Quality Control

For the company your team has selected, what quality control methods do they currently use? Boeing Company uses continues improvement as a quality control method. They use Pareto analysis as well as the fishbone diagrams in order to find out the cause of the problem. First they look at the report using Pareto analysis to find out what kind of items are defect most. For example, Boeing 777 experiences defects in engines. According to US air safety body, “… 220 airliners [experience] an engine flaw …” A Boeing engine is manufactured by Rolls-Royce; therefore, the manufacturing company is responsible for the flaws in Boeing’s engines. As a result, the quality control department has to go in and check the manufacture, Roll-Royce. They will find the defect which causes the engines to work improperly in cold and icy weather using Fishbone Diagrams. The US safety board states, “[Many problems and incidents with these engines were experienced] within a year, [they believe] that there is a high probability of something similar happening again… [therefore]…the only acceptable solution for this safety vulnerability was to redesign the flawed component in the engine.” According to engine flawed component that caused the problems and fatal crashes, Boeing’s airline customers were forced to ground many Boeings 777. The current problem was solved and the components, in this case fuel/oil heat exchangers, were replaced by heat exchangers which are more tolerant to ice accretion.

What about Six Sigma practices? Recommend some new ideas they should consider.Boeing Company can use Six Sigma practices in order to improve the capability and reduce the defects in any process. Six Sigma practices include the following steps: define, measure, analyze, improve, and control. Boeing should consider defining the project goals and current processes. Operations Managers should collect relevant data and analyze the data which caused the most defects in the system using the Pareto analysis. Boeing should determine and focus on the most defects that verify the cause-and-effect relationship. To improve the process, the operation manager or the operations department should go in the work place, material or tool department etc. and check for any causes of defects. If the operation managers find the problems they should stop the process and resolve the defect before it can result in future defects again. For example, the engine flaw should be analyzed before the process of the engine was finished. Operation managers should go back to analyze the defect, which is the fuel/oil heat exchanger in this case, test it to make sure is tolerant to icy weather, and then continue the process if the exchanger will pass the test. This will improve the process and control the future defects.