Total quality management implementation at Robert Bosch GmbH

¶ … Quality Management and Effective Cost Reduction Achieved at Bosch GmbH, Germany by Implementation of Its Systems with Special Emphasis on Total Quality Management

Company Profile

"Prevention" -- Quality Management

Product Design

Process Design And It Enabled Solutions

IT Involvement

Material, Manpower, Knowledge and Its Quality

Cost Of Quality

Operations Objectives -- Application Of Quality Management Principle For Better Productivity And Profits

Gap models qm - Quality Management

Tqm - Total Quality Management

ISO - International Standards Organization

CAM - Computer Aided Manufacturing

CAD - Computer Aided Design

In Robert Bosch GmbH, quality management is a holistic approach to a comprehensive assimilation of precise customer requirements, and satisfying customer aspirations by making consistent quality deliveries at the right price, in time and with least hassles to the community around you. Quality management, therefore, involves the effective design of the products, and the processes focused on customer specifications, besides planning the product life cycle, the production process and delivery to the satisfaction of the customer. Quality management also importantly involves evaluation of processes and endurance, with special emphasis on continuous improvement, to ensure the adoption of the latest practices and finally to ensure the best-quality product to the consumer, for which reason it is also referred to as integrated management (BOSCH, 2010).

Company Profile

Robert Bosch GmbH, with its headquarters near Stuttgart, Germany known worldwide for its brand name, "Bosch," is a multinational engineering conglomerate with factories spread in several world locations. They are considered the world's premier supplier of automotive components. However, for this assignment we are referring only to their automotive electrical components like starter motors, alternators, solenoids, and the likes. Founded by Robert Bosch in the year 1886 in Stuttgart, Germany, this company is a world leader in the products manufactured by it. They are also into steering systems, household appliances and power tools, besides security systems and thermo-technology (Bosch, n.d.). With over 350 subsidiaries spread over 60 countries, it has a massive sales wing catering to 150 countries worldwide and employs over 300,000 people. The most interesting part about Bosch is their penchant for reinvestment of profits on research and development, fine tuning all their products to near zero defect accuracy, which are the reasons why their products are seen as synonymous with quality in the world markets. Achieving this level of competences has not been easy for the company, but their massive turnover of about €51.4 billion has in no small measure, helped the company to adopt and apply the latest techniques in quality management. They also have over 4,000 patents pending worldwide (BOSCH, 2012).

Theory of Quality Management

Quality management is all about using management model standards and assessment tools along with the various existing concepts of quality and tools thereof, to enable the businesses to survive and thrive for many years to come. Simply put, these quality management techniques include, a) documenting and improving the processes, b) design the products and services with client's requirements in mind c) bring about a coordination between customers, suppliers and employees both in-house and in outsourcing (Pryor, et all., 2010).

All these principles are being utilized at Robert Bosch, especially, with the introduction of a knowledge-based business model for back-office operations, which supports the functioning of the diverse departments and is vital to the health and profitable conduct of business.

Every organization is bent on success and is always striving to produce the best product or service by using the best technique available, in order to ensure that their order book is always overflowing. Even some large organizations have staff, which is not properly trained in the management systems and, they become motivated only when they are pushed by their customers to install and practice the best-quality management systems that would bring about a sea change in both their attitude and the implementation of the new techniques.

Having realized that a trained, knowledgeable expert and flexible workforce are the focal point from which success emerges in any large organization, Robert Bosch is in a continuous process of recruiting the best talent and have also instituted a high-class training center to mold its workforce for multi-skills and flexibility.

Practical Application of Quality Management -- "Prevention" The Motto Of 2010

At Bosch, high-quality standards are considered indispensable for their corporate culture. They have a quality management system that is custom made to the specific requirements of their various areas of operations. "Prevention" was their motto for the year 2010, and they geared themselves to achieve this, primarily by adopting a strong and sturdy design to withstand rigorous working conditions to which they are subjected. This was achieved by a massive expansion in the area of field testing where the products were tested under most severe conditions. The useful data emerging from these tests would be fed into the system for further continuous improvement, which is another area in which the company has focused heavily. All these factors combine to improve quality, reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction and skyrocket sales (BOSCH, 2010).

Quality Initiatives

Those managers, who wish to educate themselves on quality management must necessarily read about quality models; concepts and tools made famous by quality gurus who preach on how to exceed customer expectations in quality by an open and efficient channel of continuous communication between the management, Frontline associates and customers. Robert Bosch is particular that all its management staffs are familiar with the models of quality management, their concepts and tools, extolled by the renowned quality experts on the means of achieving customer satisfaction by quality initiatives.

This system is based on the extensive awareness of generic strategies, which can be of great help in avoiding, detecting, diagnosing and solving the manifestations of exceptions.

