What drove PLC, from Example 1.1, to make changes?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

When PLC Inc. began operations three decades ago, their job shop specialized in machining large forgings into finished products. Their original manufacturing methods resulted in significant scrap and rework costs. The type of inspection scheme used by PLC Inc. was very costly because it involved not only the costs of the defective aspect of the parts, but also the labor cost of performing work on a defective part by later workstations.

By the mid-1980s, the companies they did business with began requiring statistical process control information. They realized that the prevention of defects could make a significant impact on their profit performance. By tracking the critical part dimensions, those monitoring the processes were able to identify changes that affected the quality of the product and adjust the process accordingly. They sought additional ways to reduce the variation present in the process that prevented them from producing parts as close to the nominal dimension as possible. Thus, emphasis shifted away from inspecting quality into the parts and toward making process improvements by designing and machining quality into the product.