This Project is conferred with the “Best Capstone Project Award” for Sep 2022 Term by IITMBS.
Summary
The goal of this project is to help Mr. Ramesh from Sealtite Dichtungs Pvt. Ltd. with pointers on how to improve the process of inspection of the automobile components that are manufactured at his factory, as well as examine the factors involved in how and why the manufactured parts are rejected by their clients, and suggest improvements on the process as well. A physical tour of the factory was followed by a basic look at how the manufacturing facilities actually produce the parts was also done.
First, we do a simple Pareto Analysis for one month, then for all months. We also analyze the losses incurred to the company and examine it carefully. Finally we also perform SPC to check if the entire manufacturing process is in control. Finally, We take our inferences and give some recommendations to the company on improvement of their processes, which concludes this report.
The project used three months of Quality Control (QC) data collected from the factory. This data included information on rejected parts, the reasons they were rejected, how many parts were produced, and the costs associated with these rejections. To understand the data, we used several analytical methods:
- Pareto Analysis: This showed that a small number of defect types (Thread GO Not Answer, Dent Mark, Line Mark, and Weld Defect) were responsible for most of the rejections. This helped us focus our improvement efforts on these specific defects.
- Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) Analysis: This analysis helped us understand how much money the company was losing because of defects. It also revealed a potential issue in May where the cost of poor quality was unusually high, suggesting a possible problem with a machine or operator error.
- Statistical Process Control (SPC): We used an X-bar/R chart to analyze the manufacturing process for a specific part (CLEVIE). The chart showed that the process was stable and in control, meaning it was producing consistent results within acceptable limits.
Key Findings:
- A small number of defect types caused a large portion of the rejections, confirming the Pareto Principle (80/20 rule).
- COPQ analysis showed significant financial losses due to defects and highlighted a possible issue in May.
- SPC confirmed that the CLEVIS part manufacturing process was stable and consistent.
- The manual inspection process was identified as a major bottleneck because it was slow and labor-intensive.
Conclusion:
This project provided valuable insights into the quality challenges faced by Sealtite Dichtungs and offered practical suggestions for improvement. By implementing these recommendations, the company can reduce the number of rejected parts, minimize financial losses, and make the inspection process more efficient. The report also highlights the importance of ongoing monitoring and using data to make decisions about quality control.
Final Thoughts:
As we wrap up this project, it’s clear that finding solutions to complex business problems, especially in areas like quality control in manufacturing, is not always straightforward. It takes dedicated research, development, and a focus on finding solutions that are both effective and affordable. Engineering is all about finding practical solutions to difficult problems, and that’s exactly what this project aimed to do. Thank you for reading this report.
Please note that the full report is available for download using the link provided in the header.
For the proposal and mid-term reports, refer to the below links:
Project Proposal: Click Here
Mid-Term Report: Click Here