The Quality Assurance Capicity Analysis And Action Study Of Fawer Radiator Branch Company

Today, the competition in the automobile markets is getting more and more keen worldwide. The Chinese automobile market is no exception, especially when after China joins WTO. It not only brings the competition closer to home with participation of international automobile superpowers, but also makes automobile parts manufactures being more challenged. The Fawer Radiator Branch Company (FRBC) is also facing ever increasing challenges just as all the other Chinese counterparts. The pressure comes from various aspects. First of all, it comes from international market. With China joining the WTO, the taxation of the automobile parts will be relaxed. As the results, more automobile parts will be imported into domestic markets. Secondly, the pressure comes from the global shopping market. With the entry of the giant international automobile companies, more and more globally recognized automobile parts companies are also investing in the domestic market in the forms of setting up manufactures or cooperation with domestic companies in terms of technologies. On one hand, this stimulates the establishment and the development of automobile parts industries of our country. On the other hand, this also increases the competition within the automobile parts industry. All the nine of the biggest international automobile companies, i.e., GM, Ford, Diamond-Chrysler, Volkswagen, Toyota, Renault-Japan, Peugent-Ciroen, Honda, BMW, have entered Chinese market. Among them, Volkswagen, GM, Ciroen, etc., have motivated their affiliated corporations such as Delphi, Bosch, Ellington, and Michelin, which are internationally recognized automobile parts companies, from abroad to invest in our country, for lowering the costs and speeding up the localization processes. Thirdly, the structure of the domestic consumers is enduring a fundamental change. The private owners of automobiles have superseded state-owners. With this change, consumers are becoming more and more picky, i.e., requiring higher standard of service. If the service quality cannot satisfy the demands from consumers, more complains will be expected. Under this challenging circumstance, it is of paramount to study the ability of the quality warranty ability of the automobile parts companies. The challenges that FRBC as an automobile parts manufacture is facing come from the intensive competitions both domestically and abroad, e.g., the dramatic increase of the price of raw materials, the transformation of the manufacturing structure from mid-size vehicles to heavy-duty trucks of our major customer –the First Automobile Work (FAW), the technological renovation and development of radiators across the country and abroad, the unsuccessful negotiation of FRBC for the four to five years of technological investment from Behr, a German company, and Valeo, a French company. All these have made the continuous increase of the internal and external product wastes, overall increase of product waste rate, the increase of the costumers'complains, the slowdown of the digestion of the information of quality warranty, lack of effective solutions, and the increase of both the number and the rate of breakdowns. The overall indication is that the manufacture is insufficient in service warranty, and there is a tendency of decreasing of actual quality, which may also mean that there are weaknesses in quality control. Therefore, it is necessary for FRBC to increase the ability of quality warranty, to keep raising the product quality of the company, and to satisfy the demands from the customers. The dissertation applies some of the fundamental theories and methodologies in business management and quality control, through the study over both domestic and international automobile parts manufactures, analyzed the existing problems in quality control within FRBC from all aspects, laid out the reasons behind the problems, and described the current status of the company's ability of the quality warranty. It was discovered that the company lacks of the necessary technologies to satisfy the demands from the customers and the market, which make it insufficient in the quality warranty. The uncertainties of raw material and the parts fromsubcontractors can directly impact the quality warranty. The improper program flow has made the quality control more difficult, which makes it easier to have problems in quality. The lack of effective solutions or no solution at all to complains of customers and to the discoveries from the product auditing processes has made the problems re-surface, which brings in more complains from the customers. The tendency of increasing internal waste products, external claim indemnities, and more overall waste products, indicates that the product quality has the tendency of decreasing. The price drop and the cost reduction of the products, without careful measurement, may bring down the product quality. If the company spends too much effort in quality control and no effort in manufacturing leading products, the quality of the leading products may not be guaranteed. Another difficulty in the quality control is that there are too many models of radiators that are quite resemble to each other, which may cause the misuse of the products. The mobile feature of the skilled workers makes the management and the technical skills somewhat uncertain. In addition, there exist many weaknesses in the operation and control of the quality control system. All these factors have contributed to the insufficiency of the quality warranty ability, which needs immediate attention. Quality is the very life of a manufacture, the only way that leads to the market, and the pre-condition and the method to expand the survival possibility. Quality is one of the outstanding issues in the modern industrial society and in the economic development of every country. In every developed or developing country, the product quality has been paid more attention than ever before, and each country has been looking for effective ways for improvement. As an automobile parts manufacture, it is even more serious for FRBC to face this challenge. Because there are many radiator manufactures across the country, the competitions from these peers have become more and more obvious and intensive. The monopoly position that FRBC has enjoyed in supplying the parts to FAW is being challenged. Insupply to other major manufactures, the position has also been facing more challenges in terms of pricing and uncertainty of quality. Among the competition, the most important factor of all is quality. Therefore, it is fundamental to the manufacture in raising the standard of quality control and quality warranty. There have been many theories in raising the quality warranty ability, ranging from the all-around quality control populated in early years across our country, to quality system series, ISO9000, VDA6.1.QS9000 in the automobile industry, to today's popular system TS16949. Each of these theories or systems may be in some way useful in quality control. However, the application of these systems in the majority of manufactures is not of an easy task. If they cannot be truly comprehended and only used with face values, it is of no help to the quality control. The real reason is the inability of comprehensive combination of experience with the standard systems, which makes the operation of the program infeasible. Conceivably, the quality control under such a circumstance cannot be undertaken fundamental change, not to mention a big advancement. After a careful research of the company's current situation with the combination of the business management, quality control management, and quality control standardization theory, the dissertation discussed from the aspects of strategy, organization, program flow, policy making, and standardization. It concluded that the company can be improved in quality warranty ability and quality control management. In terms of strategy, the company should exclude the non-leading products, reduce the management involvement, raise the management skill, look for joint investment, and introduce new technologies from abroad for the improvement of the manufacture technology and management skills at all levels. In terms of organization, the quality control should get full support from the senior level managers. The organization structure should move from the current functionality form to the combination of functionality and small project group form. In the meantime, the company should give more training to the managers and...