Help me prove myself please!!!! Anyone work in quality control?

[Raskova]

I've been working as a quality assistant for quite a while in a small but rapidly expanding company.

Roles have changed and I now have a massive opportunity to become quality manager, if I pull my socks up! Like really far up!

A lot of the people respond terribly when there is an issue which needs fixing. This is getting better but still quite bad. Especially as there is no black and white acceptables on some products.

How can I succeed at this? Any tips please???? I'm genuinely terrified

Hi, I was previously a quality manager who was rapidly promoted from an assistants role so have been in your shoes! I was lucky to inherit an existing qms system so kept it going until I gained confidence and started working on new initiatives - firstly identify any on going issues or problems and try to engage a team (which should include either the process owner or someone with expertise or knowledge) and set up a project. Regular feedback meetings with too managers to discuss progress are also important! Does your company have ISO9001 certification? If so spend time familiarizing yourself with the system, you will find it contains all the tools to help you make those improvements. Also you can subscribe to the CQA (Chartered Quality Association) where you will find lots of information. Finally you need to be methodical, assertive, a keen eye for detail and the ability to engage with people at different levels, so good communication is key. Hope this helps, and good luck to you :)

Also if people are not very responsive to solving issues you need to identify why this is and resolve it! And if there are no clearly defined acceptable / unacceptable levels this also needs to be clearly defined. If you are talking about cosmetic acceptability, find a standard you are all in agreement with and either document it with photos or have benchmark samples to show what is acceptable. Sorry I am a bit of a nerd when it comes to this kind of thing, hope it all helps you x

Hi thank you do much for your reply. I've name changed since this post.

We do have 9001. My two main problems are 1) no definitive yes or no to what's passable. I've taken pictures and been given guidelines by appropriate people but that all goes out the window the next time there is a problem. There is too much of a grey area and it's usually to get as much stuff through as possible at a certain time.

2. peoples responses. People argue with me and ask me how they can get it better. I dont know how to improve injection moulders. That's their job. I do try to learn tho. People shout, threaten and lie to me. For example, telling me x job will take two hours. Am I sure I want the machine down for that long. It's on my head etc when really we all know it takes ten mins or they say they have tried everything to fix and that's as good as it will get.

3. there's a third. No one gives a shit about quality. They all want and need to get as much of our stuff produced to meet demand. If a few bad ones get out then so be it. Even if it a few thousand I think. The most recent issue was that something wasn't stuck and as soon as a customer used it, part of it would come away. Still useable but very shit. I told the production supervisor and she said 'I don't want to teach you how to suck eggs but a customers not going to know to pull it back in the shop' I said 'no but they'll get home, use it and complain because it's so shit'. It was literally like a lightbulb moment for them and she called the relevant people to fix it.

Do you use kpis, non conformance reporting, root cause corrective actions? And most of all, do you have senior management commitment, you'll not get far without that, no matter what you do.

Yes, that was my thought as well - you need a senior sponsor for this. You comment that they all want and need to ship as many of the product as possible - so presumably they are financially incentivised based on output? Which means the quality person is always going to be the enemy.

How the hell did they get 9001 when there's clearly no quality process worth a damn? When are they next due to be audited?

Ok, it sounds to me like you need back up from someone higher up for a start! You also need to stick to your benchmark and record the defects, including the time taken to adjust machinery and reworking - this is unwanted cost to the business and you can use this as ammunition to top management, they will probably be horrified when they find out the true cost!
Also use the tools in 9001. Log all non conformance and customer complaints, feed these back to management - during management review, if this doesn't get taken on board then your assessor will pick this up during a surveillance audit and will probably raise a non conformance (major non conformance that don't get addressed adequately can potentially lose certification which can have a detrimental effect on business through loss of custom)
Also see if you can find an ally on the shop floor who is prepared to help with more technical problems and issues. If someone lies to you about the time taken to reset machines, call them up on it! Stand there, record each step and how long it takes them!
I hope this helps and I wish you luck - quality can be very challenging and frustrating, but once you have cracked it it's the most rewarding job in the world!

Will try and answer the questions.

My boss who was quality manager ist support. Generally he is very good.

Kpis are only for managers. These are financially motivated.

We have non conformance records. I keep these up to date.

We have started keeping a log of downtime due to maintenance. Maintenance were very good with some of our machines but never once did it with the injection moulders. Always some excuse.

I have an ally for now in maintenance but he's one of the managers so it's his word that goes and he can be temperamental.

We do have procedures that we do follow but they're certainly not how I would write them. I'd say they're basic. My manager is going through them at the minute tho.

Customer complaints go to head office and we have a spreadsheet of them but not much more.

Ok, so you are recording non conformance and customer complaints- this is good! Is there any analysis being carried out to identify any trends (I.e. by product or machine?) This will tell you where the most significant issues are occurring and a good place to start tackling issues.

