Quality is a property that a thing or object has, and that defines its value, as well as the satisfaction it provokes in a subject.
The definition of quality can vary. It is a subjective concept, since, if you ask someone what they perceive as quality, it will probably be different from what someone else considers. For example, one person may think that a vehicle is of remarkable quality, while another may disagree and consider a different car to be of higher quality than the one the individual proposes.
Quality is a highly regarded attribute in most cases. In addition, it is also an adjective that is used as a sales tool when applied to any service, product, or brand.
There are different points of view as far as quality is concerned. For example, it would be to offer certain values to the customers unlike other brands, to offer continuous improvements in the products or services, to generate work processes that have a great acceptance among all the workers, to value the opinions of the customers and to fulfill their expectations, to obtain benefits and gratifications on the use of some service.
There are 3 types of quality:
Quality in customer service. This aspect depends on the customer’s perception of the treatment received when dealing with a brand. There can be many reasons that lead a user to contact a certain brand: complaints, doubts, even congratulations on the product or service. But the important thing, and for the customer to have an optimal perception of quality, is to offer personalized treatment, communication and solutions to their questions as soon as possible. In this way, a customer will be able to associate the word quality with the treatment received.
The quality of a product. It is about the features that an article has, its functionality, to fulfill what it promises, and that the expectations that have been generated at the time of making use of it are completely fulfilled.
Quality in production. It is about carrying out a series of planning, execution and actions to ensure that the process from the time the product originates, is managed in the factory, distributed and reaches the customer, is optimal in all aspects, achieving the necessary quality to meet the customer’s needs.
The CQI’s (Continuous Quality Improvement) are a set of questions for the evaluation of special processes in the automotive industry. These evaluations are performed under a detailed methodology that serves as a guide to have an accurate evaluation with a focus on continuous process improvement.
The CQI’s guidelines provide best practices for continuous improvement in the industry, emphasizing the prevention of defects, reduction of variation and waste in the supply chain.
CQI’s focused on Internal Audits.
CQI-08: Layered Process Audit Guideline (LPA) – 2nd edition.
CQI-09: Special Process: Heat Treat System Assessment (HAS) – 4th ed.
CQI-11: Special Process: Plating System Assessment (PSA) – 3rd ed.
CQI-12: Special Process: Coating System Assessment (CSA, Special Process: Coating System Assessment) – 3rd ed.
CQI-15: Special Process: Welding System Assessment (WSA) – 2nd ed.
CQI-17: Special Process: Special Process: Soldering System Assessment (SSA) – 1st ed.
CQI-23: Special Process: Molding System Assessment (MSA) – 1st ed.
CQI-27: CQI-27 Special Process: Casting System Assessment (CSA) – 2nd ed.
CQI-29: Special Process: Brazing System Assessment (BSA), CQI-29 Special Process: Brazing System Assessment -1st ed.
CQI’s focused on Supplier Management
CQI-19: Sub-Tier Supplier Management Process Guideline – 1st ed.
CQI’s focused on Nonconformities or Corrective Action
CQI-14: Automotive Warranty Management Guideline (AWM) – 3rd ed.
CQI-20: AIAG Effective Problem Solving Guide – 2nd ed.
Special Processes Auditor/Evaluator Qualifications
As stipulated in the CQI’s manuals published by AIAG, auditors or assessors must have the following specific experience to conduct the Special.
Process Assessment to be audited: Experience: Minimum Internal Auditor in QMS (Quality Management System) in IATF 16949 or ISO 9001.
Knowledge: Minimum 5 years of experience in special process to be assessed or a combination of formal education and experience in the process demonstrating 5 years.
Must possess: Knowledge and application of automotive quality tools (Core Tools).
Recent Updates to the CQI’s.
In the last year, AIAG has updated 4 different CQI manuals, this with the purpose of adapting the content of these guides according to the current needs of the industry and improve their understanding and include the Quality Management System concepts of «Process Approach» and «Risk Management» according to the most current versions of the ISO 9001:2015 and IATF 16949:2016 standards.
The CQI’s with recent update are:
CQI-09: Heat Treatment Process Assessment (4th ed.) – June 2020.
CQI-11: Plating Process Evaluation (3rd ed.) – Sept. 2019
CQI-12: Plating Process Evaluation (3rd ed.) – August 2020
CQI-15: Soldering Process Evaluation (2nd ed.) – Jan. 2020
Cybersecurity management with the ISO standard
The latent risk in critical systems has forced the implementation of intelligent management standards to reduce risks. It is now required to guarantee organizational operability under the certainty that all confidential information is secure.
Cybersecurity at a global level has taken on major importance, becoming an agenda item for the most powerful governments in the world. Cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of all types of governmental and private organizations have put the emphasis on increasing all the controls available on the market.
