QA EXPECTATIONS

 

AURASOUND QA MISSION STATEMENT

“Customer Requirements Determine our Standard”

 

Positioning this motto as our objective allows us to continue to strengthen our company with cost-competitive products with excellent quality. Our total quality focus is an un-bending pursuit of manufacturing excellence. The results are obvious for both Aurasound and our customers in regards to cost and quality.
We employ Total Quality Control concepts (TQC) in conjunction with an effective employee involvement program. Who better to monitor the quality of every product than the person performing the work on that product, on a day to day basis? We understand this, and our employees are given the incentives to strive toward a goal of total quality and continuous improvement. We make our employees a part of the valued team, and their suggestions are given due consideration in problem identification and solving.

 

Our TQC program determines the customer’s expectations, and establishes target values, defines process sequences and elements, and reduces process variables.

 

World Class Manufacturing / In-process Quality

The structure behind TQC for Aurasound is to eliminate the opportunity to produce a non-quality part, process or product. Therefore, this is addressed up front, thus avoiding inspecting-in quality and incurring high scrap levels.

 

Our world-class manufacturing system is based upon a flow process in which the people and machines that build the product are given the responsibility for quality. TQC tools, authority and methods are provided to achieve their goals. The responsibility must start with Design engineering and become a focus at each step of the build of a product. Once the TQC sequence of events in our SOP’s (Standard Operating Procedures) have been developed and the quality criteria defined, these TQC points are highlighted in the SOP’s to ensure that the next operator in the process flow checks the previous operators work, before it gets covered up. This dictates the flow of our product in regards to the line layout.

 

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Aurasound’s Process Capability is constantly monitored

The process potential index, or Cp, measures a process's potential capability, which is defined as the allowable spread over the actual spread. The allowable spread is the difference between the upper specification limit and the lower specification limit. The actual spread is determined from the process data collected, and is calculated by multiplying six times the standard deviation, s. The standard deviation quantifies a process's variability. As the standard deviation increases in a process, the Cp decreases in value. As the standard deviation decreases (i.e., as the process becomes less variable), the Cp increases in value.
By convention, when a process has a Cp value less than 1.0, it is considered potentially incapable of meeting specification requirements. Conversely, when a process Cp is greater than or equal to 1.0, the process has the potential of being capable.

 

Ideally, the Cp should be as high as possible. The higher the Cp, the lower the variability with respect to the specification limits. In a process qualified as a Six Sigma process (i.e., one that allows plus or minus six standard deviations within the specifications limits), the Cp is greater than or equal to 2.0.
However, a high Cp value doesn't guarantee a production process falls within specification limits because the Cp value doesn't imply that the actual spread coincides with the allowable spread (i.e., the specification limits). This is why the Cp is called the process potential.

 

The process capability index, or Cpk, measures a process's ability to create product within specification limits. Cpk represents the difference between the actual process average and the closest specification limit over the standard deviation, times three.

 

By convention, when the Cpk is less than one, the process is referred to as incapable. When the Cpk is greater than or equal to one, the process is considered capable of producing a product within specification limits. In a Six Sigma process, the Cpk equals 2.0.

 

The Cpk is inversely proportional to the standard deviation, or variability, of a process. The higher the Cpk, the narrower the process distribution as compared with the specification limits, and the more uniform the product. As the standard deviation increases, the Cpk index decreases. At the same time, the potential to create product outside the specification limits increases.

 

Cpk can only have positive values. It will equal zero when the actual process average matches or falls outside one of the specification limits. The Cpk index can never be greater than the Cp, only equal to it. This happens when the actual process average falls in the middle of the specification limits.

 

This is the capability of the process expressed in relation to a worse case scenario view of the data. It is denoted by the symbol Cpk.

 

We use this criteria to determine if a process or design, is within the normal variation, and is capable of meeting specifications.

 

 

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Quality in process Management

Aurasound controls the incoming components by using professional testing equipment on the production lines. It also carries out statistical data inspection at the QC points for effective quality control. Each finished product has passed product tests before delivery. In addition, each batch of products will be sampled for selective testing to ensure reliable delivery.

Line testing facilities

All loudspeaker systems must undergo frequency response testing. We work carefully with our customers to create systems that allow easy communication of results back to the customer. This is done in data file sharing and sometimes duplicated testing systems.

 

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Quality Systems & Recognition

We keep on improving our quality management as per the quality requirements of our International clients.

The company acquired ISO9001 Certificate in 1994, QS9000 Certificate in 2000, ISO14001 Certificate in 2003 and TS16949 in 2005, which ensuring high quality products.

 

Summary

The QA Process we use at Aurasound referenced in this section is ideally utilized in a particular methodology, which typically involves either reducing the process variability or identifying specific problems in the process. However, other methodologies in the design process may need to be addressed between the customer and Aurasound to allow for sufficient customization to a certain specific process.

 

In plain terms, we want to eliminate quality issues in the front end, not inspect and discover issues later in the process or in the customer’s inventory. In any case, the tools we use at Aurasound are to ensure that all attempts at process improvement include:

 

- Discovery
- Analysis
- Improvement
- Monitoring
- Implementation
- Verification

 

At Aurasound, we are dedicated to provide our customers with defect free products, assuring minimal warranty cost, recall prevention, and maintaining your ultimate brand recognition.

 

This is our commitment:

“Customer Requirements Determine our Standard”

 

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