Quality Management Tools and Techniques in the Footwear Industry - Assignment Example

 Quality Management Tools and Techniques in the Footwear Industry Introduction Management and quality performance are the key pillars to the outcome of any business, today many business have to rate their performance and outcomes accordingly. There has been a need to develop and apply techniques that will rate management and outcomes. It is not only a matter of performance that is taken into consideration, but quality is also required. The products if they have to compete in the market then their quality should be high. This is what has necessitated then implementation of the quality management tool and technique. These tools play a very critical role in ensuring that the products that are produced are of high quality. At the same time they play a key role in management of the performance of the organization. The quality management tools Quality in production is very necessary to ensure competitiveness in the market. This is the basis for the seven management tools and technique. These techniques were first developed in Japan in the year 1960 and their application so the improvement of quality in production and ensure consistency in the products produced. The tools uses statistical techniques to make sure that what comes out of the production house meets the end users need and requirements, as mention the tools are six in number. These tools are basically used to collect data then arrange it and finally do an analysis to the data. In doing so the information collected is organized in a way that is easy to understand and this makes it possible to identify problems in the system (Hakes, C 203). Check sheet pareto chart Cause and effect diagram Histogram Scatter diagram Charts Check sheet This is a kind of sheet that is used to show variations over a period of time. The variations are analyzed and can easily show the performance over that period. These charts can enable the organization to identify the problems before implementing new system because it is used at the end of a particular period or when there is need for change of system. Therefore it can play a very critical role in ensuring that the new system does not have the same problems as the other system had. This has been used in my case the footwear industry in the analysis of its production after every end of a year. The records are analyzed and the necessary decisions taken to improve production. In my analysis of the records I find out that at most cases the production increased after the implementation of new systems. Here is an example of a check sheet Pareto chart This is a chart that prioritizes issues. It is used to analyze problems by basically showing the most frequent issue. In this type of a chart the issue that has the most appearance comes first in the chart then the other issues follow in that order to the list. The chart can be very critical in an organization since it can be used to identify what problems are occurring in the organization frequently, and as such seek for the solution to this problem. The chart does not only show the problem but it also shows the cause of that problem so in an organization it can be used to tackle some of the frequently experienced problems that the organization face from time to time and seek a solution to them. Just looking at my case, an interview with the Footwear industry management on how they have found this chart important amazed me. I found out that for the period of the ten years they have been applying this chart to identify the problems in their production and they have found it very effective. Below is an example of a Pareto chart. The cause and effect diagram This chart is also popularly known as the fish born. This arises from the way the diagram is designed that is, the diagram has the main bar then there are line arising from it showing the cause of the problem and others arising from this line which shows other souses of the same problem. This chart is a very important tool of wholly analyzing a problem since it use can show the course of a problem and go ahead to analyze other probable causes of that problem. The problems are then displayed diagrammatically using this chart. The chart can be used in an organization to identify a problem and look for all possible causes of this problem and as well seek for the solutions. This is very critical in an organization or a company since it is very necessary to achieve quality, it follows that the problems in the production ought to be dealt with very deeply to find the solution and enhance the productivity of the industry. In my case study I looked at the footwear company production in the 18th year. The production went down and the sales in the market significantly dropped. Research team was constituted to analyze the cause of this drop and they used this cause and effect diagram. The team found out the problems and solutions were implemented. This so a rise in the production in the year that followed and the company realized great sales (Schwalbe: 300). I have provided a cause and effect diagram below Histogram It is a chart that shows the distribution of variables, the chart shows the cause of a problem depending on the frequency. The variable that has most frequency has thick bar than that with the list frequency. This tool is therefore very necessary to the organization to show the variations in the problem and identify the problems that occur most frequently. After doing this the organization will be able to understand which problems need to talked so quickly and which one can wait. This is by taking into consideration the problem with