Question

Quality Management and Mini-Projects

Five key Quality Management (QM) Areas are:

• The Foundations & Philosophies of QM,
• Statistical Methods for QM,
• Design for Quality,
• Measuring & Controlling Quality,
• Six Sigma in QM.

1. Explain and summarize the key lessons for two of the key Quality Management Areas.
2. Outline and explain two of the Mini-Projects we have studied this term( Mini Projects were Service quality and Service outsourcing)
3. Describe and explain why or how understanding these Mini-Projects are related to understanding one or more of the key Quality Management Areas

Answer 1

Explain and summarize the key lessons for two of the key Quality Management Areas.

1. Six sigma

After its first introduction by Motorola in 1993, they first of all implemented this technique in their own manufacturing operations and due to its success Six sigma got increasingly popular over the years due to its principle of working on to reduce defect by 99.99%.

The prime objective of Six Sigma is to work on streamlining quality whether in manufacturing or business processes so that there is minimum wastage or scope of errors.

By this quality management process it studies current business processes and search for improvements, check the complete process to produce products or services by identifying and eradicating defects.

After the Motorola, GE also implemented this technique to check and analyze their processes and later all major organization all over the world followed this and start using Six sigma as technique for their quality control measures.

The Six Sigma methodology consist of five phases:

Define : Searching answer for the questions:
“What is the problem?”, “ Who is the customer and their expectations”,”
“What are the project requirements”.

Measure : Here, we collect the data relevant to make decision about defects and processes.

Analyze : Here, we process the data collected to see the actual reason behind errors or variations and also any extra step involved which is hampering efficiency of the process.

Improve : In Improving we get rid of the problem or reason of delays or defects by efficient means.

Control : In controlling, The improved new process is kept under surveillance or check to avoid any old issue or defect getting repeated and making sure the quality goal is achieved.

2. Design for Quality:

It is a methodology where quality has directly proportional to customer satisfaction

Design for Quality has basically below points:

Set clear or design quality targets and goals.

Define target market and customers and their needs.

Working on a new design which can satisfy the customer needs.

Design or redesign the step by step processes to reach the goal.

Implementing process controls so that each process sticks to the goal operations.

b.Outline and explain two of the Mini-Projects we have studied this term( Mini Projects were Service quality and Service outsourcing)

1. Service quality : We can say that it is an evaluation of perceived expectations of a service with actual performance.

We also have a formulae to calculate this : Service Quality=Expected-Actual

Any business operating with high service quality is going to match or will surpass the customer expectations, Which is a great sign of being competitive as well as earning best profits possible because a happy customer.

Good Service quality puts companies in a sustainable profitability.

A huge Improvement spree for excellent operations and processes along with check on problems proactively and efficiently led to on time delivery of Services to customer and hence customer delight.

Types of Service quality:

Technical quality: A through put or core service of any business what a customer wants at the end of the day. For example: Quality of food in a restaurant.

Functional quality: In this the overcall customer experience when he/she interacts with a business. For example: At reception the courtesy or prompt feedback to customer.

2.Service outsourcing

Service Outsourcing is a process of contracting another company or individuals to handle tasks like some operations or even services which,in past, were done by the company itself.

It is also known as contracting out or business process outsourcing (BPO)

The main reason to do so is to lower cost and also improve speed as well as efficiency while focusing on their core business.

c. Describe and explain why or how understanding these Mini-Projects are related to understanding one or more of the key Quality Management Areas:

Any business whether big or small will be having a set a processes and there must be some extra or irrelevant steps involved in their product cycle hence, additional cost for the company.

By learning about the quality control methods, we can use them in all kinds of possible business or mini projects like service quality or service outsourcing which are just another way to reduce cost and extra burden on the company and giving enough space to let the core business flourish.