A Study On Synergic Quality Management In Agile Supply Chain

The core feature of agile supply chain is its agility, no supply chain's agility without reliable product/service quality. Agile supply chain quality management is quite different from the quality management of individual enterprise. The complexity and difficulties of management increase greatly in agile supply chain. The agile supply chain quality management is different from supply chain quality management as well. Agile supply chain faces market environment with unpredictability and continuous change. As changes in market demand, the supply chain and business processes need to constantly reconstruct and readjust, which leads to the instability of agile supply chain quality management system. Agile supply chain quality management system needs to adapt quickly to the reconstruction of the agile supply chain. Quality management faces great challenges under this context. Therefore, enterprises must study and develop a new quality-management mode——the agile supply chain synergic quality management mode, to enhance the supply chain's agility.In this dissertation, using systems theory as guidance, with integrative applications of Synergetics, supply chain theory, modern quality management theory, organizational management theories and methods, the author systematically studies the questions of the synergic quality management in the agile supply chain. The author studies the law of quality formation of agile supply chain. He also studies the major contents, the basic principles and architecture of agile supply chain synergic quality management, and constructs the systematic model, operating mechanisms and supporting technologies of the agile supply chain synergic quality management (ASCSQM). Through the research, he systematically builds up a basic theoretical framework of agile supply chain synergic quality management and the implementation methodology, which provides theoretical basis and practical guidance for enterprises which implements agile supply chain strategy.As for the laws of product quality formation in the supply chain, the author points out that the laws of product quality formation in supply chain include quality transfer laws, quality combination laws and quality matching laws, and focuses on the transfer laws of product quality. Appling the QFD tools, the author builds a reverse transfer model based on product quality requirements in supply chain. Using the concept of process deviation flow and deviation transfer theory, the author establishes a single-chain deviation transfer model and a network-chain deviation transfer model of the product quality characteristics on supply chain(s). And based on these models, a positive variance propagation model of the product quality characteristics on supply chain is established, too. The deviation transfer model and the variance propagation model of the product quality characteristics are collectively called the positive transfer model of the product quality characteristics. The results show that:1) the variances of product quality characteristics transfer along the supply chain; 2) With the increase in the number of enterprises of the low quality, the capabilities of the overall quality assurance in supply chain speedily decrease. In addition, by using the quality transfer model, we can predict the impacts of the changes in quality demand of downstream enterprise on the quality management of upstream enterprise and the impacts of the variances of quality assurance capability of upstream enterprise on the quality assurance capability of downstream enterprise and the whole supply chain.As for the basic contents of the agile supply chain synergic quality management, the author defines the concept of the agile supply chain synergic quality management, analyzes its features; and puts forward the objectives and basic principles of agile supply chain synergic quality management. Based-on system theory, the author studies the basic contents of the agile supply chain synergic quality management from essential factors, levels, and dimensions.As for the principles of the agile supply chain synergic quality management, applying synergetics theory, the author sums up seven basic principles of the agile supply chain synergic quality management we should follows.As for the construction of the agile supply chain synergic quality management system, the article gives the definition of the agile supply chain synergic quality management system and the basic features. And the author establishes a macro model of the agile supply chain synergic quality management; analyses the system architectures of the agile supply chain synergic quality management; establishes an implementation model for the agile supply chain synergic quality management system.In the operating mechanism of agile supply chain synergic quality management, the author focuses on the designs of mechanisms of co-operation, decision-making, co-ordination, incentives and benchmarking for synergic quality management. The co-operation mechanism of agile supply chain synergic quality management includes a"win-win"strategic co-operation relationship, and the trust mechanisms, information sharing mechanism, and the interests and risks co-ordination mechanism in co-operation of the quality management. The collaborative quality decision-making among the enterprises in the agile supply chain has the features of multiple agents, multi-objectives, win-win pursuing, collaboration, timing, asymmetric information, etc. The collaborative quality decision-making should follow three basic principles, which are information sharing, overall optimization, and multi-level. The author constructs a three-tier structure model of decision-making of the agile supply chain synergic quality management, and then builds a collaborative decision-making system framework based on MAS (multi-agents system). The co-ordination mechanisms of the agile supply chain synergic quality management should be established based on combined the market and artificiality methods, and should be business-oriented, people-centered, and volunteer-based. The incentive mechanisms of the agile supply chain synergic quality management including the supplier evaluation, sampling, quality risk-sharing and joint quality management and the benchmarking mechanisms must be applied in the agile supply chain synergic quality management to promote continuous improvement of quality of node enterprises, and continuously improve the level of the business quality management, and enhance the overall competitive capacity of the supply chain.In the methods of agile supply chain synergic quality management, synthetically using systems theory, modern quality management theory and organizational management theory, the author discusses the question of organizations of the agile supply chain synergic quality management, and the questions of methods of collaborative quality planning and collaborative quality control and collaborative quality improvement. He constructs a three-tier organization structure model on the agile supply chain synergic quality management and puts forward an operating mode about the implementation of this model. Based on the process approach, and quality planning road map and QFD technology, the author discusses the collaborative quality planning methods of the agile supply chain. The author suggests that the best way to strengthen the quality control of quality management in the agile supply chain is the implementation of joint quality management, and to use flexibly quality control flow chart to control quality of suppliers. There are many quality improvement methods and tools; the author discusses mainly the collaborative quality improvement (overall performance improvement) methods being fit for the agile supply chain synergic quality management, for example, the 10 steps process model of quality improvement, quality filter map, FMEA method, etc.In supporting technologies of agile supply chain synergic quality management, from environment, technology and management aspects, the author does research on the supporting technologies, and attempts to build supporting technology systems of agile supply chain synergic quality management. The author discusses the classification and characteristics of the quality information of the supply chain, puts forward the information structural model of supply chain node enterprise, and sets up a overall information sharing model, a local information sharing model, and an integrative model of quality information flow of agile supply chain.Through these researches, a relative complete framework of agile supply chain synergic quality management is built up from its architecture, implementation model, operating mechanism, management methods, supporting technologies and information sharing and integration.