Article
Quality Study on Vehicle Heat Ventilation and Air
Conditioning Failure
Dina Diga
1
, Irina Severin
1,
* and Nicoleta Daniela Ignat
2
Citation: Diga, D.; Severin, I.; Ignat,
N.D. Quality Study on Vehicle Heat
Ventilation and Air Conditioning
Failure. Sustainability 2021, 13, 13441.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su132313441
Academic Editors: João Carlos de
Oliveira Matias and Paolo Renna
Received: 31 October 2021
Accepted: 30 November 2021
Published: 4 December 2021
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1
Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Robotics, University Politehnica of Bucharest,
060042 Bucharest, Romania; banteadina@gmail.com
2
Faculty of Entrepreneurship, Business Engineering and Management, University Politehnica of Bucharest,
060042 Bucharest, Romania; nicoleta.ignat@upb.ro
* Correspondence: irina.severin@upb.ro; Tel.: +40-726-283-850
Abstract:
The automotive industry has set a highly demanding standard to meet customer satisfaction.
The paper aimed to detail how quality analysis has been conducted to state the main causes that
generated nonconformities of heat, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Problems have
been reported on HVAC systems, such as noise, not being cold enough and moldy smell issues. All
three problems determined by customer reports initiated the first contribution of this paper, namely
by an initial quality study, and generated the investigation using is/is not problem scoping, data
analysis, and graphical analysis. Pareto analysis and the Plan, Do, Check and Act (PDCA) approach
are used to highlight the traceability of the actions performed in the evaluation of the problems and
the detection of the causes related to each problem. The data analysis process and the data obtained
from the analysis are the core of this paper. An immediate action plan is proposed, concluding with
the hypothesis that the root cause is the blockage of the heater. This methodology has significant
potential for being implemented, even for other components in the same industry or different sectors.
Keywords: HVAC system; failure analysis; market study; customer verbatim; quality tools
1. Introduction
Automotive companies producing heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC)
systems try to exceed the technical limits to meet the needs of their customers by streamlin-
ing by reducing weight, size and costs. At the same time, demanding better-quality results
than previous ones is often impossible to achieve. The identification of problems, their
definition, and prognosis have attracted increased attention from engineers and researchers
in terms of HVAC in the context of improving the comfort offered to the customer.
The purpose of determining customer satisfaction is to meet their needs, focusing on
the satisfaction of demanding customers and the desired level of performance. The tasks of
a quality control system are to identify, analyze and control, based on customer reports, the
main failure modes that lead to the root causes and generated problems in HVAC systems.
In recent years, engineering and technological advances have progressively improved
automotive thermal management. Motivational factors, the characteristics of new vehicles
and their small size, the increase in the number of electric vehicles, the concern of con-
sumers regarding fuel consumption, as well as consumer demands and political impacts,
have contributed to the importance of this field [
1
]. The components of a ventilation
system include mechanical and electrical elements. Being subjected to stress, there is the
possibility of reducing their life cycles, and the reliability of the system must be evaluated
in order to establish and schedule specific maintenance and repair activities [
2
]. Customers’
expectations for increased comfort and luxury always require continuous development of
vehicle HVAC control systems [3].
With vibrations, an HVAC heating and ventilation system generates various sounds,
such as whistling or humming. This type of noise can identify and determine the causes of
Sustainability 2021, 13, 13441. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132313441 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability
