| Kobe Steel's commitment to "Only One" products is sustained by innovation in quality manufacturing. In this special feature, we explore the issue of quality assurance from the perspectives of our main businesses. |
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| Quality Control of Aluminum Materials |
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Aluminum is a favored material for making products that emphasize an attractive appearance, but because it has a lower specific gravity than iron, it can be easily contaminated by foreign matter during casting. Also, because aluminum is quite soft, it is prone to scratching during the manufacturing process.
The Aluminum & Copper Company has the top share of the Japanese markets for can stock and automotive panels. To ensure the highest quality, a CCD camera is used during the final manufacturing process to detect microscopic surface defects throughout the entire length and width of the product, including the top and bottom. Similarly, an electron microscope is used to detect inclusions measuring just a few microns across on the surface of our HDD aluminum blanks, of which Kobe Steel has approximately a 60% worldwide market share.
Extensive efforts are also made to protect our products from insects and dust, which can dirty or damage the product surface. For example, the Moka Plant's windows are covered with netting to keep bugs out, and we have installed insect traps that automatically count the number of insects captured in various locations within the facility. Data from these traps are collected and managed to maximize effectiveness. These measures are particularly important in the manufacture of beverage can stock, where good hygiene is essential. To maintain and improve product quality at the highest possible level, we exchange information with can manufacturers at regularly scheduled quality-assurance conference meetings.
In principle, a clean environment is maintained within the Moka Plant at all times through thorough clean-up work. Since 2001, management personnel from the company president down have also been involved in these clean-up efforts, choosing one place a week to work on, thereby strengthening managerial awareness of the realities of the factory floor. |
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Aluminum can stock for bottle cans
Aluminum disk material |
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| Promoting On-site Training Programs on the Factory Floor |
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Quality assurance has become more and more important as customer demand grows ever more stringent. To meet this challenge, quality assurance meetings are held by all manufacturing stations and departments in Moka Plant. Data that are useful for improving product quality, including anomaly analysis, product yield, and insect entrapment, are made generally available to all employees through a LAN system.
Recently, we have also placed increasing emphasis on educational programs for the factory floor, including the start of a "delivery" training program in fiscal 2007. In previous programs, employees were asked to gather in a laboratory or conference room to receive information concerning quality assurance. This new program reverses the usual practice by having instructors go out to teach on the factory floor where the employees actually work. This enables us to concentrate on quality assurance techniques that are tailored to actual, on-the-spot operations.
In addition, Moka Plant holds factory-wide improvement programs (including quality assurance) every year. In fiscal 2008, the program was called "My QMS" (Quality Machine Skill). By improving the QMS of each individual employee, we are working to enhance the overall level of our manufacturing capabilities to ensure even greater customer satisfaction.
With regard to quality (Q), for example, we are primarily concerned with the theme of absolutely preventing the recurrence of any anomalies that arise in the manufacturing process. Themes have also been set for aspects related to production machinery (M) and employee skills (S). Subcommittees have been established to pursue improvements in each of these areas.
The support and improvement of product quality relies heavily on motivating each and every employee, a task that is addressed at Moka Plant by the Quality Assurance Section and Operations Improvement Section. |
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Takao Furukawa
Manager, Quality Assurance Section & Operations Improvement Section
Technical Division
Moka Plant |
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