Interesting re your comments on maintenance, you say the injection moulding machines tend not to be maintained, is this due to downtime affecting production? Also do you have documented machine settings that ensure the best product is made? I have limited knowledge but know that aspects such as operating temperature, cooling rates, etc are vital. Also the tooling should be checked and regularly cleaned, production runs need "first off", "mid run" and "end run" checks to ensure good product. I understand that defective work can be reground and reused, but it is still unwanted cost!

Basically when trying to solve problems you should investigate the following
People - are they trained, competent to carry out the job
Processes - are the processes correct and properly controlled?
Equipment - is equipment suitable for the job and regularly maintained?
Infrastructure - this is the working environment, is it clean, tidy and suitable for work being undertaken?
Materials - are raw materials of sufficient quality, are they being stored and handled correctly?

Finally for root cause analysis - use the "5 why" approach - every time you get an answer, ask why (kind of like an inquisitive toddler!) This can sometimes bring interesting results!

Sorry if I have bombarded you with information, I hope you find it useful! Also look up VIA, lots of interesting information on there x

Sorry mean CQI :)

I don't believe analysis for trends etc is happening but it could well be elsewhere.

The machines are maintained but this is not written on the sheet as requested.

I believe they do have it written somewhere what is best for each machine. I have seen them refer to a book of handwritten notes that are Greek to me but well understood by them. The product is thoroughly checked every hour and visually checked approx four times an hour by staff in that section who are trained to make amendments/repairs as necessary and then I am meant do a 'spot check' to make sure they haven't missed anything. I don't feel this is enough and do a thorough check.

I think things are getting much better as quality becomes a much bigger issue and it's becoming clear that quality is everyone's job etc etc but there is still room for improvement.

Ok, well I'd suggest setting some kpis, fewer than x many complaints a week (or month/year etc) same with non conformances, or base them on finance, such as less than £x per month cost of complaints/ NCs. All NCs should be investigated, pref by a multi disciplined team including maintenance, operations and technical, and root cause corrective actions put in place. Do you issue regular complaints reports, with cost prominently featured? This often focuses managements mind, and start to rewrite a few procedures the way you would have them, run them past the QM, and try to get them implemented.

Another question, why doEs your company use QC, not QA?

They do say quality assurance. I say quality control. I think most people now say qc.

All the non cons for last two years have been from suppliers. None in house. I wasn't aware we had to do in house as previous manager had only done incoming product.

We do have a report which compares this year and last year.

We have nothing about cost. Owners are clear they don't want us knowing the cost of anything.

Most people at my work now say qc I mean. I don't know about the wider world.

Right, well I only know my industry, in which QC is a def no no, and it's QA, (quality assurance) all the way, but that could be different in other industry's. Again, in my industry absolutely you'd record in house non conformances, if product was found to be out of spec for instance, and thoroughly investigate them to prevent re occurrence.

Oops. That'd be me then. I'll change it instantly

I will say that we investigate all in house issues thoroughly but never write any of it down

Right then, job number one, devise a non conformance reporting system, you'll need a form giving details of the incident, results of the investigation, corrective action, root cause, and root cause corrective actions, and some way of keeping track and trending it all.

At the minute (obv for supplier issues but previously did have in house too) there's a register, a one page non com report saying what happened and how we will investigate. Then a corrective action report. Basically has the same but is more about preventative action and cause than what happened.

Is that standard or to be improved?

That sounds reasonable enough, you've got cause and preventative actions on there, I'd look at a way of adapting that for in house incidents, and work on a way of trending them as a start.

I think that's a really good idea. Mostly it's the same issues reoccurring in a slightly different way so shouldn't be to hard.

But of good news, my boss spoke to me one day late in the week saying people are noticing how good of a job I'm doing some of them important people

That's fantastic, keep up the good work!

There has been a bit of a change. All the bosses were in a meeting and one said something along the lines of 'well if you get a short skirt and stilettos to run quality, it's never going to work' or 'you can't have quality run b short skirts and stilettos'. You get my drift anyway. This couldn't be further from the truth. I'm nothing like that.

The other boss said 'I can't believe you've just said that' and the consultant said 'neither can I' apparently.

I think that says more about the person saying it than it does about me but it's upsetting that after all my hard work, that's all I'll be in some peoples eyes...

Don't let it get to you, whoever made that comment made themself look like a proper twat, sounds like he's a bit jealous....

I worked with someone with the same attitude for 4 years... unfortunately no one called him up on it. In the end I found a better job and resigned and left them to it!

I am now earning 10K more than in my last job, with less stress and a company car, apparently he's extremely pissed off!

Anyway I digress. Keep at it. He (I assume it's a he?) Has shown his true colours, your peers will be more interested in the results you produce xx