The Quality Amplification Challenge: Throughput Time's Effect on Quality Variability and Quality Loss

Abstract

In dynamic production environments, positive business outcomes often require pursuing high quality, shorter throughput time, and low cost simultaneously. This research tries to track the timing effect of having undetected defects continue to progress through the supply chain. The purpose is to demonstrate the influence of throughput time on quality variance amplification and the effect of quality loss on manufacturing performance. A time series model is developed, and numerical analyses are conducted to understand how various parameters affect the quality variance fluctuation and quality loss amplification phenomena. The results show that the variance in quality increases as materials move down a supply chain, away from a supplier. In addition, the quality loss experienced by a manufacturer is greater than that faced by a supplier. Finally, both quality variability and quality loss amplification phenomena are larger when throughput time is longer.