Design Quality: The Crucial Factor for Product Quality Improvement in International Production Networks

With the globalization of manufacturing industry, design, manufacturing and consumption of products are separated by large distances. Product often is designed in one company and produced in another company. Although product is shaped in manufacturing companies of supply chain, design quality is the key sticking-point for product quality because design specifications have a major effect on a product's performance, quality and cost. Techniques such as early supplier involvement and frequent communication are being used to integrate supplier's activities into product development. Therefore, to a great extent, product quality lies on the quality of design-manufacturing chain. This paper defines design-manufacturing chain quality management, analyses poor quality of design and manufacturing and the controllable factor and noise factor for quality stability. Furthermore, the figure and formula of quality relationship model are presented for the leverage relationship among design quality, manufacturing quality and product quality. Finally, a case study of Chinese-made toys is presented, which shows that design is the crucial factor for product quality improvement compared with other production processes.