Total quality management

 1.1 Concept of quality :

Quality is a relative concept. It is related to certain predetermined characteristics such as shape, dimensions, composition, finish, colour, weight, etc. In simple words, quality is the performance of the product as per the commitment made by the producer to the consumer.

 J. M. Juran (1970) who is considered the father of quality research has defined quality as “the performance of the product as per the commitment made by the producer to the consumer.”

There are two main elements in this definition of quality. First, the commitment may be explicit such as a written contract or it may be implied in terms of the expectations of the average consumer of the product. Second, the performance of the product relates to the ultimate functions and services which the final product must give to the final consumer.

For example, a watch should show accurate time or a ball point pen should write legibly on a piece of paper. According to ISO 8402: Quality Vocabulary, quality is the “The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.”

In practice, when we say any product as a quality product, it means the product satisfies certain criteria for its functioning. For a quality product, it is necessary that it should satisfy the laid down criteria not only at the time of its manufacture, but also over a reasonable length of time. 

1.2 Understanding and building the quality chains

 Meeting the customer requirements within the organization.

 Failure (QC manager and others)

 Failure not doing it right the first time at every stage of the process.

 Throughout and beyond all organizations -manufacturing & service- there is a series of quality chains of customer and supplier.

       Quality chains may be broken at any point, customer not satisfied

 The concept of internal and external customers/suppliers forms the core of total quality.

 Quality has to be managed – it will not just happen.

 Failure to meet the requirements in any part of quality chain leads to yet more failure.

 The price of quality is the continual examination of the requirements and our ability to meet them “continuing improvement” philosophy.

              Building chain

 Meeting the requirements

 the first item on the list of things to do is find out what requirements are.

 If we are dealing with a customer/supplier relationship, the supplier must understand not only the needs of the customer but also the ability of his own organization to meet them.

 Internal supplier/customer relationships are often the most difficult to manage in terms of establishing the requirements. To achieve quality throughout an organization, each person in the quality chain must interrogate every interface as follows:

Customers:

 who are my immediate customers?

 what are their true requirements?

 how can I measure my ability to meet the requirements?

Suppliers:

 who are my immediate suppliers?

 what are my true requirements?

 To understand how quality may be built into a product or service, at any stage, it is necessary to examine the two distinct, but interrelated aspects of quality: 

1. Quality of design

2. Quality of conformance to design

 Quality of design

 TV chair example

 Quality of design is a measure of how well the product or service is designed to achieve the agreed requirements.

 The most important feature of the design, with regard to achieving quality, is the specification.

 Specifications must also exist at the internal supplier/customer interfaces.

There must be an agreement that the operating departments can achieve that requirement

 Quality of conformance to design

 What the customer actually receives should conform to the design.

 The conformance check makes sure that things go according to plan.

Organizations may use the simple matrix to assess how much time spent doing the right things right

 1.3  Managing quality  means continuous improvement in all parts of an organisation with a view to satisfy customer needs as much as possible.

According to V. Daniel Hunt, “Total quality management is both a comprehensive managerial philosophy and a tool kit for its implementation.”

Managing quality addresses continuous improvement on

(i) Changing requirements

(ii) Competitive environments, and

(iii) Technological advances.

( Note : add some idea yourself to enhance topic)

1.4  Quality starts with understanding the needs:

It is obvious that cannot survive without satisfying customer. Satisfaction is a person’s feelings of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing a product’s perceived performance (or outcome) in relation to his or her expectations.

Satisfaction is the customer’s entire expectation with product, service and associates that determines his or her deliration of satisfaction. Satisfaction is based upon the customer’s perception of the experience. This perception is his/her interpretation of the value received played back against expectations. Interactions with the customer, the promise made to the customer in there conversations, the customer expectation generated in these conversations, and the actions we take that are consistent with those expectations combine to produce a declaration of satisfaction.

Therefore, it is essential to manage these aspects of business in a proactive manner to excel at customer satisfaction. The organization should always try to meet the external customer’s needs and as many of their wants as possible. There are a variety of ways in which we can identify an external customer needs.

