Yesterday, I attended a workshop on Bar code implementation which was conducted by GS1 India.
Today, if you are an observant shopper, you will notice that every single product you buy comes with a bar code- be it a book, your tooth paste, pickle bottle, medicine- anything- bar code is the universal language through which a number of details are presented. It is this bar code that makes it easy for the person at the check-out counter at the shopping mall get the bill across to you real quick.
Although I am already aware of the EAN-13 standard for bar coding and am experienced in allottingbar codes to items in my organisation, this workshop was an eye opener.
For example, I did not know there was an EAN-8 system- neither did i know that the logic behind EAN-8 and EAN-13 is totally unrelated...
And then there is the GTIN-13 for retail units of a saleableproduct, the GTIN-14 for cartons of packed wholesale items and the EAN-128 for logistics packaging!!! whew!!!
The best part of the workshop was a 20 minute long presentation of a study conducted by AC Neilson's at South Africa, on the mistakes made in bar coding..It is fantastic really.. The color of the bars and the background, the white space around the bar code required to ensure bar code readers red the code righ the first time, every time, the position in which the artwork should be placed on a product, the heigh to width ratio and the results of truncating either of these dimensionsand a host of other factors to be considered to avoidbar coding mistakes-for a newbee to bar coding, these were lessons that woulkd hold me in great steed!
I know this is a little bit of a digression from the purpose of this blog.. But a little bit ofadditional knowledgewill always help yopu see.
Google for GS1 and download the presentation therein and look through the same.. You will be wiser on bar coding!!!
Friday, July 11, 2008
Sunday, June 1, 2008
The Cost Of Quality
We all know that any company is created with the foremost objective of generating income. Many of us would also know that "Income " is the difference between the Revenue to the company and the expenses incurred by the company for creating a product or service.
In order to create a product, a company has to incur many expenses- Quality is one of them, if proper care is not taken to invest in quality. Sounds enigmatic, does it not??
Well, lets take a simple example of baking a cake. The preparatory steps would be to buy the flour, butter, eggs, sugar, flavoring etc., read the instructions for baking carefully, mix the ingredients in the right proportion, set the oven at the right temperature, put the baking dish into the oven and monitor the baking till the cake is done as it should be done.
Scenario A: You went to the shop and picked up ingredients at random, without checking for the quantity needed for the recipe, and without checking the "Best Before" date on the labels, you mixed the ingredients without heeding the steps in the recipe, set the oven ad hoc, and did not bother to monitor the baking- End REsult at hand- Either unbaked or completely burnt mass of flour which can be called "Cake" only out of politeness- Now you have to redo the entire exercise if you absolutely have to deliver the cake -- buy correct quantity of the right ingredients, mix properly, bake properly and monitor the baking to ensure you get the right cake- What did this exercise cost you?? Loss of time, loss of money and loss of your temper.
Scenario B: You read the cake recipe thoroughly, buy the correct ingredients, mix, check for consistency, set the oven, bake the dish as instructed, and you get a wonderful cake that you can be proud of.
In scenario A, your initial output- the "Bad" cake, came out pretty fast, since you did not bother to spend your time and energy to plan and do it right.. As a consequence, you lost double the amount of time and money. You probably tried saving a part of the burnt cake that looked"OK" or tried to recook parts of the unbaked cake. All this rework on the cake and checking which part is OK and which is not took a good deal of time and your patience.The additional time and money were tangible components of the "COST OF QUALITY" of your "Second time right" Cake. The patience yout lost and the tension were the intangible components
In Scenario B, you spent a certain amount of time initially understanding what you need for the cake and planned the purchases and did the mixing and baking right. As a result, you gained the following- the next time you need to bake the cake, you are armed with the knowledge of baking the cake right, you know where to look for the correct ingredients at the right price and you will not have to go through any "Salvation operation" to save parts of a baking debacle. Although you spent some appreciable amount of time in understanding the requirements for the cake and the right procedure to bake it, and to tell if the cake has come out as it should, it is an investment for life and not an "Expense".
