THE PAPYRUS CASE

THE PAPYRUS CASE few months ago, you were hired to be quality manager of Papyrus, Inc. , a company making paper board and converting most of this board into a variety of products . While you have had prior experience in the chemical process industry and in quality, this is your first job in the paper industry. With the help of the company controller, you have analyzed the various costs of quality, which run as follows : Dimensional rejections, product line A 816 Beater room defects 480 Lack of adhesion, final products 354 Paper mill winding defects 282 Dimensional rejections, product line B 204 Annual Loss $000 Subtotal for first five categories of loss Loss for remaining 192 kinds of defects 2, 136 Total: $6, 360 This total does not include field returns . Annual sales are about $90 million. While "responsibility for quality" is up to the var ious production superintendents, no one is actively studying, in depth, the causes of the major quality losses. You have talked to each one of the eight production superintendents and the manufactur ing manager . Most of them have given you a reaction as follows: "The present ratio of rejects to production is the result of years of exper i ence in this business . Our management has recognized this by putting this level into the cost standards. We are meeting our standards which is what we are here for . We are always looking for improvement, but our present level is probably as good as we can do with the present machinery and the attitudes of the labor unions . You are new to this business which is different and compl icated . After you have enough exper i ence, you will understand . " Two of the superintendents had a somewhat different concept: could probably improve and cut that loss, However, we are so busy with meeting the schedules, keeping up with customers, handling gr ievances, maintaining machinery and the like, that we have no time to do creative work . 'I To take the initiative to reduce these losses you must enlist the cooperation of the manufactur ing manager . Your own department consists solely of the test laboratory, the flooz inspectors, and the f inal inspectors . You have no quality engineers noz any budget for hiring any. Problem: What do you propose to do?