Automotive Quality Management Strategies
Automotive Quality Management Strategies
619-632 CHAPTER 51
Key words: automotive, project management, quality standards, quality tools, PRP
Authors´ data: Univ. Prof. Dr. Eng. Goicoechea, I[tziar]; Univ. Prof. Eng.
Fenollera, M[aria]; University of Vigo, School of Industrial Engineering. Campus
Lagoas Marcosende s/n Vigo. Spain, [email protected], [email protected]
This Publication has to be referred as: Goicoechea, I[tziar] & Fenollera, M[aria],
(2012). Quality Management in the Automotive Industry, Chapter 51 in DAAAM
International Scientific Book 2012, pp. 619-632, B. Katalinic (Ed.), Published by
DAAAM International, ISBN 978-3-901509-86-5, ISSN 1726-9687, Vienna, Austria
DOI:10.2507/daaam.scibook.2012.51
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1. Introduction
Increasing global competition over the past decade has forced automotive
companies to improve quality and efficiency. Using the management tools that are
relevant to the organization’s needs has become a strategic issue for companies in
today’s competitive environment.
The project quality can be viewed in different ways. The factor of who assesses
the quality, and what is the evaluation based on, is always decisive. However, the
bottom line is always determined by customers`or skateholders`requirements
(Nagyova & Pacaiova, 2010). By choosing and applying the best management tools
among too many management tools, companies can improve their performances and
then increase customer satisfaction and gain market shares.
Management is characterized because of its global and comprehensive
approach; it is and organizational strategy and management methodology that makes
the members of an organization participate with the basic aim of continuously
improving efficacy, efficiency and functionality. Automobile quality management
system is based on the ISO/TS standard that focuses mainly on processes (Jiménez,
2008), and on the satisfaction of customers (intermediate or ultimate); and by which
both employees and suppliers are involved (Fig. 1).
Quality management techniques and tools are instruments and methods that
help to solve specific problems at different organization levels (Automotive
Committee, 2004). There is a wealth of literature above all professional, on the
specific tools related to quality management (Juran & Gryna, 1998; Besterfield et al.,
1999; Dale et al., 2007). They have been grouped according to different criteria and
many classifications have been proposed, both in professional and academic
literature; Greene (1993) describes up to 98 tools, grouped by the objectives set by
companies. The entire automotive industry has embraced quality tools, such as
concurrent engineering, continuous improvement, and statistical process control but
the main difficulty lies in determining what quality practices are the most likely to
improve quality and overall firm performance. This work presents the hands-on
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experience of quality tools use and implementation at each PRP stage within a top-
level supplier company in the automotive industry. The objective of this study is to
explore the strategic implications of quality tools adoption with the aim of building
theory. Because the focus of this research is exploratory, the authors qualitative data
collection methods, primarily field-based collection- to help ensure that important
variables and relationships were identified.
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The German automotive sector reconsidered this issue because of the increased
competence, the aim of being more competitive, costs reduction, etc.. This is how the
“Verband der Deutschen Automobilindustrie“(VDA) arose in Germany; this
organism makes the VDA 6 Qualitätsstandard der deutschen Automobilindustrie
standard; its core part is VDA 6.1 (1996) whose target is to allow for assessment
under comparable conditions of different quality management systems. Similarly to
the regulations that came into being in the USA and Germany, two more standards
also sprang up: the Evaluation Aptitude Quality Supplier (FLAA) in France (1994),
quality system standards for Citroën, Peugeot and Renault, with regard to their
suppliers and the Association of Quality System Evaluators (AVSQ) (1995) in Italy.
Lately, the automotive industry (like the rest of sectors), follow the globalization
tendency. Not only the main automobile manufacturers, but also their suppliers apply
alliance and fusion policies, thus, there is a need for harmonizing the different
regulations on quality management that had arisen in the automotive industry. The
latest result of this globalization effort is the UNE-ISO/TS 16949 standard, which
replaces the QS 9000 standard.
