Abstract:The objective of this study is to examine the manufacturing and conformity of welded products and the significance of co-operation of different functions to welding quality. This study focuses on costs arising from nonconformity from the manufacturing perspective. It briefly discusses unnecessary costs, claim costs and warranty costs in the production chain. It furthermore takes an overview of challenges in welding manufacturing in the engineering field with empirical research in the industry and shows that failures and defects are identifiable and known in companies but very rarely the root cause of imperfections is investigated. The requirements from manufacturing go unrecognized at the many levels of organisation. One of the main obstacles to improving welding functions is the lack of co-operation and knowledge of the demands on welding. This can cause continuous nonconformity in products and in welding manufacturing. The observations have been collected from welding networks in engineering workshops where GMAW welding is a commonly used process. The results provide a framework for future research to define the importance of actions of different functions to the quality and costs of manufacturing.

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Abstract:Although undesirable, manufacturing defects leading to complaints are almost inevitable in the production of manufactured products, and consideration of manufacturing quality is therefore an essential aspect of management of supply chains with multiple suppliers. This study evaluates the relationship between complaints about the end product and welding production in a multiple supplier chain. In the studied case, it was noticed that there is potential for improved welding production management by suppliers to increase profitability by decreasing the number of welding defects that cause complaints. This study shows one approach to analysis of the relation between complaints in the supply chain and their effect on the end product.

Abstract:This study presents a five-step method for analysis of supply chain networks from the perspective of the welding quality of manufactured products. The presented approach gives tools to take care of welding quality assessment in supply chain networks. The study uses data based analysis of complaints data and survey results to provide information that may assist managerial decision-making and supplier-related marketing activities. The results reflect the importance of information sharing as a means to reduce the number of complaints and show that combining production data and information about the production offers potential for manufacturing quality development in the supply chain network. The study uses applied RACI matrix and the case of a welding supply chain network to establish the findings. The case example discusses the observations dealing with GMAW process.