'n Kwaliteitbestuurstelsel vir 'n kooksaanleg

Abstract

A Quality Management System for a Coke plant South Africa formally entered the international market again because of the first democratic election during April 1994 after approximately 30 years of isolation. Since these elections, many major international manufacturers have shown renewed interest in South Africa. The isolation resulted in South Africa developing a shortage of modem technological information and managerial techniques . Tremendous effort will be required to overcome this shortage. Against this background the steel plant, at present entangled in a struggle to become internationally competitive in an effort to obtain greater international market share, will be discussed. Coke is necessary in the steel manufacturing process for the production of liquid steel in the blast furnaces where it has a number of important functions such as the reduction of iron ore to iron. The past few years have been characterized by a drastic increase m quality awareness amongst the consumers of coke oven products. At present, the major consumer, the blast furnaces, are implementing a project that entails the injection of fine coal as fuel in the blast furnaces. This results in a reduction of the quantity of coke used in the furnaces, but requires that the coke quality must be drastically improved. Various authors in recent literature have reached the same conclusion, namely that manufacturers will not be able to remain productive unless proof of a stable and productive process can be given to the client. This is necessary to satisfy the demands of the client with regard to quality and reliability, as well as the long term cost effectiveness of the supplier.

In the light of the above it can be deduced that the future of the coke plant lies in a low, slowly increasing priced coke of predictable or constant quality. This is only possible if the productivity of the plant can be increased. This implies that certain actions must be implemented to increase the productivity of the coke plant. At present the coke plant is experiencing enormous problems in trying to satisfying the quality requirements of its major client, the blast furnaces. These problems can be attributed to the coke manufacturing process with all it' s variables such as raw materials (seven to nine coal components), equipment (seven coke batteries with a total of 388 furnaces), and people (approximately 1000). The coke plant is presently fighting for survival and an urgent need to set up and to implement a practical quality management system as soon as possible has arisen. As the coke plant cannot currently fulfill the requirements of the blast furnaces, coke is now being imported. Literature reveals that there are widely contrasting definitions for the term "quality". For the purpose of this study, quality will be defined according to the definition set out in the European Organization for Quality Control (EOQC), which can be quoted as follows : " ... the degree or measure whereby a product fulfils the needs/requirements of the consumer". The aim of this study is to identify and describe all the necessary actions needed to increase the quality and the productivity of the coke. The study will be limited to a coke plant the largest steel manufacturers in the Vaal Triangle. A generic model has been set up and a practical plan of implementation has been deduced from this. A two part consisting of twenty-nine questions was drawn up. A three-point scale was used to evaluate the answers. An attempt to evaluate the present quality climate was made. Secondly, an attempt to evaluate the respondents perception of the coke plant's production, as well as its quality system, was made. An example of the questionnaire is shown in Addendum b. The questionnaire was completed during personal interviews with each respondent. The respondents were drawn from the following posts .:

i) 5 engineers /technicians; ii) two production managers and a departmental manager; iii) four production superintendents. The answers to the questions were tabulated and the percentage of the respondents choosing a, b, or c as answers have been calculated. It was found that the quality climate or quality awareness within the organization was average to above average, especially with respect to the experience of the respondents to the importance of quality for top management. Many of the respondents are of the opinion that quality related actions within the company have improved considerably during the past two years. Reason for this can possibly be attributed to the programme of re-organization and savings that the company has been implementing during the past two years. There are however, according to the respondents certain aspects of quality and quality management that need to be addressed,: i) incoming material control; ii) education of all levels of personnel with regard to quality aspects; iii) a quality information system; iv) use of teams in order to achieve quality goals and solve quality related problems; v) a "cost of quality" system; vi) quality systems in each department; vii) acknowledgement of quality achievements. The respondents believe that the coke quality and the coke plant's quality assurance system, are causes for concern. The client, the blast furnaces, are dissatisfied with all aspects of the coke plant. In order to change the poor image of the coke plant the following points are suggested,:

i) declaration from top management as well as a joint venture to improve quality management; ii) implement a quality cost system and use this system to set up goals; iii) solve the issue of responsibility for quality control within the production coke plant and/or create an organization for quality assurance ; iv) train all personnel; v) implement the norm model; vi) enforce control