A decision-making model for the rework of defective products

Theoretical framework for strategic productivity in manufacturing: the primary transformation model (PTM)

Purpose

A quantitative theoretical model is proposed to measure how productivity performance can be affected by strategic decisions related to specific competitive priorities.

Design/methodology/approach

This study proposes the Primary Transformation Model (PTM) and an equation to measure cause-and-effect relationships between productivity and competitive priorities.

Findings

The interdependence between productivity and competitive priorities was studied using the PTM and the proposed model indicates that strategies that improve external performance also impact internal productivity. It was also observed that the compatibility between competitive priorities depends on the initial manufacturing conditions and the implementation method adopted.

Research limitations/implications

The proposed model is theoretical and, as such, is an abstraction of reality and does not consider all possible aspects. It consists of a novel approach that still requires further empirical testing. The PTM provides insights about the trade-offs between productivity and strategic objectives, as well, contributes to the ongoing research on manufacturing strategy and can be further developed in future studies.

Practical implications

The main practical implication is to allow companies to relate their strategic decisions to their productivity performance.

Social implications

This research also contributes to societal issues by enabling firms to better align strategic objectives and operations, which ultimately allows offering products more suited to the needs of customers, thus making better use of the required resources and favoring economic growth.

Originality/value

The model proposed allows objective assessment of actions aiming at operational efficiency and effectiveness, in addition to providing insights into cause-and-effect relationships between productivity and competitive priorities. The model can also be used in empirical investigations on manufacturing strategy.

A conceptual framework of quality cost chain in strategic cost management

Purpose

This study aims to discover a practical and effective way to apply the quality cost concept in Strategic Cost Management (SCM) framework. The interaction of preventive, appraisal and failure (PAF) activities in a company's internal value chain will be the starting point of SCM implementation.

Design/methodology/approach

This study begins by establishing value chain and quality costs as the scope of conceptual analysis. Discussions on the interrelationships between activities, quality and costs were gathered to clarify conceptual and practical gaps in the scope of the study. The PAF quality cost model is applied to find viable, practical solutions. The costs of activities will serve as performance indicators.

Findings

The PAF quality cost model depicts opportunities to lower costs and increase profit in a business simultaneously; current poor quality costs are the benchmark. Identifying PAF activities and costs in the business value chain and linking it with others is crucial in evaluating SCM applications. These linkages will generate a Quality Cost Chain (QCC). The leading indicator of improvement is a higher ratio between new possible failure costs (FC) and the combination of prevention and appraisal costs (PAC) than the current value, followed by a lower total quality cost (TQC). The subsequent attention is a lower ratio between the appraisal cost (AC) and prevention cost (PC). Mathematically, for assessing the operability of new quality-related activities, ΔPACnew < ΔFCnew, TQCnew < TQCcurrent, (FC/PC)new>(FC/PC)current and (AC/PC)new<(AC/PC)current are proposed as feasible conditional-quantitative improvement criteria.

Research limitations/implications

This study only discusses the relationship between quality costs and activities related to quality management in the PAF quality cost model, not cost behavior. This limitation opens up opportunities for future research that intends to link QCC with cost behavior in the context of managerial accounting and Strategic Cost Management. The use of QCC in certain industrial areas is the next research opportunity. The variety of PAF activities this study addresses originates from a wide range of industrial sectors; QCC research by sector may produce unique industrial quality cost phenomena.

Practical implications

QCC will make it easier for managers to evaluate how strategically their departments or activities contribute to quality costs at the departmental or organizational level, as well as to effectively and efficiently improve quality cost performance.

Originality/value

The quality-related activity and quality cost issues are still rarely treated as subjects of research studies in the field of Strategic Cost Management. Even so, the discussion tends to be very broad, complex and difficult to apply. This study combines a simple diagrammatic and mathematical approach to simplify the discussion and, at the same time, manage the value of strategic quality management.

A New Model Supporting Stability Quality of Materials and Industrial Products

Stabilizing the quality of industrial product materials remains a challenge. This applies mainly to new or significantly modified materials. It also refers to special processes. The tests of product quality can stabilize the quality of industrial product materials. The popular method for this is using the non-destructive testing (NDT). The NDT identifies incompatibility but does not determine the cause of its occurrence. Hence, it was necessary to support the process of identifying causes of incompatibilities in products. The purpose of the article was to develop a model based on a new approach to determine the ranking of actions that are possible as part of the process of stabilizing the quality of industrial products. The model was developed to improve quality through sequential and systematic methods of identification (and reduce) and incompatibility. The quality management techniques and decision method were applied and combined in this model, i.e., SMART(-ER) the method, method of selecting a team of experts, brainstorming (BM), Ishikawa diagram with the 5M rule, Likert scale validation technique, arithmetic average, and Grey Relational Analysis (GRA). The test of this model was carried out to find cracks in the outer hull of 418 alloy four-point bearing (CPW-S 5616), which was identified by NDT (magnetic-powder method). As a result, a ranking of activities was obtained to stabilize the quality of the product and the main cause of incompatibility was indicated, i.e., the cause which can influence to the most degree influence on occurrence the incompatibility. The originality of the proposed model is an application in the right order of specially selected and combined qualitative methods and supporting decision methods. The finding of causes of incompatibility of products is the basis of product improvement in the area of stabilizing the quality of materials, mainly by the occurrence of special processes. The universality of the model refers to the possibility of its application for any material, processes of its formation, and processes of products, and any incompatibilities where the model can be integrated with quality control.

The economic order quantity model with inspection policy of zero-defect single sampling

Purpose

This paper proposes a new inventory model with inspection policy because in practice the received orders may contain non- conforming (NC) items. So, a buyer who receive an order from a supplier should use an inspection policy.

Design/methodology/approach

The inspection policy is assumed to be zero-defect single sampling. Under this policy a lot is accepted only if no defect has been identified in the inspected sample. The fraction of NC is assumed to be a random variable following a Binomial distribution and the number of NC items detected by inspection assumed to be a random variable, which follows a hypergeometric distribution. Order quantity and sample size are the two decision variables. A solution procedure is presented for the proposed model. The proposed procedure presents the optimal solution.

Findings

Numerical examples presented to illustrate the procedure outlined for the proposed model and its applicability. The results of numerical examples and comparing them with traditional EOQ model reveal that by the proposed model, the buyer could reduce total cost that shows the efficiency and validity of the proposed model.

Originality/value

The novelty of this paper is the new proposed model that considers inspection policy in inventory management. The proposed model determines sample size as well as order quantity to consider both subject of inventory management and quality control, simultaneously.