Quality Control Issues and Improvement Opportunities for Automobile Manufacturing Company in Indonesia

Abstract

An effective quality control system is crucial for maintaining customer satisfaction and business success. However, quality control is broad and complex in nature, and there is no single system that fits all manufacturing settings. Hence, it is crucial for manufacturers to explore a quality control system that best suits their specific manufacturing environment. As such, this study aims to identify key quality control steps (RO1), explore quality control problems (RO2), and discover quality improvement opportunities (RO3) for an automobile manufacturing company in Indonesia. The research is qualitative in nature and involved semi-structured interviews with nine quality staff members from the company. Feedback from the interviewees was analysed using Kendall's coefficient of concordance to address RO1, and content analysis was used for RO2 and RO3. The results of the Kendall analysis revealed that establishing quality benchmarks is the most important step in quality control. The content analysis suggested that inconsistencies in quality control practices and procedure are the main quality problem faced by the company. Additionally, the interviewees suggested that quality improvement efforts should focus on the application of digital technology. This study provides valuable insights into the multifaceted nature of quality control in the automotive industry, underscoring the importance of continuous improvement and technological integration in maintaining a competitive edge and ensuring customer satisfaction.