The latent risk in critical systems has forced the implementation of intelligent management standards via controls that reduce vulnerabilities and, at the same time, shield the reputation of organizations.
The ISO 27001 Standard, issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), was created to manage information security, a very valuable asset whose fragility in its safeguarding or handling is of utmost importance for organizations.
BSI Group estimates that its implementation contributes to a substantial risk reduction of up to 71% and reduces possible operational errors by up to 50%.
«It has been a premise to guarantee organizational operability under the certainty that all information is protected,» said Leonardo Garcia, auditor of BSI Group Mexico.
«The Covid-19 pandemic boosted e-commerce, the conversion to technological services in health, work and education and a large part of economic activity, within the framework of a confinement that has not completely ended, so our mission has been to lay the foundations for managing the security of information of any business or institution,» explained the specialist.
Does privacy no longer exist?
It is a fact that attacks to steal information have increased as the digital universe expands in the domestic and business world. Organizations have more and more information of interest to «computer thieves»: bandwidth availability, storage space in the cloud, increased financial transactions, among others, which has increased the possibility of attacks or loss of information.
In fact, the value of information has increased when, for example, an identity is stolen and used to obtain credit in the name of the affected party, obtaining any number of benefits to the detriment of the victim.
The standardization of security exists, then, as one of the strategic actions against attacks that violate sensitive information, expanding the capabilities of organizations to protect their digital assets. In the end, it is about reducing the risk to which all critical information could be exposed.
– Seventy-five percent of organizations are not confident that all their business data is completely secure (3).
– At the close of 2017 the cost of cybercrime in the country was 7.7 billion dollars, according to data from Symantec’s annual study (4).
– In Mexico 23.9% of the population aged 12 and over who used the internet in 2019 were victims of cyberbullying.
Cyber defense has taken on unprecedented proportions in the Covid-19 era. Mexico still has a lot of work to do in this regard: between 2017 and 2018 it went from 28th to 63rd place within the list of countries that make up the Global Cybersecurity Index of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a drop of 35 places.
CORE TOOLS.
The Core tools is the set of 5 tools to implement a quality management system in the automotive industry:
APQP: Advanced Product Quality Planning.
PPAP: Production Part Approval Process.
FMEA: Failure Mode and Effects Analysis.
SPC: Statistical Process Control.
MSA: Measurement System Analysis.
¿What is the origin of the Core Tools?
Chrysler, Ford and General Motors decided to join forces to form an action group called AIAG (Automotive Industry Action Group) whose purpose was to face the competition coming from Europe and Japan, and make the U.S.A. competitive again in the automotive industry and had a great deliverable, which was the IATF 16949 standard which we will talk about in another moment, together with the Core Tools and the CQI’s (Continuous Quality Improvement) or continuous quality improvement.
This set of tools considered by the IATF standard and the standard itself are a supplement to the ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems standard and are used together with it. In order to be certified in Core Tools you must dedicate 8 hours to each Core Tool and accumulate a total of 40 hours of training to meet the requirements.
APQP: It is a structured method for defining and establishing the steps necessary to ensure that a product satisfies the customer. This Core tool could be considered more than a tool, it could even be considered as a project management method.
The objective of this tool is: To facilitate communication with all involved to ensure that all required steps are completed on time.
Benefits:
Direct resources to satisfy customers.
Promote early identification of required changes.
Avoid late changes.
Deliver quality products on time and at the lowest cost.
This tool can be represented in a simple and graphic way as follows.
¿How to implement APQP?
This tool consists of 5 stages and the activities that must be carried out in each stage. Before starting with all these stages, you must first consider a previous stage or stage 0, which is the preparation of APQP.
Consider the following:
Select the leader of the cross-functional team
Define roles and responsibilities
Identify internal and external customers
Define customer requirements
Identify resources to extend customer expectations
Evaluate feasibility of proposed design
Identify costs, timing and constraints
Determine if customer involvement is required
Identify process documentation.
Stage 1.- Plan and define a program.
Objectives:
Determine customer needs.
Define and plan a quality program.
Inputs:
Voice of the customer.
Market research.
Business plan and marketing strategy.
Process/product competitive comparison data.
Process/product assumptions.
Product reliability studies.
Customer inputs.
Outputs:
Design objectives.
Quality and reliability
Objectives.
Preliminary list of materials.
Preliminary process flow diagram.
Preliminary list of special product and process characteristics.
Product assurance plan.
Management support.
Stage 2.- Product design and development.
Objectives:
Development of design features.
Review of engineering requirements.
Evaluate any potential problems that could occur in manufacturing.
Inputs:
Outputs from previous stage.
Outputs:
Analysis of design failure modes and effects (AMEFDs).
Design for manufacturability and assemblability.
Design verifications.
Design reviews.