• ·       By discussion their needs with them

• ·       By asking for customer feedback

• ·       By analyzing complaints

• ·       Through staff feedback

• ·       Carrying out market research

• ·       Through customer surveys 

  1.5 Quality in all functions

For an organization to be truly effective, each of its components must work properly together. Each part, each activity, each person in the organization affects and is in turn affected by others. Errors have a way of multiplying, and failure to meet the requirements in one part or area creates problems elsewhere, leading to get more errors, yet more problems and so on. The benefits of getting it right first time everywhere are enormous.

Every experiences-almost accepts-problems in working life. This causes people to spend a large part of their time on useless activities – correcting errors, looking for thing, so on. The list is endless, and it is estimated that about one-third of our efforts are still wasted in this way. In the service sector it can be much bigger.

Quality, the way we have defined it as meeting the customer requirements, gives people in different functions of an organization a common language for improvement. It enables all the people, with different abilities and priorities, to communicate readily with one another, in pursuit of a common goal. Business is now so complex and employees so many different specialist skill that everyone has to rely on the activities of others in doing their jobs.

Management that rely heavily on exhortation of the workforce to do the right job right the first time, or accept the quality is your responsibility, will not only fail to achieve quality but may create division and conflict. These calls for improvement infer that problems are departmental or functional when, in fact, the opposite is true – most problems are interdepartmental. The commitment of all member of an organization is a requirement of organization-wide quality improvement: everyone must work together act every interface to achieve improved performance and that can only happen if the top management is really committed.

         

UNIT  2

      2.1 DEMINGs The 14 Points

1. Create a constant purpose toward improvement.

• Plan for quality in the long term.

• Resist reacting with short-term solutions.

• Don't just do the same things better – find better things to do.

• Predict and prepare for future challenges, and always have the goal of getting better.

2. Adopt the new philosophy.

• Embrace quality throughout the organization.

• Put your customers' needs first, rather than react to competitive pressure – and design products and services to meet those needs.

• Be prepared for a major change in the way business is done. It's about leading, not simply managing.

• Create your quality vision, and implement it.

3. Stop depending on inspections.

• Inspections are costly and unreliable – and they don't improve quality, they merely find a lack of quality.

• Build quality into the process from start to finish.

• Don't just find what you did wrong – eliminate the "wrongs" altogether.

• Use statistical control methods – not physical inspections alone – to prove that the process is working.

4. Use a single supplier for any one item.

• Quality relies on consistency – the less variation you have in the input, the less variation you'll have in the output.

• Look at suppliers as your partners in quality. Encourage them to spend time improving their own quality – they shouldn't compete for your business based on price alone.

• Analyze the total cost to you, not just the initial cost of the product.

• Use quality statistics to ensure that suppliers meet your quality standards.

5. Improve constantly and forever.

• Continuously improve your systems and processes. Deming promoted the Plan-Do-Check-Act  approach to process analysis and improvement.

• Emphasize training and education so everyone can do their jobs better.

• Use kaizen  as a model to reduce waste and to improve productivity, effectiveness, and safety.

6. Use training on the job.

• Train for consistency to help reduce variation.

• Build a foundation of common knowledge.

• Allow workers to understand their roles in the "big picture."

• Encourage staff to learn from one another, and provide a culture and environment for effective teamwork.

7. Implement leadership.

• Expect your supervisors and managers to understand their workers and the processes they use.

• Don't simply supervise – provide support and resources so that each staff member can do his or her best. Be a coach instead of a policeman.

• Figure out what each person actually needs to do his or her best.

• Emphasize the importance of participative management and transformational leadership.

• Find ways to reach full potential, and don't just focus on meeting targets and quotas.

8. Eliminate fear.

• Allow people to perform at their best by ensuring that they're not afraid to express ideas or concerns.

• Let everyone know that the goal is to achieve high quality by doing more things right – and that you're not interested in blaming people when mistakes happen.

• Make workers feel valued, and encourage them to look for better ways to do things.

• Ensure that your leaders are approachable and that they work with teams to act in the company's best interests.

• Use open and honest communication to remove fear from the organization.

9. Break down barriers between departments.

• Build the "internal customer" concept – recognize that each department or function serves other departments that use their output.