Management Models

Strategic Management Model (Purpose)

Most large organizations have the advantage of experienced managers with exposure to management models and strategic concepts. They also have access to sufficient funding for the job on hand and the formation of special purpose strategic planning department, which is competitively motivated and strategically oriented. A strategic management model is evolved including a SWOT analysis for estimating the firm's in-house strengths and weaknesses as also the external threats and opportunities. The model also incorporates the vision of the company, its values, ultimate goal strategy planning and implementation, measurement and feedback as well as a competitive advantage and critical success (Pryor, et al. 2010).

5 P's Model

Strategic model (referred to as 'Purpose'), is considered as the first of the 5 models necessary for a successful business, but there are four more which make up the 5 P's model. They are the elements of Principles, Processes, People, and Performance.

A figure of the 5 P's model is given below (Source: Pryor, et all., 1998):

Figure: 1

5 P's Model

Purpose (Strategic)

Principles

Processes

People

Performance

The above figure clearly depicts the correlation between strategy (Purpose) and principles (Structure) as well as the processes which have an influence on employee behavior, eliciting performance out of them. In other words, the strategy seems to drive behavior which in turn attains results. In the above figure, the arrow from performance to strategy (purpose) indicates the importance of feedback in successful strategic planning. In the final analysis, the 5 P's model considered an essential component of strategic quality management is a route taken by the organization, with long-term survival in mind using the features of metrics and measurements to track engage their progress towards world-class status (Pryor, et all., 2010). In all sectors of their automotive electrical industry, Robert Boch has been careful to implement the strategy, and the other elements of principle, processes, people and performance to obtain the best results, by linking these models to one another to reach a world-class organization status.

Practical Application of Product Design in Robert Bosch GmbH

For purposes of this evaluation, we are considering only product design and development pertaining to automotive electrical product of Bosch GmbH. Since the product range is diverse, the product design is also an elaborate affair. The research and advance engineering is charged with the responsibility of continuous improvement to ensure that the improvements in design are able somewhat to offset the material cost, that goes up every day, so much so, that selling and competing in the market is becoming more difficult every day. Every single bit of resources and raw materials are scanned with a fine-tooth comb to ensure that there are no losses. All applications of engineering, including physics, earth science's material qualities are taken into account to maintain product design (Onwindows, 2007).

Robert Bosch has an elaborate design and development system in place, spread over all the continents with 1000s of engineers burning the midnight oil to come out with a path-breaking design development which will profit on the company. Recently, Bosch and Siemens, another great German conglomerate has joined hands in what may be considered as a common platform design development initiative across hordes of similar components used by them across the globe. They have invested heavily in IT and employed the use of 3D CAD models and shared them in multiple locations to get the best results (Onwindows, 2007).

An example of a problem in alternators and how it was solved by the imperial Collage of London is detailed below. On noticing that the alternators were not running smoothly, and were posing additional strain to the engine, the matter was referred by Robert Bosch GmbH to the Imperial College of London, who were asked to investigate into the matter. The whole project was, of course, funded by Robert Bosch. Using a mixture a theoretical and measured data, the investigators started building from scratch an FE model of the alternator, component by component, and studied the errors during the assembly of the product. Joint modeling and friction analysis were given top priority in the investigation. During sweep-sine testing, friction was evident, showing the non-linearity in the structure. Corrective action was soon taken on the recommendations of the investigator, and the additional pressure on the engine was resolved (Saeed, 2001).

Chapter 3

Process Design And It Enabled Solutions

Theory of Process Design

Basically, design is a means of satisfying a customer's configuration of what is required be it a product or a service. Or it could also allude to the transformation process involved. Product design and services are now fond to be inter-related with the process. While the product/services have to be designed creatively the process should take care of producing the product as per their designated design, which involves inputs outputs and the processes for transformation from raw-material to finished stage.

The design activity itself takes on the overtones of a process and along with product, service and process design and the product should aim at achieving a) good performance, b) reliability and c) easy manufacturing procedure.

On the other hand, the service must be delivered at a good price meet the operation capability and exceed customer expectations, while process should guarantee consistent delivery of good quality product.

Process is divided into 4 types. Namely, project, jobbing, batch, mass and continuous process.

Plant layout there are 4 types of plant layouts. Starting from a) functional b) product (line) c) Fixed position layout and d) Cellular layout.

Production methods dictate the type of plant layout. It includes job production which includes production of tooling and components. While the batch production involves grouping of a small volume of components in the production. Line production pertains to high volume of production through a sequence of tasks; there is a continuous production which pertains to high production volumes of commodity product, and finally group production where autonomy is given in manufacturing process.

