SOUTHERN POLYTECHNIC STATE UNIVERSITY

Quality Cost and Supplier Evaluation

QA6640 - Term Project
Spring Semester 2007


General Instructions

Analyze, evaluate, and formulate a solution to the following Term Project using Microsoft WORD. Your name must appear at the top of the first page of your Microsoft WORD document. When you have finished, attach your Microsoft WORD document to an email addressed to the Professor. Your answers are due no later than midnight on Thursday, April 26, 2007. You may submit your Term Project early but late submissions will receive a grade of zero.

The Professor's email address is: Professor_Atkins@yahoo.com


Learning Objectives for the Term Project

The Term Project relates to many of the topics covered this semester. When this assignment has been completed, the student should have:
  1. Reviewed procurement procedures, supplier relations, and specifications.
  2. Analyzed record keeping requirements, audit procedures, measurement fundamentals, and supplier rating systems.
  3. Selected the appropriate quality systems for the individual suppliers (small versus large).

Term Project

You have just accepted a position as Vice-President of Quality Control for a United States Manufacturing Company that has one manufacturing plant located in Tenneessee with annual sales of $60,000,000 per year. You are responsible for the Quality Assurance System for the company, which includes the establishment and monitoring of all the company's quality standards. You have a staff of three quality professionals and eight quality technicians (inspectors).

The manufacturing plant is supplied by a network of vendors and suppliers. The company makes 40 items that it sells worldwide. These 40 items are fabricated from approximately 600 different raw materials (which includes various small parts). Approximately 70% of these raw materials are supplied by three major large suppliers. Approximately 25% of the raw materials are supplied by eight other suppliers (each of average size). The remaining 5% of the raw materials are supplied by approximately 30 relatively small suppliers located throughout the United States.

The president of the company has asked you develop a plan for eliminating all incoming inspection of all purchased parts. Specifically the president would like to know how this can be successfully implemented without any adverse impact on the quality of the company's products. The president would like to know what the major steps will be, approximately how long each step will take, and what provisions will be made for the different suppliers (small versus large suppliers). The president has also asked you to include potential problems that might be encountered along with a plan for resolving those issues.

You MUST include footnotes in your answer when you reference material from the textbook or from other sources.