What is QSS+?

QSS is a tailored and upgraded version of Six Sigma, a popular technique used in many businesses to reduce defects and variabilities in manufacturing and business processes. Moving beyond creating a clean workplace and restoring facility performance, POSCO further upgraded QSS to QSS+ in August 2014 to include My M&S (Machine & Safety) activities, designed specifically to build a more efficient and safer working environment.

Through QSS+, POSCO has been able to drastically improve its facilities by establishing standard manufacturing processes. They worked to make raw material and inventory management more efficient and reallocated working spaces for increased productivity. Since 2006, POSCO’s unique innovation program has helped its employees to complete over 8,000 assignments designed to improve the production line. Such efforts resulted in reducing the concentration of fine dust, equipment failures, and improving the operation rate up to 95%.

Executives and department heads inspect facilities as part of the My M&S initiative.

QSS+ Success Story

POSCO applied QSS not only to its steel mills but also to its family companies and overseas subsidiaries. In China, the first QSS leadership training and master workshop were launched in 2011, and after one year, Qingdao Pohang Stainless Steel became the first overseas subsidiaries to be QSS-certified. In 2015, POSCO China chose four representative branches to lead My M&S activities.

In 2013, POSCO Vietnam successfully completed facility restoration activities named ‘My Machine’ at 11 different facilities as well as 19 other QSS assignments. In 2016, It became the first facility in Southeast Asia to begin using QSS+, tailoring it for their multiple branches.

In Pohang, Korea, four plants drastically lowered the concentration of fine dust in the steelworks from 80mg/m2 in 2007 to 50.3mg/m2 in 2013. Also, in 2016, they launched ‘Smart M&S’ – a program that works to integrate ‘My M&S’ safety improvements with its smart factory, helping it to become safer and more efficient at the same time.

Facilities before (left) and after (right) carrying out a systematic inspection through My M&S Activities.

Initiating programs like QSS are not easy. Because factories are running 24 hours a day, it can be difficult for workers and management to see how individual steps can improve an entire system. According to Kim Dukbae, POSCO’s first QSS Master, “QSS+ was able to become a strong pillar of POSCO’s operations because the leadership team and employees took the initiative to constantly improve and transform our operations…”

QSS+ is now established as a goal-oriented and innovative program that focuses on the three elements of quality, stability, and safety. Thanks to QSS+ and its advancement over the past decade from Six Sigma and QSS, POSCO has been able to establish safe and healthy manufacturing sites. POSCO will continue to apply QSS+ in every level of its organization in order to ensure its position as an industry leading steelmaker.

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POSCO has been the No.1 steelmaker in the world for seven consecutive years. This remarkable achievement has been possible because of QSS+, which has allowed continuous improvements to be made in workplace environments, along with increases in facility competitiveness. This is the result of both tangible and intangible efforts made by the employees who created QSS+, the unique innovation DNA of POSCO. QSS+ originally evolved from previous programs Six Sigma and QSS.

QSS+ can be attributed to POSCO being able to maintain its competitive edge, regardless of crises. Over the past decade, employees have managed to reduce the rate of fine dust generation as well as facility complications and unexpected glitches. They have also boosted the operation ratio to 95% by focusing on completing over 8,000 assignments dedicated to improvement under the slogan, “We will protect our facilities ourselves.” The continuous efforts to undertake these types of assignments have also contributed to nurturing suitable talents for each site, improving trust between employees and establishing a positive organizational culture.

QSS+ is a derivative of Six Sigma and QSS. Having been adopted by global companies such as GE and Sony, Six Sigma is a management strategy for innovation that has been considered quite effective. POSCO determined Six Sigma as being useful for realizing financial achievement. However, it was difficult to learn and apply into the daily work process, which led to the establishment of POSCO’s unique innovation program, QSS+, in 2005.

POSCO operated a trial plant for about a year to confirm the effectiveness of the program, and officially started using QSS in May 2006. As QSS was suitable to use at sites and easily accessible by all employees, it helped companies in POSCO foster a culture dedicated to maintain healthier facilities.

QSS was adopted not only by the two main steelworks, but also by overseas subsidiaries and outsourcing partners. It has also been significantly effective in improving the environment and surrounding facilities, as well as in eliminating waste and inefficiencies. Many outside companies have requested to evaluate QSS for their own facilities. Small and medium-sized companies in areas such as Pohang, Gwangyang and Kyeongin have actually received QSS consulting from POSCO, and are noticeably improving their performance in management areas ranging from reduction in operation time and costs to enhancements in quality and productivity.

