The impact of quality gates on product quality in a selected automotive assembly organisation in South Africa

Abstract

Nowadays, quality control influences competitiveness of organisations, continually demanding managerial attention. With the arrival of total quality management, quality control has become an almost all-embracing control system. Thus, the philosophy of the quality gate as a quality control tool plays an important role in the assembly organisations of South Africa. Quality gate is used to improve the visibility of quality at strategic points in the production process, its main goal being to conform to the service quality as per customer’s expectation. As a result, this study examines the influence of the quality gate on product quality in the selected automotive assembly organisation in South Africa. The study was quantitative in design and examined production and related experiences of the automotive assembly organisation that have adopted quality gate strategy for product quality improvement. The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) model, using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse data. The selected company operates in the eThekwini Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The study was achieved by collecting pre- and post-quarterly data for spoilage, production targets achieved and cost on quality. The results indicate that product quality has a relationship with both the spoilage rate and the cost on quality. Any decrease in the spoilage rate or the cost on quality increases product quality. This study uncovers the strengths and weaknesses of the quality gate on product quality in an automotive assembly organisation in South Africa.