Quality Improvements Towards Zero Defects Addressing the Implementation Gap Between Industry and Literature PAPER WITHIN Production Systems AUTHOR: Gabriella Gustafsson & Wiktoria Rydin JÖNKÖPING June 2020 This exam work has been carried out at the School of Engineering in Jönköping in the subject area Production System with a specialization in production development and management. The work is a part of the Master of Science program. The authors take full responsibility for opinions, conclusions and findings presented. Examiner: Carin Rösiö Supervisor: Gary Linnéusson Scope: 30 credits (second cycle) Date: 2020-06-03 Abstract Abstract Customers today demand products of high quality, and industries must cope with issues related to that to stay competitive. Therefore, an endeavor to achieve zero defects and to work with zero defect manufacturing (ZDM) is common in industries today. ZDM aims to reduce the number of failures within a manufacturing process and thus only producing faultless products. Since defected items result in unexpected work, extra costs, claims and unsatisfied customers, it is important to avoid that in order to secure the company’s market share. Even though it implies challenges, companies must work with ZDM and quality tools to stay competitive. However, there is a gap between the literature of ZDM and how to accomplish ZDM in practice, which makes it hard for companies to apply the method. Hence, this thesis aims to address this gap and present how the human factors and quality contribute to the goal of zero defects. When working with a manually driven manufacturing setting, human factors must be considered as an important aspect. Mistakes will occur as long as humans work with the products, but the prerequisites for doing right must be as good as possible to be able to decrease the number of mistakes. Another factor to consider is the internal quality of different processes to ensure that customer demands are achieved through all stages. This study focused on finding suggestions for improvements towards zero defects in manual assembly and to present general improvement actions. The thesis is based on three main fields: ZDM, quality and human factors. The findings are connected both to literature searches made within these fields, but also through a case study at the focal company. In the analysis chapter, the reader is provided with information about how the specified problem areas are linked together and to the three main fields. By combining the literature search with a case study at a focal company, findings could be detected, collected and analyzed. Four areas could be identified in the analysis and highlighted in the discussion of the research questions. The highlighted areas were further used as a foundation to establish suggestion within the important areas. These acts as practical guidelines for how to reach zero defects in an existing production with the goal of minimizing the implementation gap of ZDM. Keywords Zero defect manufacturing, Quality, Human factors I Acknowledgment Acknowledgment We would like to start by expressing our gratitude to the people who have helped us along the way. First, we would like to thank our supervisor Gary Linnéusson at School of Engineering in Jönköping, for guidance and support throughout the project. Moreover, we would like to thank the focal company for the opportunity to belong to their project and be provided with information and inestimable inputs. A special thanks to Nina Ström, our supervisor at the focal company, for all help and support. II Contents Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................. 1 1.1 BACKGROUND ................................................................................................. 1 1.2 PROBLEM DESCRIPTION .................................................................................. 2 1.3 PURPOSE AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................. 3 1.4 DELIMITATIONS .............................................................................................. 3 1.5 OUTLINE ......................................................................................................... 3 2 Theoretical Background ........................................................ 5 2.1 ZERO DEFECTS ................................................................................................ 5 2.2 QUALITY ......................................................................................................... 6 2.2.1 Total Quality Management .................................................................... 7 2.2.2 Supplier Quality ..................................................................................... 7 2.2.3 Internal Quality Assurance ..................................................................... 8 2.2.4 FMEA ..................................................................................................... 8 2.3 HUMAN FACTORS ENGINEERING ................................................................... 11 2.3.1 Human Error ........................................................................................ 12 2.3.2 Situation Awareness ............................................................................. 14 2.3.3 Acknowledgment and Responsibility .................................................. 16 2.3.4 Factors Affecting Human Performance ............................................... 16 3 Method and Implementation ................................................ 18 3.1 RESEARCH APPROACH .................................................................................. 18 3.1.1 Link Between Methods and Research Questions ................................. 18 3.2 LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................... 19 3.3 CASE STUDY ................................................................................................. 21 3.3.1 Case Company ..................................................................................... 22 3.4 DATA COLLECTION ....................................................................................... 22 3.4.1 Disruption Poll ..................................................................................... 23 3.4.2 Instruction Failure Poll ......................................................................... 23 III Contents 3.4.3 Survey Assembly Instruction ............................................................... 23 3.4.4 Documentation of Observation Data .................................................... 24 3.4.5 Documentation of Claim Data ............................................................. 24 3.4.6 Competence Assessment ...................................................................... 24 3.5 IMPLEMENTATION ......................................................................................... 25 3.5.1 Fishbone Diagram ................................................................................ 25 3.5.2 5 Why Analysis .................................................................................... 25 3.5.3 FMEA ................................................................................................... 26 3.6 ETHICAL CONSIDERATION ............................................................................. 26 3.7 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY ......................................................................... 27 4 Findings and Analysis ......................................................... 28 4.1 LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................... 28 4.2 CASE STUDY ................................................................................................. 29 4.2.1 Introduction for new employees .......................................................... 29 4.2.2 Disruption Poll ..................................................................................... 29 4.2.3 Instruction Failure Poll ......................................................................... 30 4.2.4 Survey Assembly Instruction ............................................................... 30 4.2.5 Documentation of Observation Data .................................................... 31 4.2.6 Documentation of Claim Data ............................................................. 31 4.2.7 Competence Assessment ...................................................................... 32 4.2.8 Summary of Case Study Findings ........................................................ 32 4.3 IMPLEMENTATION ......................................................................................... 33 4.3.1 Fishbone Diagrams .............................................................................. 33 4.3.2 5 Why Analysis .................................................................................... 34 4.3.3 FMEA ................................................................................................... 35 4.3.4 Summary of Implementation ............................................................... 35 4.4 ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................... 36 5 Discussion and Conclusion ................................................ 39 5.1 DISCUSSION OF METHOD .............................................................................. 39 5.2 DISCUSSION OF GENERAL ASPECTS .............................................................. 40 IV Contents 5.3 DISCUSSION