Page 70 - DMGT206_PRODUCTION_AND_OPERATIONS_MANAGEMENT

Unit 4: Quality Control

Notes


Caselet Quality Control brings Cheers to Coonoor Farmers

uality upgradation efforts led by the Tea Board and the United Planters’ Association
of South India (Upasi) have helped increase the sales and prices of tea from
QCoonoor. While there has been substantial decline in sales and prices of South
Indian tea in general, sales at Coonoor auction centre increased to 74.555 million kg
during the calender year 2001 from 70.967 million kg in the previous year. Average price
also was better at ` 41.46 a kg in 2001 than ` 39.01 in 2000.
The South Indian tea industry is passing through a severe crisis of low prices mainly due
to poor quality and the dependence on a single export market, Russia. With the global
over supply of tea and the demand of the Russians for better quality, South Indian tea is
losing Russian market also. Even in the domestic internal market, the Tea Board found in
a survey that the South Indian tea “was becoming unpopular because of its poor quality”.
According to former Coonoor Tea Trade Association (CTTA) chairman Dipank Shah, who
relinquished office last month, the tea from Coonoor “can get consumer acceptance and
realise higher prices only if the industry is committed to quality”.
In his address to the 9th annual general meeting (AGM) of CTTA recently he said that Tea
Board and UPASI had taken a number of steps to bring about qualitative changes in the
plucking and processing of tea. Tea Board took a delegation of growers and manufacturers
to the North Indian tea market to make a comparative study of the quality of tea sold there
and those produced by the Southern industry.
The result, in the words of Mr Shah, “Was heartbreaking as it was found that tea of only a
couple of factories matched with what the buyers wanted.”

Realising the urgent need for quality upgradation of the South Indian teas Tea Board and
UPASI embarked on educating the growers and manufacturers.
The farmers were trained to maintain plucking standards and the bought leaf factories to
improve quality of their produce.
Mr Shah said there was no immediate impact on prices “because of the demand/supply
position”. He denied the accusation that the prices were manipulated by trade cartels.

Gradually the improved quality was realised by the upcountry buyers and they came
forward to offer higher prices. “Price of good tea improved by at least ` 15 per kg and
plainer ones by ` 4-6,” he said.
Source: Article at financialexpress.com

4.2 Statistical Process Control

The concept of process variability forms the heart of statistical process control. This process
variation can be partitioned into two components. Natural process variation or system variation
is the naturally occurring fluctuation or variation inherent in all processes. Special cause variation
is typically caused by some problem or extraordinary occurrence in the system.

World-class companies combine early inspection with Statistical Process Control (SPC) to
monitor quality and detect and correct abnormalities. Using statistical process control, the
process is monitored through sampling. Important decisions in implementing such programs
include how to measure quality characteristics, what size sample to collect, and at which stage in
the process to conduct inspections.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 65