Control plan, prototype construction.
Engineering drawings, (including mathematical data).
Engineering specifications.
Material specifications.
Changes to drawings and specifications.
New equipment, tooling and facility requirements.
Special product and process characteristics.
Test equipment/Gages requirements.
Equipment feasibility commitment and management support.
Stage 3.- Process design and development.
Objectives:
Development of understanding and effectiveness of the manufacturing process.
Will ensure the ability of the process to meet customer requirements.
Inputs:
Outputs from the previous process.
Outputs:
Standards and specifications.
Review of the product/process quality system.
Process flow diagram.
Floor plan layout.
Characteristics matrix.
Analysis of process failure modes and effects (AMEFP’s).
Pre-release control plan (including error proofing devices).
Process instructions.
Measurement system analysis plan.
Preliminary process capability study plan.
Management support (including operating personnel and training personnel).
Stage 4.- Product and process validation.
Objectives:
Validate the product, manufacturing process and control plan.
Ensure that the product meets all customer requirements.
Identify problems.
Inputs:
Outputs of the previous process.
Outputs:
Significant production run.
Measurement System Assessment (MSA).
Preliminary process capability study (SPC).
Production Part Approval (PPAP).
Product validation testing.
Packaging evaluations.
Production control plan (CP).
Quality planning release and management support.
Stage 5.- Evaluations, feedback and corrective actions.
Objectives:
Evaluate all variations (Variable data and attributes).
Evaluate product quality planning.
Use of control plan and corrective actions.
Inputs:
Outputs of the previous process.
Outputs:
Reduction of variation.
Improved customer satisfaction.
Improved shipment and service.
Effective use of lessons learned/best practices.
PLAN CONTROL.
It is a written description of the system to control parts and processes, there are 3 types:
Prototypes
Pre-release
Production
PPAP
A process that defines the general requirements for the approval of parts for production.
Review of objective evidence of compliance with customer requirements.
Objective:
To determine whether all customer specification requirements and design records are properly understood by the organization and that the manufacturing process has the potential to manufacture products that consistently meet these requirements, during actual production runs and at the quoted production rate.
Benefits:
– Strengthens the relationship between customer and supplier.
– Prevents the use or distribution of unapproved parts.
– Makes it easier for the customer to detect problems or defects early in the production process, which reduces correction time and saves costs.
– Maintains and preserves design parameters of production parts.
– Handles supplier changes more effectively.
PPAP flow diagram
The PPAP can be launched in 5 levels of emissions which refer to the amount of evidence to be presented, from the lowest which is Level 1 to level 5 where it is much more evidence, by default the minimum level of evidence to work with is level 3.
The 5 levels of emissions
Level 1: Certificate only (and Appearance Approval Report for items designated as appearance items) are issued to the customer.
Level 2: Certificate with product samples and limited supporting data are issued to the customer.
Level 3 (Default): Certificate with product samples and full supporting data is issued to the customer.
Level 4: Certificate and other requirements as defined by the customer.
Level 5: Certificate with product samples and complete supporting data, reviewed at the manufacturing location.
You as a professional must be able to archive this evidence in addition to meeting the 18 requirements of the PPAP which are:
- Design records
- Engineering change documents
- Customer engineering approval
- Design FEAs
- Process flow diagrams Ahmed process flow diagrams
- Process FEAs
- Control Plans
- Measurement System Analysis Studies
- Dimensional Results
- Materials/Performance Test Results
- Initial Process Studies
- Qualified Laboratory Documentation
- Report of Approval of Appearance (RAA)
- Product Samples
- Master Samples
- Checking Aids
- Compliance Records
- Single Part Certificate of Issue (PSW)
1.- Design Records: The organization shall have all product design records. Where design records are in electronic format, the organization shall reproduce copies of these to identify the measurements taken.
2.-Engineering change documents: The organization shall have authorized engineering change documents for those changes that have not yet been recorded in the design documents but are already incorporated into the product, part or tooling.
3.- Customer engineering approval: The organization shall have evidence of customer engineering approvals.
4.- Design AMEFS: The organization with design responsibilities shall develop design FEAAs in accordance with, and in compliance with, the requirements specified by the customers.
- Process Flow Diagrams Ahmed Process Flow Diagrams: The organization shall have process flow diagrams in the format specified by the organization itself that clearly describe the steps and sequences of the production processes, as appropriate, and that meet the needs, requirements and expectations specified by the customer.
6.- Process FEAs: The organization shall develop process FEAs in accordance with, and in compliance with, the requirements specified by customers.
7.- Control Plans: The organization shall have control plans that define all methods used to control the processes themselves and meet customer requirements.
8.- Measurement System Analysis Studies: The organization should have measurement system analysis studies that apply to all new or modified equipment used as gage or measurement and test equipment.
