What are effective ways of ensuring Quality of your products and service

effective-ways-of-ensuring-Quality

“Is there a way of ensuring quality of my product and/or service consistently?” Is this a question that hounds your mind often?

In your day-to-day business how frequently are you worried about quality of your products and/or service?
I am sure you are trying to do everything and anything possible to ensure you offer quality products and/or service to your customer but still concerned and not 100% confident.

In my view, quality has to be designed in process and parameters to be monitored have to be thought of and then tested at regular frequencies.

First & foremost aspect to look at is quality as a culture and not merely a process. This culture should be flowing from top to bottom encompassing not just products but all processes, points of interaction which become points of experience!

Now, let me share with you the tips applicable particularly for extruded rubber manufacturing.

The very important aspect is raw material- The simplest method is to procure good quality raw material fitting in your parameters from well-known companies. I am sure you would agree with me that it is very difficult for an SME to check quality parameters of raw materials used. Moreover, since 12 to 15 various raw materials are used in making a single compound, it is best to procure from reputed brands to avoid trouble shooting at a later date.

Next aspect is of batch weighing- This is a critical aspect and may dent in your costing if not monitored closely. With the help of technology & automation this can be easily controlled. Batch identification codes do provide lot of help in this process.

Appropriate batch size for kneader is very important as dispersion of all materials in the matrix depends on this. Another simple trick for better dispersion is batch ageing – here it is important to understand that compound ageing is not like wine ageing where the more the better. Mixing of rubber with carbon and other raw materials is a physical process and rubber matrix is literally pushed into accepting all these materials. Ageing allows the matrix to achieve some sort of equilibrium and the aged compound behaves much better in subsequent operations and gives uniform results across the batch.

Next important point is to ensure specific gravity (SG) check of compound to get consistent quality.

It is ideal to do a Rheometer testing of each batch before taking for further processing. However, simple hardness testing on test buttons also can serve the purpose to some extent for quality consistency across repeat batches.

Subsequent processes like moulding, extrusion repeatability of processing conditions – time and temperature, ensure same results across the production to maintain consistency.

Team Saga has a culture where the learning came through self-experience as well as guidance from industry players and has adapted these in day to day working. Team Saga has now been able to achieve results on a consistent basis and always looks forward to challenging products/ideas to help our customers.

I am sure these points would really help assuring & maintaining quality, increasing customer satisfaction and growing your business. I would really appreciate your views and suggestions to further improve the processes to benefit all manufacturers & business owners. Team Saga would really be happy to receive your comments & suggestions.

 

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