• Build a shared vision.

• Use cross-functional teamwork to build understanding and reduce adversarial relationships.

• Focus on collaboration and consensus instead of compromise.

10. Get rid of unclear slogans.

• Let people know exactly what you want – don't make them guess. "Excellence in service" is short and memorable, but what does it mean? How is it achieved? The message is clearer in a slogan like "You can do better if you try."

• Don't let words and nice-sounding phrases replace effective leadership. Outline your expectations, and then praise people face-to-face for doing good work.

11. Eliminate management by objectives.

• Look at how the process is carried out, not just numerical targets. Deming said that production targets encourage high output and low quality.

• Provide support and resources so that production levels and quality are high and achievable.

• Measure the process rather than the people behind the process.

Tip:

There are situations in which approaches like Management By Objectives  are appropriate, for example, in motivating sales-people. As Deming points out, however, there are many situations where a focus on objectives can lead people to cut corners with quality. You'll need to decide for yourself whether or not to use these approaches. If you do, make sure that you think through the behaviors that your objectives will motivate.

12. Remove barriers to pride of workmanship.

• Allow everyone to take pride in their work without being rated or compared.

• Treat workers the same, and don't make them compete with other workers for monetary or other rewards. Over time, the quality system will naturally raise the level of everyone's work to an equally high level.

13. Implement education and self-improvement.

• Improve the current skills of workers.

• Encourage people to learn new skills to prepare for future changes and challenges.

• Build skills to make your workforce more adaptable to change, and better able to find and achieve improvements.

14. Make "transformation" everyone's job.

• Improve your overall organization by having each person take a step toward quality.

• Analyze each small step, and understand how it fits into the larger picture.

• Use effective change management principles to introduce the new philosophy and ideas in Deming's 14 points

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                 2.2 JURAN’S 10 POINTS THEORY FOR QUALITY IMPROVEMENT

1. Build awareness of need and opportunity for improvement:-

   Realize that all processes are improvable. Taking an example of mistakes published a     newspaper they made the previous day, Juran say that they should:

• Survey the staff, asking them why the mistakes were made;

• After a week, select the top ten reasons;

• Decide how to make sure those mistake-causing steps aren't

• repeated;

• Keep track of the number of mistakes being made, to make sure they are decreasing.

   Now we have just created a quality improvement program!

2. Set goals for improvement :-  Juran’s formula for results is

• Establish specific goals to be reached.

• Establish plans for reaching the goals.

• Assign clear responsibility for meeting the goals.

• Base the rewards on results achieved.

3. Organize to reach your goals.

·         Establish quality council

·         Identify problems

·         Select projects

·         Appoint teams

·         Designate facilitators

4. Provide training.

 Any company, which has been actively engaged in moving towards TQM in the past few years, knows how important education and training are. The concepts, methods and tools for modern quality management are new for most members of the company -- managers, professionals and workforce. The investment in education and training is high, but the rewards are great.

5. Carry out projects to solve problems.

 Large improvements are usually the result of interdepartmental or even cross-functional quality improvement teams. These teams tackle the chronic problems that have been in the way of company progress for a long time. These are the vital few problems that create the breakthroughs in quality by reducing waste and improving customer satisfaction dramatically.

6. Report progress

 Importance here is on the progress expected and the actual progress achieved. Necessary actions to improve the status can be initiated to reduce the variance. Information on the progress also provides the management the confidence on the Improvement activity and further support if required.

7. Give recognition

 Recognition is a means of providing morale to both those involved in the improvement activity and all others in an organization. This is an important activity to be done by the management as improvements provide a change for betterment resulting in savings to the company and at times, the improvements are made possible against lot of criticisms. Recognition rejuvenates the spirits and makes it possible for improvement areas in other spheres.

8. Communicate result.

 Lesson learnt during the improvement process requires to be shared to create an awareness of the approach taken and the possibility to learn and improve further. It also provides an outlook for people in other areas to the basis for triggering similar improvements in their areas.  

9. Keep score.

 A Company’s goals are achieved step-by-step. Each step taking it nearer to the targeted goals. Further steps to be taken shall involve an action based on the lesson in the previous steps. Tracking the progress and measuring it provides the management the leverage to control the process.

