Quality Control in Michelin

As part of my internship for my 1st year Master of Project Management, I worked for the French Manufacturer of Tyres, Michelin.

During this internship, I developed solutions to reduce waste materials in a sector of workshops and procedures of production of machines. The missions have included an analytic phase, to identify key areas of work and a phase of implementation.

These two projects allowed me to discover the quality management at the Michelin Group. I discovered this management through interviews with quality managers, technicians and operators. I also conducted personal research to better understand the quality in this large French company and the impact it induces.

But the discussions I have had and my own research led me to observe a significant commitment to involve everyone at all levels in the quality process. That's why I wanted to go further in my research, namely to study the different modes of involvement in a quality approach and compare them to what is applied in Michelin.

Thus we will first consider several methods on the subject before seeing the approach within the Michelin Group. Then we will draw a comparison of different methods and what I saw at Roanne.

The four pioneers of TQM work for the quality control of the Western Electric plant near Chicago. It operates on the management principles of Taylor and was made famous by the experiments conducted by Elton Mayo between 1927 and 1932, to demonstrate possible relationships between the work environment, worker motivation and productivity.

The purpose of quality is meeting the needs of customers. The concept of “customers” has a broad meaning: These are people who receive and use the result of the work of a company. Thus, the final consumer is a key customer, the reseller is a customer, and also within each department of the organization is both the client and the provider of other services. The needs of all of these customers must be known and this is what is important to the quality process. Moreover, satisfaction, needs and customer expectations, are two categories of benefits of the business, equally important as the other products and basic services provided by the company.

For true effectiveness, quality must be everybody's business. The framework is more particularly responsible for providing the impetus to create the quality. The quality development is developing self-control and promoting the participation of all people to quality initiatives and actions.

The productions are manifested through many processes: The process of manufacturing, purchasing, storage, mail processing, etc. The identification and clarification of the processes to bring the effectiveness of the work organization and effectiveness of the actors.

That which says "quality" necessarily says "measure." The measurement of quality must be primarily for measuring customer satisfaction through surveys and investigations. But it also is also the measure of non-quality, appreciating the importance of defects and malfunctions in the company. Finally, this measure mastery of production processes has well identified control points.

[...] The Muda Another Japanese word, Muda appeared in Western industries. Muda means waste, but the word carries different connotations. Muda exists in many forms that must be eliminated: - Overproduction and inventory accumulations of things not needed immediately - Defective products requiring repair or destruction - Unnecessary changes - Procedures requiring inefficient or unnecessary tasks - Logistics: Inappropriate timing, excessive change of location or poor delivery. All categories of muda cause direct loss of money or at least the loss of opportunities to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction. [...]

[...] Shewart (1891-1967) The main concern of this research was to understand the control of product quality manufactured in series. Indeed, for him, if variations in product characteristics are important too, the user will be satisfied. We must therefore seek the causes of variation and maximize them. This research requires the collaboration of many people and many services within the company. Shewart has developed a complete description of all phases of what is now called total quality management. William Edward Deming (1900-1993) Shewart’s successor, he adopted the principles. [...]

[...] Everyone must be concerned with the quality approach, and what direction to take through goal setting - Methods of involvement 2-1 - The Hoshin 2-1-1 - Definition The Hoshin method is a management system that allows the company to concentrate all its efforts and its resources in the rapid achievement of a goal. The method involves little stress. It becomes a challenge for everyone because it is a sum of individual actions for a joint project. This methodical deployment of an activity, product or process is limited in time. [...]