Contention of General Foreman - Assignment Example

Case Study: Quality and Reliability Ans In the world we live today, it must be amply clear that; i. Quality has no substitute. ii. The company must consider improvement in quality as a means of bringing in product differentiation. iii. Company must understand the needs of a customer and 'must not' underestimate this need. In fact these guiding principles are inextricably linked to each other and development of this thought along with the development of other business processes can lead to some form of a competitive advantage in the market. Therefore the contention of General Foreman that, 'certain defects are perfectly acceptable to the customer' must be taken with a pinch of salt. This indicates the ignorance about customer behaviour. According to Michael Wing, A few common elements that contribute to the gab between customer expectations and the product or service offered are as follows1: Inadequate bilateral communication between frontline personnel and management. An absence of regular interaction between management and customers An absence of a strong marketing-research program (understanding the customer) An absence of customer-service accountability. As for the points of view of General Foreman and the Chief Inspector, we must keep in mind that all organisational processes are ultimately human processes being the outcome of human interaction. It is through expression that employees give expression to their commitment to work, level of motivation and their attitudes. Therefore, both officials while expressing commitment to work have some differences in perception. The number one priority for plant manager should be to minimise defects at the floor level itself. Detecting defects at the time of packing/ machining level not only increases the production costs but also adversely affects the net output. Difference of opinion is also a result of compatibility. General foreman is with the company for quite a while now while chief inspector has joined just a year back. Training of departmental inspectors can be a good option to invest in future, because training and development activities are the main mechanisms through which individual's goals and aspirations can be integrated with organisational goals and requirements. Training not only helps in developing knowledge and technical skills but also bring in change in attitudes as well. It needs to be emphsised to the inspectors that training is basically a task-oriented activity aimed at improving performance. There is also a problem of authority and coordination between horizontal differentiation between organisational units. This needs to be resolved amicably. This is plant manager's task to assign duties and responsibilities in the chain, which must appear to be logical and balanced. Let both general foreman and chief inspector should horizontally report to the plant manager, because this way I get feedback from two different checkpoints. All three departments will have the existing arrangement for the time being, because in any case campaign for better quality has already started. Ans. 2: Dr. W. Edwards Deming: "We have learned to live in a world of mistakes and defective products as if they were necessary to life. It is time to adopt a new philosophy in America."2 The managers of above mentioned case study must take a cue from this statement of Dr. Deming. Known as the father of Japanese post-war industrial revival, Dr. Deming was born in 1900 in United States. He remained largely unknown in his native USA until he was 'discovered' by the media in 1981. The Deming cycle or the PDCA cycle3 is a continuous quality improvement cycle consisting of a logical sequence of four repetitive steps for continuous improvement and learning; Plan, Do, Check and Act. This cycle was an improvement over the Shewart cycle. Dr. W. Edwards Deming* was a statistician and a student of Dr. Shewhart. His early career was spent teaching the application of statistical concepts and tools within industry4. He was invited to Japan at the end of World War II by Japanese industrial leaders and engineers. They asked Dr. Deming how long it would take to shift the perception of the world from the existing paradigm that Japan produced cheap, shoddy imitations to one of producing innovative quality products. Dr. Deming told the group that if they would follow his directions, they could achieve the desired outcome in five years. As Dr. Deming later told, "They surprised me and did it in four years."5 For his efforts he was awarded the Second Order of the Sacred Treasure by the former Emperor Hirohito. Japanese scientists and engineers named the famed Deming Prize after him. It is bestowed on organizations that apply and achieve stringent quality-performance criteria. Deming's business philosophy is summarized in his famous "14 Points," listed below; 1. Constancy of purpose 2. The new philosophy 3. Cease dependence on mass inspection 4. End lowest tender contracts 5. Improve every process 6. Institute training on the job 7. Institute leadership 8. Drive out fear 9. Break down barriers between departments and staff areas 10. Eliminate exhortations (Eliminate the use of slogans, posters and exhortations for the work force, demanding Zero Defects and new levels of productivity, without providing methods.) 11. Eliminate arbitrary numerical targets 12. Permit pride of workmanship (Remove the barriers that rob hourly workers, and people in management, of their right to pride of workmanship.) 13. Encourage education 14. Top management commitment and action Phil Crosby: He was a highly successful quality manager within ITT, and rose to become an executive. When Philip Crosby joined the business world in 1952 as a junior technician, the view of quality was quite clear: no product was expected by its producer to conform to its requirements; no paperwork was expected to be complete or error free; management went through the motions of being interested in giving 'quality' to the customers; the quality departments were held responsible for achieving and controlling quality; and no formal quality consideration was given to quality in 'white collar' areas6.When Mr. Crosby went to Martin-Orlando in 1957, three events came about that helped him realize that perhaps he was going to have to face reality, even if the rest of the world wouldn't. First, a casual conversation with long-time employee in the Martin quality department made it clear to Mr. Crosby that nothing had changed throughout the entire aerospace business in the past 35 years. The main concern was on waivers and deviations. No concern was placed on prevention, little training was done, and the customer was happy since they didn't know any different. Second, Mr. Crosby was exposed to the probability mathematics of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, which showed that system reliability was the product of individual component reliability. If, for instance, one hundred components had individual reliabilities of 99%, the reliability on the whole would be 36.5%. To him that meant nothing would ever work the first time. Third, Mr. Crosby was challenged by senior management to reduce the amount of errors in missiles being sent to Cape Canaveral for flight test. He was to reduce errors to none in order to stop the harassment from the Martin crew at Cape Canaveral. Out of all this came the concept of Zero Defects. He wrote 'Quality Is Free: The Art of Making Quality Certain' which explained in non-technical terms that management could take charge of quality. Ans. 3: Qualities of a Quality Assurance Manager: 1. Must believe in Quality 2. Must encourage Quality concepts among others 3. Must have completed his/her Master's in Business Administration 4. Must be clear about modern quality concepts having studied them. 5. Monitors status of work in progress and inspects completed work 6. Must be able to plan, create, run and maintain QA processes in order to safeguard and guarantee the highest levels of quality of the company's internal and external deliverables and products. 7. Be able to work closely with the executive staff, engineering managers and product marketing managers to define, plan, create and execute on the QA vision to ensure that product quality is a natural and planned part of product development 8. Must be able to assure the management about quality products 9. Must give an appropriate feedback to the top bosses about the workforce. 10. Must believe in acting as an 'acceptor' and not as a 'rejector' i.e. must not try to wave the stick stating, 'If quality is upto standards then I will reject the product.' Instead must instill the feeling amongst workforce that product will go through only if quality is maintained. 11. Be able to maintain and update current policies and procedures manual 12. Develops and evaluates annual utilization management programs; identifies charts scheduled for regular reviews 13. Develops tools to support the Quality Management program. 14. Ability to comprehend, interpret, explain, and apply a variety of complex laws, regulations, procedures, and other information related to quality assurance and records administration. 15. Evaluate program effectiveness on a regular basis 16. Must Supervise, advise, consult with, and train other individuals engaged in quality assurance. 17. Collect and analyze data to draw logical conclusions and make appropriate recommendations 18. Must be an experienced professional (5 yrs minimum) Resources: http://www.umsl.edu/sauter/analysis/488_f01_papers/Killoran/index.htm http://www.lii.net/deming.html http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/ http://www.dhutton.com/tqm/gurus.html Read More