Quality Management in Manufacturing Industry: A Case Study of Unite Precision Engineering

Abstract
In today’s world, for the production of superior quality of product for catering to
their customer numerous organizations are seeking various new ways in order
to stay competitive and increase profitability. It is important to produce products,
which are of good quality, and it is also to be ensured that the delivery is on time
as the new technologies present and the demands in the markets of
manufacturing are always on the move.
In this dissertation, understanding the value of quality of products and
identifying the underlying cause is the prime objective of the research, by
reviewing academic literature on the causes for poor quality management, and
according to the study, the most common causes that instigate quality problems
are equipment stability, human error and substandard materials. As a result, in
order to find out the relationships between the qualities rejects, three
hypotheses were identified.

Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Research background
There are several uncertainties related to machining manufacturing business
like fluctuation of market due to ever changing demands of customer,
competitive rivalry, unnatural disasters which are unpredictable and accidents
which cannot be foreseen (Doz & Prahalad, C. K., 2013).
There are several operations and mechanisms, which demands thorough
surveillance relating to the line of production in order to provide superior quality
of output products, that involve business operations. Quality management plays
a very important role in achieving superior quality products in order to improve
the quality system of management.
It is of utmost importance to give attention to the quality where the organization
will possibly benefit from increased regularity, regulation, and dependability. The
products can go out of date in this industry very fast owing to changes in
technologies and demand in the market (Gupta, Smith, & Shalley, 2006).
The activities of collaboration which takes place between monitoring of the
processes performance and planning is termed as Quality Management
(Trkman, 2010).It is a technique of analysis that involves clear-cut outlook to
control a process.
Improvement of the process that aims to improve customer satisfaction is the
main purpose of quality management. The objective of quality management also
involves increase of profitability of an organization by amalgamation of different
facets, which includes skillfulness, paraphernalia, data, strategy and
composition (Jeston & Nelis, 2014).
However, there are many organizations, which lack strong quality management
structure. Increased variation of processes such as Instability of equipment,
miserable conditions of working environments, measurement error in
operations, incoming materials with defects and error from human are the
results of lack of quality management. This result in issues related to quality.

Thus, the author has decided to choose Unite Precision Engineering, which will
conduct an investigation regarding the relationships between quality issues that
are due to the lack of quality management and the significance of the variables.
1.2 Case Study: Unite Precision Engineering
Unite Precision Engineering is a Singapore based private company that
provides precision machine services. They have amassed 15 years of
experience and improved their skills in a variety of precision manufacturing
service that includes milling service and CNC turning with help of the machines
and technology of art.
The company brought many high precision machines from countries like
Germany and Japan. These machines enable them to manufacture complex
parts, which they are different from their rivals in the market as they
specializes on limited volume of production of high accuracy parts which are
served to the industries of semiconductor, aerospace and oil & gas .
They develop new challenging projects along with their customers because of
the strength of having a strong team. They work on complex parts with unique
processing along with their customers and ensure that the delivery is prompt.
In the author’s company, Unite Precision Engineering was one of the numerous
outsourcing vendors. For the last five years, the author has been associated
and worked for the company. Considering their performance in on-time delivery
and quality, they are monitored and measured. Unite has proved their
inconsistency in their quality deliverance, based on the collected historical data.
Thus, to conduct research in quality and management the author find it as an
opportunity to select Unite.
1.2 Objectives of research
The reports aims to bring forward the root causes that results in production of
poor quality products which are a result of insufficient and improper quality
management within the operation of manufacturing.
Operation variation were identified by Unite as the major rejection root cause,
that impacted manufacturing dropped out cause products delivery on time an
issue. In all kinds of industry that relates to manufacturing, variation is always

