Directory UMM :Data Elmu:jurnal:I:International Journal of Production Economics:Vol67.Issue1.Aug2000:
Int. J. Production Economics 67 (2000) 3}15
The building bricks of product quality: An overview of some
basic concepts and principles
Thijs P.J. Berden, Aarnout C. Brombacher*, Peter C. Sander
Eindhoven University of Technology, Faculty of Technology Management/Section Product and Process Quality, P.O. Box 513,
5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Abstract
An overview is given of the role companies, and their business processes, have in product quality during the product
lifecycle of a product. The basic business processes and possible organisation forms of those processes are discussed. The
trends in these business processes are used to illustrate the current inherent instability of these processes. It is explained
how companies can deal with this instability using paradigms from control theory where the quality information #ow in
a company is used to analyse and optimise product quality. An example illustrates the presented methods. Finally
conclusions and future lines of research are given. ( 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Product quality; Product lifecycle; Product creation process; Feed-forward; Feedback
1. Introduction
Customers expect to get products with an
extensive functionality and a high reliability for
a reasonable price. The challenge for industry in
a competitive world-wide market is to develop
these products in a fraction of the time and cost
compared with 10 years ago. This puts a high
pressure on the business processes that generate
these products. Solutions that are applied in order
to meet with these challenges are: concentration on
core business, strategic alliances, outsourcing and
co-operation.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: #31-40-247-2390; fax: #3140-246-7497.
E-mail address: [email protected] (A.C. Brombacher).
Co-operation implies exchange of information.
This means that the participants in the product
creation process must know not only their own
task, but also the tasks of the other parties in the
process. These tasks can be deduced from the structure of the product creation process. It must be well
known who needs what information and why.
Information connects the di!erent processes. Product quality related information is generated during
actual use in the "eld, in tools, methods, and tests in
the primary business processes and in sub-processes of the primary business processes. The
information that is generated will #ow through the
organisation. More about the role of information
#ows in product creation can be found in [1,2]. [1]
presents the Maturity Index on Reliability and [2]
discusses the special contribution of Service
Centres to quality improvement.
0925-5273/00/$ - see front matter ( 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 2 5 - 5 2 7 3 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 0 5 - 0
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In this paper the basic structure of the product
creation process is given, and the standard terminology is explained. In Section 2 we give the phases
of the product lifecycle. In Section 3 we describe the
functions that together make up the realisation
process. The basics of the organisation of the primary business processes are presented in Section 4.
Section 5 describes how current trends in these
business processes lead to inherent instability. Sections 6 and 7 describe how to analyse and optimise
product quality in an unstable business process
using quality information #ows. Section 8 illustrates how the analysis and control of these quality
information #ows can be used in a practical
example. Finally Section 9 presents the conclusions
and future lines of research.
2. The product lifecycle
The goal of product creation is transforming
customer requirements into a product that satis"es
the customer needs (Fig. 1).
The process of transforming product-related customer requirements into a product that ful"ls these
requirements can be subdivided into phases. These
phases will be referred to as the product lifecycle
phases (Fig. 2):
f speci"cation phase: transformation of customer
requirements into speci"cations of the future
product function;
f design phase: transformation of speci"cations
into a detailed technical speci"cation of the future product function (the design);
f manufacturing phase: realisation of the design
into a physical product;
f customer use phase: actual use of the product by
the end-user.
3. Realisation processes
The process in a company that delivers products
to the market within the given organisational structures and organisation's goals will be referred to as
the realisation process (Fig. 3).
The realisation process can be subdivided into
primary business processes or functions and secondary business processes or aspects (cf. [3]). The
secondary business processes consist of support
aspects like facilities, human resource, information
and automation, logistics, "nance and planning.
The secondary business processes will not be further discussed in this report. The primary business
processes consist of functions like research,
Fig. 1. Transformation of customer requirements into a product.
Fig. 2. Phases in the product lifecycle.
T.P.J. Berden et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 67 (2000) 3}15
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Fig. 3. The realisation process.
Fig. 4. The realisation process can be divided into primary and secondary business processes.
marketing, development, production, sales and
service (Fig. 4).
The primary business processes will be discussed
here brie#y.
f Research: The development of new technologies.
f Marketing: Understanding and identifying the
market need.
f Development: De"nition and design of the product and the production capacity.
Parts of the development process are: (pre) concept generation and selection; system, sub-systems
and piece/parts design; production capacity design.
f Production: The actual realisation of the physical
product.
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4.1. Sequential processes
The traditional approach to organising the business processes is a sequential one. In a sequential
approach tasks are performed one after another.
Upstream tasks are completed before downstream
tasks are started (Fig. 6). The sequential approach
is often referred to an the `throw it over the walla
approach. It almost always coincides with strongly
functionally organised organisations.
Fig. 5. Business processes consist of many sub-processes.
Parts of the production process are: the assembly
process; the production of sub-systems and
piece/parts.
f Sales: In#uencing the market need.
f Service: When the product cannot ful"l the customer expectation, the service system will take
care of a proper treatment of the customer's
complaint.
Note that the business processes consist of many
sub-processes (Fig. 5).
E.g. the development process can be divided into:
f product development
f C system development
f C } concept development
f C } concept selection
f C sub-system development
f C piece/part development
f process development
f C system
f C sub-system
f C piece/parts (tools)
4.2. Concurrent processes
Since approximately 1980 concurrent processes
in the "eld of engineering have received much attention. The idea behind concurrent processes is
that downstream activities start as early as possible,
even when upstream activities have not yet been
completed (Fig. 7). The classic example is: start the
development of the production capacity together
with the development of the product (concurrency
of two activities in the development process). Another example could be: start the production even
before the design is completed. This example may
sound exotic for mass-produced products, but less
for e.g. buildings, etc. (although piece/parts and
sub-systems developed and produced today can be
used in tomorrow's design of a car). Of course some
activities will always have to be completed before
others can start, but on a macrolevel activities are
performed concurrently.
Concurrent processes are usually performed by
multifunctional project teams. Although technical
specialities will still be necessary, they will be
Fig. 6. Sequential organisation of business processes.
4. Trends in the structure of the primary business
processes
In this section the basic structures of the primary
process are presented. It regards sequential and
concurrent
processes,
technology/knowledge
streams and sub-contracting.
Fig. 7. Concurrent organisation of business processes.
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Fig. 8. Knowledge streams outside of any speci"c development project.
performed in close co-operation with the project
team. Concurrent processes and working in teams
have several advantages above the sequential approach. These advantages are well described in [4].
