Reducing non-conformance from foundry products through supplier quality management

Abstract

Supplier Quality Assurance is an important aspect of Total Quality Management where organisations dedicate an element of their operations within the businesses to the development and continuous improvement of their suppliers which then form part of the organisations extended supply chain. An Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) in the mining and minerals space was selected based on its challenges with parts that end up in their manufacturing processes from foundry suppliers and deemed not to meet the quality requirements for its manufacturing processes. The objectives of the research were: to determine “Why” detectable defects reach the end –user; To determine the quality improvement medium required to ensure better performance of suppliers to the OEM, to determine the effect of Supplier Quality Assurance in the improvement of supplier performance, to evaluate the suppliers Total Quality Management (TQM) and control of non-conforming products. The following notable findings that formed the premise of this research were that: The visually detectable defects can be prevented by suppliers from reaching the end-user. Findings from the literature review showed that the industry is facing challenges with high energy costs, lack of skills and development, low labour productivity, import leakages, lack of technologically sophisticated machinery, colossal transport costs, environmental rules and regulations as well as capital constraints. It was also realised that organizations should streamline their process costs to ensure that quality is achieved. A mixed research methodology was used in the research. Target population consisted of OEM company managers and employees handling Supplier Quality Assurance and Quality managers or representatives in foundries in South Africa. A total of ten respondents were purposively sampled. From the primary research findings it was discovered that internal audits and awareness training, heat treatment, spectrographic management, inspector checking are some of the supplier quality management mechanisms used.