Proposal for Formalization and Improvement of the Quality Control Process
Díez, Isabel (2022)
2022
All rights reserved. This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2022060415343
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2022060415343
Tiivistelmä
This thesis describes the steps proposed to formalise and improve the product quality control process of a small company where a dedicated Quality Control unit is non-existing. The case company works on customer demand and under a strict regulatory framework, making it challenging to attain product compliance.
For the development of the thesis, applied action research approach was selected, consisting of the stages, observe, plan, do, evaluate. The first stage is the current state analysis, carried out to understand the critical weaknesses of the process and the parts of the process that are most affected by those weaknesses. For this stage, data was collected from the relevant stakeholders via interviews. Additionally, a process map to evidence the critical regions of the process was co-created. The weaknesses detected are mainly related to process formalization including lack of roles and responsibilities as well as lack of documentation. The product release process was identified as the most critical region of the process. The next stage consisted of gathering ideas in best practice to tackle the weaknesses.
In the following stage, data was collected from the most relevant employees in a workshop and in several interviews, utilising the knowledge acquired from best practices. With that, a proposal was developed to improve and formalise the process, including responsibility assignment and creation of documentation.
In the last stage of this thesis, the initial proposal was validated in detail by the relevant decision-makers and their comments were integrated to form the final proposal for process formalization and improvement with a focus on the product release process. The final proposal collects ideas and discussion points of those experiencing the issues of the process weaknesses.
This thesis represents a good starting point towards task execution harmonization, awareness of the employee own relevance in the process, and product quality control.
For the development of the thesis, applied action research approach was selected, consisting of the stages, observe, plan, do, evaluate. The first stage is the current state analysis, carried out to understand the critical weaknesses of the process and the parts of the process that are most affected by those weaknesses. For this stage, data was collected from the relevant stakeholders via interviews. Additionally, a process map to evidence the critical regions of the process was co-created. The weaknesses detected are mainly related to process formalization including lack of roles and responsibilities as well as lack of documentation. The product release process was identified as the most critical region of the process. The next stage consisted of gathering ideas in best practice to tackle the weaknesses.
In the following stage, data was collected from the most relevant employees in a workshop and in several interviews, utilising the knowledge acquired from best practices. With that, a proposal was developed to improve and formalise the process, including responsibility assignment and creation of documentation.
In the last stage of this thesis, the initial proposal was validated in detail by the relevant decision-makers and their comments were integrated to form the final proposal for process formalization and improvement with a focus on the product release process. The final proposal collects ideas and discussion points of those experiencing the issues of the process weaknesses.
This thesis represents a good starting point towards task execution harmonization, awareness of the employee own relevance in the process, and product quality control.