Other literature describes di!erent levels of
information transfer. [5] discerns "ve levels in the
degree of concurrence between upstream and
downstream activities (increasing concurrency
from 1 to 5):
1. the traditional sequential approach;
2. high-bandwidth technology transfer;
3. overlapping with preliminary information transfer;
4. overlapping with mutual adjustment;
5. overlapping with early downstream development.
4.3. Technology/knowledge stream
New technologies are the foundation for new
products. [4] argues for the development of technologies outside of any speci"c product program.
A technology stream can represent technology
development. Mature (robust) and speci"c development programs (Fig. 8) "sh out superior technology. Development of new technology can be done
on the level of sub-systems, sub-functions (e.g.
noise, vibration) or on a collection of sub-systems.
One could even argue in favour of the creation of
development streams that create ready to implement sub-systems (in fact this is the case when
piece/parts or sub-systems are picked out of a catalogue). Another expansion could be the creation of
other streams e.g. a market development stream.
4.4. Sub-contracting
Both the primary and secondary processes can
be sub-contracted by the company in part or as
a whole. Sub-contracting means that some of the
activities in the realisation process are performed
by third parties (Fig. 9). In the case of the primary
processes development and production the subcontractors are often called suppliers.
Supplier involvement has been subject of study
in the past years. [5] discerns three di!erent patterns:
1. supplier proprietary parts: development and
production at supplier;
2. black box parts: development split between
assembler and supplier;
3. detail-controlled parts: development at the
assembler and production at the supplier.
In the traditional sequential situation the border
between the assembler and the suppliers is more
rigid than in the concurrent situation. In the
concurrent situation one can even go so far as to
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Fig. 10. Five levels of con#icts with the customer requirements
[8].
Fig. 9. Sub-contracting of business processes.
put the suppliers in the multifunctional project
team or to consider the supplier as a technology
stream from which the project team can pick mature and ready to use technology or sub-systems
(cf. [6]).
5. Trends in product quality
The success a company has in ful"lling the customer requirements can be expressed by the term
quality. A broad de"nition of quality is therefore:
conformance to requirements. These requirements
include many aspects of di!erent nature including
objective as well as subjective aspects and aspects
relating to time, price, etc. (see [7] for an overview
of the many available de"nitions of quality).
The subset of quality that is relevant in this paper
will be de"ned as product quality: conformance to
product-related customer requirements. The product is a manufactured product. The customer is
the end-user during actual use of the product in
the "eld. The customer requirements are the
requirements that should be ful"lled to satisfy the
customer need. In this paper only product-related
requirements are of interest. This means that aspects like delivery time, price, etc. are not included.
Taking the de"nition of customer requirements
in the broadest sense means that if a product does
not have su$cient satis"ers for the customer this
already leads to non-quality. Often a more narrow
de"nition of customer requirements is used. A good
working representation of the di!erent interpretation levels of what can be meant by customer
requirements is given in Fig. 10, where customer
requirements are interpreted in "ve di!erent ways.
5.1. Trends in product quality
According to [8] as far as warranty is concerned,
the trend in the "eld of quality and reliability is
towards the more extended de"nitions of product
quality (Fig. 11).
In this paper customer requirements will be
interpreted as customer expectations. This leads to
the following de"nition of product quality: conformance to customer expectations. Note that this
de"nition includes the less extended de"nitions as
well. The more extended de"nition of product quality, in which the de"nition of requirements is
extended to customer satis"ers, is a "eld of study
for marketing. Some are in favour of de"ning this as
the product function [8]. Product function is then
de"ned as one of four business drivers: cost, time,
quality and function. Product quality is about making the product right while product function is
about making the right product.
Not performing according to customer expectations will have an impact on the ful"lment of the
company's objectives. Important business drivers
like cost, time and market share will be in#uenced
by the realised product quality. Many books have
been written about the cost aspects of quality.
A classi"cation of quality costs has been made by
Juran into prevention costs, appraisal costs, internal failure costs and external failure costs (cf. [9]):
f prevention costs: those e!orts devoted to keeping defects from occurring;
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Fig. 11. Warranty trends in the "eld of quality and reliability are towards the more extended de"nitions.
f appraisal costs: include measuring, evaluating, or
auditing products and processes to assure conformance to quality standards and performance
requirements;
f internal failure costs: all costs that arise from
products not meeting the speci"cations before
they are delivered to the customer;
f external failure costs: all costs that arise from
products not meeting the speci"cations/expectations after they have been delivered to the customer.
Non-quality can cause serious time delays, especially when problems arise late in the creation process. It will often take much time to implement the
changes, and projects can be delayed severely due
to quality problems. Moreover, poor quality can
lead to loss of market share on the long term.
People will no longer buy products of a particular
company if they have had been experiences with the
products realised by that company.
Note that since the product is the output of
a realisation process consisting of many unstable
processes and sub-processes, product quality is dif"cult to predict. It will be di$cult to know in
advance whether the product will satisfy the enduser expectations or not.
5.2. Product optimisation in classical, sequential
or functional, development processes
The classical way to solve unpredictability in
a development process is to apply so-called
Fig. 12. Classical, sequential, development process.
functional or Taylor organisation structures. This
functional structure leads to a situation that the
development of a product is split in a number of
di!erent tasks that are then considered to be independent (Fig. 12). From an uncertainty point of
view this has certain advantages. During a development phase a product is being adapted until it is
able to achieve its functionality; during the (pre-)
production phase people focus on production
aspects until a product is mature on production
aspects.
The advantage of this sequential process is that
people concentrate on one aspect during one phase.
When a new technology is introduced in, for
example, production the analysis of this new technology is anlysed in the (pre-) production phase
and decisions whether or not to apply the technology are taken in this phase. From a psychological
point of view this process has many advantages; it
leads to short learning cycles on actual problems at
hand.
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The disadvantage, from an engineering point of
view, is that the phases will never be truly independent. Decisions taken in the development process
can seriously a!ect the way a product is produced
or the way the customer perceives the product. Also
from an economic point of view there are disadvantages. Stevens [10] stated that 80% of the cost
structure (and therefore the pro"tability) of a product is determined in the early phases of product
development. Also iterations in the later phases of
the development process will, due to the larger
amount of information or even physical structures
involved that are a!ected, be far more expensive
and far more time consuming. Therefore, it might
be useful to take decisions that relate to later phases
of a development process already in the early
phases. As there is no longer a strict focus of one
activity per phase it enables to carry out activities
in parallel.