The situation is no different in a company that may manufacture millions of units of product A or B. If adequate measures are not taken to draw out the requirements of the product- features and functionalities, if the complete procedure of making the product is not charted out early on, if the materials required to make the products are not bought from a vendor of repute, if the manufacturing process is not set to produce product units without defects, if periodic maintenance activities are not defined and undertaken to keep machinery in top shape to produce a high first pass number- ( all of which pertain to Quality Assurance- Remember??), the result would be that every unit of product produced will have to be inspected, to check for form, fitness and function. The costs are high in this case- the company needs more inspection personnel, there is no assurance on what coule be acceptable number of units in any given period of time. REpair, Rework and scrap of rejected goods (All Quality Control Activities) again are costly to the company in terms of the time wasted and in terms of productivity- In short, all these are unproductive activities.Add to that one more- the risk of a Non- conforming unit of product reaching a customer, and thereeby setting the stage for a loss of reputation of the company!!!
Quality is a costly thing..it has to be got right first time on. If a company has carried out it Quality Assurance activities right, which is a one time investment in terms of time and money, possibly a high one , the Cost of their Quality will be considerably reduced, by means of reductions in redoing a same activity many times due to failure to do it right the first time, in terms of reduction in the inspection levels, in terms of reduction of repair, rework and scrap, and above all the RISK of losing a standing reputation in the market. A shrewd company will see that a one time high investment always brings rich dividends by reducing recurring expenses which are many times greater in magnitude and detrimental effect. And as any finance Geek will tell you, a reduction in COST always translates to an INCREASE in income!!!
It pays to be Quality Conscious!!!
In order to create a product, a company has to incur many expenses- Quality is one of them, if proper care is not taken to invest in quality. Sounds enigmatic, does it not??
Well, lets take a simple example of baking a cake. The preparatory steps would be to buy the flour, butter, eggs, sugar, flavoring etc., read the instructions for baking carefully, mix the ingredients in the right proportion, set the oven at the right temperature, put the baking dish into the oven and monitor the baking till the cake is done as it should be done.
Scenario A: You went to the shop and picked up ingredients at random, without checking for the quantity needed for the recipe, and without checking the "Best Before" date on the labels, you mixed the ingredients without heeding the steps in the recipe, set the oven ad hoc, and did not bother to monitor the baking- End REsult at hand- Either unbaked or completely burnt mass of flour which can be called "Cake" only out of politeness- Now you have to redo the entire exercise if you absolutely have to deliver the cake -- buy correct quantity of the right ingredients, mix properly, bake properly and monitor the baking to ensure you get the right cake- What did this exercise cost you?? Loss of time, loss of money and loss of your temper.
Scenario B: You read the cake recipe thoroughly, buy the correct ingredients, mix, check for consistency, set the oven, bake the dish as instructed, and you get a wonderful cake that you can be proud of.
In scenario A, your initial output- the "Bad" cake, came out pretty fast, since you did not bother to spend your time and energy to plan and do it right.. As a consequence, you lost double the amount of time and money. You probably tried saving a part of the burnt cake that looked"OK" or tried to recook parts of the unbaked cake. All this rework on the cake and checking which part is OK and which is not took a good deal of time and your patience.The additional time and money were tangible components of the "COST OF QUALITY" of your "Second time right" Cake. The patience yout lost and the tension were the intangible components
In Scenario B, you spent a certain amount of time initially understanding what you need for the cake and planned the purchases and did the mixing and baking right. As a result, you gained the following- the next time you need to bake the cake, you are armed with the knowledge of baking the cake right, you know where to look for the correct ingredients at the right price and you will not have to go through any "Salvation operation" to save parts of a baking debacle. Although you spent some appreciable amount of time in understanding the requirements for the cake and the right procedure to bake it, and to tell if the cake has come out as it should, it is an investment for life and not an "Expense".
The situation is no different in a company that may manufacture millions of units of product A or B. If adequate measures are not taken to draw out the requirements of the product- features and functionalities, if the complete procedure of making the product is not charted out early on, if the materials required to make the products are not bought from a vendor of repute, if the manufacturing process is not set to produce product units without defects, if periodic maintenance activities are not defined and undertaken to keep machinery in top shape to produce a high first pass number- ( all of which pertain to Quality Assurance- Remember??), the result would be that every unit of product produced will have to be inspected, to check for form, fitness and function. The costs are high in this case- the company needs more inspection personnel, there is no assurance on what coule be acceptable number of units in any given period of time. REpair, Rework and scrap of rejected goods (All Quality Control Activities) again are costly to the company in terms of the time wasted and in terms of productivity- In short, all these are unproductive activities.Add to that one more- the risk of a Non- conforming unit of product reaching a customer, and thereeby setting the stage for a loss of reputation of the company!!!
