Plastics News Europe - July/August 2019 - 17

quality management

quality, based on an organisation's
core quality values. Most companies
will be familiar with the terms quality
assurance - QA - and quality control
- QC - and carry out most of their
activities in these areas. The third area
of quality, i.e. quality improvement, is
less often discussed or implemented
with any enthusiasm.
The boundaries between these areas are shown below:

Quality assurance (QA)
This deals with the systems and processes that set the scene for quality. It
is normally represented by a quality
system to ISO 9001 and all of the
support services that are necessary
for this system to work.
Quality assurance does not guarantee a high-quality product. It simply controls the management processes.
The early releases of ISO 9000
standards were written around 'quality' as a product property. As ISO
9001 expanded into service industries, e.g. solicitors, travel agents and
government, the concept of quality
also expanded. This new concept of
quality goes beyond simple product
properties and ISO 9001 is now written with a strong focus on total quality as perceived by the customer.

Quality control (QC)
This deals with the methods of assessing the product (however defined) of the business. It is typically
represented by control schedules for
measurements, tests and sampling
methods that assess the properties of
the product or service to specifications (either internal or external).

Quality improvement (QI)
Quality improvement is an essential
part of quality management but
many companies actually do little to
really improve quality. The early releases of ISO 9000 made no reference to improving the 'quality' of the
product but this has now changed

and a major part of ISO 9001 is now
concerned with the continual improvement process via the Plan-DoCheck-Act (PDCA) cycle.
"All of these components are important and it is important to realise
that they are not the same thing.
Having one does not imply that you
have the other," Kent stressed.

Getting started
Plastics processors new to the world
of quality management may find it
difficult to know how or where to
begin. According to Robin Kent, the
key element to making quality management work is top management
commitment. Without this, he said,
then nothing else will work. "Employee engagement and assistance is
vital but without top management
commitment then nothing else will
work. If the top management is not
committed then do not even try to
start."
So, what does management need
to provide to show commitment and
how can they do it effectively? Briefly,
the basic elements are:
Quality policy - the management
sets the tone by producing the company quality policy. This is not a 'copy
and paste' exercise. It should be
self-generated and really be the policy of the company. The policy should
be generated by the top management and not by the quality department - let them think about it and
express it in their own words.
Allocation of resources - a process that is starved of resources will
inevitably fail and quality management is no exception. Quality management, particularly the improvement process, needs resources. In
time, these can be internally generated but initially there will be a need for
additional resources. Top management should be prepared for initial
additional costs.
Organisation and structure -
many companies are not well organised for quality assurance and control.

They fail to see the essential difference between the two and set the
best organisation and structure in
place.
Quality improvement - whilst
most companies have structures
(good or bad) for quality assurance
and control, few have any structure
at all for quality improvement. This is
poor planning for the future of the
company and indicates a management weakness. Management needs
to understand that quality improvement is a financial benefit to the
company and an essential part of
quality management.

➡ Continued on page 18

Common issues encountered
Asked about the most relevant quality issues and barriers to quality in the plastics
industry, Dr Kent first pointed out that
these were not really dependent on the industry sector, before going on to list a few
of the main issues that are frequently seen.
These include:
* Non-acceptance of management responsibility - top management needs to
realise that in most cases the causes of
poor quality are the systems that they set
up, not with the workers who operate
them.
* Separation of responsibility and power - if

july/august 2019

the Production Director has the power but
the Quality Manager has the responsibility
then all is lost.
* Lack of knowledge or awareness.
* Misunderstanding of quality costs.
* Fear of statistics.
* Lack of knowledge of problem causes.
Take the quick quiz:
* When did quality management and improvement last make it onto the Board
agenda as an important topic?
* Are quality costs and savings ever discussed at the Board meetings?

* Is quality a standing item on the Board agenda?
* Do they really care?
Notes:
Do not include when the Sales Director was
complaining about how a quality issue affected customer relations and why are we
paying the Quality Manager so much (whilst
the Production Director looked on smugly).
Do not include when the Financial Director was complaining about how much poor
quality has impacted on the results this year
when he turned down 4 quality improvement investments.

Plastics News Europe - July/August 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Plastics News Europe - July/August 2019