Utilização do autocontrole como ferramenta para a Qualidade Total: um estudo de caso em uma empresa de bens de consumo do Pólo Industrial de Manaus.

Abstract

The industry of consumer goods is being developed significantly in the last years. This development is based on demand increasing and manufacturing costs reduction, due to the technological development of the products and productive processes. The prosperity of the market of non-durable consumer goods attracts companies of all continents, defining the shape of the globalization process, evidenced mostly in the 2 last decades. The international competition established on the global market requires quality and low cost of the companies that want to be present at the market. Only products that stand out in quality that can be noted by the consumer with a competitive price can show positive results to the company. The established competitiveness added to the dynamism of the market restrain the managerial alternatives of the companies. It becomes imperative that an industry can offer to the market products with quality, competitive rice and high technology. The only sustainable way of reaching those objectives is thru continuous improvement. In this work, the search for continuous improvement is aborded thru the implementation of the self-control techniques in production; it means that the operator becomes responsible for the quality of the goods he manufactures. The method employed is based on the re-direction of the tasks and job enrichment. Higher responsibilities are given to the productive manpower, seeking the increase and development of the quality of the manufacturing process. On this case study two working groups were established. The first one, pilot group, where the method was implemented and a second one, control group that kept its organization unchanged during the project, thus representing a comparative basis. As results of the implementation of the self-control, an increase of the motivation of the employees and a reduction of indices of non-conform products were noticed, that can be translated as gains of competitiveness to the company.