First Edition Dated September, 2000 12
process analysis is to identify opportunities for improvement that most affect
those performance measures. Projects usually address three main issues:
effectiveness, efficiency, and product design.
Reducing Variation in Key Characteristics
While analyzing processes and products and working improvement projects,
suppliers will identify part and process characteristics where variation
reduction will be highly beneficial to them or their customers. Product and
process characteristics whose variation is particularly hurtful or costly are
called key characteristics. Reducing the variation in these characteristics will
lead to added economic value as well as improved quality.
Variation Management in Design
Suppliers often find that quality problems can best be confronted during the
engineering design phase. Many manufacturing products and business
processes are not capable of meeting minimum requirements even when they
are operating at maximum effectiveness and efficiency. The fundamental
cause is often found in the design of the product itself.
If the supplier has product design responsibility, the steps described in
Section 4.5 of Addendum 1 should be applied during the product design
phase to reduce variability. Regardless of whether the supplier has product
design responsibility, they should work with Boeing Engineering and, when
possible, Integrated Product Teams (IPTs) to discover more about customer
and design needs. Such participation can help them take advantage of the
benefits inherent in "designing in" quality. It also provides a setting where the
supplier can communicate product design deficiencies to those who are
responsible for the design.
Management review
Management, through frequent reviews, should seek to institutionalize the
results of the improvement activities. They need to ensure that quality
improvements are related to the performance measures, goals and success
of the company.
Highlights
The principal elements of AQS are shown in figure 2.1. The supplier should
have a continuous improvement system in place and have the ability to
• Identify useful performance measures related to cost, waste, defects,
quality, cycle time, working capital, and customer satisfaction.
