Management of Reject Reduction at an Industrial Enterprise: The Theoretical and Practical Aspects

Abstract

The competitiveness of enterprises depends not only on the efficient use of economic resources, promotion of the product brand, but also on meeting the needs of consumers for quality products. Therefore, economic entities should pay attention to the production of goods without deviations from standards and norms and without rejects, which will allow them to win in the market competition. This justifies the relevance of the subject matter of the article and its timeliness. The purpose of the article is to generalize the theoretical concepts of the product quality management process and to develop recommendations on the example of an industrial enterprise of the flow type of production to reduce product defects. The object is the process of managing product quality and reducing rejects. The article’s subject is the theoretical provisions, methods, methodological and practical recommendations for managing the quality of products of industrial enterprises aimed at reducing the percentage of defective products. The main methods used in the article are general scientific methods of cognition: analysis and synthesis, theoretical generalization, monographic, structural-logical and system analyses, special research methods: statistical analysis, expert survey, Pareto rule, Ishikawa method, and graphical method. The main results presented in the article are as follows. Based on the generalization of scientific literature, the author proposes a definition of the concept of quality. Quality should be understood as ensuring the quality of each type of economic resource, which allows for a high-quality course of business processes and production of goods which satisfy the needs of consumers and are provided with their effective demand. In other words, products that are defective in terms of their technical or quality characteristics do not meet their standard and are unable to provide their intended functions. Products can be recognized as defective at any stage of production and operations of the production cycle. On the example of the industrial enterprise under study, the article considers the statistics of nonconformity and defective products in the most important production unit, the work of which is characterized by a significant percentage of rejects, according to operational and output control. Using the Pareto rule, the main causes of rejects are identified and Ishikawa diagrams are constructed for the most significant two causes. Further, in accordance with the Ishikawa diagrams, measures to prevent nonconformities and defects in products are proposed for two main reasons and five sections: equipment; control system; staff; raw materials; and working conditions. A unified standardized sequence for determining the causes of deviations and rejects in 16 stages has been developed. The use of training methods for staff of an industrial enterprise to improve product quality and reduce rejects is proposed.