Andrew Schroeder Wants a New Quality Roadmap for Office Smart

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining

It has been a good year for Office Smart Solutions (OSS). Their Manufacturing and Assembly plant at Naperville, Illinois has registered record growth in sales in the Midwest. Inquiries for future orders are pouring in from the East Coast as well as from Georgia and Texas.

It has been a good year for Andy Schroeder. As the newly appointed Vice President for Quality Assurance at OSS, Andy has taken some daring initiatives to introduce a level of “quality consciousness” into the workforce at OSS. His work has been noticed and appreciated by the CEO and the board of directors. But, Andy is not at peace. As he looks out of his office window and absorbs the serene beauty of the setting sun, he repeats to himself the quotation hanging on his wall:

“The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining”

OSS is implementing Oracle Applications R12. In it, Andy sees an opportunity to redraw the roadmap for Quality at Office Smart Solutions. He decides to push for the implementation of Oracle Quality to incorporate the best practices built into the module.

Andy calls Jeff Stringham, the project manager for the consulting team at OSS. Andy wants a write-up from Jeff summarizing the salient features in Oracle Quality. Jeff promises to mail the same to Andy.

What is Oracle Quality About?

Oracle Quality is integrated with the Oracle Manufacturing and Distribution applications to provide consistent quality data definition, data collection and data management across the enterprise and throughout the supply chain.

Data collected and input into Oracle Quality may come from functions such as purchasing, service, shopfloor inspection or directly from the customer, to name a few. Quality data can also be collected in a standalone direct data entry mode or may be linked to third party systems.

The Oracle Quality data collection framework comprises:

This is about all that we need right now to get started with the consultants at OSS. A much detailed overview of Oracle Quality is available in the Quality User Guide and the Quality Implementation Guide.

Jeff’s Example to Andy: The Case of the Linear Hub

Jeff has explained the fundamental concepts in Oracle Quality using specific examples from OSS.

As Andy reads through Jeff’s notes he begins to visualize the process.

OSS purchases an item called the Linear Hub from its suppliers. This component is used in manufacturing the Executive Swivel Chair. When this part arrives at the receiving bay it undergoes inspection by OSS inspectors. The dimensions that the inspectors measure are – height, diameter and finish. In Oracle Quality, these dimensions become the Collection Elements.

These collection elements need to have some measurable values within certain tolerance limits. These acceptable values are defined under Specifications.

Finally, there needs to be a data structure to hold the collection elements and the specifications. This structure tells you which collection elements are relevant, when to collect the data and what actions to take based on data collected in specific collection elements. This is the Collection Plan.

In the case of the Linear Hub, the physical inspection occurs when the item arrives at the receiving bay. So, the collection plan for the Linear Hub should be triggered when the receiving transaction takes place. When to trigger a collection plan is a feature built into the collection plan structure itself.

With his vast experience Andy begins to see the larger picture. Oracle Quality will do more than just streamline his organization’s quality processes. It will bring those processes closer to compliance with some international quality standards, such as ISO 9000, paving the way for certification in the future.