5.3. Inherent instability of modern development
processes
Due to the resulting concurrency of activities this
process is also referred to as `concurrent engineeringa. Advantages are a faster and more economic
time to market (due to the more e$cient back-end
process). Disadvantages are long distances (in time
but also often in the people) between decisions and
the e!ect of the decisions (Fig. 13). This requires
a very high predictability of risks. In a static situation where all aspects of a development (products,
technology and people) remain the same such
a prediction could, theoretically, be possible. In
a situation with a high degree of uncertainty on one
of these aspects, processes will have a tendency to
become unstable. In very short development processes it might happen that even before the e!ects of
new technology are known already a next generation technology is introduced. In short development processes with long learning cycles, people
will focus on the current product instead of on the
lessons learned from one or two product
generations ago. This will lead, without proper
precautions, to inherent instability of the business
process.
Fig. 13. Concurrent engineering process; large distance between
decision and validation.
6. How to manage unstable processes
The output of the transformation processes discussed in the previous section can often not be
predicted. When transformation processes are considered as open loop processes they will never be
stable and therefore not predictable. This means
important aspects like time, costs and quality are
not always under control. Many tools and methods
have been developed to control these processes,
especially for the aspects time and costs. In this
section some general approaches towards unstable
processes will be discussed. Since this paper is concerned with product quality the examples will be
product quality related. Note that the approaches
described in this section can be applied to processes
as well as sub-processes of these processes.
6.1. Inspection of the output
Inspection of the output means that the actual
output is compared to the planned output. If the
output is not according to plan, the output will be
rejected (Fig. 14). Note that inspection of the output will not contribute to stabilising the process.
Some examples of inspection of the output are
the following:
f realisation process: inspection of the product just
before the product is delivered to the market;
f primary processes: inspection at the end of
primary processes e.g. development process,
production process;
f sub-processes: inspection of the output of a supplier or at the end of certain steps in the development process;
T.P.J. Berden et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 67 (2000) 3}15
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Fig. 14. Inspection of the process output.
f sub-sub processes: inspection at the output of
machines.
6.2. Local feed-forward
In the case of local feed-forward the subsequent
process is forced to deal with the output of the
previous process. Two solutions are possible: adapt
the subsequent process or adjust the subsequent
process parameters. By adapting the process is
meant improving the process by improving the
process capabilities. Note that improving the capability of a process will not make the process stable.
Undesired outputs can be produced with advanced
methods as well as with less advanced methods. In
the case of adjusting the process parameters the
process itself does not change, but the process is
shifted to another target.
f check the output and adapt the subsequent process (Fig. 15);
f check the output and adjust the parameters of
the subsequent process (Fig. 16).
Examples of local feed-forward:
f realisation process: the customer has to adapt to
the product;
Fig. 15. Adapt the subsequent process to the output of the
previous process.
Fig. 16. Adapt the subsequent process parameters to the output
of the previous process.
f primary processes: identify the customer needs
and throw the results over the wall to development;
f sub-processes: design the product and throw it
over the wall to engineering;
f sub-sub processes: process parameter adjustment in production processes.
6.3. Local feedback
In the case of local feedback the output from the
subsequent process is used to adapt the previous
process or to adapt the input of the previous
process.
f check the output and adapt the process (Fig. 17);
f check the output and adjust process parameters
(Fig. 18).
From control theory one can learn that unstable
models require feedback. Verifying the outputs,
feedback and adjusting the inputs will lead to controlled processes.
Examples of local feedback:
f realisation process: use information of customer's experiences with the product while determining customer requirement for new products;
f primary processes: use information of the production process in the development process of
new products;
f sub-processes: use information of production
process engineering during product engineering;
f sub-sub processes: use information of customer's
experiences with the product in tools, methods
and tests; adjust parameters to target for subsequent production processes.
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Fig. 17. Improve the process through feedback of the process
output.
Fig. 19. Anticipate subsequent processes and verify the results:
global optimisation.
Fig. 18. Change the process parameters through feedback of the
process output.
In relation to the earlier sections this leads to the
conclusion that a modern, time-driven, concurrent
engineering process requires a highly e$cient feedforward and feedback system. The quality of the
information should be such that (causes of) deviations are found fast and are embedded in the
models or `knowledge basea with a high level of
accuracy and e$ciency.
6.4. Global optimisation
7. Product quality related information 6ows
Global optimisation can be reached by anticipating in the current process the subsequent process
and verifying the results (Fig. 19).
Anticipation is only possible if enough knowledge of the subsequent processes is available.
Models are needed of the subsequent processes and
veri"cation of the results is necessary to keep these
models up to date.
Examples of global optimisation:
Information plays an important role in the
realisation process. First of all it connects the di!erent processes. The di!erent processes that realise
the product cannot work independently. Information transfer between the processes is crucial. The
output of upstream processes serves as input for
downstream processes.
The methods discussed in the previous section
can be applied on all process levels, from primary
business process level up to the process control
system in a machine. In all those cases information
plays an important role. In this paper the focus is
on product quality related information. This means
information relating to products that do not or will
not conform to expectations, speci"cations or
safety requirements. The product is the result of the
primary realisation processes. Product quality
related information is generated during actual use
in the "eld, in tools, methods and tests in the
primary business processes and in sub-processes of
the primary business processes. This leads to many
activities that are product quality related. The
f realisation process: anticipate in the whole
realisation process the customer requirements
and the customer user environment;
f primary processes: anticipate in the development
process the requirements and constrains of the
production process;
f sub-processes: anticipate during product engineering the possibilities of production process
engineering;
f sub-sub processes: use a model of the customer
requirements and the environment in tools,
methods and tests.
T.P.J. Berden et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 67 (2000) 3}15
information generated in these activities will #ow
through the company. These information #ows do
not necessarily exist for the sake of local feedback,
local feed-forward or global optimisation. Other
reasons of existence can be troubleshooting or providing information that is asked for by management or quality standards. These #ows have
nothing to do with the realisation process of products. They will be referred to as independent quality
information #ows.
In order to evaluate the quality of these control
loops Brombacher has proposed and applied the
MIR concept in many actual cases. The MIR scale
uses four levels to assess the quality of information
in control loops. On this four level scale MIR level
1 indicates adequate measurements, MIR level 2 indicates adequate allocation of (causes of) deviations
in the process, MIR level 3 indicates that information has su$cient level of detail to "nd root-causes.
Finally, MIR level 4 indicates that the information
is adequate to install preventive measures. See also
[11,12].
In summary, it can be concluded that several
kinds of reliability information #ows exist, information #ows on process level up to the level of activities
or methods and tests and information #ows that
measure, react or improve the realisation process.
8. Product quality and quality of information 6ows,
an example
Fig. 20 gives the primary process of a large company, active in the area of high-volume consumer
13
products. In this process several activities can be
distinguished.
f Research: The development of new technologies.
