An Application of QFD to Semi-artificial Glass Bottle Manufacturing Processes

摘要

Because glass bottles need to protect the contents safely, makers should make every effort to meet the customer requirements and stably produce high quality products. Suzutake Co. Ltd. is a Japanese glass bottle maker, which makes various kinds of products mainly for cosmetics by using a semi-artificial bottle manufacturing method. The manufacturing method is highly dependent on worker's skill, so that it is difficult to keep the stable quality of the products. In order to better the quality assurance system, QFd was applied to manufacturing processes. The traditional QFD starts with collecting customer's voices, but it is difficult for the bottle maker to collect the customer's voices. Instead, we started with clarifying bottle's essential functions. Then, we made various tables which consist of both the functions and other factors such as quality characteristics, manufacturing processes, and function test items. These tables indicate the relationship between functions and other key items to assure the quality of glass bottles. Through this work, check items in the bottle manufacturing processes have been discovered, and the important characteristics to which attention should be paid were clarified. The results were reflected in the Qc process chart, and QA system was more improved.