Quality is a costly thing..it has to be got right first time on. If a company has carried out it Quality Assurance activities right, which is a one time investment in terms of time and money, possibly a high one , the Cost of their Quality will be considerably reduced, by means of reductions in redoing a same activity many times due to failure to do it right the first time, in terms of reduction in the inspection levels, in terms of reduction of repair, rework and scrap, and above all the RISK of losing a standing reputation in the market. A shrewd company will see that a one time high investment always brings rich dividends by reducing recurring expenses which are many times greater in magnitude and detrimental effect. And as any finance Geek will tell you, a reduction in COST always translates to an INCREASE in income!!!
It pays to be Quality Conscious!!!
Friday, May 30, 2008
The difference between Quality Assurance and Quality control
One of the very first doubts that tormented me from the day I was made part of the "Quality" team in my company is- what is the difference between Quality Assurance and Quality control???? And it has taken me a little less than 3 years to really understand the difference!!! I want to present the essence of this understanding to you, dear reader, so you have a good understanding early on.
Generally, any organization is set up to provide either products or services to its customers. For my explanation, i am going to choose as an example, ABC Inc., an organization that makes a simple thing as a ball point pen.
In order to make the body of the pen, ABC inc. has to procure the plastic for making the body of the pen, machinery to mould the body of the pen and so on.
Before ABC Inc. buys the plastic, they should (ideally) have researched on which plastic will best suit the features of the pen, and then look at who are the raw material manufacturers in the market who can provide this particular plastic. Then, after listing out potential raw material vendors, ABC Inc. would see, shich of them has a reputation of standing, which of them have established processes to supply the correct plastic everytime, on time and at the most competitive price and a host of other considerations. Once such a thorough evaluation is done, ABC Inc. decides to go for Trans- Plastics as their vendor. Similar exercise follows for all items obtained from other vendors. AS for machinery, they would list out the specifications of the machinery that can make the exact pen they have designed, look for machinery manufacturers, evaluate the manufacturer and machinery cost etc. and then zero down on a particular machine.
Then ABC Inc. would run a trial production run to see if the machinery and plastic together product the pen that will meet all the quality requirements listed out during the design of the pen. Once all concerned authorities accept that the pen prototype meets all requirements, a GO will be given for mass production.
All these activities- namely, systematic listing of specifications of the plastic and machinery, scouting for the right supplier and accepting a supplier after objective evaluation, and the prototype production to validate the production process- all happen before the actual marketable pens are made. All these are done to ensure that the pens can be produced to be acceptable for sale. These activities can all be termed as Quality Assurance Activities.
Now, everything is set up and ABC Inc. begins production run. they produce 10 batches of the pen- each batch containing 500 pens. AS soon as the plastic body is created by the machinery, a mechanism is put in place to check if the plastic body is in perfect shape- no deformations, no discolorations, threading on the bottom edge of the plastic is proper etc. (this list of things to be checked are all pre-listed). Suppose a specimen is found with some feature that makes it unusable, the specimen is termed as "Non-conforming" and is separated from the acceptable specimens. This exercise is repeated for the pen cap, the refill, the Ball point tip and so on.
Only those pen parts that meet all the specified list of criteria for acceptance will be put together into a complete pen, which again will be checked for acceptance-( is the ink flow just right?, for example).
These activities, during and after the actual making of the product can be collectively called as Quality Control Activities.
Activities such as the maintenance of the machinery also fall under Quality Assurance, because, this activity ensures that the machine is in proper health to produce the acceptable product.
In short,
Activities that precede the actual making of the tangible product, which activities are undertaken so that all of man and machinery required for the making of the product are of the best quality, to ensure that the end product is one of acceptable quality are all QA.
Activities that follow the making of the actual tangible product, to check that all criteria for the acceptability of the product are met, and to undertake a next course of action in case of unacceptable product fall under QC.
Generally, any organization is set up to provide either products or services to its customers. For my explanation, i am going to choose as an example, ABC Inc., an organization that makes a simple thing as a ball point pen.