10. Maintain momentum by making annual improvement part of the regular process of the company.

 Actions taken in the above steps shall involve the people and sustaining their involvement in improvement activity is a must to achieve the long-term organizational goals and to remain competitive. Juran approach is very many people oriented and it places a strong emphasis upon teamwork and a project –based approach. Expanding the Quality Planning Roadmap discussed earlier, it can be seen that Juran concepts are applied to design of Quality Systems in Software Industry

2.3 Quality Improvement Steps Follows by-  Philip B. Crosby!

Some of the most important steps for improving quality, as formulated by Philip B. Crosby are: 1. Management commitment 2. Quality improvement team 3. Quality measurement 4. Cost of quality 5. Quality Awareness 6. Corrective action 7. Zero defect planning 8. Employee education 9. Zero defect day 10. Goal setting 11. Removal of causes of error 12. Recognition 13. Quality councils and 14. Do it all over again.

1. Management commitment:

Management must be committed to participate in the quality improvement programme throughout the organisation by initiating policies, actions and procedures with the principles of TQM.

2. Quality improvement team:

By inviting representatives from each department a quality improvement team should be constituted to initiate, organise and monitor the quality improvement programmes.

3. Quality measurement:

Quality measures are very important to know performance of quality in the organisation. Such measures permit objective evaluation and corrective action to be taken in case of deviation from the pre¬determined standards of quality.

4. Cost of quality: Cost of quality should be evaluated to see whether the corrective action with regard to quality was profitable for the company or not?

5. Quality Awareness:

Employees in the organisation should be made aware about the quality and its importance by training supervisors and communicating through booklets, films and posters. Crosby suggested that use of slogans can also be a good measure to tell people about the quality improvement process. Employees must be told about the management’s commitment toward quality control and improvement programmes.

6. Corrective action:

Corrective action should be initiated by encouraging the employees to identify and set right the defects. A corrective action system needs to be based on analysis that identifies the root cause of the problem so that it can be eliminated.

7. Zero defect planning:

An adhoc committee should be formed by the management for the “zero defect” programme to investigate the zero defect programme and ways to implement it.

8. Employee education: After adopting the four absolutes of quality (as explained earlier). It is very necessary to train all the employees of the organisation in this regard. Crosby suggested a 30 hour quality training programme which provides a standard message and could be used by anyone trained on the package.

9. Zero defect day:

This day should be celebrated by the management to show their concern and seriousness about the quality. The day signifies to everyone in the organisation that their work must meet a new and higher standard of performance.

10. Goal setting:

Goals should be set in advance and time for their attainment should be specified in advance. Goals should be on 30, 60 and 90 days basis. It should encourage individuals for the accomplishment of quality goals.

11. Removal of causes of error:

The employees should be asked to describe any problem that may obstruct the performance of error free work. While describing this step, Crosby stated .that “Asking people to state the problem they have so that something can be done about it.” A proper identification of problem and their causes should be immediately taken up.

12. Recognition: Those who achieve goals or perform in an outstanding manner should be honoured by providing non-financial incentives. This is an essential step to improve the quality improvement programme.

13. Quality councils:

Quality councils should be formed comprising of quality professionals. The councils should meet regularly to communicate and determine actions to upgrade and improve the quality improvement programme.

14. Do it all over again:

Improvement of quality is a never ending journey. After the competition, the process should be repeated again. This provides an opportunity to review everybody’s commitment to quality and brings about new opportunities for the further improvements in quality.

2.4 Feigenbaun’s approach to total quality control

 AWARDS/POSITIONS  He wrote a book entitled ‘Total Quality Control’, in 1961.  2008 National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest honour for technological achievement bestowed on America’s leading innovators.

 Quality of products and services is directly influenced by ‘Nine Ms’- Markets Money Management Men Motivation Materials Machines and Mechanization Modern information methods Mounting product requirements

 According to Armand V. Feigenbaum – Total quality control is an effective system for integrating the quality development, quality maintenance, and quality improvement efforts of the various groups in an organization so as to enable production and service at the most economical levels which allow full customer satisfaction.

