Basic knowledge of quality control Part 1
~ QCD (Quality, Cost, Delivery) ~

Hello, this is Kamii, head of the creative department.

This is the fourth installment of the "Professional Manager School" series.
Last time, we talked about creating schedules and estimates based on the WBS in preparation for project implementation.
When making estimates and planning schedules, it is necessary to quantify the "required specifications for each process (difficulty level) = personnel cost" and "production quantity," and the perspective to keep in mind when doing so is "QCD."
This is an acronym for "Quality," "Cost," and "Delivery," and they are three important evaluation axes for quantifying and understanding project requirements.

The topic for the fourth session is " Basic knowledge of quality control Part 1: QCD (Quality, Cost, Delivery) ".
I would like to talk about three perspectives that have been emphasized in quality control and quality improvement activities during the design and production of industrial products in the manufacturing industry.

Introduction

Various systematized knowledge about quality control and quality improvement is utilized in the fields of manufacturing, architectural design, civil engineering design, and construction.
These are the accumulation of wisdom and ingenuity that has gone into the question of " how can we mass-produce industrial products and build large-scale structures according to plan? "

Mass production involves the production of hundreds of thousands of products, the construction of buildings hundreds of meters high, and the construction of viaducts hundreds of kilometers long.
To make it, it is necessary to procure (purchase) tons of raw materials, assemble hundreds of workers, and build huge facilities for processing and assembly.
For this reason, manufacturing and construction sites continue to work on things like quality control , quality management systems , and standardization .
If a large number of defective products are generated and the products cannot be delivered, it means that the cost of procuring them and the investment in equipment will turn into a loss (sometimes tens of millions of yen!).

In the fourth and fifth installments of the "Project Manager School" series, we will introduce some of the wisdom of our predecessors regarding quality control.

1. What is "QCD"?

In the manufacturing industry, there are various systematic views of quality control and production management, but the basic concept behind all of them is " QCD ."
QCD is an acronym of three words: "Q" stands for Quality , "C" stands for Cost , and "D" stands for Delivery .

A good product is required to satisfy three conditions - high quality , low cost , and fast delivery - in a balanced manner at a high level.

For example, if you want to increase your competitiveness by shortening delivery times and producing "faster" and "more" products than your competitors, you could consider the following measures:

• Delivery times are shortened by operating factories 24 hours a day using two or three production shifts.
• In a three-shift system (day shift, semi-night shift, night shift), the semi-night shift and night shift incur extra pay, which increases labor costs .
• The cost of raw materials does not change.
• The fixed costs of factory equipment can be reduced because the factory occupation period is shortened.
• For large facilities such as factories, night-time electricity rates can help reduce electricity charges (costs) .

In this way, we can see that if "D (delivery time)" is shortened without changing "Q (quality)," the conditions that determine "C (cost)" will change.

The three elements of "QCD" influence each other throughout the entire process from product design and manufacturing to shipment, but at the same time, each element of "QCD" must be thoroughly checked using independent evaluation criteria.
For this reason, it is common for manufacturing companies to have separate departments to manage each of QCD.
We have quality control, cost control, and production control departments that are independent of the design, manufacturing, and sales departments.
For example, the quality control department checks finished products before they are delivered, and has the authority to prevent shipment if they do not meet the required quality standards.

QCD is never written in a different order such as "DCQ" or "CQD" because the most important element of the three is "Quality."
If an industrial product does not meet a certain standard of quality, it will not function or have any value as a product. Improving "low price" and "fast delivery" will help you differentiate and gain an advantage over your competitors, but as the saying goes, "Quality First," the most important prerequisite is that the quality required by users is met.

Next, let's look at the QCD of each of "project management" and "resource management."

2. "QCD" in project management

The three perspectives of "QCD" can also be applied to project management for web production and system development.
In the third installment of this series, we discussed the need to clarify three elements in order to grasp the overall picture of a project: requirements specifications , budget , and schedule .
If we rewrite these three elements as " Quality (requirements specifications) ," " Cost (budget) ," and " Delivery (schedule) ," we can see that these are also part of the "QCD" perspective.

If we apply "QCD" to the process of planning an estimate (budget) and schedule based on the project requirements specifications, it would be as follows:

① Organizing required specifications: Quality

• Organize the content, difficulty and production quantity of the deliverables for each process
• Calculate personnel skill sets (unit cost) and man-hours

② Estimate (budget): Cost

• Calculate the cost for each process by multiplying the unit price of personnel by the number of man-hours

③ Schedule: Delivery

• Schedule based on the amount of work per process
  

3. "QCD" in resource management

When planning the project structure, members are selected based on the content and difficulty of the deliverables indicated in the requirements specifications, but it turns out that the perspective required to understand the members' skill sets is also "QCD."

① Technical level available: Quality

• Types of technology available
• The level of difficulty that each technology can handle

② Unit price: Cost

• Hourly Rate

③ Man-hours: Delivery

• Man-hours required to produce a unit quantity (productivity per unit time)

By evaluating the technical capabilities of team members from a "QCD" perspective and quantitatively understanding their skills, even if there are changes to the specifications of the deliverables or the project schedule, these can be converted into the quantities of the personnel's "unit price" and "man-hours" and can be quickly adjusted.

4. Standardization and Quality Management Systems

In the fourth session, we discussed "QCD (Quality, Cost, Delivery)," a perspective necessary for quantitatively understanding the various elements that make up a project, as basic knowledge of quality control.
Next time, we will continue with the second part of the basic knowledge of quality control, introducing "standardization" and "quality management systems."

"Why can screws be properly fastened no matter which hardware store you buy them from?" (Standardization)
"What does it take to design buildings, bridges, and tunnels?" (Quality Management System)
I plan to talk about things like that.
See you in December.