In order to make the body of the pen, ABC inc. has to procure the plastic for making the body of the pen, machinery to mould the body of the pen and so on.
Before ABC Inc. buys the plastic, they should (ideally) have researched on which plastic will best suit the features of the pen, and then look at who are the raw material manufacturers in the market who can provide this particular plastic. Then, after listing out potential raw material vendors, ABC Inc. would see, shich of them has a reputation of standing, which of them have established processes to supply the correct plastic everytime, on time and at the most competitive price and a host of other considerations. Once such a thorough evaluation is done, ABC Inc. decides to go for Trans- Plastics as their vendor. Similar exercise follows for all items obtained from other vendors. AS for machinery, they would list out the specifications of the machinery that can make the exact pen they have designed, look for machinery manufacturers, evaluate the manufacturer and machinery cost etc. and then zero down on a particular machine.
Then ABC Inc. would run a trial production run to see if the machinery and plastic together product the pen that will meet all the quality requirements listed out during the design of the pen. Once all concerned authorities accept that the pen prototype meets all requirements, a GO will be given for mass production.
All these activities- namely, systematic listing of specifications of the plastic and machinery, scouting for the right supplier and accepting a supplier after objective evaluation, and the prototype production to validate the production process- all happen before the actual marketable pens are made. All these are done to ensure that the pens can be produced to be acceptable for sale. These activities can all be termed as Quality Assurance Activities.
Now, everything is set up and ABC Inc. begins production run. they produce 10 batches of the pen- each batch containing 500 pens. AS soon as the plastic body is created by the machinery, a mechanism is put in place to check if the plastic body is in perfect shape- no deformations, no discolorations, threading on the bottom edge of the plastic is proper etc. (this list of things to be checked are all pre-listed). Suppose a specimen is found with some feature that makes it unusable, the specimen is termed as "Non-conforming" and is separated from the acceptable specimens. This exercise is repeated for the pen cap, the refill, the Ball point tip and so on.
Only those pen parts that meet all the specified list of criteria for acceptance will be put together into a complete pen, which again will be checked for acceptance-( is the ink flow just right?, for example).
These activities, during and after the actual making of the product can be collectively called as Quality Control Activities.
Activities such as the maintenance of the machinery also fall under Quality Assurance, because, this activity ensures that the machine is in proper health to produce the acceptable product.
In short,
Activities that precede the actual making of the tangible product, which activities are undertaken so that all of man and machinery required for the making of the product are of the best quality, to ensure that the end product is one of acceptable quality are all QA.
Activities that follow the making of the actual tangible product, to check that all criteria for the acceptability of the product are met, and to undertake a next course of action in case of unacceptable product fall under QC.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
A peek at what you can expect to read here
Hello everyone,
I am Priya Darshini, and am a Quality Assurance/Control Engineer working for an organisation that is into Design and DEvelopment of Medical Devices. You may know that "Quality" is perceived as very vital in two industries in particular, specifically from the point of view of safety to the user- The automobile industry and the medical device industry.
I have "learnt" the strings of Quality Assurance/Control from the grassroot level, and want to share the lessons I have learnt. This blogspot is not for the expert QA personnel to read and sneer at me for "writing such absolutely commonsense stuff".This is for the clueless first time novice QA person to read my experiences, the way I understood the nuances of this stream and the way implement quality practices in his/her organisation.
I hope you are able to relate to my posts and derive guidance and reassurance therefrom!! Keepcoming back for new posts!!
I am Priya Darshini, and am a Quality Assurance/Control Engineer working for an organisation that is into Design and DEvelopment of Medical Devices. You may know that "Quality" is perceived as very vital in two industries in particular, specifically from the point of view of safety to the user- The automobile industry and the medical device industry.
I have "learnt" the strings of Quality Assurance/Control from the grassroot level, and want to share the lessons I have learnt. This blogspot is not for the expert QA personnel to read and sneer at me for "writing such absolutely commonsense stuff".This is for the clueless first time novice QA person to read my experiences, the way I understood the nuances of this stream and the way implement quality practices in his/her organisation.
I hope you are able to relate to my posts and derive guidance and reassurance therefrom!! Keepcoming back for new posts!!
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