India’s favorite instant noodles brand Maggi has come under the scanner again after its samples failed lab test in Uttar Pradesh last week because of excess ‘ash’ content. This is the second time in the last couple of years that the Nestlé’s most popular product has failed in quality checks, the first one being in the year 2015 when Maggi failed to pass the tests because of excessive lead content. Interestingly, both times the instant noodles brand was found using ingredients above the permissible limit in Uttar Pradesh.
The brand will be hoping to counter this controversy and end it soon for good especially at a time when it has spent huge amounts of money and resources to recover the lost ground after the ban in the year 2015 which has cost the company a whopping Rs. 1000 crores. Maggi has already lost a considerable amount of its share in the market despite its return dipping to 60% market share in 2017 from 75% in 2015.
Quality has turned out to be a major factor that has affected the brand value and sales of Maggi in the past few months. The label of ‘unsafe’ by the government of India also hampered its brand value. This leads us to the fact that no matter what happens or how big the brand is, Quality Control is the basic tool that can help one in identifying the problems in a process.
At Faber Infinite, we help our clients to constantly have a check on the quality controls and assist them with a module encompassing all the necessary elements that are required to keep the flow going in the right direction. We help our clients by implementing the basic seven tools of Quality that ultimately help and aid in process control. These basic tools are as follows:
- Flowchart
- Check Sheet
- Pareto Chart
- Histogram
- Cause and Effect (Ishikawa/Fishbone diagram)
- Scatter diagram
- Control Chart
The above tools help one in identifying the critical process points that need to be controlled and assists in implementing preventions and ground controls to contain the same. Let’s understand the Quality Control tools in detail.
- Flowchart
A flowchart is basically a diagram that uses graphic symbols to depict the nature and flow of the steps in a process. It describes a process in as much detail as possible by graphically displaying the steps in proper sequence. A flowchart also provides tools for training, promotes process understanding and identifies the problems and improvements required.
- Check Sheet
Checksheet is a data collecting device that helps in organizing the data by category. It helps in showcasing the frequency of occurrence of a particular entity or value and further helps in acquiring more data for precise analysis. Check sheet also provides historical data and introduces data collection process in the system.
- Pareto Chart
These are basically bar charts with bars placed in descending order of their importance from left to right. It is used to identify the vital elements in the processes. Also, the factors that have the largest cumulative effect on the system can be determined by this. Better use of resources is another advantage of analyzing data with Pareto Charts.
- Histogram
A histogram is a bar graph that shows the frequency and distribution of variable or continuous data. It reveals the variations in a particular system and compares measurements to specifications. It can be used to summarize large amounts any kind of measurable data in graphs. Furthermore, the data analysis from histograms can help in making decisions for the betterment of situation.
- Cause and Effect diagram
It is a graphics tool that helps identifying, sorting, and displaying possible causes of a problem or quality characteristic. It is also known as Ishikawa or Fishbone diagram. It helps to identify the root cause and compares the relative importance of each cause. The collective benefit of using this is that it improves team performance and effectiveness and encourages group participation.
- Scatter diagram
It is a chart that pictorially depicts the relationship between two data types. These are used to study the possibility of a relationship between two variables. This devised correlation can later be used to identify the problem areas and optimize them for better productivity.
- Control chart
They are process-behavior charts that determine if the manufacturing processes are in a state of control or not. The main purpose is to allow simple detection of events that showcases actual process change. This makes the control limits very important decision aids.
We have applied these at several of our client sites who were facing troubles in maintaining the quality parameters of their products and have achieved significant improvements. Also, Faber Infinite has assisted them in devising the outlines of the basic groundwork that needed to be done to ensure that the recurrence of the problems can be avoided. Quality can be the considered as the basic parameter that can increase or decrease the brand value and at Faber Infinite, we have always believed that to move the cycle in the forward direction only, the best time to plant seeds for Quality Control was either 10 years back or it is NOW!
Written & Compiled By Faber Kishlay Krishna & Faber Mayuri Pandya
The opinions of third-party set out in this blog are not necessarily the opinions of Faber Infinite or its member firms. Moreover, they should be seen in the context of the time they were expressed. This blog is based on the following news: http://www.businesstoday.in/current/corporate/maggi-samples-fail-lab-test-nestle-distributers-fined-rs-62-lakh-fsda-fssai/story/264964.html
