8D report as the product improvement tool

Abstract

Nowadays, all companies are looking for ways to ensure that the products they manufacture are of the highest quality and that they meet all expectations of customers, thus to increase their satisfaction. It should be noticed however that the business environment, customer expectations, and the products of competitors are changing. Furthermore, production technologies and machines are becoming obsolete. It is therefore necessary to seek new solutions and improve what is done. To achieve this goal, various types of quality management or improvement tools can be used, e.g. the 8D Report. The aim of this paper was to analyze the production problems occurring during the production of window slides with use of the 8D Report in a company producing stamped metal parts for the automotive and home appliance industries. This analysis was carried out based on complaints submitted by the main business partner. Once the main cause of the problem was identified, permanent corrective actions were planned and implemented according to the 8D Report, which helped also to reduce the likelihood of recurrence of this and similar problems. The case studied demonstrated that combination of the knowledge and experience of the team, the application of modern quality tools offers concrete and measurable effects and allows to solve problems, which before the preparation of the Ishikawa diagram, the Pareto chart, and the 8D Report were considered impossible to solve by the employees of the enterprise studied.