Systematic Innovation for Manufacturing Quality Improvement

Abstract

This paper provides a detailed analysis on the systematic innovation process in improving the quality control of latex gloves production. The systematic innovation tool such as TRIZ is applied in this case study. Function analysis, cause and effect chain analysis, physical contradiction, By-separation model and 40 Inventive Principles are applied in order to derive some feasible and low cost solutions to alleviate the problem. Findings revealed that the rejected (leaking) gloves on the production line will be manually monitored by a checker during the air blowing test and will be discarded by the same checker instantly. The main root cause is that the quality control worker is not able to concentrate all the times to detect the torn gloves, mainly is due to the fast speed production line and other distractions. The problem is solved by applying function analysis, physical contradiction, by-separation tool and Inventive Principles to generate low cost but elegant solutions within the defined scope of several constraints and without making the production line more complex. Therefore, it can be concluded that TRIZ is a systematic and innovative problem solving methodology.