On the right approach to selecting a quality improvement project in manufacturing industries

Continuous improvement is the core of any successful firm. Talking about manufacturing industries, there is huge potential for continuous improvement to be made in various work areas. Such improvement can be made in any section of industry in any form such as quality improvement, waste minimization, system improvement, layout improvement, ergonomics, cost savings, etc. This case study considers an example of a manufacturing firm which wanted to start a quality improvement project (QIP) on its premises. Various products were available, but with dwindling quality levels. However, the real task was the choice of a product for upcoming QIP, as it is well known that success heavily depends upon the selection of a particular project. This is also because of the amount of effort in terms of time, money and manpower that is put into a project nowadays. The authors’ objective was to compare three techniques, namely, cost of poor quality (COPQ), conditional probability and fuzzy TOPSIS for selecting the right project based on this specific firm. The pros and cons of these approaches have also been discussed. This study should prove to be instructive for the realization of QIPs in similar types of industry.