The first edition of this technical specification (year 1999) was mainly based on
the ISO 9000:1994 standard. In 2002, there was a second edition (UNE-ISO/TS
16949:2002) based on ISO 9001:2000. The current version of the specification is
ISO/TS 16949:2009 (2009). The IATF (International Automotive Task Force) was
established to create this standard. The main automotive manufacturers participated
in this working group together with national organizations like VDA and some
members of ISO TC 176 (technical committee of the ISO organization for quality-
related regulations). Its quality references are shown in Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. Quality references for the sector’s suppliers according to the IATF (source:
http://www.aiag.org)
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General Motors and Ford insisted on all its suppliers making the transition
from QS 9000 to ISO/TS 16949 before the end of 2006, whereas Chrysler requested
such transition in 2004. About 6,000 first and second-level suppliers around the
world have obtained the ISO/TS 16949 certification. American companies are on top
of the list, followed by German, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Brazilian and
Indian firms (Davis, 2004).
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Many times at this design stage, MAM´s include some suppliers in their
working team because of their knowhow (experience), that this way participate in the
vehicle design. They are known as Development Providers. In the Production
Facilities, MAM only assemble components. An intermediate stage between design
and production is therefore necessary in the Project.
That stage is the suppliers’ allocation, which determines which suppliers are
responsible for the mass supply of the different components to production plants. The
so-called Buyer Leader is in charge of suppliers’ allocation. The allocation is
performed on the basis of different criteria: economic (offer), experience, quality
incidents in other supplies,…
Control and follow-up on suppliers (that reach up to mass supply of allocated
components) by the Manufacturer are critical at this stage. Considering the amount of
components, several Quality Supplier Engineers are appointed. They are responsible
for controlling that the supplier fulfills some milestones, such as the delivery of
prototypes to the Manufacturer (they are non-representative samples but show the
supplier’s capacity to make parts; at this point the supplier does not have the final
manufacturing resources) and the deliveries of initial samples (representative pieces
of production that have all the necessary working resources, prepared workstation,
documents, …).
The Quality Supplier Engineer appointed, carries out a Pre-Production audit
(Run at Rate), in which the Auditor checks that the Supplier can provide good parts
and complies with the frequency requested by the Manufacturer. In order to do this,
work stations are analyzed, together with all documents regarding both product and
process quality.
The manufacturer work is based on solid management skills of new vehicle
design project and a subsequent good logistics management; since the Production
facilities assemble components “just in time”, provided by a great variety of
suppliers, with almost zero stocks. Those suppliers that provide their products
directly to the “Production facilities” are called Tier 1 suppliers. Those who supply
parts to the latter are the Tier 2 suppliers, and so on and so forth: Tier 3, Tier 4
suppliers… In order to achieve this type of category, supply capacity and quality is
needed to be shown first; therefore, there are some steps or stages throughout the
Project that all suppliers in the automotive industry must follow in order to fulfill the
supply requirements or adequate levels. All these stages are reflected in a document
called “Product Quality Assurance Dossier” or “Production Part Approval Process”;
such document includes all quality requirements and stages to be complied with at
this stage of development of the supplier until mass production.
Because of what has been set out, it can be concluded that project management
in the automotive sector is characterized by the stages shown in Fig 3. At each of
these stages, it is essential and imperative that a range of quality tools are adopted as
working method. All these tools are mainly based on the philosophy of zero defects
and continuous improvement.
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This report focuses on the most used tools in the sector and on those forced to be
used by the manufacturer as a general rule:
1. PDCA cycle or Deming
2. Q7: the seven basic tools of quality
3. M7: the new seven tools
4. Planning techniques
5. Control techniques
6. Improvement techniques
The PDCA cycle, is used as a work philosophy and is the core principle of ISO
TS. This methodology is inherent to the sector on a daily basis and it sets the steps to
be followed to undertake any improvement (Fig. 4).
PLAN: Assortment of problems and planning of improvement actions → To know
the problem that is tried to be improved, to look for the root reason, solutions to
this reason,... Here, analytical tools like Q7 are used.
DO: Realization of concrete actions to solve the problem → To put the necessary
means for improvement.