Part of the research is done by the functional
group pre-development (IP), which is part of the
innovation department. One of the purposes of
this group is to make fundamental studies on
component level or on general phenomena.
f Marketing: Marketing is done in the Marketing
and Sales. A key-account manager is responsible
for every group of customers. He builds relationships with the customers and picks up and discusses the customer's wishes.
f Development: The de"nition and design of products, sub-systems and piece/parts. For the development of a product a project team is composed
which works concurrently on several tasks of the
development process.
f Production: The actual realisation of products,
sub-systems and key components. The manufacturing of sub-systems and piece/parts takes place
at approximately 50 suppliers spread over the
whole world.
f Sales: Sales is done in the Marketing & Sales
department. The same people perform the marketing tasks as well as the sales tasks. The focus
of the sales department is on convincing the
customers to buy end-products. However, there
is no clear distinction between those two processes.
f Service: Service is also part of the Marketing
& Sales department. Quality support people
work under the responsibility of the key-account
Fig. 20. Primary process of a company: the product development process.
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T.P.J. Berden et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 67 (2000) 3}15
Fig. 21. Involvement of departments in business processes.
managers (see marketing). If problems occur
with the product in the "eld at the customer,
service takes care of a proper treatment of the
customer's complaints and eventually of repair
or replacement.
Four major departments can be distinguished in
which the primary business functions are
performed. These departments are the Innovation
department, the Marketing & Sales department,
Purchasing and the Production department. The
primary business functions are divided over the
four major departments in a way that is represented
in Fig. 21.
In order to analyse the quality information #ows
in this company an analysis has been made of the
various sources of quality-related information and
the way this information is deployed throughout
the business process. Fig. 22 gives a mapping of the
quality information sources and the quality-related
activities in this company.
In Fig. 22 several quality information #ows can
be determined:
f Customer quality support: Main goal of this activity is monitoring of the outgoing product quality,
both in terms of line rejects (products failing
during the production process) and "eld failures.
In case of deviations a problem analysis team is
installed (`Red-alert procedurea).
f Problem analysis team: In case of `out of control
situationsa on either production quality or "eld
quality a problem analysis team is installed. In
this team people from various disciplines participate. After the cause of the problem has been
found and the problem has been eliminated the
PAT is dissolved. The results of PAR activities
are not structurally used for other (existing or
future) products.
f Innovation quality: Information on the results of
quality tests. Used mainly by the innovation
Fig. 22. Quality information #ows.
T.P.J. Berden et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 67 (2000) 3}15
department; used by the problem analysis team
in case of `red-alertsa.
f Production quality: Information on failures and
corrective actions in the production department.
Used by the PAT in case of `red-alertsa.
f Supplier quality assurance: Monitoring of the
quality of incoming components and sub-assemblies. This activity is the basis for regular feedback with suppliers on quality levels.
Using the MIR concept it is in this way possible to
model the adaptive capabilities of a business process. From the example, presented here, a number
of conclusions can be drawn:
In this case quality information #ows are mainly
feedback structures and are mainly department
oriented. However, the time requirements on timedriven processes like this would at least require
a combination of (cross-functional) feed-forward
and feedback.
Analysis beyond MIR level 1 is only started in
case of `red-alertsa and the analysis is strongly
reactive. Learning beyond the level of a single product development cycle, in this case, does not exist.
This implies that knowledge, other than via the
personal experience of people, is not preserved well
in this organisation and that cross-functional
co-operation an predicative capabilities are not
developed well.
9. Conclusions and future lines of research
Modern, time-driven, product development processes require fast learning capabilities. In order to
reach the market in a shorter period of time many
companies have adopted concurrent engineering
strategies. In spite of these concurrent engineering
the time constants of learning cycles have become
longer due to the fact that the period between
(early) decision and validation of the decision has
become longer. This requires that decisions, taken
early in the product development process, are taken
based on highly accurate and detailed information
#ows operating with short reaction times. Only this
enables a combination of feed-forward and feedback control that is needed for successful concurrent engineering.
15
The MIR concept provides a method to analyse
the nature of information #ows in actual companies.
Applied on an actual test case it shows that it is not
only possible to model quality information #ows but
also to predict the pro-active and reactive capabilities of a business process. The process analysed in
the test case is a highly reactive process with very
limited learning capabilities outside `red-alerta "re"ghting activities. Also cross-departmental information exchange is, in this case, only very limited. This
implies that, with the existing structure, it will be
almost impossible to operate a modern, pro-active,
concurrent engineering process in this company.
References
[1] P.C. Sander, A.C. Brombacher, MIR: The use of Reliability Information Flows as a maturity index for quality
management, Quality and Reliability Engineering International 15 (1999).
[2] V.T. Petkova, P.C. Sander, A.C. Brombacher, The use of
quality metrics in service centres, International Journal of
Production Economics 67 (1) (2000), 27}36.
[3] M. Weggeman, G. Wijnen, R. Kor, Ondernemen binnen de
Onderneming: Essenties van Organisaties (Enterprising
within an Enterprise, Essentials of Enterprises, in Dutch),
Kluwer, Deventer, 1997.
[4] D. Clausing, Total Quality Development: A Step-by-Step
Guide to World-class Concurrent Engineering, ASME
Press, New York, 1994.
[5] K.B. Clark, T. Fujimoto, Product Development Performance: Strategy, Organisation and Management in the
World Auto Industry, Harvard Business School Press,
Boston, MA, 1991.
[6] L. Dijkstra, C.W.G.M. Dirne, C.P.M. Govers, P.C. Sander,
Samenwerking in Ontwikkeling (Co-operation in Development, in Dutch), Kluwer, Deventer, 1997.
[7] D.A. Garvin, Managing Quality, Free Press, New York,
1988.
[8] A.C. Brombacher, Symposium `The Reliability Challengea
organised by Finn Jensen Consultancy, London, 1998.
[9] A. Diallo, Z.U. Khan, CMA, C.F. Vail, Cost of quality, in:
The New Manufacturing Environment, Management
Accounting, August 1995, p. 20.
[10] F. Stevens, Vele eersten zullen de laatsten zijn (in Dutch),
Frits Philips Institute for Quality Management,
Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 1993.
[11] A.C. Brombacher, MIR: Covering non-technical aspects of
IEC61508 reliability certi"cation, Reliability Engineering
and System Safety 66 (1999) 109}121.
[12] P.C. Sander, A.C. Brombacher, Analysis of quality
information #ows in the product creation process of high
volume consumer products, International Journal of Production Economics 67 (1) (2000) 37}52.
