Southern Engine Research Institute’s Outsourcing Products Control Strategy Improvement Research

In-depth development of technology leads to more refined specialization. Therefore, it requires more efficient integration and utilization of multiple resources to achieve the goal of using the best resources for the research development and the production of mechanical products. In this context, the scale of outsourcing in mechanical production is growing. Outsourcing had become a popular production approach used by both research institutes and factories. However, outsourcing involves more uncontrollable factors than production within the home factory, which made the process control more challenging. The defect in management process may directly lead to lower-quality product.This paper analyzes Southern Engine Research Institute’s outsourcing process and identifies the following four problems that affect product quality: First, the supplier’s ability does not meet the requirement for manufacturing the outsourced products. Second, there is failure in communicating the specification of the product. Third, the on-site supervision of the production process is superficial. Fourth, there are recurring problems in product quality. These four problems can be broken down into 11 factors: lacking evaluation of the suppliers, Insufficient monitoring of the supplier in later stage, lacking of interaction with the supplier, unable to control the product specification communication, supplier refuse to accept information, workers lack of ability and understanding, fails to incorporate outsourcing into the overall quality management system control, lacking of standards and requirements for on-site monitoring, lacking of discipline mechanism on suppliers, the channel to report product problem is not clear, insufficient attention from the outsourced company, etc.To solve the above problems, this paper propose the following solutions:(1)Specify a classification and rating program to evaluate and manage suppliers. Use Analytic Hierarchy process to evaluate and re-evaluate suppliers. The supplier will be penalized according to the classification program. This reduces the product quality problem caused by supplier’s lacking of ability.(2)Using information system to construct product specification information communication and feedback process. Coordinating with on-site monitoring and assessment of the supplier to reduce the quality problem caused by failure of product specification communication.(3)In the product quality supervision process, the outsourcing production process should be incorporated into the quality management system of the home company. Clearly define the responsibilities of each party and standardize the technology and quality review. Increasing control over the process that needs to be confirmed. Incorporate how suppliers deal with problems being raised into the supplier evaluation standard. Increase on-site processing monitoring and develop good interaction with suppliers.(4)In order to reduce the recurring quality problem, streamline approach should be used to construct problem feedback process. Supplementary document and checklist approach should be used to standardize operation and record keeping. This reduces the recurring problems.The implementation of these proposals optimized the outsourcing management process of Southern Engine Research Institute and improved the outsourcing product quality control.