 Quality Costs PREVENTION COSTS APPRAISAL COSTS INTERNAL FAILURE COSTS EXTERNAL FAILURE COSTS

 Concept of the “Hidden Plant”  Hidden Plant – the idea that so much extra work is performed in correcting mistakes that there is effectively a hidden plant within any factory.  In every factory a certain proportion of its capacity is wasted through not getting it right the first time. Dr. Feigenbaum quoted a figure of up to 40% of the capacity of the plant being wasted. At that time, this was an unbelievable figure; even today some managers are still to learn that this is a figure not too far removed from the truth.

 Feigenbaum’s Philosophy: Three Steps to Quality  (i) Quality Leadership: Management should take the lead in enforcing quality efforts. It should be based on sound planning.  (ii) Management Quality Technology: The traditional quality programmes should be replaced by the latest quality technology for satisfying the customers in future.  (iii) Organisational Commitment: Motivation and continuous training of the total work force tells about the organisational commitment towards the improvement of the quality of the product and the services.

 Elements of Total Quality to Enable a Totally Customer Focus  Quality is the customers perception.  Quality and cost are the same not different.  Quality is an individual and team commitment.  Quality and innovation are interrelated and mutually beneficial.  Managing Quality is managing the business.  Quality is a principal.  Quality is not a temporary or quick fix.  Productivity gained by cost effective demonstrably beneficial Quality investment.  Implement Quality by encompassing suppliers and customers in the system.

 Armand V. Feigenbaum was the first to consider that quality should be considered at all the different stages of the process and not just within the manufacturing function. In his words, “The underlying principle of the total quality view and its basic difference from all other concepts is that it provides genuine effectiveness. Control must start with identification of customer quality requirements and end only when the product has been placed in the hands of a customer who remains satisfied. Total quality control guides the coordinated action of people, machines and information to achieve this goal. The first principle to recognize is that quality is every body’s job.”

2.6 8 Important Dimensions of Quality formulated by David A. Garvin

David A. Garvin, a specialist in the area of quality control, argues that quality can be used in a strategic way to compete effectively and an appropriate quality strategy would take into consideration various important dimensions of quality.

There are eight such dimensions of quality. These are:

1. Performance:

       It involves the various operating characteristics of the product. For a television set, for example, these characteristics will be the quality of the picture, sound and longevity of the picture tube.

2. Features:

     These are characteristics that are supplemental to the basic operating characteristics. In an automobile, for example, a stereo CD player would be an additional feature.

3. Reliability:

      Reliability of a product is the degree of dependability and trustworthiness of the benefit of the product for a long period of time.

      It addresses the probability that the product will work without interruption or breaking down.

4. Conformance:

      It is the degree to which the product conforms to pre- established specifications. All quality products are expected to precisely meet the set standards.

5. Durability:

      It measures the length of time that a product performs before a replacement becomes necessary. The durability of home appliances such as a washing machine can range from 10 to 15 years.

6. Serviceability:

      Serviceability refers to the promptness, courtesy, proficiency and ease in repair when the product breaks down and is sent for repairs.

7. Aesthetics:

       Aesthetic aspect of a product is comparatively subjective in nature and refers to its impact on the human senses such as how it looks, feels, sounds, tastes and so on, depending upon the type of product. Automobile companies make sure that in addition to functional quality, the automobiles are also artistically attractive.

8. Perceived quality:

      An equally important dimension of quality is the perception of the quality of the product in the mind of the consumer. Honda cars, Sony Walkman and Rolex watches are perceived to be high quality items by the consumers.

2.7   Ishikawa Diagram

     An Ishikawa diagram is a diagram that shows the causes of an event and is often used in manufacturing and product development to outline the different steps in a process, demonstrate where quality control issues might arise and determine which resources are required at specific times.

       The Ishikawa diagram was developed by Kaoru Ishikawa during the 1960s as a way of measuring quality control processes in the shipbuilding industry.