CHECK: Validation of results and controlling of aims → To measure the obtained
results, to see if the aims are reached …
ACT: Improvement of actions, of the situation, etc. → To extend the solutions to
other similar problems, families of pieces…
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A right approach to deal with issues is to see first if the issue exists by using
verified data (check sheet), quantifying its severity (Jiménez, 2010), if it is repetitive
and representative (histograms, Pareto charts) and using tools like cause and effect
diagrams intending to determine the root reason of the problem. Specifically, and as
an example, the scatter plot was used to pursue a test correlative to the hardness and
fatigue test applicable to polyurethane seats of any vehicle; such test is usually
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performed 36 hours after their production. A test correlative to the previous one was
found; it was totally significant, but carried out 6 hours before its production, with the
objective of knowing beforehand if the production carried out is correct or, if that
new test provides incorrect results, being able to tackle the problem in production
before the 36 hours where the problem would be encountered with the standard test.
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ability during the process. Once those aspects are valued, the criticality rating is
estimated as the multiplication of the three. If that value is higher than that
requested by the Manufacturer, actions are taken. Since the seriousness of the
failure cannot be changed, focus must be on occurrence or detection, in order to
diminish the criticality rating. The ideal thing is to deal with occurrence, by means
of elements called pokayokes or “mistake proofing” systems that avoid mistakes
made by human error. Some other times, it is not possible to focus on occurrence,
and prevention is then tackled, seeking systems that fully detect failures before
moving to the next stage. As far as costs are concerned, it is important to detect
failures at the beginning of processes and not at the end of manufacturing.
Control plan: document used to plan all controls to be carried out in a manufacturing
process, per job, as a result of the FMEA planning. They are mandatory in the
automotive sector.
Control techniques
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Among them, the most used are the Pokayokes, improvement groups as team-
working method for problem-solving (Mari-García, 2009) and the 8D tool to resolve
customer-related incidents.
In order to analyze the most suitable tools and to fit them in the different stages
of the project, the idea of some follow-up project monitoring surveys came up, aimed
both at the Project Manager and the Project Quality Manager. The stages of the
Project relative to the offer and contract (Fig. 3) have been excluded from the study,
therefore the stages considered in the surveys are the 5 remaining.
Surveys took place in two types of companies: Tier 1 suppliers that
manufactured totally different products: seats and pipes, in order to ensure that
product type does not influence the chosen type of quality tool. Seventeen Projects
ended in 2011 were analyzed at each company; specifically, they were 10 projects of
one company and 7 of another. A structured interview protocol at all site visits were
used. The protocol covered a number of topics relating to different quality tool: if
they were used, which were the most popular, at which stages, which were the most
successful, which were verified not to be useful, etc.
Qualitative theory building research is an iterative process so the data collection
and data analysis should be done simultaneously: the data from one case is collected
and then analyzed before the next replication is performed. If needed, any
improvements in the protocol for subsequent replications. This ability to refine and
improve upon the protocol between cases is a significant advantage to this type of
research.
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Choosing each tool for each stage depends both on the experience and on the
intuition of each interviewed person, so the method used to validate the survey was
the descriptive statistics with the SPSS v. 18 program and correlative analyses to
identify each project stages with each tool.
Limitations of this study include generalizability, causality, and empirical
testing. The limited sample size and the industry involved constrains the
generalizability of the findings.
Some other surveys regarding Projects that began in 2011 have been initiated (3
in one company and 4 in another). Today, we already have results for the Project
design stages, and these data have been included to analyze and reinforce the quality
tools used at the first stage of design.
After the experience and implementation of such tools (previously summed up)
in a Tier 1 supply company of the automotive industry, it has been proven that the
best tools to be applied at each of the different stages of the Project are those included
in Table 1.
Suggestions for future research focus on the need for a quantitative assessment
of relationships identified from this study.
6. Conclusions
In today globalized world, there is a growing need for tools that make it
possible to measure up the quality processes used by each of them, since the
manufacturers of final products are committed with users to provide quality products,
putting the company’s prestige at risk. Because of this reason, having quality
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guarantees of the materials and components provided by suppliers can determine the
success or failure of a product, or even of a company.
Considering this situation, the idea of developing a global standard at the
different project stages arose; it would allow companies to determine the quality that
they could offer on real grounds. The goal is to be able to define a standard to be
followed by the companies of the sector, either because of the good results of its
implementation or because of its compulsory nature regarding automotive quality
regulations.
7. References
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