A Quality Improvement Study at an Aerospace Company

Abstract

Reports on a quality improvement project undertaken by an aerospace company in an attempt to apply statistical process control techniques to its heat treatment process in hopes of achieving continuous process improvement. The project was successful in spotting the problem areas based on statistical analysis of pertinent data. Several countermeasures were recommended by the project team to tackle the uncovered problems. However, the recommendations were not implemented because the management maintained that no additional costs should be incurred to improve an acceptable process since the process under study was found to be within specification limits. This case study vividly illustrates that, first, nothing will be achieved without management support and, second, companies still employ the outdated “don’t rock the boat” management philosophy, which is in stark contrast to the philosophy of continuous improvement to meet customer expectations advocated by modern quality management and practised by many world‐class organizations.

Citation

Cheng, T.C.E. (1994), "A Quality Improvement Study at an Aerospace Company", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 63-72. https://doi.org/10.1108/02656719410051706