Here are important points to consider while implementing the zero-defect manufacturing process in your company. The success of a brand or a product completely depends on its quality as if the quality is up to the mark, the customer will prefer to buy your product. Quality management should be the most important priority of any business. There is no point of losing a customer due to quality issues. It is always better to improve your processes and manufacturing with the help of zero-defect manufacturing. In this video, we will learn about how to make the manufacturing of your product good with the help of zero-defect approach. # **Zero Defect Manufacturing** - You will have to make all your employees understand that there should be no defect in the product and everyone is responsible for doing their work correctly. - A famous scholar Philip B. Crosby has quoted the concept in his book ‘Quality is Free’ that you may suffer a loss due to the defect in your product. The aim of this approach is to improve your manufacturing process with no defect in the product. **1.** **`Change your perception:`** You will have to make your mind understand that you are seeking for perfection. **2.** **`Losses- Low Quality:`** Figure out the losses that you will be bearing due to poor quality of product. **3.** **`Think about problems:`** Foresee the problems that may occur in future due to low quality and start working on them. - For example, if the break of your car is not working properly, you go to the service center and expect the company to fix it properly. Therefore, when you expect zero defects for yourself, you must provide the same service to your customer. This approach of zero defect bridges the gap between what you want for yourself and for your customers. # **Implementation of Zero-Defect Manufacturing Process** **4.** **`Defect prevention is preferred to correction`** - If you figure out the defect in the initial stage, it is better to change things at an early stage as compared to a later stage as it saves time. For example, if you know that the brake shoe of your bike is not working properly, you will not wait for it to get damaged completely and cause an accident. Rather, you get it replaced immediately. **5.** **`Quality to meet customer requirements`** The prime purpose of your product should be to fulfill the requirements of the customer. **For example:** **Ink Pen** - An ink pen from a local brand writes properly without any leakage of ink and on the other hand, a very expensive gold-plated ink pen leaves a mark of ink while writing. - Therefore, the customer prefers the ink pen of local brand instead of the gold-plated ink pen because in spite of being expensive, the gold-plated pen is not a good quality product while the local pen fulfills the requirements of the customers. ii. CarboMedics - A company named CarboMedics manufacture equipment for the medical industry and their biggest equipment is an artificial valve that gets fitted in the heart if the heart does not function properly. - They have applied zero defect approach in their manufacturing process and that is why, their product fits rightly at the very first time. - They ensure to make their product as per the requirements of the customer. **6.** **`Change in working behavior`** The behavior of you, your top management, employees and workers should change to follow the approach of zero-defect management process. **7. **`Quality check to be mandatory`** - No product should leave the factory without quality check and it should be mandatory at every stage. - The aim of quality check is to figure out the defect at the earliest and rectify it. - Self-testing should be implemented and the workers in your team should also check the work of others and must guide them in the right direction. **8.** **`Skilling and training`** - Training is very important for the people working in your factory as they should be well-aware of the process so that there is no scope of any mistake. - You can arrange training sessions and paste training guides on the walls. This will help the employees to read the instructions if he is not able to understand anything. - You can implement one more training method that is called One Point Lesson. This training lesson is of 10 to 15 minutes and is conducted by the senior team member. It is a type of practical lesson and helps the workers to understand how to operate a machine. **9. **`Automation`** Most of the mistakes are committed by humans and not machines and that is why, it is important to automate your processes for lesser mistakes. **10.** **`Evaluation`** To know if zero defect manufacturing process is working properly in your company, you should use some tools that will help you to understand whether your production is efficient, there is low wastage and the quality of product has improved or not. These tools are: - **Total Productive Maintenance (TPM):** This tool is used in production for decreasing cycle time, increasing production and decreasing defects. For this, you can issue inspection cards that help in determining whether the machine has already been inspected and which machine needs maintenance. TPM forms are also available to help you organise all the information. - ==***Total Quality Management (TQM):***== With the help of this tool, you ensure that the process of product is rightly done at the very first time so that there are no quality issues. - *==**Service Quality Measurement (SQM):**==* Under this process, you may ask the customers to rate your product as per the reliability of the product. They can also share their rating on the basis of their experience in store or on the website or how the customer care agent helped them over the call. When the customer will rate you on various parameters, you will be able to figure out the area of mistake. - *==**Six Sigma Quality (SSQ):**==* The aim of this tool is to ensure quality checks at every step by creating few processes. - *==**Poka Yoke:**==* This tool is used for mistake proofing or error prevention and is widely used in Japan. You will have to create some processes under which before committing a mistake, the workers will get an alert like through an alarm system. **11.**  **`Quality Measured in Terms of Money`** - In case, there is a defect in any product, you will have to inspect it again, work on it again with new material, re- engage labor and the most important thing is that the customers are not happy. This defect will also lead to double expense. - Therefore, if you maintain the quality of the product, you won’t have to bear these expenses. **For example:** - In the recent years, a lot of cars were called back to India. - In 2019, almost 3 lakh cars were back in India due to some issue with the airbags. These cars were of all the big brands like Maruti, Ford, Hyundai, etc. - The companies had to bear the loss and the brand image was also harmed. - Now, all the companies have started using zero defect tools in manufacturing to maintain the quality. - Also, if the suppliers of parts fail in the checking of zero-defect manufacturing, the companies refuse to take parts from them. The journey from creating the product to delivering the product to the customer’s door is critical. Better your processes and monitoring and focus on quality control are the keys for successful zero-defect manufacturing