Application Research On Car Components Quality Improvement Methods

The Chinese car market is one of the largest in the world and it is still growing at avery rapid phase. All major foreigner car brands are present on the China market in theform of joint ventures with the local manufacturers, in order to lower costs, increasemarket share and gain greater profit. The awareness for product quality has been risingamong domestic customers what means a great pressure to the carmakers where theynot only have to meet the great customer demand, but also have to assure the quality ofthese vehicles.The damaged or burnt bearing issue is a great concern for the car companies sinceunder warranty the whole engine has to be replaced, creating high cost and alsoresulting in great customer dissatisfaction, since often after a short mileage thisproblem occurs.This thesis conducts an application research on the burnt bearing issue at a jointventure of a major car manufacturer. Using Six Sigma tools, current production andassembly weaknesses were pointed out, and then during the analyzing phase failureroot causes were identified. These poor processes were subjected to improvements andfinally taken under strict control and supervision in order to meet the desired target rate.Application of DMAIC approach has resulted in reduction of bearing failures from654ppm to81ppm for this particular engine issue.