Shipping operations quality assurance for fibreglass reinforced plastics manufacturers

This paper presents an employee-participated approach to implement a quality assurance procedure related to the shipping operations in a fibreglass reinforced plastics (FRP) manufacturer. Our research is motivated by a local FRP company where a lot of customer complaints and quality problems occurred after the product was shipped. While numerous researches have focused on manufacturing process quality control, there is a lack of research in quality assurance procedures for shipping operations. In our research, employees at both the technical and shop-floor level were involved in the development of a quality assurance programme. First we reviewed the existing shipping procedures at the FRP manufacturer. A quality audit form with input from the technical personnel was then designed to identify possible quality problems. After collecting information from the operational personnel using the audit form, we analysed the audit results and developed a set of guidelines and procedures tailored to the shipping operations. The total participation-based procedure would suit most of the small to medium fibreglass manufacturers to achieve continuous quality improvement.