The building bricks of product quality: An overview of some
basic concepts and principles
Thijs P.J. Berden, Aarnout C. Brombacher*, Peter C. Sander
Eindhoven University of Technology, Faculty of Technology Management/Section Product and Process Quality, P.O. Box 513,
5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Abstract
An overview is given of the role companies, and their business processes, have in product quality during the product
lifecycle of a product. The basic business processes and possible organisation forms of those processes are discussed. The
trends in these business processes are used to illustrate the current inherent instability of these processes. It is explained
how companies can deal with this instability using paradigms from control theory where the quality information #ow in
a company is used to analyse and optimise product quality. An example illustrates the presented methods. Finally
conclusions and future lines of research are given. ( 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Product quality; Product lifecycle; Product creation process; Feed-forward; Feedback
1. Introduction
Customers expect to get products with an
extensive functionality and a high reliability for
a reasonable price. The challenge for industry in
a competitive world-wide market is to develop
these products in a fraction of the time and cost
compared with 10 years ago. This puts a high
pressure on the business processes that generate
these products. Solutions that are applied in order
to meet with these challenges are: concentration on
core business, strategic alliances, outsourcing and
co-operation.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: #31-40-247-2390; fax: #3140-246-7497.
E-mail address: [email protected] (A.C. Brombacher).
Co-operation implies exchange of information.
This means that the participants in the product
creation process must know not only their own
task, but also the tasks of the other parties in the
process. These tasks can be deduced from the structure of the product creation process. It must be well
known who needs what information and why.
Information connects the di!erent processes. Product quality related information is generated during
actual use in the "eld, in tools, methods, and tests in
the primary business processes and in sub-processes of the primary business processes. The
information that is generated will #ow through the
organisation. More about the role of information
#ows in product creation can be found in [1,2]. [1]
presents the Maturity Index on Reliability and [2]
discusses the special contribution of Service
Centres to quality improvement.
0925-5273/00/$ - see front matter ( 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 2 5 - 5 2 7 3 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 0 5 - 0
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T.P.J. Berden et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 67 (2000) 3}15
In this paper the basic structure of the product
creation process is given, and the standard terminology is explained. In Section 2 we give the phases
of the product lifecycle. In Section 3 we describe the
functions that together make up the realisation
process. The basics of the organisation of the primary business processes are presented in Section 4.
Section 5 describes how current trends in these
business processes lead to inherent instability. Sections 6 and 7 describe how to analyse and optimise
product quality in an unstable business process
using quality information #ows. Section 8 illustrates how the analysis and control of these quality
information #ows can be used in a practical
example. Finally Section 9 presents the conclusions
and future lines of research.
2. The product lifecycle
The goal of product creation is transforming
customer requirements into a product that satis"es
the customer needs (Fig. 1).
The process of transforming product-related customer requirements into a product that ful"ls these
requirements can be subdivided into phases. These
phases will be referred to as the product lifecycle
phases (Fig. 2):
f speci"cation phase: transformation of customer
requirements into speci"cations of the future
product function;
f design phase: transformation of speci"cations
into a detailed technical speci"cation of the future product function (the design);
f manufacturing phase: realisation of the design
into a physical product;
f customer use phase: actual use of the product by
the end-user.
3. Realisation processes
The process in a company that delivers products
to the market within the given organisational structures and organisation's goals will be referred to as
the realisation process (Fig. 3).
The realisation process can be subdivided into
primary business processes or functions and secondary business processes or aspects (cf. [3]). The
secondary business processes consist of support
aspects like facilities, human resource, information
and automation, logistics, "nance and planning.
The secondary business processes will not be further discussed in this report. The primary business
processes consist of functions like research,
Fig. 1. Transformation of customer requirements into a product.
Fig. 2. Phases in the product lifecycle.
T.P.J. Berden et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 67 (2000) 3}15
5
Fig. 3. The realisation process.
Fig. 4. The realisation process can be divided into primary and secondary business processes.
marketing, development, production, sales and
service (Fig. 4).
The primary business processes will be discussed
here brie#y.
f Research: The development of new technologies.
f Marketing: Understanding and identifying the
market need.
f Development: De"nition and design of the product and the production capacity.
Parts of the development process are: (pre) concept generation and selection; system, sub-systems
and piece/parts design; production capacity design.
f Production: The actual realisation of the physical
product.
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T.P.J. Berden et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 67 (2000) 3}15
4.1. Sequential processes
The traditional approach to organising the business processes is a sequential one. In a sequential
approach tasks are performed one after another.
Upstream tasks are completed before downstream
tasks are started (Fig. 6). The sequential approach
is often referred to an the `throw it over the walla
approach. It almost always coincides with strongly
functionally organised organisations.
Fig. 5. Business processes consist of many sub-processes.
Parts of the production process are: the assembly
process; the production of sub-systems and
piece/parts.
f Sales: In#uencing the market need.
f Service: When the product cannot ful"l the customer expectation, the service system will take
care of a proper treatment of the customer's
complaint.
Note that the business processes consist of many
sub-processes (Fig. 5).
E.g. the development process can be divided into:
f product development
f C system development
f C } concept development
f C } concept selection
f C sub-system development
f C piece/part development
f process development
f C system
f C sub-system
f C piece/parts (tools)
4.2. Concurrent processes
Since approximately 1980 concurrent processes
in the "eld of engineering have received much attention. The idea behind concurrent processes is
that downstream activities start as early as possible,
even when upstream activities have not yet been
completed (Fig. 7). The classic example is: start the
development of the production capacity together
with the development of the product (concurrency
of two activities in the development process). Another example could be: start the production even
before the design is completed. This example may
sound exotic for mass-produced products, but less
for e.g. buildings, etc. (although piece/parts and
sub-systems developed and produced today can be
used in tomorrow's design of a car). Of course some
activities will always have to be completed before
others can start, but on a macrolevel activities are
performed concurrently.
Concurrent processes are usually performed by
multifunctional project teams. Although technical
specialities will still be necessary, they will be
Fig. 6. Sequential organisation of business processes.
4. Trends in the structure of the primary business
processes
In this section the basic structures of the primary
process are presented. It regards sequential and
concurrent
processes,
technology/knowledge
streams and sub-contracting.
Fig. 7. Concurrent organisation of business processes.
T.P.J. Berden et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 67 (2000) 3}15
7
Fig. 8. Knowledge streams outside of any speci"c development project.
performed in close co-operation with the project
team. Concurrent processes and working in teams
have several advantages above the sequential approach. These advantages are well described in [4].
Other literature describes di!erent levels of
information transfer. [5] discerns "ve levels in the
degree of concurrence between upstream and
downstream activities (increasing concurrency
from 1 to 5):
1. the traditional sequential approach;
2. high-bandwidth technology transfer;
3. overlapping with preliminary information transfer;
4. overlapping with mutual adjustment;
5. overlapping with early downstream development.