Coming to the process and process planning, all the operations that focus on making a product are the process and process planning involves responsibility for all decisions on a process, a detailed agenda of type operations for a product and finding the best process for manufacturing product. The process centered operations have the sole intent of achieving customer satisfaction.

Process is divided into 4 types. Namely, project, jobbing, batch, mass and continuous process and the process technology uses the manual, the mechanized and the automated processes (Teachers' Note).

The department that oversees the design engineering process at Robert Bosch GmbH is very solid and efficient, as they are charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the design is robust and economical in terms of material quality and inputs, to dominate the world markets. Most engineering teams use the engineering design process to solve multifarious problems in the design, on the floor or even at customer's customer's end. The Bosch engineers conduct regular brainstorming sessions to assess the problem clearly and also to propose imaginative prospective solutions. From this exercise, they select the best idea and commence with a design drawing, and conduct analysis on every parameter concerning this to create the best prototypes, making continuous improvements until the problem is solved (BOSCHENGINEERING, (n.d.).

Example - Innovation for Improvement of Multi-Station Loading

In Robert Bosch GmbH Electronic brake controls are manufactured by their Chassis System Control (CC) backed by an extremely wide ranging support of research and development. Since, these facilities are located at different locations worldwide, Robert Bosch GmbH establish a PLM concept using a team center, equipped with different servers for the diverse time zones for the purpose of optimizing the loading times at the various locations. This process involved the distribution of data adjustment to over 20 locations in the world (PLM, n.d.).

Performance, development, production, distribution, marketing, purchasing and customer service have been integrated at Robert Bosch GmbH into a tight global network aimed at achieving continuous innovation on processes worldwide using PLM software supplied by Siemens. The integration and coordination have taken on an international flavor with all round cooperation between the officials at the locations worldwide, both for service and manufacture. The CC department uses the NX design software for product development and for information management they use the Teamcenter® digital lifecycle management software. With integrated data so accrued so collected the engineers were able to reduce the loading time at variations locations simultaneously (PLM, n.d.).

IT involvement

Robert Bosch GmbH has incorporated far-reaching and comprehensive measures, which have been validated through the company, to ensure lose of data manipulation and theft. Much predominance has been applied to the protection of sensitive data by using highly capable data protection organizations. The problems of failure of IT systems have been overcome by relying on the redundant systems that already run independently at different locations (BOSCHINDIA, n.d.).

As a highly progressive company Robert Bosch has their vision clearly supported by the use of information technology in their business, and has given prominence to both IT as well as the process redesigns, which are considered separate tools to be used efficiently in different situations. In industrial engineering, Bosch uses IT as an analysis and modeling tool in process modeling, materials management information systems, control, process scheduling and logistics. However, IT has been used most effectively in production for carrying out redesign work in the manufacturing sector, mostly controlled by the industrial engineers (BOSCHINDIA, n.d.).

Of late, however, the utilization of IT has been extended to the office and service sector in the company, and though there was some resistance in the beginning, it has now integrated very well, and the office and service sector is now claiming a 40% reduction in expenses because of this (BOSCHINDIA, n.d.).

Chapter 4

The Effect of Material, Manpower, Knowledge in QM

Material

Robert Bosch has invested heavily in the quality of the personnel of its purchasing department. Headed by Dr. Karl Nowak, President Corporate Sector Purchasing and Logistics and ably assisted by Albin Ettle, Executive Vice President, Global Purchasing Automotive and Joerg Mimmel, Executive Vice President, Global Purchasing Indirect and Raw Materials and Supplier Quality, the purchasing and material's functions are in very able hands, and this is even more important when you understand that these people control 70% of the company's money in terms of inventories of raw -- materials and work in progress and finished goods. Robert Bosch had, from the beginning, followed a systematic procedure of inventory management and purchasing, skillfully transforming the erstwhile smaller volume of logistics from earlier proportions to the gigantic proportions of today, in a smooth and efficient manner. They have strived to bring about inventory reduction to the necessary levels and have truly responded to the customer's actual needs by proper scheduling and efficient shop loading, thereby comfortably reducing the gap between the stock replacement and sales. They have fine tuned their inventory levels to unbelievable accuracy and have a complete grip on the material inventory and its burden in terms of dollars (UPCOMING, 2009).

They have achieved all this with great diligence by pooling of information on common purchase requirements and holding on to a consistent policy in their purchase, and by expanding the cooperation between departments for a better understanding, and consequently, increase in efficiency. They are also setting up a global cross divisional purchasing center for automotive parts to enable economical purchasing activity on several components that are being standardized both for inventory reduction purposes and for the benefit of bulk purchase leading to price reduction (UPCOMING, 2009).

Manpower

Robert Bosch GmbH has always maintained the human resources development systems in line with the latest business practices, and the latest production technologies that accrue from a highly advanced system of information and production technologies that have been sweeping