LONGXI MACHINERY

WORKS-QUALITY
IMPROVEMENT (A)
GROUP 2
Abhishek Nayak
Ankit Rathi
Charan Nayak
Praneeth Chandra
Sindhu

About The Company

Longxi Machinery Works is a state-owned manufacturing
company
It produces Multi-Cylinder Engines that is significantly used by the
said countrys agricultural sector.
There were troubled clients and customers reported that they
were encountering difficulties in their production process due to
constant engine breakdown.

Industry
China is potentially a huge market for small diesels
Sales of diesel-powered agricultural machinery and vehicles had
grown by more than 10% annually since 1985, and this growth
rate was forecast to continue until at least the year 2000
85% equipment use single-cylinder diesel engines, while the rest
use multi-cylinder ones. In the market of multi-cylinder diesel the
competition is less intense because of excessive demand
Longxi has a certain competitive advantage in this market,
resulting from its popular product such as SL2100.

Change in Demands
Prior to 1978, both manufacturers and customers had paid little
attention to quality of diesel
Later, they have been realizing the importance of quality. Underquality products may cause customers to lose production time
due to engine breakdown
They may also cause manufacturers to delay engine production
and incur high cots in repairing. So quality will have more and
more significant implications for future business of all
manufacturers including Longxi

Total Quality Management at Longxi

The total quality management is valuable asset for Longxi providing it was an
competitive edge over most of other competitors
The top management was clearly aware the importance of quality control. The
company is one of the earliest companies to bear a vision of quality control in China.
And the GM had attended modern management training from overseas, which made
him focus on the establishment of quality control procedures
From years of quality control practice the firm established a well-know quality control
procedure, "the Method". It has great value to the company in that it includes detail best
practices for the production procedures which guarantees and improves the quality of
the products. It serves as an efficient decision measure tool and a great training material
Longxi conducts intensive training program for it's employees and there is a well
established reward system to incentive people to improve quality. This policy is quite
efficient to get all the employees involve in the quality improvement procedures, which
will translate great profit to the firm

Concerns About The Quality

Management
There is no external quality or process auditors. Frequently, the
internal auditors faced great pressure to declare quality defects.
For example the QC should shut down the affected product lines
when they found defects, but in real cases, they are hardly dared
to do so
Longxi should seriously consider getting formally certified in an
internationally accepted quality standard to easier expand into
oversea markets

Problem Statement
Growing quality issues on the critical parts of their engines have
become their problem
The Duo Gear Shaft (DGS), an important part within LongXis
Multi-Cylinder Diesel Engine has resulted in engine breakdown
and loss in production to some of their customers
Customer complaints increased and the company needed to find
immediate ways to improve the quality of their products and
eliminate quality issues

Problems Encountered
There have been 14 engine breakdown incidents reported
wherein the common cause is the malfunctioning of DGS (Duo
Gear Shaft) which transfers power between gears