      Ishikawa diagrams are sometimes referred to as fish bone diagrams, herringbone diagrams, cause-and-effect diagrams, or Fishikawa. They are causal diagrams created by Kaoru Ishikawa to show the causes of a specific event. They resemble a fish skeleton, with the "ribs" representing the causes of an event and the final outcome appearing at the head of the skeleton. The purpose of the Ishikawa diagram is to allow management to determine which issues have to be addressed in order to gain or avoid a particular event.

   

Other common uses of the Ishikawa diagram include using it as a methodology for creating product designs that solve practical problems. It can also be used in quality defect prevention to identify potential factors causing an overall effect. Each cause or reason for imperfection is a source of variation. Causes are usually grouped into major categories to identify and classify these sources of variation.

     Process to Make an Ishikawa Diagram

         To make an Ishikawa Diagram, a group will need a white board, flip chart and some marking pens.

1. The group should agree on a problem statement (effect).

2. Write the problem statement at the center right of the flipchart or whiteboard, box it and draw a horizontal arrow running to it.

3. Brainstorm the primary categories of causes for the problem. For instance, it might make sense to start with these generic headings: methods, machines (equipment), people (manpower), materials, measurement, and environment.

4. Write the categories of causes as branches from the main arrow.

5. Brainstorm possible causes. Ask: “Why does this happen?” As each idea is given, the facilitator writes it as a branch from the appropriate category. Causes can be written in several places, if they relate to several categories.

6. Ask the question “why does this happen?” again. Write sub–causes branching off the causes. Continue to ask “Why?” and generate deeper levels of causes. Layers of branches indicate causal relationships.

7. When the group runs out of ideas, focus attention to areas in the chart where ideas are thin.

2.7 Common causes of TQM failure

Yes, Total Quality Management fails.  We don't hear too much about those.  When it does not bring about improvement in the workplace, it is usually a result of faulty implementation rather than anything intrinsically wrong with the concepts.  

Reason #1:  Improper Planning

Organizations tend to be so anxious to begin doing "something", that they start off being unclear as to what they are trying to accomplish and how to get there.  There is a time to jump to action and a time to insure that the actions are properly planned and considered.  Jumping in too early creates chaos, and cynicism as expectations are frustrated.

Reason #2:  Management Confusion

Managers need to lead the organization to quality processes.  Too often managers have not considered what this means on a day to day level.  Many managers will need some coaching on what their roles might be, and how to carry them out, but quite frequently, managers are not prepared for the tasks they face.

Reason #3:  Inadequate Support To Managers

So far, there has been a tendency to hire TQM consultants to visit for a half-day or so to start the process.  This puts incredible pressure on managers since they have little ongoing access to the expert help they need to make this work.  Also, some activities that are part of TQM are best carried out by "outsiders" who bring a different kind of objectivity to the process.

Reason #4:  Partial Implementation (Hedging)

Many organizations jump in by implementing only one piece of TQM, usually focussing on the customer, or collecting information from employees.  Customer service is only one part of the puzzle, and empowering employees is not likely to bring about change unless other issues are addressed.

Reason #5:  Inadequate Marketing

There is considerable cynicism in the public sector these days.  Employees have seen management fads come and go without impact.  TQM programs that do not communicate the TQM principles, and management intent usually fail.  TQM must be explained in ways which show how it will benefit all members of the organization.  Then management must lead by example.

Reason #6:  Impatience

Any organization change requires perseverance and patience.  Management that is not willing to work at it over an extended time will start backing off the principles and become inconsistent in their actions.  That destroys their own credibility, and the credibility of organization change in general.

Unit 3

                                               3.1  What is Benchmarking?

Benchmarking is a process where different companies compare their nature of work with other companies in the same field of business and they set a certain type of standard of work.

It is a matter of work from different companies which creates some standard for the work they deliver. And this standard of their work is considered and called as benchmarking.

This benchmarking allows different companies to compare their workability with other companies.

Types of Benchmarking:

Benchmarking is mainly used to assess the competitive insight and also gather the information based on the performance which was done throughout the product or organization development process.

With the help of this benchmarking process, we can evaluate and identify the process to eliminate hindrances which help further in improving and enhancing our performance.

