Rapid industrialisation has demanded that the processes that govern quality and productivity be developed at a similar rate, however, quality management approaches have lagged behind and remain a constant case for investigations. In view of this, the role of critical success factor (CSF) identification has been of very high importance. This study has attempted to study the approach of past researchers in identifying the CSFs of total quality management (TQM). Standard methodology was followed to review the published literature. The results indicated that the critical review of literature is the most highly adopted approach and case studies have received relatively less attention. Though the survey was carried out for small, medium, large-scale manufacturing and the service industry, it was apparent from the literature that the integration of various CSFs of TQM can help the manufacturing industries in sustainable quality improvement with the TQM approach. The various CSFs identified for industries are top managements’ commitment; continuous improvement; working environment; stakeholders’ involvement; quality tools; strategy, policy and planning; information and communication management; employee involvement and empowerment; process monitoring and production development; suppliers’ involvement and management; customer involvement and satisfaction; training and development; and support to employees.

Identification of critical success factors for quality-productivity management approach in different industries

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and minimize the printing-related defects in the surface mount assembly (SMA) process.,This paper uses an experimental approach to explore process parameter and printing defects during the SMA process. Increasing printing performance, various practices of solder paste (Ag3.0/Cu0.5/Sn) storage and handling are suggested. Lopsided paste problem is studied by varying squeegee pressure and the results are presented. Unfilled pads problems are observed for ball grid array (BGA) and quad flat package (QFP) which is mitigated by proper force tuning. In this paper, a comparative study is conducted which evaluates the manifestation of printing offset due to low-grade stencil. The input/output (I/O) boards were oxidized when the relative humidity was maintained beyond 70 per cent for more than 8 h. This pad oxidation problem is overcome by proper printed circuit board (PCB) handling procedures. When the unoptimized line is used, the paste wedged in the stencil and influences the performance of the screen printer, for this reason, an optimized line is proposed that minimize the printing defects.,The key findings are as follows: in the SMA process, printing quality is directly associated with solder paste quality. Experimentally, it is observed that a considerable variance in solder deposition occurred when the front and rear squeegee have different configurations. High-grade and unsoiled stencil results in superior paste deposition and less distinction. Insufficient solder paste and bridge problems also occur in printing when PCB pads are oxidized. Optimized line resolves solder paste clog issues, associated with stencil’s aperture. The cooling arrangement on the conveyor, after reflow, explicates hot jig problem. Control environmental conditions minimized static charges and printing defects.,The preceding studies emphasis mostly on the squeegee pressure, while other important parameters are not completely investigated. Moreover, it is very imperative to concurrently measure all parameters while varying the environmental conditions. This study highlights and provides an experimental approach to various PCB printing defects, and a comparative study has been conducted that concurrently measure all process parameters.

Defect minimization and process improvement in SMT lead-free solder paste printing: a comparative study

Productivity has now become an everyday watch word. The most practical approach is to attack the work process itself that is review the operations, and apply automation and mechanisation. In such cases, a productivity audit employing industrial engineering techniques are used for evaluating the existing manufacturing situation and identify the potential for increased productivity. Maynard Operation Sequence Technique (MOST) is a good work measurement technique that allows greater variety of work (both repetitive and non-repetitive) for manufacturing, engineering to administrative service activities, which needs to be measured quickly with ease and accuracy. This paper demonstrates the application of MOST technique through a case study of process improvement for improving labour productivity at bathroom appliances industry in casting section. The observational MOST study improved the casting process time by 17.69% compared to stopwatch technique. The MOST study is well accepted by the labourers compared to the stopwatch technique during implementation of observational MOST technique.

Optimisation of labour productivity using work measurement techniques

Facility layout problem is one of the most important problems in a huge range of industries and services organizations. Simultaneous study of some qualitative and quantitative parameters like closeness relationship between facilities, physical constraints such as input/output points and how to arrange facilities can play a key role to determine the facility layout. Considering these parameters can lead to reduce production costs, increase production capacity, and remove additional displacements. A two-stage approach is proposed to achieve these goals. In the first stage, a goal programming model is proposed to determine weights of the attributes based on the experts' opinions with different preference representation structures. Afterwards, the closeness ratings of the facilities are calculated using weights of attributes. In the second stage, an efficient layout is designed by determining facilities placement sequence, location of the next facility adjacent to the previous one, location of input/output points, and rectilinear feasible shortest path between facilities. Two meta-heuristic algorithms including particle swarm optimization and genetic algorithm are designed due to computational complexity. The objective function is to minimize the sum of products distance between facilities and closeness rating and also to minimize the dead space. A case study of an Auto Body Parts company is demonstrated to verify the efficiency of the proposed two-stage approach. Furthermore, in order to assess the performance of the proposed approach, a comparison is drawn between the proposed approach and five existing approaches in the literature to solve different problems by using the two meta-heuristic algorithms.

/pdf/a-new-two-stage-approach-for-a-bi-objective-facility-layout-3weg0h9av3.pdf

A New Two-Stage Approach for a Bi-Objective Facility Layout Problem Considering Input/ Output Points Under Fuzzy Environment

An impact of a modern industrial system, such as in Industry 5.0, which brings customer authorization deeper into the manufacturing stream, may give pressure toward the industrial working system. Along with this system transformation, the declining trend of labor number as world demographical change created demand for higher productivity worker, which is stronger and more versatile for handling more than one working station, giving added value and personalization in fulfilling customer needs. Assistive Technology (AT) which is formerly for disabled or handicapped people, would be more widely used for everyone and working for its new purposes in producing higher individual physical capacity. A common challenge of providing a wearable AT, such as limb prostheses, orthoses, or exoskeletons, is customizing their geometry to fit on user body parts. In Industrial context, this would even be more challenging since it must be provided in massive number which can overburden companies overhead. The disruptive technology of prototyping such as 3D scanning and 3D printing brings a customized prototype into a new level of accomplishment life cycle and affordability. New processing technology and material development in 3D printing eventually transform rapid prototyping into rapid manufacturing of final AT product. This paper aims to examine recent research and development of AT from AT developers and communities as well as its novel development process. The new challenges of new AT existence are discussed further in the context of working safety and product standardization and a study about its impacts towards industrial productivity are highlighted.

Role of rapid manufacturing technology in wearable customized assistive technology for modern industry

This paper presents a comparative study that uses simulation to investigate the performance of different layout designs with respect to different levels of model and head count variability. There are three types of layout designs being examined in this paper: flow line, job shop and cellular layout. These three layouts are evaluated based on three selected performance measures which are throughput time, lateness and labour productivity. These three performance measures are selected because they relate with the overall layout productivity. The simulation model is build by using the WITNESS simulation package and the simulation results are tested in the F-test and Newman-Keuls test. In this study, the radio-cassette player production system has been used as an empirical study. The results show that the effect of headcount variability and model variability do create an impact towards the performance of flow line, job shop and cellular layout.

Sok Yee Khoo

Papers

The effect of layout design on productivity: an empirical study