Business and Quality Management

Objectives

Quality management is a significant matter of concern in every industry, including the automotive industry. For cars or any motor vehicles, it is vital to ensure that the manufacturers produce the highest quality products or parts consistently and ensure the safety of consumers. They have to pass through numerous safety assessments and tests before they are finally delivered to the customers.

Quality management and control is not only delivering high-quality products and eliminating defects before the products reach the market. It is also about keeping the costs of manufacturing down. Carmakers need to optimize their production processes, prevent wasteful reworks or product recalls, and multiply the production scale to increase their profit margins in the long run. A robust quality management approach is thus needed to prevent problems in the vehicles as well as to increase the cost-efficiency of the manufacturers.

The automotive industry is one of the heavily regulated industries and imposes a number of compliance requirements on the manufacturers to assure the safety and quality of their products using quality system based on ISO 9000, VDA, ISO TS, EFQM or own quality systems.

Targets of this course are that the students know the principles of quality control, quality management and total quality and how to relate these systems with those of environmental and safety-on-site systems. Students will also achieve the ability to understand the quality rules in the automotive business models and understand internal company performance from the point of view of the accounting.

Learning outcomes

• LO1. Knows, analyses and applies the market economy, the legal and organisational structure of the company.
• LO2. Knows the process for start-up of companies creation.
• LO3. Knows, analyses and applies the management of technological innovation and product concept.
• LO4. Knows and applies the analysis of market opportunities, architecture and product optimisation.
• LO5. Knows, analyses and applies accounting and profitability analysis.
• LO6. Identifies and uses the terminology, notation and methods of business management.
• LO7. Proposes and solves problems in a team and critically analyses the results obtained.
• LO8. Applies his/her knowledge, understanding and their problem-solving skills in complex or professional and specialised work environments that require the use of creative and innovative ideas.
• LO9. It develops satisfactorily in virtual interaction contexts through the use of ICT.
• LO10. Shows an attitude of motivation and commitment to personal and professional improvement

Competencies

General skills

• Desire to take part in lifelong learning, innovate, create value and acquire new knowledge.
• Endeavour to reconcile personal independence and initiative with teamwork in multidisciplinary activities.

Specific skills

• Understand the concept of enterprise and its institutional, legal and economic framework, and use resources for organisation, management and quality management of companies; know about organisational structure and functions of an engineering project office, and know how to use techniques to organise, manage and lead projects.

Basic skills

• Students can apply their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional manner and have competencies typically demonstrated through drafting and defending arguments and solving problems in their field of study.
• Students can communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialists and non-specialists.
• Students have demonstrated knowledge and understanding in a field of study that builds on general secondary education with the support of advanced textbooks and knowledge of the latest advances in this field of study.

Core skills

• Be a critical thinker before knowledge in all its dimensions. Show intellectual, cultural and scientific curiosity and a commitment to professional rigour and quality.
• Become the protagonist of one's own learning process in order to achieve personal and professional growth and acquire all-round training for living and learning in a context of respect for linguistic, social, cultural, gender and economic diversity.
• Display professional skills in complex multidisciplinary contexts, working in networked teams, whether face-to-face or online, through use of information and communication technology.

Content

Unit 1

1. Introduction to the automotive world. Current landscape
2. Business model management. Current automotive business model: VW, Nissan, Tesla, Seat, Hyundai

Unit 2

1. Quality roles in business model management
2. Ways to achieve quality from suppliers

Unit 3

1. Market economy. The legal structure of the company
2. The company creation and set-up. Motivations and facts. Special cases in automotive industry

Unit 4

1. Accounting: Balance sheets and profit and loss account
2. An economic and financial analysis of the company through its accounting
3. Cost-benefit analysis

Unit 5

1. The company's organisation structure
2. Quality and competitiveness

Unit 6

1. Quality management: Concept of quality
2. Quality control and its evolution
3. Management quality systems target

Unit 7

1. Quality control vs quality assurance. Tools oriented to improve and assure the quality

Unit 8

1. Quality models. Audits and quality information systems: ISO, VDA, TS, EFQM
2. Relationship between quality systems, environmental and safety systems

Unit 9

1. Basic quality tools: Process flow chart, run diagram, control charts, fishbone, check sheet, histogram, Pareto analysis

Unit 10

1. Advanced quality tools: SPC (statistical process control), FMEA (failure mode and effects analysis), DOE (design of experiments), ...

Unit 11

1. Managing by processes. Managing quality in lean manufacturing processes
2. Toyota system

Unit 12

1. Quality management system
2. Quality standards and regulations in automotive industry

Unit 13

1. SPC (statistical process control) in automotive industry. Practical overview

Unit 14

1. Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) in automotive industry. Practical overview
2. FMEA design and FMEA process

Unit 15

1. Problem solving by 7 basic quality tools
2. Fault tree analysis (FTA) process

Unit 16

1. A3 problem solving methodology (part I). Practical overview

Unit 17

1. A3 problem solving methodology (part II). Practical overview
2. Problem solving (Ishikawa diagrams, 5WHY's)

Evaluation

• Continuous assessment (20 %)
  Assignments: 30 % (normally 3 during semester, each 10 %)
• Project in accordance to ABP rules (30 %)
  This project will be assessed in regards to internal "Grau en Enginyeria de l'Automoció" regulation. Check for the document.
  Not recoverable mark. Individual and in working group assessment.
• Final exam (50 %)
  Rating system will be informed during semester.
• Recovering exam (50 %)
  Replaces the 50 % of the final exam.

Important note

Despite the fact that mathematically and due to the weighting described a global mark of 5 or higher is obtained, a student who does not obtain a mark equal to or greater than 4 points in both the final and the recovery exam, will be considered that the subject has not been exceeded.

Methodology

Class attendance + ABP + final exam

Bibliography

Key references

• Defeo, Joseph (2016). Juran's Quality Handbook: The Complete Guide to Performance Excellence (7 ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.
• Deming, W. Edwards (2000). Out of the crisis. The MIT Press.
• Hutchins, David (2008). Hoshin Kanri: The Strategic Approach to Continuous Improvement: Explorations in Practical, Pas. Routledge.
• Liker, Jeffrey K. (2014). The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer. Brilliance.
• Martin, Karen (2014). Value Stream Mapping: How to Visualize Work and Align Leadership for Organizational Transformation. McGraw-Hill Education.

Further reading

Teachers will provide complementary bibliography and compulsory reading throughout the course via the Virtual Campus.