4.3. Technology/knowledge stream
New technologies are the foundation for new
products. [4] argues for the development of technologies outside of any speci"c product program.
A technology stream can represent technology
development. Mature (robust) and speci"c development programs (Fig. 8) "sh out superior technology. Development of new technology can be done
on the level of sub-systems, sub-functions (e.g.
noise, vibration) or on a collection of sub-systems.
One could even argue in favour of the creation of
development streams that create ready to implement sub-systems (in fact this is the case when
piece/parts or sub-systems are picked out of a catalogue). Another expansion could be the creation of
other streams e.g. a market development stream.
4.4. Sub-contracting
Both the primary and secondary processes can
be sub-contracted by the company in part or as
a whole. Sub-contracting means that some of the
activities in the realisation process are performed
by third parties (Fig. 9). In the case of the primary
processes development and production the subcontractors are often called suppliers.
Supplier involvement has been subject of study
in the past years. [5] discerns three di!erent patterns:
1. supplier proprietary parts: development and
production at supplier;
2. black box parts: development split between
assembler and supplier;
3. detail-controlled parts: development at the
assembler and production at the supplier.
In the traditional sequential situation the border
between the assembler and the suppliers is more
rigid than in the concurrent situation. In the
concurrent situation one can even go so far as to
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T.P.J. Berden et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 67 (2000) 3}15
Fig. 10. Five levels of con#icts with the customer requirements
[8].
Fig. 9. Sub-contracting of business processes.
put the suppliers in the multifunctional project
team or to consider the supplier as a technology
stream from which the project team can pick mature and ready to use technology or sub-systems
(cf. [6]).
5. Trends in product quality
The success a company has in ful"lling the customer requirements can be expressed by the term
quality. A broad de"nition of quality is therefore:
conformance to requirements. These requirements
include many aspects of di!erent nature including
objective as well as subjective aspects and aspects
relating to time, price, etc. (see [7] for an overview
of the many available de"nitions of quality).
The subset of quality that is relevant in this paper
will be de"ned as product quality: conformance to
product-related customer requirements. The product is a manufactured product. The customer is
the end-user during actual use of the product in
the "eld. The customer requirements are the
requirements that should be ful"lled to satisfy the
customer need. In this paper only product-related
requirements are of interest. This means that aspects like delivery time, price, etc. are not included.
Taking the de"nition of customer requirements
in the broadest sense means that if a product does
not have su$cient satis"ers for the customer this
already leads to non-quality. Often a more narrow
de"nition of customer requirements is used. A good
working representation of the di!erent interpretation levels of what can be meant by customer
requirements is given in Fig. 10, where customer
requirements are interpreted in "ve di!erent ways.
5.1. Trends in product quality
According to [8] as far as warranty is concerned,
the trend in the "eld of quality and reliability is
towards the more extended de"nitions of product
quality (Fig. 11).
In this paper customer requirements will be
interpreted as customer expectations. This leads to
the following de"nition of product quality: conformance to customer expectations. Note that this
de"nition includes the less extended de"nitions as
well. The more extended de"nition of product quality, in which the de"nition of requirements is
extended to customer satis"ers, is a "eld of study
for marketing. Some are in favour of de"ning this as
the product function [8]. Product function is then
de"ned as one of four business drivers: cost, time,
quality and function. Product quality is about making the product right while product function is
about making the right product.
Not performing according to customer expectations will have an impact on the ful"lment of the
company's objectives. Important business drivers
like cost, time and market share will be in#uenced
by the realised product quality. Many books have
been written about the cost aspects of quality.
A classi"cation of quality costs has been made by
Juran into prevention costs, appraisal costs, internal failure costs and external failure costs (cf. [9]):
f prevention costs: those e!orts devoted to keeping defects from occurring;
T.P.J. Berden et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 67 (2000) 3}15
9
Fig. 11. Warranty trends in the "eld of quality and reliability are towards the more extended de"nitions.
f appraisal costs: include measuring, evaluating, or
auditing products and processes to assure conformance to quality standards and performance
requirements;
f internal failure costs: all costs that arise from
products not meeting the speci"cations before
they are delivered to the customer;
f external failure costs: all costs that arise from
products not meeting the speci"cations/expectations after they have been delivered to the customer.
Non-quality can cause serious time delays, especially when problems arise late in the creation process. It will often take much time to implement the
changes, and projects can be delayed severely due
to quality problems. Moreover, poor quality can
lead to loss of market share on the long term.
People will no longer buy products of a particular
company if they have had been experiences with the
products realised by that company.
Note that since the product is the output of
a realisation process consisting of many unstable
processes and sub-processes, product quality is dif"cult to predict. It will be di$cult to know in
advance whether the product will satisfy the enduser expectations or not.
5.2. Product optimisation in classical, sequential
or functional, development processes
The classical way to solve unpredictability in
a development process is to apply so-called
Fig. 12. Classical, sequential, development process.
functional or Taylor organisation structures. This
functional structure leads to a situation that the
development of a product is split in a number of
di!erent tasks that are then considered to be independent (Fig. 12). From an uncertainty point of
view this has certain advantages. During a development phase a product is being adapted until it is
able to achieve its functionality; during the (pre-)
production phase people focus on production
aspects until a product is mature on production
aspects.
The advantage of this sequential process is that
people concentrate on one aspect during one phase.
When a new technology is introduced in, for
example, production the analysis of this new technology is anlysed in the (pre-) production phase
and decisions whether or not to apply the technology are taken in this phase. From a psychological
point of view this process has many advantages; it
leads to short learning cycles on actual problems at
hand.
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T.P.J. Berden et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 67 (2000) 3}15
The disadvantage, from an engineering point of
view, is that the phases will never be truly independent. Decisions taken in the development process
can seriously a!ect the way a product is produced
or the way the customer perceives the product. Also
from an economic point of view there are disadvantages. Stevens [10] stated that 80% of the cost
structure (and therefore the pro"tability) of a product is determined in the early phases of product
development. Also iterations in the later phases of
the development process will, due to the larger
amount of information or even physical structures
involved that are a!ected, be far more expensive
and far more time consuming. Therefore, it might
be useful to take decisions that relate to later phases
of a development process already in the early
phases. As there is no longer a strict focus of one
activity per phase it enables to carry out activities
in parallel.
