OPM400 Case Study  Canadian Standard Inc.

Canadian Standard Inc is a Toronto based manufacturer of plumbing supplies including faucets for tubs, showers, kitchen, bathroom and laundry sinks. The company employs 120 employees in its two locations, and exports 60% of its product to the USA. Some of their product is sold through the smaller kitchen/bath retail locations as well as to home builders for the new home market.

David Bath, is the new VP of Operations and he has been very concerned about the increasing problem with rejected products found during the assembly operation.

Several new designs were introduced in September, and since that time rejects have been higher than usual. "Rejects have been a large source of waste since we resumed production in September", said Bath in the weekly management meeting. David feels strongly that data must be collected and analyzed in order to begin fixing the problems.

As a new graduate of Seneca College, you have been brought in to help review and analyze the quality data for Canadian Standard. Although you will not make technical recommendations, you should be able to help them figure out what the problems are and to point them in the right direction.

Process Overview:

A tour of the assembly operation indicated that there are two assembly lines, with between six and nine employees on each line, which assemble large production runs of the various faucets. Near the end of each assembly line is an inspector who looks at most of the product prior to packaging. If any defects are found, jobs are pulled off the line at this point.

After the products are assembled and inspected, each item is then packed into its carton box, and then packed onto a skid for delivery.

Currently, products that are found faulty at the final inspection are to be sent to a special team of 2 employees, located at the far end of the building for repair. These employees are responsible to evaluate, repair and document their work. Some product is scrapped, and the remainder is repaired. There is a constant supply of products waiting to be looked at. After being repaired, products are returned to the final inspection area at the end of the assembly line. At the inspection area, inspectors are often needed to work overtime to inspect the products that arrive from the rework area.

Some of the components for the products are manufactured by Canadian Standard in their Manufacturing Department. Other items are purchased in large quantities from Canadian, American, and overseas suppliers. After some inspection and storage, quantities for one day's production are sent directly to the different workstations of the assembly line, every night for the next day's production.

Your Actions:

You have met the supervisor in each of the two areas, and they seemed to be unsure as to the reasons for all the defects. There seemed to be many different types of rejects piled in various locations throughout the facility

Your next stop was at the Quality Control Department, where you obtained the records for the Assembly Department rejects, for the last month.

Assignment:
Compile a report that includes the following

1. Cover page and Table of Contents (5)

1. Executive Summary. You should write this part after you have covered all the issues of this assignment, but it should appear at the beginning of your report. In that way it will allow David Bath to have immediate, short and clear understanding of the main findings and conclusions of the report. He will then decide what parts of your detailed report he wishes to read and understand. (10)

2. Prepare an action plan for your investigation. Discuss who you will speak with, what information you will be trying to obtain. (5 )

3. Summarize for David Bath the four costs of quality, giving examples of each from Canadian Standard. (10)

4. Draw a Fish-Bone (Cause and Effect) chart, which indicates some possible reasons for the defects listed in the case. (15)

5. Perform a Pareto Analysis for the monthly Reject Log of the Assembly Process. What conclusions do you come to about the course of action that should be taken by David Bath? (15)

6. Draw a Run Chart (Line Chart) for each of the top 2 defects indicated on your Pareto Chart, using the monthly reject data. These charts should plot each day's rejects by assembly team number. In summary, charts for each of the top 2 defects, with plots for each of the 2 teams. (2 charts required). 

7. Are there any patterns on the above chart, which would lead you to focus on one assembly line over the others? Why or why not?

8. From the information you have discovered, prepare your conclusions and recommendations, with justifications. In addition to what is required in all the previous points of this assignment, mention any other important points that you noticed- numeric, logic, other. 

The charts and graphs must be computer generated.

Please remember to identify your charts/graphs- Main Titles, X-Axis and Y-Axis Titles and Scale, other names of data.