Question.3061 - Blog: Reflective Summary You have been investigating and reflecting upon Six Sigma quality management issues throughout the course in the weekly class blog. Summarize what you have learned in this course about quality management. Begin by reading all of your posts and comments. Critically analyze your entries like you are reviewing someone else’s work, and comment on any consistent themes, specific concerns, changed perspectives, elements of surprise, or valuable insights. Compose a short analysis and reflection of your posts. You can quote briefly from your own posts or refer to specific ideas from the readings and research covered in this course. I've included a .doc that includes all the blogs you have submitted. The directions to each blog are in black , the tutor's work is in blue and the professor's comments are in red
Answer Below:
The Six Sigma quality management issues have multiple issues associated with it. The quality management area in a business organization is critical for cost saving and streamlining of the operations of the business. A summary and analysis of these aspects have been discussed in this paper. To begin with Six Sigma quality management system, the first aspect that is to be looked into is the various types of Six Sigma professionals. Professionals are categorized into various “belts” on the basis of skill sets, knowledge and expertise. This is an interesting process which makes it easy for professionals to be categorized on the above aspects to maintain quality of work processes. It ensures a self-check mechanism wherein, only certified professionals with requisite skill and knowledge are allowed to work on certain projects. However, it suffers from the disadvantage of promoting elitism. It lays extra emphasis on “belts” and it might create envy and undue grudge in the minds of professionals involved. Nevertheless, the division of Six Sigma professionals on the basis of various belts is an effective tool to maintain quality and reward mechanism to highlight professionals who have excelled in Six Sigma practice through experience and learning. A business organization has tremendous scope to improve its purchasing system and processes to streamline production system while maintaining the quality of the work operations. The Six Sigma tool of 7M for purchasing process focuses on improvement in purchasing system to enhance savings in costs and improvement in quality. Few of the key tools available in 7M process are Tree Diagram, Y-shaped matrix and Prioritization matrix. Tree diagram provides system wherein, large purchase deliverables are broken down into small deliverables for efficient management and savings in cost. Y-shaped matrix works to provide benefit to organization in terms of identification of customer requirements with the aim to understand and assess how various stakeholders of the firm shall be impacted. It allows for better understanding of needs of customers and makes the organization responsive to their needs. Through Prioritization Matrix, an organization can limit its focus on the most critical aspects of the business. 7M tools are effective in quality control and cost savings in a systemized manner. Poor quality has the potential to impact the profitability of the organization as it increases costs in terms of the cost of materials for rework, the cost of labor for rework, the cost of shipping, the cost of customer service errors and the cost of product replacement and waste. Poor quality reduces the profitability of the firm and also damages the brand image of the firm. (Pekar, 1995). A firm has to be first become aware about those aspects which stand for “quality” in the minds of the customers of the company. Working on requirements of the customers about quality standards, a firm can then work towards establishing effective measurement mechanism in its business operations to monitor costs related to rejections and rework of poor quality products and services. A company should also ensure steps are taken to sensitize and train the employees in this area to reduce costs of poor quality and improve overall quality standards. In the field of process development and problem solving, Plan-Do-Study-Act model developed by Dr. W. Edwards Deming (PDSA model) has been a very effective quality system to achieve results through continuous quality improvement. An organization can plan for the collection of critical data for process improvement. Subsequently, it can work for putting the plans into processes that shall take into account the requirements of the business. In the next step, the organization has to analyze the possible impact of the various methods and processes of quality improvement plans. In the final step, the business has to implement the plans while ensuring regular and systematic assessment to check for any deviation. PDSA model is an effective and flexible tool to utilize continuous quality improvement mechanism for overall quality improvement. In a service-oriented business, it is important to work towards improvement of the customer satisfaction through sustainable improvement is efficiency and effectiveness of the work processes. R & R analysis tool is an effective tool to reduce wastage and critically analyze overall operations for improvement. The improvement in quality is achieved through careful monitoring and analysis of each step in the operations of the firm. In business operations it important to maintain standardization of operations as any form of variation from set standard is likely to impact overall costs and quality of the manufacturing process. It is critical to identify causes of variations with a view to reduce such variation. There might common causes of variation in the manufacturing process like low quality raw materials, lack of good hygienic working conditions, etc. They are non-controllable causes of variation as they form an inherent part of the manufacturing process. On the hand, there is another set of causes which are referred to as controllable variation or special causes of variation like faulty capability of operators and controllers, malfunctioning of machinery in the production systems, etc. Normally, these special causes of variation are capable of being identified and can be controlled. To attain sustainable and widespread improvement in quality and costs which optimizes the process and business management systems, it is important to implement knowledge management together with Six Sigma principles. Knowledge management system makes emphasis on development of a “system for managing knowledge in organizations for supporting creation, capture, storage and dissemination of information” (Princeton.edu), which helps the business organization to internalize the learning of Six Sigma principles across all functions and achieve substantial cost savings. The DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) approach of Six Sigma tool had been effective in case of CSX Corporation to achieve substantial savings. These savings were achieved through focus on root cause analysis, involving all levels of management in cost savings plans and utilizing the cause and effect diagram to indentify key areas that could be targeted to achieve reduction in costs. Companies can replicate the use of these tools in their operations to reduce costs, as achieved by CSX Corporation. Kaizen and Six Sigma have been focus of study in quality improvement in business operations. But, these two tools are ideologically different from one another. While, Kaizen focuses of improvement of efficiency through simple systems, Six Sigma focused more on complex statistical analysis. Kaizen is simpler and cost effective to implement. Whereas, Six Sigma is more difficult and expensive exercise to implement within business organizations. Apart from DMAIC approach, which is effective to manage and control quality improvements in the organizations, DFSS (Design For Six Sigma) is also used to implement quality control. DFSS process in more suited in case of new products or processes. It utilizes various phases like preparation of balanced scorecard, identification of internal and external customers, benchmarking, etc. It provides a process best possible solution to implement a given project. I feel Six Sigma tools and processes discussed and summarized in the paper have the potential to substantially improve the quality systems in the business organizations. It is important to have a focused approach while implanting these concepts in business organizations. References Harriman, F. (n.d.).Basic Kaizen Tool. Retrieved May 28, 2013, from Kaizen Interpretation: http://www.fredharriman.com/resources/documents/FHcomKaizenForms.pdf Isixsigma.com. (n.d.) What Is Six Sigma?. Retrieved from http://www.isixsigma.com/new-to- six-sigma/getting-started/what-six-sigma Munro, R.A. (2009). Lean Six Sigma for the Healthcare Practice: A Pocket Guide. ASQ Quality Press. Pekar, J. (1995). Total quality management. (Vol. 22).ASTM International. Princeton.edu. (n.d.).Knowledge Management System. Retrieved from http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Knowledge_management_system.htmlMore Articles From Operation Management
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