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15th Jul 2022 Posted By Admin

QMS – In A Nutshell – A Must Read Article For Business Owners

QMS – Quality Management System is a vital philosophy every company needs to follow. But in the current scenario, the entire market is made to run after certifications like ISO9001:2015 & IATF16949:2016 which has largely diluted the need for customizing QMS as a philosophy to suit the companies, their employees & their customers.

Running after certifications have spoiled the customization & implementation required to build an unquestionable QMS that satisfies stakeholders (Employees, CEOs, Board of Directors, Share holders, suppliers, customers & end customers).

Running after certifications & making it mandatory have built so many blind spots just to satisfy the auditors like doing MSA for “visual inspectors eye sight” & Cp, Cpk study for tool dominant processes like sheet metal working, foundry processes etc. In my tenure with Iris Mfg. & Hinduja, I was able to make auditors understand these & in some cases I have brought these in written in quality manual itself.
So what has to be done? How to proceed w.r.t building a self sustaining customized QMS? See the below image & start proceeding towards this direction which will simplify & help owners to build a self sustaining customized QMS that will move the companies towards profitable path forever.

Before explaining how to proceed further using the above single page nut shell of Muri-Mura-Muda, let me clarify that I don’t believe in following or copy-pasting Japanese, American & German models. You can ask, then why I have used the Japanese term Muri-Mura-Muda in the above nutshell. Such Muri-Mura-Muda (right burden, right variation, no waste) concepts are nothing new to us, these were taught to us right from Gurukul form of education. Instead of starting from there, I am starting from these Japanese terms to make everyone understand how to build a strong QMS in simple ways. This applies to all other foreign terms I use here & everywhere hereafter.

Prior to drilling deep into building muri-mura-muda, the first step is to make 5S a habit. 5S is the base upon which the QMS has to be built. Whatever is built as QMS, without 5S will collapse one fine day all of a sudden. To explain this point in a simple manner, I would suggest seeing an advertisement. In this advertisement the pilot student & a pilot starts their flight & flies in the sky. Then the student notices the pilot is also a student from the cap he is wearing as both the caps for the student & the coach are the same, the only difference is the word “coach” & “student” mentioned on top. Somehow they manage to land the flight safely in this advertisement. A student asked me, quoting this advertisement that “how can this incident be avoided?” during a six sigma black belt course in Coimbatore. Here in such a situation such a confusion could have been easily avoided if 5S was followed by their institution strictly. How? This error can be simply avoided by providing different color caps or uniforms to coaches & students which will differentiate them visually. 5S would have addressed well in advance would have helped them to avoid such situations.

Now the team must concentrate on building 6M conditions that respect muri-mura-muda concepts. 6M means 1.Men, 2.Machine, 3.Methods, 4.Materials, 5.Measurement, 6.Mother Nature.

How to build 6M conditions that respect muri-mura-muda concepts? Here is how it can be done,
1.Men – Competency i.e, qualifications, skills, experience
2.Machine – Pp, Ppk Studies, TPM
3.Methods – PFD, PFMEA, Control Plan, VSM
4.Materials – Right materials at right cost at right time
5.Measurement – Calibration & MSA
6.Mother Nature – Right environment (Total Quality Environment or Preventive 5S)
7.*Money – Loss proof cash flow practices

6M is the general term used which if built rightly will bring a sustainable, profitable QMS. In my own experience I am adding 7^th M i.e, money to it; because money decides about the kind of 6M owners can build.

Again all the above hints provided are separate subjects that need separate articles, anyhow these hints will help you in building what is required if you already have some basic ideas about these.

7Ms that support each other in providing products & services with right quality (effectiveness) & right speed (efficiency) will be enjoyed by customers. A satisfied customer brings you more income. And this 7th M income will help you to strengthen your remaining 6Ms strong, stronger & strongest progressively.

Ok. Now you have strong 7Ms & you have made 5S a habit. Here itself you might be already in profit. To further strengthen your quality & speed which will result in sustained profits, you can work out on strengthening Muri-Mura-Muda.

