Where employees turn over and training cost are high.
Benefits of Poka Yoke:
1. Reduction in waste and associated machining as nonconforming material is identified at each
stage rather than an inspection stage between several pairs of stages.
2. Reduction of waste in the system leads to reduction in Inventory holdings.
3. Extended life of machines is possible if the production is set for a specific production rate since
they always produce good quality products. This avoids unnecessary run of the machines to
cope up with the defective production of parts.
4. Improvement in customer satisfaction levels because better quality product is delivered to them.
5. Improvement in employeeís relationship as it encourages more involvement of operators and
team members.
Limitations of Poka Yoke:
1. It increases the time of inspection that the operator would spend on his job.
2. Increased time of inspection does not mean reduced cost of scrap in the long run.
3. In short term, there will be a sharp increase in scrap materials cost.
 Kanban
Kanban is a way to visually manage the work flow at an organization. Using kanban makes it easier to stay efficient and it
helps to quickly identify (and solve) problems in the work flow.

Traditional kanban boards are separated into three columns named something like:
To do
Doing
Done

Four Principles of Kanban

Kanban has four principles. These are:

1. Start with what you do now
2. Pursue incremental, evolutionary change
3. Respect the existing process, roles, and responsibilities
4. Encourage acts of leadership at all levels
 Six Practices of Kanban
1. Visualize your workflow using kanban
2. Limit the work in progress
3. Manage the workflow to reduce bottlenecks and create flow
4. Define and share work policies explicitly
5. Use feedback loops to ease information flow, learn continually, and improve processes and your product (value for
customers)
6. Be collaborative and experimental to always push for improvement
Kaizen
1. Value-added and non-value-added work activities.

2. Muda, which refers to the seven classes of waste—over-production, delay, transportation, processing, inventory, wasted motion,
and defective parts.

3. Principles of motion study and the use of cell technology.

4. Principles of materials handling and use of one-piece flow.

5. Documentation of standard operating procedures.

6. The five S’s for workplace organization, which are five Japanese words that mean proper arrangement (seiko), orderliness
(seiton), personal cleanliness (seiketso), cleanup (seiso), and discipline (shitsuke).

7. Visual management by means of visual displays that everyone in the plant can use for better communications.

8. Just-in-time principles to produce only the units in the right quantities, at the right time, and with the right resources.

9. Poka-yoke to prevent or detect errors.

10. Team dynamics, which include problem solving, communication skills, and conflict resolution.
Lean Management
Six Sigma