9.- Dimensional Results: The organization shall provide dimensional evidence required for design records and control plans to be completed and the results indicate compliance with specific requirements. The organization shall identify one of the measured parts as a sample Master document and recommend using the CFG 1003 format for the approval record.
- Materials/Performance Test Results. The organization should have records of materials testing and/or performance standards for tests specified in the design records or control plans.
The recommended formats for materials testing is CFG 1004 and for performance testing is CFG 1005 included in the document.
- Initial Process Studies. The level of initial process capability or performance should be established at the acceptable pre-issuance level for all special characteristics designated by the customer or organization.
The organization should perform measurement systems analysis to understand how measurement errors affect study measurements. This is where the PPK or Process Capability Analysis formats come in. - Qualified Laboratory Documentation Inspections and tests for PPAPs should be performed by qualified laboratories as defined by customer requirements.
- Appearance Approval Report (AAR) A separate appearance approval report (AAR) must be completed for each part if the product has appearance requirements in the design records with the CFG 1002 format included in the document.
- Product Samples. The organization shall provide sample products as specified by the customer.
- Master Samples – The organization shall retain a master sample for the same period as the production part approval records. The master sample must be identified as such, and must show the customer approval date on the sample itself.
Note: In PPAP Level 3 (Default), the organization must retain this requirement available to the customer as a request
Checking aids. The organization must certify that all aspects of the check aid agree with the dimensional requirements of the part in question. If the device was made especially for checking parts, and is not available as a catalog item elsewhere, it is considered a Checking Aid, not including measuring equipment.
- Compliance Records. The organization should have records of compliance with all customer-specific requirements that apply to them.
- Single Party Certificate of Issue (PSW). Upon completion of all PPAP requirements, the organization must complete a party certificate of release (PSW).
The organization must record on the PSW the weights of the parts as shipped, measured and expressed in kilograms to four significant decimal places (0.0000), unless otherwise specified by the customer.
This is the most important document since it is the document that certifies the issuance of a part in the format is the CFG 1001 and with this same document we finalize the PPAP.
The double standard in Mexico. It is recognized that most of the automotive industry in Mexico has a double standard practice.
In Mexico most of the automotive industry operates with a double standard practice that allows it to produce and sell cars with lower vehicle safety standards within the country, compared to the higher basic safety standards of those cars that are manufactured in Mexico and exported for commercialization in other countries.
Code of ethics for the automotive industry.
In June 2018 El poder del consumidor and Latin NCAP got 25 thousand consumers to sign this demand. The letter was sent to the directors of the 18 carmakers in Mexico to sign a commitment not to sell cars with lower safety features in Mexico than those exported, regardless of their price, January 2020.
None of the 18 automakers signed.
This is an invitation to all professionals to change and act for the betterment of the country.
Deming Award Application, which is intended for companies based on three categories: large, divisions of large companies and small-medium.
The Deming Prize, which is awarded to those who have contributed to the dissemination and development of total quality control.
In 1986, a Deming Award was introduced for non-Japanese companies. The criteria on which the award is based refer to the following categories:
Company policy and planning.
To be eligible for this award, companies wishing to apply must submit a written report setting out a description of how they perform quality control, plus a report for each department or section. The reports will be duly examined to check whether the company performs total quality control as specified in the report. In addition, the assessors will be able to ask any type of question that the company must answer and justify.
The Malcolm Baldrige Award
It was established in the United States by the Secretary of Commerce in 1987 due to the increasing loss of productivity and competitiveness of American companies, so the government established this award in order to encourage initiatives to improve the quality of companies. This award has three categories: manufacturing, services and small companies. Up to two companies can be awarded in each category. The criteria used to evaluate the candidate companies are as follows:
Leadership.
Information and analysis.
Strategic quality planning.
Human resource development and management.
Quality process management.
Quality and operational results.
Customer satisfaction.
Of these, the most important criterion is customer satisfaction. Candidate companies must submit a written report referring to all seven categories for subsequent evaluation by the board of examiners. If the assessment is high, a visit will be made to verify and analyze the data in the report. After the visit, the results of the visit will be evaluated by nine judges who will decide the winners of the tournament.
The European award was created in 1991 on the initiative of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), with the support of the European Commission and the European Organization for Quality (EOQ). It is divided into two categories: the European Quality Award and the European Quality Awards. The former is awarded to the organization that represents the greatest exponent of excellent management in Europe and the latter to the group of organizations that have demonstrated a high degree of excellence in the quality of their management. To award the prize there are nine criteria grouped into two categories:
Enabling Agents:
Evaluation of compliance with the UNE-EN-ISO9001:2000 Standard through a questionnaire.
Evaluation of the European Quality Model, for which companies must submit a report on the different criteria of the model.