5.3. Inherent instability of modern development
processes
Due to the resulting concurrency of activities this
process is also referred to as `concurrent engineeringa. Advantages are a faster and more economic
time to market (due to the more e$cient back-end
process). Disadvantages are long distances (in time
but also often in the people) between decisions and
the e!ect of the decisions (Fig. 13). This requires
a very high predictability of risks. In a static situation where all aspects of a development (products,
technology and people) remain the same such
a prediction could, theoretically, be possible. In
a situation with a high degree of uncertainty on one
of these aspects, processes will have a tendency to
become unstable. In very short development processes it might happen that even before the e!ects of
new technology are known already a next generation technology is introduced. In short development processes with long learning cycles, people
will focus on the current product instead of on the
lessons learned from one or two product
generations ago. This will lead, without proper
precautions, to inherent instability of the business
process.
Fig. 13. Concurrent engineering process; large distance between
decision and validation.
6. How to manage unstable processes
The output of the transformation processes discussed in the previous section can often not be
predicted. When transformation processes are considered as open loop processes they will never be
stable and therefore not predictable. This means
important aspects like time, costs and quality are
not always under control. Many tools and methods
have been developed to control these processes,
especially for the aspects time and costs. In this
section some general approaches towards unstable
processes will be discussed. Since this paper is concerned with product quality the examples will be
product quality related. Note that the approaches
described in this section can be applied to processes
as well as sub-processes of these processes.
6.1. Inspection of the output
Inspection of the output means that the actual
output is compared to the planned output. If the
output is not according to plan, the output will be
rejected (Fig. 14). Note that inspection of the output will not contribute to stabilising the process.
Some examples of inspection of the output are
the following:
f realisation process: inspection of the product just
before the product is delivered to the market;
f primary processes: inspection at the end of
primary processes e.g. development process,
production process;
f sub-processes: inspection of the output of a supplier or at the end of certain steps in the development process;
T.P.J. Berden et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 67 (2000) 3}15
11
Fig. 14. Inspection of the process output.
f sub-sub processes: inspection at the output of
machines.
6.2. Local feed-forward
In the case of local feed-forward the subsequent
process is forced to deal with the output of the
previous process. Two solutions are possible: adapt
the subsequent process or adjust the subsequent
process parameters. By adapting the process is
meant improving the process by improving the
process capabilities. Note that improving the capability of a process will not make the process stable.
Undesired outputs can be produced with advanced
methods as well as with less advanced methods. In
the case of adjusting the process parameters the
process itself does not change, but the process is
shifted to another target.
f check the output and adapt the subsequent process (Fig. 15);
f check the output and adjust the parameters of
the subsequent process (Fig. 16).
Examples of local feed-forward:
f realisation process: the customer has to adapt to
the product;
Fig. 15. Adapt the subsequent process to the output of the
previous process.
Fig. 16. Adapt the subsequent process parameters to the output
of the previous process.
f primary processes: identify the customer needs
and throw the results over the wall to development;
f sub-processes: design the product and throw it
over the wall to engineering;
f sub-sub processes: process parameter adjustment in production processes.
6.3. Local feedback
In the case of local feedback the output from the
subsequent process is used to adapt the previous
process or to adapt the input of the previous
process.
f check the output and adapt the process (Fig. 17);
f check the output and adjust process parameters
(Fig. 18).
From control theory one can learn that unstable
models require feedback. Verifying the outputs,
feedback and adjusting the inputs will lead to controlled processes.
Examples of local feedback:
f realisation process: use information of customer's experiences with the product while determining customer requirement for new products;
f primary processes: use information of the production process in the development process of
new products;
f sub-processes: use information of production
process engineering during product engineering;
f sub-sub processes: use information of customer's
experiences with the product in tools, methods
and tests; adjust parameters to target for subsequent production processes.
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T.P.J. Berden et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 67 (2000) 3}15
Fig. 17. Improve the process through feedback of the process
output.
Fig. 19. Anticipate subsequent processes and verify the results:
global optimisation.
Fig. 18. Change the process parameters through feedback of the
process output.
In relation to the earlier sections this leads to the
conclusion that a modern, time-driven, concurrent
engineering process requires a highly e$cient feedforward and feedback system. The quality of the
information should be such that (causes of) deviations are found fast and are embedded in the
models or `knowledge basea with a high level of
accuracy and e$ciency.
6.4. Global optimisation
7. Product quality related information 6ows
Global optimisation can be reached by anticipating in the current process the subsequent process
and verifying the results (Fig. 19).
Anticipation is only possible if enough knowledge of the subsequent processes is available.
Models are needed of the subsequent processes and
veri"cation of the results is necessary to keep these
models up to date.
Examples of global optimisation:
Information plays an important role in the
realisation process. First of all it connects the di!erent processes. The di!erent processes that realise
the product cannot work independently. Information transfer between the processes is crucial. The
output of upstream processes serves as input for
downstream processes.
The methods discussed in the previous section
can be applied on all process levels, from primary
business process level up to the process control
system in a machine. In all those cases information
plays an important role. In this paper the focus is
on product quality related information. This means
information relating to products that do not or will
not conform to expectations, speci"cations or
safety requirements. The product is the result of the
primary realisation processes. Product quality
related information is generated during actual use
in the "eld, in tools, methods and tests in the
primary business processes and in sub-processes of
the primary business processes. This leads to many
activities that are product quality related. The
f realisation process: anticipate in the whole
realisation process the customer requirements
and the customer user environment;
f primary processes: anticipate in the development
process the requirements and constrains of the
production process;
f sub-processes: anticipate during product engineering the possibilities of production process
engineering;
f sub-sub processes: use a model of the customer
requirements and the environment in tools,
methods and tests.
T.P.J. Berden et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 67 (2000) 3}15
information generated in these activities will #ow
through the company. These information #ows do
not necessarily exist for the sake of local feedback,
local feed-forward or global optimisation. Other
reasons of existence can be troubleshooting or providing information that is asked for by management or quality standards. These #ows have
nothing to do with the realisation process of products. They will be referred to as independent quality
information #ows.
In order to evaluate the quality of these control
loops Brombacher has proposed and applied the
MIR concept in many actual cases. The MIR scale
uses four levels to assess the quality of information
in control loops. On this four level scale MIR level
1 indicates adequate measurements, MIR level 2 indicates adequate allocation of (causes of) deviations
in the process, MIR level 3 indicates that information has su$cient level of detail to "nd root-causes.
Finally, MIR level 4 indicates that the information
is adequate to install preventive measures. See also
[11,12].
In summary, it can be concluded that several
kinds of reliability information #ows exist, information #ows on process level up to the level of activities
or methods and tests and information #ows that
measure, react or improve the realisation process.
8. Product quality and quality of information 6ows,
an example
Fig. 20 gives the primary process of a large company, active in the area of high-volume consumer
13
products. In this process several activities can be
distinguished.
f Research: The development of new technologies.
