International Journal of Pharma Sciences Vol. 4, No. 6 (2014): 787-791 Research Article Open Access

ISSN: 2320-6810

Quality Improvement - Kaizen Al Assad Yousef* Faculty of construction, Technical University of Civil Engineering, Bucharest.

* Corresponding author: Al Assad Yousef; e-mail: [email protected]

Received: 12 October 2014

Accepted: 29 October 2014

Online: 01 November 2014

ABSTRACT

Kaizen, which in translation means change to the better, signifies small improvements to the continuous efforts of a normative level appropriated. The strategy message of kaizen is that you should not pass one day without interfering with improvement in the activity of each employee and the company. Quality improvement is based on a diagnosis which can discover the causes of nonconformities and may provide remedies to remove them. The real cost of quality is the removal of poor quality in production. This article provides us about the characteristics of kaizen method and how we can achieve best quality with smallest cost.

Keywords: Quality improveent, Kaizen, Juran triangle. INTRODUCTION

Maintaining and improving in the Japan's management are inseparable. The improvement is analyzed by two terms: kaizen and innovation. Kaizen, which in translation means change for the better, it signifies that small improvements to the continuous efforts of a normative level appropriated. Kaizen strategy message is that you should not pass one day without interfering with improvement in the activity of each employee and the company. The belief that improvement is an action that has no end is deeply rooted in the mentality of the Japan. Continuous improvement strategy and the fundamental concept of quality management practiced in Japan, were launched by Masaaki Iamai, he is President of Cambridge Corporation in Tokyo, he is considered as the best expert in the quality management in Japan. In his thinking, Kaizen is a umbrella that it shows in (Figure 1).

Kaizen enters in the priorities of the company and the employees who are motivated to participate consciously and responsibly to achieve quality objectives. The leaders of the Japan's companies motivate employees to participate in attachment and commitment to the application of Kaizen strategy. Thus,

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solving of the social problems such as lifetime of the employment, wages corresponding to the quality of work, trade unions in each company, awards etc. are specific management of Japan.

Figure 1. Kaizen

1. Steps of the quality improvement The characteristics of the quality improvement are: • Improving people with a good training until arrive to high level of intelligence; • Involvement in this process is the only permanent employees in the departments of

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R&D and new technique, usually with highly qualified specialists. Other employees occasionally produce innovations; • Low hierarchical level employees, workers have low participation; • Applicable innovations that give good results in process and influence the cost and market occur at relatively large time intervals; • Production of inventions / innovations require significant investment;

Improving quality is based on a diagnosis which can discover the causes of nonconformities and may provide remedies to remove them. Represents progress under the direction of increasing the organization's ability to satisfy quality requirements and is based by the following steps: (3) ♣ Setting up the necessary infrastructure to improve quality periodically; ♣ improvement projects; ♣ Establish the team and their responsibility to realize the project; ♣ Assurance for resources, motivation and training required.

These three processes planning, control and quality improvement are linked together. Juran Trilogy diagram shows this relationship. The graph Time-Cost inadequate quality shows that about 20 percent of the products need to be redone because of qualitative deficiencies. Quality control is considering preventing the deterioration of the situation and the exclusion of large deviations, sporadic. Throw the actions of the improvement the losses, they were reduced, and the same for the costs. (1)

Figure 2. Cycle of Deming

Continuous improvement (Kaizen) management mechanism developed by the Japan has these characters: • In improving enterprise all employees are trained, each making its own contribution to the extent possible; • Training in process improvement is permanent; • Requires little investment; • Has a high level of staff motivation. There are incentives for successful affiliate and competence Underlying this attitude is a new culture, a new mentality.

Continuous improvement is the mechanism of change and includes: A. strategic goal - customer satisfaction; B. strategy change – it is suitable for people and culture. Determine a new mentality; C. managers should be involved in the process of continuous improvement; D. operational objective - is the quality of its components: product quality, cost, market (sales and after-sales service - CCP).

If it is not done with a good quality, minimum costs and without assurance for service, that leads to reduce the sales and losing the competitiveness and the market. (2) http://ijps.aizeonpublishers.net/content/2014/6/ijps787-791.pdf

The Juran Trilogy refers to the noncompliance of products. Appropriate value perfection lies in the point of origin. So the peak in the graph (positive slope) is the company's adverse circumstances. 1.1. Organizational performance as (centralized structure) It can distinguish three moments in the development of their improvement projects: (4) • • •

the diagnosis of the problem; the listing of problems; improve implementation;

With a greater degree of detail, you can determine the various stages which will serve as a reference, depending on the type of project. These are shown in Figure 3.

2. The costs and benefits of improving quality Quality costs "refers to the measurement of the benefits of improving quality. All quality improvement measures must be evaluated from the point of costs. The introduction of total quality Management of human efforts and expenses, and the benefits must be covered them. Achievement improvement project must ensure a favourable cost/benefit raport. In order to assess the results of total quality Management, we often measure the costs of activities, processes that are not at the expected level, known as "cost of failure" or nonconvortable. Frustrated customers, inefficient methods of achievement of the activities and processes and simple mistakes costing the organization.

