Quality Month | "Three Nos" Principle of Quality Management

A company, like a machine, is composed of thousands of parts with different functions. Whether it can operate normally depends on the quality of each part. The company's employees are those small parts, and their quality awareness determines the quality of the parts and the development of the entire company. In my years of quality management work, whether it's training before project start-up or investigation of quality problems, it's inseparable from the promotion of quality awareness. The most frequent sentence we say is to strictly implement quality management's "Three Nos" principle: "Do not accept non-conforming products, do not manufacture non-conforming products, do not pass on non-conforming products." Today, let's truly interpret the meaning of this sentence.

Do not accept non-conforming products means that before production and processing, employees should first inspect the products transferred from the previous process according to the process requirements. Once a quality problem is found, they have the right to refuse to accept it and should promptly feedback to the previous process or report it. The previous process needs to immediately stop processing or delivery and conduct a root cause investigation, take measures, and correct the quality problem in time to avoid waste caused by further processing of non-conforming products.

Do not manufacture non-conforming products means that after receiving the qualified products from the previous process, sufficient preparation work such as pre-operation inspection and confirmation should be done; during processing in this process, strictly follow the requirements of the operation instruction manual to avoid or early detect abnormal phenomena in the operation process and ensure the processing quality of the products.

Do not pass on non-conforming products means that after completing the processing in this process, it is necessary to seriously implement "self-inspection" requirements, check and confirm the product quality. Once non-conforming products are found, production must be stopped immediately, and the non-conforming products must be intercepted in this process, and the disposal of non-conforming products must be completed in this process to ensure that qualified products are passed on from this process.

Only by not manufacturing non-conforming products can it be possible not to pass on and not accept non-conforming products. To truly achieve this "Three Nos" principle, the following implementation points must also be mastered:

Whoever manufactures is responsible. Everyone's quality responsibility starts from accepting qualified products from the previous process, standardizing the operation behavior of this process, making the product quality meet the process requirements. Once non-conforming products are found in this process or non-conforming information is received from the next process, production must be stopped immediately, the cause must be investigated, countermeasures must be taken, and the quality of the products must be taken full responsibility for.

Whoever manufactures inspects. The producer of the product is also the inspector of the product. By inspection, the product quality can be confirmed to ensure that qualified products flow into the next process; through inspection, the status of the product can be more clearly understood, which is conducive to the continuous improvement of the employees' operation level and ensures product quality.

Standardized operation. Strictly implementing standardized operations is the only way to guarantee product quality; otherwise, a large number of non-conforming products will be manufactured without finding the root cause of the quality problem. At this time, "Three Nos" principle can only create chaos, not quality.

Immediate handling. In the production process, when non-conforming products are produced, the operator must change from the production state to the investigation and handling state, immediately stop the operation, and promptly confirm the on-site elements such as personnel, machines, materials, methods, and environment that cause the non-conforming products, investigate the "real culprit" and handle it in time.

Exposure of non-conforming products. For non-conforming products, not only the operators should know, but also the management personnel and technical personnel should know. Everyone should seriously analyze the countermeasures and improve the operation standards; otherwise, the same problem will occur next time.

Fool-proofing. Product quality cannot be completely guaranteed by relying on the sense of responsibility of the operators. Anyone can have emotions, laziness, fluke mentality, and be disturbed by some unexpected factors, resulting in fluctuations in product quality. Therefore, it is necessary to design and use fool-proofing as scientifically and reasonably as possible to prevent negligence.

Management support. Operators bear the responsibility for product quality, but when product non-conformances occur, management should bear more responsibility, because the responsibility of managers is to help employees solve problems. As on-site managers, they should be present at the scene at the first time to investigate and handle problems together. If non-conforming products are simply blamed on the operators, not only can the generation of non-conforming products not be completely solved, but it will also cause antagonism between managers and employees. Therefore, after non-conforming products appear, it is necessary to analyze and solve problems with employees. In short, only when managers become the strong backing of employees, "Three Nos" principle can be truly implemented in production.