Executives and department heads inspecting facilities during the My M&S initiative activity. (Right, in November 2014)

POSCO has been carrying out its QSS+ program, which is the upgraded version of QSS, since August 2014. QSS+ is an activity program described as having been “innovated from an innovation program,” which reflects the characteristics of the facility-intensive steelworks. Moving beyond creating a clean workplace and restoring facility performance, the program focuses on improving the performance of core facilities with functions that are tailored to each department. With its focus on the three elements of Quality, Stability and Safety, QSS+ is a goal-oriented and site-driven innovation program. In particular, the company has begun a “Smart M&S” program this year which has incorporated the IoT (the Internet of Things) into My M&S in order to establish smart manufacturing sites.

POSCO has built healthy manufacturing sites through continuous innovation activities over the past decade. It will enhance the intrinsic value of the QSS+ program by claiming it as part of its unique innovative brand, reflecting the characteristics of each location under the philosophy, “The answers are found on site.”

QSS+, One More Step to ‘POSCO the Great’

Spreading QSS innovation activities to strengthen competitiveness of small- and medium-sized companies

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Successful companies have three factors in common: 1) A goal that all members share together, 2) empathy for a unified ideology, 3) sharing strategies to achieve a goal. POSCO has been sharing the vision of ‘POSCO the Great’ with all employees and striving to enhance its corporate value. Thus, based on their shared innovation agendas and management ideologies, ‘POSTIM’ was newly established as a powerful execution engine.

1. POSCO’s Unique Innovation Model, POSTIM

POSTIM, which stands for POSCO Total Innovation Model, is based on the participation of all POSCO employees and subsidiaries, as well as integration of work and innovation. By establishing a specific solution to the previous problems and systemizing the accumulated procedures and capabilities through POSTIM, POSCO will make its way to realize ‘POSCO the Great’.

2. Four Basic Principles of POSTIM

POSCO established four basic principles with the goals of increasing profitability, creating a Great Work Place, and enhancing job commitment. The specific principles are: 1) striving to generate profits by integrating work and innovation, 2) offering a reward corresponding to voluntary participation and employee performance, 3) creating a work environment in which employees are committed to creative activities and jobs, and 4) fostering and giving preferential treatment to talented individuals with technical and problem-solving skills.

3. POSTIM’s engine for implementation

POSTIM consists of PWS, QSS+, and SWP activities. Each activity will act as an engine for implementation to practice the management ideologies – One POSCO, Creative POSCO and Top POSCO – and fulfill POSCO’s innovation agendas. POSTIM is expected to contribute greatly to accelerating the fulfillment of ‘POSCO the Great’ by systemizing the accumulated organizational competences, such as innovation methodologies, human resources and systems within a unique innovation model

• PWS (Project-based Working System)A business method in which employees find new projects to increase profitability, attain qualitative goals, and concentrate on producing outstanding results

• ŸQSS+ (Quick Six Sigma Plus) in every corner of the siteActivities to improve Quality, Stability and Safety by evolving a unique method suitable for steelworks with a focus on operating facilities. Accordingly, steel mill sites such as STS steel manufacture and quality-technology departments, are accelerating the realization of ‘POSCO the Great’ by having proclamation ceremony for QSS+ and holding an information session in each department. POSCO expects QSS+ to root down firmly in every corer of the sites and contribute as a stepping-stone for unprecedented innovation activities.
• SWP (Smart Work Place)A series of activities carried out to enable employees to concentrate on their jobs by performing high value-added tasks and generating creative ideas based on a harmonious and positive organizational culture.

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Notes from CEO

 “Let’s develop POSTIM as POSCO’s unique innovation model”

If the innovation methodology that POSCO has been promoting was in a physically mixed condition, the new POSTIM is the result of chemical bonding of innovation methodologies. For example, we utilized TESAL and Six Sigma individually in the past. However, as TESAL’s good methodology is applied to Six Sigma, POSTIM is a systemized model that is not limited to a certain methodology and allows combined application. Through this new model, POSCO is able to apply the majority of the existing methodologies with further convenience and can choose the part to include in POSTIM if a better methodology is developed in the future. Let’s develop POSTIM as POSCO’s unique innovation model.

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