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changed and so it can push the valve more and close it more. After some trial and
error I was able to make the lever pull the valve perfectly. So the valve was getting
opened properly now, but still the valve was not getting closed properly. To this day
this problem could not be fixed even after many attempts by service engineers.
1.2
Case Analysis
What is the moral of the story? A small defect in a part of a product can dent con-
fidence of the customers. I for sure will never buy any products from the manufac-
turer who manufactured that godforsaken washing machine.
This shows the importance of preventing defects in the first place and, if any
defect occurs, finding it at the manufacturing site itself and removing that defect so
that the defect is not passed to end users or customers.
Preventing as many defects as possible in the product and then trapping defects
if any occur at the manufacturing site itself is very important. Right from product
conception to product design to production, a process should be followed which
will ensure that the product is as close to defect-free as possible. This means that
when a machine prototype is passed to the machine design team, the machine
prototyping team should ensure that no defects are introduced in the prototyp-
ing. When machines made from this design are then installed at the shop floor,
the factory should ensure that no defects are passed to the product being made
on this machine due to faulty material handling or bad machine design. These
measures will ensure defect-free products through a thorough implementation of
quality assurance processes. Similarly the product that will be produced using this
machine should also go through the same quality assurance process at each stage of
product conception to product design to product production. And at each stage in
the manufacturing process the quality testing department should ensure that any
defects which may occur in the product are trapped and faulty products are either
reworked or rejected.
In the physical world preventing and removing defects is very much possible to
the extent of having products 99.99999% defect-free. It is possible because a num-
ber of factors that cause defects can be determined and then removed from design
or during the manufacturing process. Nowadays product development has matured
so much that in most of the industries defects due to faulty conception and design
are nonexistent. They have also mastered manufacturing processes so that they
can achieve defect-free products to the tune of 99.99999%. They have feverishly
implemented six sigma programs, ISO standards, lean manufacturing principles,
quality circle programs, and so on. So the first principle is that defects should not
be introduced in the products. The second principle is that if some defects enter
at any stage, then they should be trapped before the product enters into the next
stage in the production cycle. One good example of this trend is the introduction
of Toyota's manufacturing system. At Toyota Motors the quality processes are so
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