While preparing for Muri-Mura-Muda, it is important to map your business processes. Any business process starts with reaching potential customers seeking orders. Keeping this or whatever you do as your 1^st process, keep on asking what next & build a pakka business map. While drafting your business process map it is advisable to do it in a 5W-2H methodology, a sample is attached below. 5W-2H means What, Who, When, Why, Where, How, How many. For every process step it is better to define
·What is to be done?
·Who will do it?
·When it has to be done?
·Why does it has to be done?
·Where it has to be done?
·How it has to be done? If this needs to be elaborated further, a suitable work instruction can be referred to.
·How many refers to quantity or frequency for performing the activity repeatedly
Once this is done, the owners will be having a broader perspective of their business & the entire team involved also will have a better idea about upstream & downstream business processes to drill deep further into Muri-Mura-Muda.

Muri (無理) is a Japanese word meaning "unreasonableness; impossible; beyond one's power; too difficult; by force; perforce; forcibly; compulsorily; excessiveness; immoderation", and is a key concept in the Toyota Production System (TPS). So owners have to see any overburden or unreasonable practices or demand is there in their entire business process flow.

Now the owner with his team has to review the entire business process for any overburden or unreasonable practices. Visuals of Muri-Mura-Muda will give an understanding about what has to be done. In this case the vehicle is overloaded (machine category of 7M). A simple solution for the same is also provided in the picture. Here I want to mention a quote “Business isn’t complicated, we complicate business” which is vital for the thinking process of the team while approaching for solutions. The same can be written this way also “Solutions are not complicated, we complicate solutions”. Keeping this in mind, the owner with his team has to review the entire business process for overburden problems & standardize the best practice for all the 7M conditions. The razor example mentioned below will help to understand how “simple solutions” will help.

Once Muri is addressed, the next step is to address Mura. Mura (斑) is a Japanese word meaning "unevenness; irregularity; lack of uniformity; non-uniformity; inequality", and is a key concept in the Toyota Production System (TPS). Here we must understand the law of nature is variation & variations will be there inbuilt in everything. A simple example to make everyone understand this point is, all humans have eyes, nose, and ears only on their face, but does everyone look alike? That is how nature operates, every face has the same details, but minor inbuilt variations makes every face unique & 700 crore faces exist on the earth presently. To address Mura as usual, the owner with his team has to review the entire business process to fix variation issues. Apart from business processes, the team has to review special characteristic (fit, function, performance requirements or subsequent processing of the product) tolerances & bring down variations within 50% of the tolerance from the midpoint of the spec. For example if a tolerance specification is 9.8 to 10.2, the team must maintain it between 9.9 to 10.1 all the time & adequate 7M conditions must be built to maintain it at this level. Note this needs to be done for the special characteristics only & not for the entire characteristic. If a component has 30 specifications as per drawing, hardly 3 to 5 characteristics will be marked as special characteristics by the customer or by the internal team. For bringing down variation through six sigma means, all the training programs will suggest identifying projects & follow DMAIC cycle. DMAIC means Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve & Control. But many of the business process special characteristics (as identified by the owner & the team for their business processes) & component’s special characteristics variations can be maintained within 50% of the tolerance zone from mid point by just using simple problem solving tools or by understanding & adjusting the 7M conditions.

At this juncture I want to mention how we solved a long existing problem at our client end. Here the problem is OD (Outside diameter) oversize undersize problem occurring on a sophisticated CNC turning machining. Around 1% was rejected due to this, where during our initial discussions the team involved was pointing out to many things including low salary. I immediately rejected the low salary term quoting “I will give one lakh salary to the operator for one month at least, can he run the component at zero rejection levels?” Team said sorry & started drilling deep into the issue. Actually there is nothing to drill deep into the issue. As a six sigma rule, for bringing zero error the machine has to be investigated further, I have gone on this line. Interrogating the operator I came to know such an oversize undersize problem occurs whenever power goes off & machine has to be started. For a few components after power off & on, the variation occurs & becomes normal after. Then I contacted the manufacturer of the machine, they asked us to send a company person to their factory where they have similar machines to understand & provide solutions. A maintenance person from the company visited the machine manufacturer & together after understanding the issue, the machine manufacturer asked the maintenance person to check if the 5 bolts on the lead screw are fully tightened or not. Coming back to the factory, the maintenance person found 1 out of 5 lead screws was loose & he tightened the same. This resulted in bringing the machine back to normal & rejections have come back to zero. Zero undersize or oversize on OD.

