Manufacturing quality density, control and maintenance

The purpose of this paper is to define conceptually and operationally, a measure of quality density in manufacturing. This is expressed in terms of a manufacturing process propensity to ‘output’ units which are defectives, as a function of the manufactured production output, the manufacturing deterioration process, maintenance, quality control, and generally the risks a manufacturing process is subjugated to. Particularly, we assume that the production process induces ‘shocks’ which lead to poorer manufactured quality, while maintenance efforts are continually being employed to restore the process propensity to produce units of better quality. Quality control is used then to monitor the output quality of units produced. Using a methodology of level crossing in stochastic point processes, the stationary probability distribution of a manufactured output quality is defined. Applications to production quality management, combined quality and maintenance management, as well as quality control are considered. Finally, an exponential shock model is resolved analytically.