A proposal for integrating production control and quality control

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a practical proposal for integrating production control (PC) and quality control (QC) at the shop floor level. Design/methodology/approach – The proposed method is based on three principles which relate PC and QC at the shop floor level. The proposal is applied successfully at the world's largest pencil factory. Findings – The results show that the proposed method contributes to improve four performance indicators related to PC and QC at the company studied: increase the average throughput in about 28.9 per cent; reduce the average value of work in process (WIP) in about 35.6 per cent, reduce the average lead time by about 45.4 per cent, and reduce the average defect rate by about 71.4 per cent. Research limitations/implications – The proposal (mainly because of principle III) is developed to be applied in repetitive production (RP) systems, i.e. environments characterized by low production volume and low product variety. Practical implications – Some practical implications for industrial managers arises from this study: managers must consider the importance of integrated PC and QC functions in order to get better results concerning performance indicators such as throughput, WIP, lead time, and rejection rate; the materials flow simplification is a prerequisite for a lot of improvement initiatives at the shop floor level; the adequate choice of the production control system (PCS) is vital in order to get positive results regarding the performance indicators related to PC; the determination of the production pace (or rate) for a RP system must take account capacity restrictions and the influence of defect rate on production rate. Originality/value – The paper is original in that it shows that the performance of the shop floor level can be improved by means of integrating PC and QC, by discussing and implementing a method which simplifies the material flow in the shop floor level, chooses the most adequate PCS and shows how the production rate influence on the rejection rate. Therefore, the paper is important for those which practice industrial management, more specifically on PC and QC functions.