“Development of a Quality Management Framework for the Assessment of Quality Performance of Automobile Sector”

The research on the subject mentioned in the heading above was finally presented by Dr. Ali Zulqarnain. He works as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Industrial & Manufacturing – NED University of Engineering & Technology in Karachi, Pakistan.
The purpose of the research which took several years, is to develop a Quality Management Framework for assessing the Quality Performance of Auto Parts Manufacturers in line with the standard requirements of local and global automobile assemblers, and guidelines of world-renowned performance excellence models. Furthermore, this research proposes a generic Quality 4.0 (Digitized) framework that is integrated with the proposed framework of QM in order to realize the emerging demand for the sustainability of digitization and connectivity.
A literature review highlighted the domains where more research is required before developing the required QM framework for the assessment of the quality performance of APMs. Competency levels of APMs (major work) along with other local and global (minor work) organizations are assessed through statistical analysis by employing the licensed versions of statistical software. An assessment of competence level also revealed the areas where more effort is needed to establish a framework that would serve the demands of automobile assemblers. The development of the QM framework has incorporated the valuable feedback of industry experts of APMs and automobile assemblers (OEMs).
The research discovered that the existing world-wide renowned performance excellence frameworks are generic in nature for the assessment of quality performance and don’t cater to all the specifications outlined by performance excellence frameworks and the recommendations (JICA, AIDEP 2021-26, IATF 16949, and others) for enhancing products quality of local APMs.
Eventually, after several years of research, a QM framework is proposed for assessing the quality performance through newly derived KPIs hence improving the product quality of APMs for meeting the performance excellence in the competitive market, in order to fulfil the requirements of local and global automobile assemblers. A generic digitized quality framework is also proposed and integrated to address future demands. An introductory demo version of the Mobile App is also developed. Improvement in the proposed QM frameworks is in progress and can be further tailored to meet the specific needs of future demands.