Identifying Root Causes for Defects of Solid Tires: A Case of Tire Company in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The quality of a product is vital in this competitive world. In the tire industry also, customers expect to consume error free products. The tire manufacturing industry is focusing much attention on producing quality products to generate delighted customers and to reduce the production cost. This research is based on solid tires, and the objective is to identify root causes for repairs in the solid tire. Raw material issues, machine failures, employee involvement, lack of supervision, and managerial decisions were considered as independent variables of this study, and they were derived from the literature. The dependent variable was the repairing percentage of the solid tire. The research sample consists of the repairs of the tires that are produced throughout a year. The gathered data were analyzed using a Minitab statistical tool. Multiple linear regression analysis was used as the data analysis method. The results of the analyzed data indicated that all the factors, i.e. raw material issues, machine failures, employee involvement, lack of supervision, and managerial decisions have a positive impact on repairs in solid tires. Although all the factors have affected, employee involvement and machine failures are seen to have a significant impact on repairs in solid tires.