O IMPACTO FINANCEIRO DAS AUDITORIAS DA QUALIDADE NAS EMPRESAS PORTUGUESAS

This paper discusses the main theme the financial implications that Portuguese companies with the implementation and subsequent certification of the Quality System and respective Quality Audits. The literature review shows that companies do not publish financial results on the subject in question, making it necessary to acquire information through a questionnaire. About 126 questionnaires were sent. Our sample is however 32 validados.Pode to complete questionnaires that the top 5 overall benefits or indirect financial benefits for Portuguese companies were, respectively: improving internal organization; improving the company's image; increasing customer satisfaction; continuous improvement in customer service; improving competitive position. In terms of direct financial benefits the 3 main benefits obtained by the companies were: turnover increase; Performance (cost reduction); Increased business productivity. So it is expected to contribute to the knowledge of the impact, notably financial of Quality Management Systems and respective audits in Portuguese companies.

Qualifound – a modular tool developed for quality improvement in foundries

Purpose – Castings defects are usually easy to characterize, but to eradicate them can be a difficult task. In many cases, defects are caused by the combined effect of different factors, whose identification is often difficult. Besides, the real non-quality costs are usually unknown, and even neglected. This paper aims to describe the development of a modular tool for quality improvement in foundries, and its main objective is to present the application potential and the foundry process areas that are covered and taken into account. Design/methodology/approach – The integrated model was conceived as an expert system, designated Qualifound, which performs both qualitative and quantitative analyses. For the qualitative analyses mode, the nomenclature and the description of defects are based on the classification suggested by the International Committee of the Foundry Technical Association. Thus, a database of defects was established, enabling one to associate the defects with the relevant process operations and the identification of their possible causes. The quantitative analysis mode deals with the number of produced and rejected castings and includes the calculation of the non-quality costs. Findings – The validation of Qualifound was carried out in a Portuguese foundry, whose quality system had been certified according to the ISO 9000 standards. Qualifound was used in every management area and it was concluded that the application had the required technological requisites to provide the necessary information for the foundry management to improve process quality. Originality/value – The paper presents a successful application of an informatics tool on quality improvement in foundries.