Part of the research is done by the functional
group pre-development (IP), which is part of the
innovation department. One of the purposes of
this group is to make fundamental studies on
component level or on general phenomena.
f Marketing: Marketing is done in the Marketing
and Sales. A key-account manager is responsible
for every group of customers. He builds relationships with the customers and picks up and discusses the customer's wishes.
f Development: The de"nition and design of products, sub-systems and piece/parts. For the development of a product a project team is composed
which works concurrently on several tasks of the
development process.
f Production: The actual realisation of products,
sub-systems and key components. The manufacturing of sub-systems and piece/parts takes place
at approximately 50 suppliers spread over the
whole world.
f Sales: Sales is done in the Marketing & Sales
department. The same people perform the marketing tasks as well as the sales tasks. The focus
of the sales department is on convincing the
customers to buy end-products. However, there
is no clear distinction between those two processes.
f Service: Service is also part of the Marketing
& Sales department. Quality support people
work under the responsibility of the key-account
Fig. 20. Primary process of a company: the product development process.
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T.P.J. Berden et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 67 (2000) 3}15
Fig. 21. Involvement of departments in business processes.
managers (see marketing). If problems occur
with the product in the "eld at the customer,
service takes care of a proper treatment of the
customer's complaints and eventually of repair
or replacement.
Four major departments can be distinguished in
which the primary business functions are
performed. These departments are the Innovation
department, the Marketing & Sales department,
Purchasing and the Production department. The
primary business functions are divided over the
four major departments in a way that is represented
in Fig. 21.
In order to analyse the quality information #ows
in this company an analysis has been made of the
various sources of quality-related information and
the way this information is deployed throughout
the business process. Fig. 22 gives a mapping of the
quality information sources and the quality-related
activities in this company.
In Fig. 22 several quality information #ows can
be determined:
f Customer quality support: Main goal of this activity is monitoring of the outgoing product quality,
both in terms of line rejects (products failing
during the production process) and "eld failures.
In case of deviations a problem analysis team is
installed (`Red-alert procedurea).
f Problem analysis team: In case of `out of control
situationsa on either production quality or "eld
quality a problem analysis team is installed. In
this team people from various disciplines participate. After the cause of the problem has been
found and the problem has been eliminated the
PAT is dissolved. The results of PAR activities
are not structurally used for other (existing or
future) products.
f Innovation quality: Information on the results of
quality tests. Used mainly by the innovation
Fig. 22. Quality information #ows.
T.P.J. Berden et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 67 (2000) 3}15
department; used by the problem analysis team
in case of `red-alertsa.
f Production quality: Information on failures and
corrective actions in the production department.
Used by the PAT in case of `red-alertsa.
f Supplier quality assurance: Monitoring of the
quality of incoming components and sub-assemblies. This activity is the basis for regular feedback with suppliers on quality levels.
Using the MIR concept it is in this way possible to
model the adaptive capabilities of a business process. From the example, presented here, a number
of conclusions can be drawn:
In this case quality information #ows are mainly
feedback structures and are mainly department
oriented. However, the time requirements on timedriven processes like this would at least require
a combination of (cross-functional) feed-forward
and feedback.
Analysis beyond MIR level 1 is only started in
case of `red-alertsa and the analysis is strongly
reactive. Learning beyond the level of a single product development cycle, in this case, does not exist.
This implies that knowledge, other than via the
personal experience of people, is not preserved well
in this organisation and that cross-functional
co-operation an predicative capabilities are not
developed well.
9. Conclusions and future lines of research
Modern, time-driven, product development processes require fast learning capabilities. In order to
reach the market in a shorter period of time many
companies have adopted concurrent engineering
strategies. In spite of these concurrent engineering
the time constants of learning cycles have become
longer due to the fact that the period between
(early) decision and validation of the decision has
become longer. This requires that decisions, taken
early in the product development process, are taken
based on highly accurate and detailed information
#ows operating with short reaction times. Only this
enables a combination of feed-forward and feedback control that is needed for successful concurrent engineering.
15
The MIR concept provides a method to analyse
the nature of information #ows in actual companies.
Applied on an actual test case it shows that it is not
only possible to model quality information #ows but
also to predict the pro-active and reactive capabilities of a business process. The process analysed in
the test case is a highly reactive process with very
limited learning capabilities outside `red-alerta "re"ghting activities. Also cross-departmental information exchange is, in this case, only very limited. This
implies that, with the existing structure, it will be
almost impossible to operate a modern, pro-active,
concurrent engineering process in this company.
References
[1] P.C. Sander, A.C. Brombacher, MIR: The use of Reliability Information Flows as a maturity index for quality
management, Quality and Reliability Engineering International 15 (1999).
[2] V.T. Petkova, P.C. Sander, A.C. Brombacher, The use of
quality metrics in service centres, International Journal of
Production Economics 67 (1) (2000), 27}36.
[3] M. Weggeman, G. Wijnen, R. Kor, Ondernemen binnen de
Onderneming: Essenties van Organisaties (Enterprising
within an Enterprise, Essentials of Enterprises, in Dutch),
Kluwer, Deventer, 1997.
[4] D. Clausing, Total Quality Development: A Step-by-Step
Guide to World-class Concurrent Engineering, ASME
Press, New York, 1994.
[5] K.B. Clark, T. Fujimoto, Product Development Performance: Strategy, Organisation and Management in the
World Auto Industry, Harvard Business School Press,
Boston, MA, 1991.
[6] L. Dijkstra, C.W.G.M. Dirne, C.P.M. Govers, P.C. Sander,
Samenwerking in Ontwikkeling (Co-operation in Development, in Dutch), Kluwer, Deventer, 1997.
[7] D.A. Garvin, Managing Quality, Free Press, New York,
1988.
[8] A.C. Brombacher, Symposium `The Reliability Challengea
organised by Finn Jensen Consultancy, London, 1998.
[9] A. Diallo, Z.U. Khan, CMA, C.F. Vail, Cost of quality, in:
The New Manufacturing Environment, Management
Accounting, August 1995, p. 20.
[10] F. Stevens, Vele eersten zullen de laatsten zijn (in Dutch),
Frits Philips Institute for Quality Management,
Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 1993.
[11] A.C. Brombacher, MIR: Covering non-technical aspects of
IEC61508 reliability certi"cation, Reliability Engineering
and System Safety 66 (1999) 109}121.
[12] P.C. Sander, A.C. Brombacher, Analysis of quality
information #ows in the product creation process of high
volume consumer products, International Journal of Production Economics 67 (1) (2000) 37}52.