There are two primary types of benchmarking:

I. Internal benchmarking:

In this type of benchmarking the comparison of practices and performance is done between teams, individuals or groups within an organization

II. External benchmarking:

In the external benchmarking process, the comparison of organizational performance towards the company peers or across companies.

These above discussed benchmarking processes can be further diluted as follows

1. Process benchmarking:

Benchmarking is usually a process to see how the competitors are working or how they are able to gain success.

When using process benchmarking, the data is gathered via research, surveys, and website visits. All this information is helpful for people who are working on similar kind of tasks and objectives.

2. Performance Metrics:

Here when comparing competitors or analyzing clients, numerical metrics are gathered as information.

The details later are used to identify performance gaps, prioritize tasks, etc and then work

accordingly.

3. Strategic Benchmarking:

Strategic benchmarking analyzes how top companies compete and use the best strategies to achieve success in this competitive market. This type is mainly helpful for all the

organizations which are aiming for their long term goals.

There are different types of benchmarking which helps in understanding the actual concept of the benchmarking process. Most of the benchmarking process involves a legitimate competitive element in different types of business.

4. SWOT:

As per the abbreviation goes, it can be elaborated as strength, weakness, opportunities, and threat. It is a combination made of strength & weakness with opportunities & threats. In this type of benchmarking process, most of the companies provide their own strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat. And finally, the result of all this analysis covers up a new idea of change inside the company itself.

5. Peer benchmarking:

There is some kind of criteria that needs to be considered while benchmarking and these criteria provide some sort of dimension for all the companies. And in this peer benchmarking the competition is among those industries or companies which deal with a similar field of work. Therefore, the comparison is among those companies which deliver similar work field.

6. Group benchmarking:

It is one of the forms of combined benchmarking where in which a group of companies joins hands with some relevant association and that association helps them provide the report that can be necessary to deliver their benchmarking aspects.

Therefore, group benchmarking or collaborative benchmarking allows all the information of the different companies through those associations and actual work of those associations is that they need to provide better reports of benchmarking of their companies.

7. Best practice benchmarking:

In this form of benchmarking, the companies look forward to those companies which already made their impression on the business field. The practices which they followed to be in the top list of the best companies are followed and incorporated by the rest of the company which aspires to be similar like that successful company.

Therefore, it is necessary to create benchmarking where in which it includes all the best practices delivered and reported by the company.

Benchmarking Process:

The benchmarking process is a process in which all the different steps are included which helps all the companies from similar or different work field find out their strengths and weakness.

These steps provide all the aspects of the companies which can provide them an actual success rate of their company.

1. Determining aspects of the company:

In this phase of benchmarking the company identifies all the aspects of their company which can help them determine their benchmarking criteria with the rest of the company.

Therefore, in this phase of work the company finds out all the important aspects of their companies, which can rank them as one of the best in the industry and also can deliver information such as their success rate and the element of their work order.

2. Planning and research:

In this planning and research phase, the company provides necessary information about the different aspects of their company. After understanding all the aspects of the company, the company arranges for the planning phase where these aspects of companies are examined for the goodness sake of the company and finally it goes through a research phase where all the planned aspects are researched completely for the best of the companies.

3. Collection of data:

At this stage of benchmarking, all the data collected from the planning and research department are maintained through some sort of methods and measures. Therefore, these methods help the company provide the final and comparative aspects of the company which can consider themselves different from the rest of the company. And the final data collected through this collection stages are considered as a fact of comparison.

4. Examination:

In this stage of benchmarking all the findings and output delivered by the planning and research department are examined for the purpose of the overall development of the company.

Therefore, this stage examines or analyzes all those findings from the previous phase to deliver the final word of benchmarked aspects of the company.

5. Development:

At this stage of benchmarking the final examined data collected from the examination stage can be provided with the necessary recommendation of the development of the company.

After examining the output of the benchmarking aspects of the company, the same company will create some development programs within the company to improve the working efficiency of the company.

6. Incorporation:

In this final stage of benchmarking all the aspects that are examined and developed are finally incorporated in the company for the overall development of the company. After finding the aspect which needs to be incorporated in the company, the company can provide a particular supportive environment for such a change in the company.