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Figure 3. The Juran trilogy diagram. (1)

Figure 4. Quality Improvement Cycle Costs will be entailed by the disgruntled customer:; extra work; lost revenues; wasted effort on the part of employees, etc. Total Quality Management goal is to do things right at the first time and every time, and the complaints and grievances must be taken seriously and directed. Feedback in this case is very important. The Organization shall establish and maintain an efficient system from analyzing and measuring the complaints and mistakes that they no longer appear a second time.

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Making things right at the first time and every time is a concept difficult to achieve in an organization. Making mistakes "correct" (honest) should not be grounds for blaming the workers.

They may be the result of an innovation or of an initiative and excessive caution can be "a double-edged sword" Is important to minimize mistakes through the use of systems and processes and through a team work well done. Total quality management ensure rigorous planning, ensuring conditions of doing things right at 789

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the first time, and where the mistakes occur, experience allows you to remove them. However, if further errors and mistakes, it means that the Organization lacks effective methods of feedback.

If you measure the quality, costs must be made distinction between prevention costs and the costs of failure. The costs of prevention are those made to curb costs for things to evolve and to ensure that they are done correctly. The cost of improving quality refers to: achieving quality systems, salaries of staff directly involved, training courses, support teams, etc. These costs can easily be identified.

The cost of failures or bad quality in G. Taguchi represents "losses to the organization by leaving the product on the market".

Bad quality costs are considered "inside", if they are the result of low performance standards, reported to the client. They are considered "outside" If the bounce is due to complaints and reviews that affects on the Organization's image in the market. Internal bad quality costs are generated by the employees and management of the organization. Employees generate internal costs through an interest in training, the lack of accountability for the quality of the benefit through reduced involvement. The organization generates internal cost management through an inefficient organization of the activity and by the absence of involvement. External costs of bad quality are generated by the structure and quality of supply due to the rise of competitiveness and exigency.

The costs of failures or bad quality are often very difficult to measure, as the opportunity costs that are

measured by the loss of these opportunities. These costs include internal and external customer dissatisfaction, failure in training personnel, and the cost of recovery of certain products that were not made right the first time, time lost. Costs failures eliminate the satisfaction of job.

The real cost of quality is the removal of bad quality in production activity. If works go wrong it is essential to establish the causes of the failure to ensure that these events would not occur again. When the total satisfaction of the client gets the definition of the quality of product or service, there is a need for the development of components that integrate the client into a system of measurement and evaluation.

This generates a consideration of issues such as: time of delivery; courtesy; fairness etc. This need generates concern for quality, and hence the cost of quality, in activities which are usually recognised as expense generating. This will lead to the concept that all activities may contribute to the total satisfaction of the client. Quality costs include those factors that lie behind the manufacturing processes that are evident (in plain sight). In addition, it appears necessary to identify the "hidden" costs of wasted opportunities associated with quality. In fact often out of sight is the improvement of productivity and quality to be attained (quantification) by identifying the difference between the cost corresponding to the "zero defects" and cost effectively. (5)

Example: In 2008 the project "Doctors and Nurses Building in Syria I development the quality of the brick as they look to the figure (5);

Type 2

Type 1

Figure 5. Types of brick Table 1. The save of cost by improvement quality Price of work Consume of Percent of Type of brick $/m3 Feul $/an save % Tip 1 64 523200 67% Tip 2 96 168000

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CONCLUSION

Quality means the manufacture of a product with the "zero-defects" and does not mean a good product. Quality of life is a habit, not a document for a product. A product of superior quality at a high cost does not mean losing business because it's a product to have longer durability. During the period in which U.S. companies believed that the achievement of quality products consume money, company Motorola has proven that in fact the great quality means low costs. When Motorola company has achieved profit plus with 5-10% of the annual revenues using the principle of 6 sigma, in the past, paying more than 20% for correcting poor quality, meaning a loss of 800 to 900 million dollars a year. Quality, cost and duration of the project triangle formed by objectives, ensuring customer satisfaction through the following objectives: ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣

Proposals and recommendations: Care and placing the emphasis on the preparation of a detailed feasibility study prior to the commencement of the implementation of the project; ♣ change the type in contracting, construction projects, so the emphasis has to be put on offer technique; ♣ Good ethics supervision; ♣ The adoption of modern technology; ♣ The selection of workers and staff, based on experience and effectiveness; ♣ Listen carefully to the requirements of the investor or owner to avoid alterations at runtime; Continuous monitoring of projects and the conduct of periodic maintenance

REFERENCES

Increasing the efficiency of processes; Cost reduction; Maximizing employee potential; Continuous improvement.

The construction industry develops on a daily basis the principle of Kaizen (Japanese concept launched by Masaaki Imai. Meaning: KAI = change and ZEN = for the better translation is "continuous improvement") which is very necessary and useful for the improvement of construction materials in order to achieve optimal quality and characteristics, low power consumption and low cost

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Juran’s quality handbook, Fifth Edition, Library of Congress Cataloging, The McGraw-Hill Companies, 1999. Legislatia calitatii in uniunea europeana. Managementul calităţii / Andrei Octavian Paraschivescu, Iaşi, Tehnopress, 2006. Managementul calitatii in sectorul public/ Prof.univ.dr. George MOLDOVEANU, Lect.univ.dr. Cosmin DOBRIN, Editura biblioteca digitala, Bucuresti. Management calităţii totale/ Liviu Ilieş, Cluj-Napoca: Dacia, 2003

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