Suckwell Vacuum Cleaners, Ltd Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Suckwell Vacuum Cleaners, Ltd - Case Study Example Chipped paints happen during the assembly stage. Furthermore, the company experienced missing instructions during the final packaging and shipment. Also, missing serial numbers, broken switches and damaged insulation on main cable are identified as occurring problems in the finish product. Figure 1 summarizes the importance and difficulty to solve with regards to the identified problems. Inadequate suctions and damaged to insulation cable are the most difficult to solve and of high importance because the problems require downgrading of product and replacement of cable as a rectification. Units with suction problems are sold at half the price of a new unit but without Suckwell identity markings. Other problems such as missing instructions and broken switches are considered important but easy to solve because these can be corrected during the assembly stages as well as final inspection of finish products. Perforated bags and scratches on the plastic are also considered as important because they provide aesthetics to the product. On the other hand, missing serial number and paint chipped are categorized as problems of lesser importance because serial numbers are considered as additional information of the product for purposes of traceability while chipped paints can be prevented along the assembly line. The frequency and costs incurred with the problems identif... Sorting the problems identified in Figure 1, the Pareto analysis showed that scratches on the plastic body are the most recurring problem and incurs the highest cost of non-conformance. Thus, this paper will focus on solving the problem with regards to scratches. Figure 3 illustrates the Pareto analysis conducted on the problems identified. A Pareto Analysis requires the utilisation of a chart which is designed by Vilfredo Pareto which also follows the 80:20 rule. The analysis rates the problems according to importance, frequency and impact of the problem to the company. According to Pareto's rule, if a company prevents the cause of only 20% of the cause-effect pairs, they can reduce the number of defect incidents by 80% (Kemp, 2006). In other words, the company separates the vital few from the trivial many where the vital few are considered as the most important problems that need to be addressed (Reliability Analysis Center, 2004). Figure . Frequency and Costs of Non-conformances Problems Identified Frequency Cost of Non-conformance Cost to Rectify Complaints Annual Costs 1. Scratches on plastic body (SC) 340 1,360.00 70,720.00 2. Paint chipped (PC) 150 150.00 7,800.00 3. Perforated bag (PB) 130 130.00 650.00 7,410.00 4. Missing instructions (MI) 20 10.00 520.00 5. Broken switch (BS) 130 71.50 26,000.00 29,718.00 6. No serial number (NS) 12 3.60 187.20 Total Cost 782 1725.10 26,650.00 166,355.20 Figure . Pareto Analysis Cause and Effect Diagram As previously mentioned, the most important as well as part of the vital few problem is the scratches on the plastic body of the vacuum cleaners. Figure 4 is an Ishikawa diagram or a