During Wing Tiek’s era, customer complaints were summarized per month in terms of major product quality defects but no attempt was made to connect these complaints to the actual production dates.
When Hottick took over the management reins in 1996, with the ISO 9002:1994 certification already on its second year, top management issued a Corporate Quality Policy (see Appendix V). Subsequently, this triggered the revision of respective Quality Policy of each division, notably that of Cold Strip Mill, which incorporated “quality in all aspects” (see Appendix W: Cold Strip Mill Vision and Quality Policy).
Thus, aside from Prime Yield and Material Yield, Cold Strip Mill’s QA department added another measure of quality: the Customer Acceptance, in percent, equivalent to 100% less percentage of customer complaints against products sold. Customer complaints were categorized into operations-, material-, and handling/storage-related for both regular and developmental products. The complained products, after a thorough investigation by Process Quality Engineers including ocular inspection at site, were downgraded, refunded or replaced. Some complaints—low sheetage (less number of sheets per coil versus customer’s norms), over gauge (strip thickness exceeds specifications), mis-tagging (attached finished goods tag’s information different from actual coil’s parameter/s) or under gage (strip thickness below specifications) products, however, were negotiated.
By the first quarter of 1996, customer complaints were collated each month and correlated with actual period of production. As customer complaints were distributed during the succeeding months—say, for customer complaints filed with NSC in January, the QA department backtracked the actual date when each coil was produced—the total for each month were continually updated (refer to Appendix X: Customer Complaints, 1995-1999). Backtracking also revealed the age of products sold. Unfortunately, with the retrenchment of all employees including the managerial staff in November 1999, customer complaints’ reports for the last two months of that year were unfiled (Interview with J. Roa, 2008).
A real Prime Yield in percent was then computed as the product of the % Customer Acceptance and the nominal Prime Yield prior to product purchase. The difference between the real and nominal Prime Yield revealed the inspection efficiency of each lines’ quality assurance inspectors (Interview with N. Vicente, 2008).
Using Statistical Process Control methods, process capability indices were also plotted for each rolling mill: 4-Stand Tandem Mill and 5-Stand Continuous Mill, in addition to frequency distribution charts, time series graphs, and the like. Comprehensive analyses, using these SPC-generated graphics, were done through ANOVA and itemized defect-root cause-contribution produced respective action plans addressing these quality problems (NSC, 1996q).
Figure 36: NSC's % Customer Acceptance, 1995-1999 (Data: NSC Quality Assurance Monthly Reports, 1995-1999)
Figure 36 shows a high acceptance rate for NSC products at customer’s end even when production waned towards the fourth quarter of 1999. Evidently, the customer acceptance of NSC’s CRCs started to fall in January 1998, when it decided to close ETL2 in Pasig that month, even reached a low point in May 1998. Interestingly, the undulations in customer acceptance occurred during the second year of the Asian Financial Crises 1997-98.
From the aforementioned peak of 2.72% in April 1995, apparently the top management’s prior directives plus the concerted efforts of production management and personnel successfully brought the customer complaints to less than 1% in succeeding months.
Figure 37: Monthly Trend of NSC Customer Complaints, 1995-1999 (Data: NSC Cold Strip Mill Quality Assurance)
Figure 37 shows, however, that customer complaints came vigorously on the second year of the Asian Financial Crises 1997-98. Several Process Quality Engineers interviewed claimed that customers then were choosier and preferred more quality products than ever before. The complaints abated during the last of NSC’s productive months.
Notes:
Interview with Jonathan Leo M. Roa, former Statistician, NSC, Iligan City. February 2008. back to text
Interview with Necitas C. Vicente, former Process Quality Engineer, NSC, Iligan City. January-March 2008. back to text
National Steel Corporation (1996q). Quality Assurance Performance Report for the month of December, 1995. Iligan City: Cold Strip Mill Quality Assurance, NSC, 03 January 1996. back to text
Interviews with persons who wished to remain anonymous (refer to Appendix FF), various dates. back to text