So please remember to bring zero error or six sigma, manufacturing organizations must investigate their machines & service organizations must investigate their process sequence & steps. Doing anything else like blaming men will not provide any results, it will spoil things further. But here I want to mention men also play a vital role in building or spoiling systems, hence they have to be attended & motivated carefully. Because 7Ms are responsible for the product or services offered to the customers & Men involved controls the other 6Ms. There are men who maintain their share autos like Benz & there are men who maintain their Benz like share autos. In this angle men involved play a vital role.

Once Mura is addressed, the next step is to address Muda. Muda (無駄) is a Japanese word meaning "futility; uselessness; wastefulness", and is a key concept in lean process thinking, like the Toyota Production System (TPS). To address Muda as usual, the owner with his team has to review the entire business process to drive out all sorts of wastes. Here priority has to be given to drive out waste from the production process by revisiting process flow one by one. Value stream mapping will help to achieve this fully. A separate article is written on our site for Value Stream Mapping – In A Nutshell. Refer to how to proceed further to drive out wastes from the production process as well as business process.

When you do all the above activities meticulously, it will help all the companies to always be on a profitable path. All the above activities can be done one by one or in parallel if the team has adequate understanding about all the activities & the progress can be recorded, tracked & followed-up till completion. While doing all the above, build a strong documentation process (task management / activity tracker) which will help to face Internal 1^st party, Customers 2^ndparty & certification bodies 3^rd party audits. Any audit will start with verifying the satisfaction level of the customers (internal / external customers), doing all the above will give 100% internal & external customer satisfaction. Internal rejection PPM & external rejection PPM will prove the satisfaction levels on paper are valid. Any audit shall end here itself, as there is nothing to audit further, but for the sake of auditing, auditors may extend their audits. At this point, I would suggest all the owners & team to discuss appropriately with their auditors (1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd party) to keep the audit days & auditing frequency as min as possible. Frequent audits will demoralize the team. It is even better to allow the customers & 3^rd party auditors rarely that too on a need basis if at all any crisis needs their attention. Agreements with customers & certification bodies need to suitably address this point.

To conclude, let me summarize “QMS – In a Nutshell” in Swami Vivekanandha style,
· Profit is potentially divine.
· The goal is to manifest this Divinity by controlling 7Ms, external and internal.
· Do this either by 5S or muri, or mura, or muda — by one, or more, or all of these and be free.
· This is the whole of QMS. ISO9001, or IATF16949, or lean six sigma, or books, or training, or documents, are but secondary details.
· So long as even a single specification in my company is out of control, my whole team has to correct it and prevent it, anything excluding that is unreligious QMS.
· Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached.
· Competency (Education, skills, experience) is the manifestation of perfection already in man.
· Religious QMS practice is the manifestation of divinity already in man.
· Serving customers is serving God.

When all these things were successfully happening you can confidently say that your company is a TQM company or you have attained Business Excellence. Even if you don’t say, your customers will say this.

One final word, do not think all the above can be followed only by companies. All these can be followed by schools, colleges, shops, even by small roadside shops to improve their profit. All these can be followed in personal life also, by individuals by families as 5S (cleanliness), reduced variation, zero waste, zero errors will help individuals, families & homes also.

Thanks for spending your valuable time here. Keep in touch, keep following & keep supporting us.

Thanks & Regards,
Devarajan NR,
Chairman – JBEGlobal.com Job Portal & IATFTrainingPortal.com (Since 2013) Past – Delphi TVS | Rane | Brakes India | Iris Mfg. (Shriram Group) | Hinduja Foundries | IRS (IRQS) | 9362439124 | devarajan.jupiter@gmail.com