Abstract
The company participating in this study had recently reorganized its factory layout, moving from a traditional layout to machining cells. The company was a light engineering company; the cells consisted of turning centres, each cell catering for a different family grouping of components. An associated change in production methods was the move to ‘just-in-time manufacture’. The consequences of these changes were that the batch sizes had reduced considerably so that now the maximum batch size was 20 and the average only 3 or 4. The company had previously used statistical process control (SPC), but with such small batch sizes the practice had fallen into disuse as the traditional software was no longer appropriate. The general objective of the study was therefore to investigate their current situation and recommend a systematic approach to quality improvement. The study employed non-conformance analysis, measurement capability studies and analysis of variance leading to an appropriate statistical process control methodology. The company initially employed near to 100 per cent inspection; nevertheless, significant quality improvement was achieved.