AN EVALUATION OF STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL IMPLEMENTATION FOR QUALITY IMPROVEMENT: THE CASE OF HORIZON ADDIS TYRE COMPANY

Abstract

Quality leads to the improvement of productivity. Quality, productivity and cost of operation are relatively dependent to each other. For making quality products we need some techniques which are named as statistical process control (SPC). The evolution of manufacturing such as tyre went back to early 19th century and matured technologically and automated in the 1980s. Ethiopia joined the tyre industry in 1970sin the name of Addis Tyre SC(currently Horizon Addis Tyre SC); however, the tyre manufacturing stayed stagnant since then owing to various internal and external factors. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the existing Statistical Process Control implementation for Quality improvement approach and to assess and identify the existing quality related problems and identifying the challenges root cause for the implementation of Statistical Process Control implementation and proposed the appropriate solution in the Horizon Addis Tyre Company (HATC) manufacturing organization. Horizon Addis Tyre Company (HATC) has way problems analysis the Production defective Tyre that the company hugely faced those defective Tyre. There were many Quality problems like reject of products, waste of products, and defect of products and because of these Cost of production was high. The approach used in this study is direct observation. The methodology used in this thesis was by using the Control charts following this SPC tools were used to identify the problem areas and find their solutions. In this study, quality control data were collected through the primary source (i.e. directly from the Quality Control Department of the company and Primary data was collected through semi structured interviews and open ended and close ended Questionnaires i.e. using observation and interview). The secondary data was collected from the Web-site and Internet. The design of the research is descriptive since it allows the collection of data through questionnaires on the bases of sample, which helps to find out the view of the population. The study used mixed method of research design employing both quantitative and qualitative study techniques. Though the total number of employees in the factory is more than 770, the target population or a minimum of sample size is taken for this study is 53. If a statistical process control practices are employed effectively, it could improve the quality of the product and overall organizational performance by knowing the customer requirement and meeting them. From different Quality improvement techniques tools, Horizon Addis Tyre Company used Paratoo Analysis tools for technical department; Control chart for all departments that implemented Statically Process Control and Histogram tools was also used for some sections of the company.