present as mentioned by number of scholars .There are two classifications of
the concept of variation ,they are controlled and uncontrolled (Hallerbach,
Bauer, & Reichert, 2010).The determination of the products stability is very
important irrespective of whether it is controlled or uncontrolled. In case of
controlled process ,it would be doing its operations normally in a stable and
expected manner with variations that can be controlled ceaselessly (Weidlich,
Mendling, & Weske, 2011).But if the variation in process or process average
changes that would suggest that the variations are taking place which are not in
controlled manner (Florac, Park, & Carleton, 1997). Equipment downtime,
defects and longer cycle time are the result of the process which are not
controlled, it leads to losses in production (Sarfaty, et al., 2002).Thus it has
been realized that uncontrolled variations affect their operations so the
manufacturers endeavors to get rid of all causes of uncontrolled variation. It is
important to interpret the gravity of quality management in manufacturing
industry. There are several writers who have determined and explored the
several variety related to processes which possesses major influence in the
quality of the products which are finally produced as the output in manufacturing
of machine in the context of the company that is selected are the main
objectives of this study.
The research objectives:
1) Exploring the importance of industry related to quality management in
machine manufacturing.
2) Identification of factors, that aids to the impact of influencing quality of
products.
3) Conducting a thorough research about how the company can make
optimized utilization of quality management that would result in minimization
of loss of quality.
Thus, by critically considering and studying the theories that supports the
academic theories on process variation and quality control the three
hypothesis has been identified.
The prime motive is to bring forward the relations, which interlink the issues
related to quality and also the variables, and comprehend and critically
analyze their connection with each other.
1.3 Structure of the report
The paper includes many chapters, which are in sequence. First, it gives a
brief introduction of the research objectives and its concepts, after that it is
followed by literature review, which is present in chapter 2. After critically
analyzing the preexisting academic theories and studies on papers related to

quality management the literature, review of this paper has been provided.
The root causes of how the variations in processes affect the quality of the
final products has been identified after analyzing the theoretical studies
related to this subjects of interest.
The methodologies have been provided in chapter 3, the contents of which
provide description regarding the research aims, design and methods. This
chapter also highlights the drawbacks and considers the issues related to
ethics in the research, which relates to the appraisement of the paper.
Questionnaires have also been provided which are the sources of data
collected, it used the SPSS statistical method incorporated with Cronbach’s
alpha reliability test mentioned in chapter 4. By using the quantitative
method scrutiny of the results has to be done by providing survey
questionnaires. It will be simpler and evident to identify whether the
hypothesis are supporting or not from the results and it will also be
determined from the Cronbatch’s alpha reliability test whether the variables
are consistent and reliable. The chapter following will provide the findings
and discussions that have been evaluated from the results from hypothesis
test and research methods in perspective of the research aims. a conclusion
would be provided after critical analysis of findings and discussions and it
will determine the positivity or adversity of the research objectives in the
chapter 6.

Chapter 2: Literature review
2.1 Introduction of quality management
Creation and following of policies and procedures in order to maintain defined needs
of the final products that are supposed to be met from a perspective of customer, is
included in Quality management. Customer satisfaction quality is one of the
perspectives of quality management, it includes meeting of expectations and
requirements of the customers and stakeholders, which leads to the creation of
products that satisfies the needs and is ideal for intended use. Secondly, planning to
design and building of products and process from the inception leads to prevention
of defects and quality escapes. Thirdly, to ensure the success of quality efforts both
the company culture and management responsibility needs to be in place, financial
resources needed for quality efforts needs to be supported by the organizational
management. Lastly, ongoing PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) cycle to ascertain the
success of quality management in an organization is responsible for quality
improvement and continuous improvement.
2.2 Quality challenges in manufacturing industry
The major challenge and drivers for quality improvement has always been the quality
issues. Due to globalization, increasing costs, the industry has been very competitive
and there is a dire need for advancement of technology. Reduction of lead time of
manufacturing ,lower defects that leads to the enhancement of overall operational
performance have been contributed by quality which is deemed as a strategic factor
(Dhafr, Ahmad, Burgess, & Canagassababa, 2006). Lean manufacturing, six sigma,
just-in-time manufacturing and many others concepts have been deployed by many
organizations, this methods and concepts aims to achieve equality improvements in