Question

CASE STUDY

A man worked successfully until he retired at age sixty. He was blessed with an appreciable bulk amount as retirement package. After receiving his pension proceeds, he decided to invest it in a sawmill business, on a plot of land in front of his residence in a typical residential area. He put up a structure for the intended business, procured the necessary machines, installed them and employed some youthful workers within his locality to commence business. The business started to pick up gradually and after some time, the business could be described as encouraging. However, at the peak of the business, complaints from his locality became a major issue which was not heeded to by the owner of the sawmill business. Their concerns got to the authorities and the officials of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA, initially, issued a warning notice to stop operation which was not obeyed. The subsequent action of the EPA was to close down the sawmill business. This action had an adverse effect on the health of the business owner because he had invested all this pension benefits into the business and this, led to his untimely demise.

1a. Were the neighbours of this retiree justified to complain, and what could be the possible subject(s) of their complaints?

1b. Identify and explain two quality issues that accounted for the failure of the business?
1c. What would you have done differently as an Introduction to Total Quality Management student? (5 mark)

Answer 1

Question 1a) Were the neighbors of this retiree justified to complain, and what could be the possible subject(s) of their complaints?

Answer 1a) Setting up a new business is never easy, first you need to know about the customer taste and preference and then you need to invest, In today’s world customer is said to be the king of the market and if instead of satisfying the customer the retired person ignored the warning given by the customer. I think at this place the retired person went wrong. He should have given importance to the feedback of customer and should have worked upon it. It’s simple if a customer is doing a complaint it means that the customer is not satisfied with the product. According to me the neighbor did the right thing, at first they gave a warning to him, he ignored then they went to the council body. Possible subjects would be

1. Product Specific Complaint: Complain would have been done regarding the product that product is not up to the mark.

2. Personnel Complaint: As the retired person ignored the feedback of neighbour, this is a serious issue in books of law.

Question 1b) Identify and explain two quality issues that accounted for the failure of the business?

Answer 1b) There are so many quality issues in a product, some of their can even destroy the business that’s what happened with the retired person. Let’s discuss 2 major quality issues that could have been the reason of failure of business.

1. Countering to high demand: As told in the case that the business of retired person started off gradually well and afterwards as told in the case his business went at its peak. The chances may be that due to high demand of the product the labours and staff members had more pressure for producing more units might have missed or used any component more or less. This is called defect in manufacturing, due to high demand the pressure on workers could have used some wrong or poor material or must have missed something while producing the goods.

2. Poor raw materials: Purchase of poor raw materials could have been a issue, as the quality of raw material must have been poor the finished output that came out also turned out to be poor, apart from this any mistake done by the labour or any tool that might not have used properly could have caused the finished product to be not up to the mark.

Question 1c) What would you have done differently as an Introduction to Total Quality Management student?

Answer 1c) Well if I would have opened such business these are the steps in hierarchy which I would have followed:

1. Analysis of customer taste and preference in the area

2. Analysis of household income in the area

3. Analysis of online Vs offline purchase in the area

4. Applying for registration of land

5. Applying for all necessary documents and certificates

6. Getting business registered under union local body

7. Set up of land keeping in mind availability of all safety equipments

8. Hired skilled labours

9. Kept on doing a regular check on working of raw materials

10. Installed cameras to keep a check on quality of work done by labour and staff members.

11. Kept good care of labelling, finishing and packaging of the product

I would have focused more on purchasing of good raw material, working of labour, packaging of the product. Keeping an eye on all these measure would be sufficent to reduce all the errors.