the highest frequency. This chart can therefore play a very significant role in ensuring that the issues from customers are dealt with aptly to solve any issues that can arise from it. Scatter diagram This chart shows the relationship that exists between issues that seem to have a similarity. In plotting the graph of this type those issues that seem to have a close relationship will seem to be closer to the horizontal line. This chart can therefore be used in an organization to see the relationship between a problem and its cause. For instance in the footwear company it was realized that there was the drop of sales in most of its companies in the Europe region. The organization identified that the major problem was that the prices were high. These prices were being hiked by high production cost. Now after the company plotted the scatter diagram they identified the real cause of the problem not being exactly the production cost but the marketing strategy being used in this region. After solving this issue there was a very positive trend in the market of its products (Sanghera 200). Graphs This is one of the simplest ways of data presentation diagrammatically. This method has been used for a very long time to present data. The most commonly used types of graphs are the pie chat the line graph and the bar charts. The usage of the line graph can display the variation and the standard deviation. This chart can show weather a problem is caused by normal issues or is as a result of other underlying problems that have not been dealt with. This graph can be used in the production to eliminate the special causes of a particular problem, and then the normal cause can be dealt with slowly. In doing so high production can be expected from the company. Research and data collection from the footwear company As part of research I did interviews with the footwear industry management to try and find out some of the tools they have used and how these tools have had an impact to the production in the industry. A preliminary survey of the footwear industries S.no Number of persons conducted at top management The number interviewed at middle management The number interviewed and lowest management Total interviewed 1 1 1 1 3 2 0 1 1 2 3 0 0 1 1 4 1 0 2 3 5 1 1 1 3 Parameters of study and sample study Various parameters were used in my research and this included review of literature and field study. In my case I visited the footwear company and studied their accounts and tried to see the implementation of quality management tool. The quality management tools used is the graphs the Pareto charts and histograms amongst the other. The sample study represents the various regions. The footwear company operates in three regions that are Europe, Asia Africa and the Latin America. The samples used represent the entire regions as whole. The sample represents the five companies under the footwear company and their regions of trading. Research findings The footwear company was stated in the 1950 the industry has five companies operating in four regions of the world. That is Europe, Asia and Africa not to mention, Latin America. The company has made as its requirement the application of the quality management tools to enhance its production and to meet its mission goal and vision. In the application of this tool the research shows the company has been using these tools for the past 10 years. This has majorly been applied in the assessment of its production and the quality of the products the company has been producing. In the quest to enlarge its market and increase it sells the industry sort to reduce its cost of production but at the same time take into consideration the quality of products. These is what necessitated the industry to apply these tools so as to have still quality goods produced but at the same time make sure that products are reaching the market as required. Conclusion Within the ten years of applying these tools company has realized the reduction in the cost of production and has seen an increase in its capacity. The cost of its products has gone down since the problems that industry was experienced were identified and the solutions to these found. These means that, the issues that were affecting production and distribution products of the footwear industry were solved. The general effect of this was the realization of growth in its production. The chats below can simply show how the company has fared over time with the application of these tools Below are examples of the quality management tools that the industry has used. Marketing strategy The marketing strategy here shows that the internet pricing are high at the 14th year after increasing from the 10th year. But at the year 14 there sees quite a drop in the pricing in the internet segment. The other marketing strategy in this case remains significantly low with the wholesale prices having no significant difference at all. The market shares of the industry The market share chart shows seemingly fluctuating trend especially in the early years till the 14th year. From the 15th year the trend changes significantly and we see an increase in the shares till the 19th year. The 20th year shows depreciation. References Retrieved from http://www.rediff.com Retrieved from http://www.bsg-online.com Hakes, Chris. 1991. Total quality management: the key to business improvement. London: Chapman & Hall. Sanghera, Paul. 2008. Fundamentals of effective program management: a process approach based on the global standard. Ft. Lauderdale, Fl: J. Ross Pub. Schwalbe, Kathy. 2010. Information technology Project Management. Boston, MA: Course Technology/Cengage Learning. Read More