Therefore, all the necessary facts and those matters of the company which can turn it into a successful company needs to be incorporated in the company.

Importance of Benchmarking:

Benchmarking is a widely used global management process, which is very helpful for organization development and success. But still, most of the industries do not use the benchmarking process as an efficient tool to boost their performance and productivity.

Here we have designed 24 benchmarking tactics that can help companies develop and build winning techniques and plans.

• Strategy

• Structure

• Leadership

• Cost

• Investment

• Business economics

• Staffing

• Skills

• Talent

• Services

• Activities

• Impact analysis

• Technology

• Innovation

• Future trends

• Quality

• Cycle time yields

• Productivity

• Best practice insights

• Process intelligence

• Analogs

• Launch

• Planning

• Life cycle insights

•

Advantages of Benchmarking:

There are several advantages of benchmarking. Most of the common benefits of benchmarking help to improve the productivity of the company. Moreover, these advantages can provide a clear picture of the key factors of benchmarking in the company. And increased productivity elements, display the successful features of the company.

1. Implements creative ideas:

One of the common type of benchmarking where in which all the beneficial aspects of the company are creatively implemented for the overall development of the company.

The benchmarking process helps the company find out their key features and after finding out the key features of their company, that company compares it with another company to complete the picture. And if there are any filling to be needed, then the company starts implementing creative ideas for the company.

2. Increased competitions:

Most of the time while doing business and while running a successful company, that company faces some strong competition from the rest of the companies. And that competition helps the current company to maintain their position even better in terms of their success rate of the company.

Therefore, as per the statement of the benchmarking process, it definitely increases healthy competition among different companies.

3. Developing improvement:

It is clear about benchmarking that it deals with those findings of the company and another company which helps them find their position in the business market.

And if there are any chance or space available for improvement in the company activities, then the company needs to develop those improvements in the company for the growth of the company in its own terms.

4. Identifies essential activities:

One of the best possible advantages of benchmarking is that it can help all the companies to identify their own essential activities that can improve the profits of the company.

Therefore, after benchmarking it is very much important for all the companies to be identified in the list of companies, which is in a run and where it can deliver the victory of their company effectively.

5. Quality of work:

Because of benchmarking once the company identifies their strengths and weakness compared with the rest of the company, then it is quite clear that all the aspects of the company need to be improved at a time to time basis.

And finally, the company can deliver some sort of ways which can deliver quality in their working order. Therefore, benchmarking makes things clear and creates some sort of awareness among the company’s working environment.

6. Increased performance:

As it is explained earlier that the benchmarking process, identifies all the features and elements of the company which can lead them towards its success. And eventually, it also provides essential signals regarding the need and wants of the company.

Once the company finds out about the actual requirements of the company, then it can increase its work performance as per the comparison aspects.

Disadvantages of Benchmarking:

As the company can receive some sort of benefits from these benchmarking processes, then it is quite obvious that the company can be covered with some of the disadvantages as well. And those disadvantages are as follows.

1. Stabilized standards:

Most of the company compares their working environment with another company which is earning quite well in a similar field of work. After finding out the reason for the improved success rates, the company can incorporate those ideas of that company to improve their productivity. And eventually, they stabilize their standard to that one aspect, without its course of action.

2. Insufficient information:

Sometimes it happens that while comparing the aspects of different companies, the information acquiring company can be left behind with their information-gathering techniques. And that is why it can face tremendous loss in their business because of insufficient information about the company.

Therefore, it is very essential for all the companies that they need to be sure of their information about that another company.

3. Decreased results:

Most of the time when a company sets its standard and try to improve that standard by implementing some new and creative ideas, then at that time the company need to look at those companies which are doing quite good in their similar type of business. And analyze the actual problem in their company.

Once the company finds out the actual reason, then they need to research well about the element that whether it is feasible for the company or not.

4. Lack of customer satisfaction:

Most probably during the benchmarking process, the company finds out those outputs which can need to be improved and developed for the sake of the overall growth of the company. Hence, for that, the company needs to look into matters which can increase their productivity along with their customer satisfaction.

Therefore, instead of incorporating the ideas that another company used in their company, it can check for its feasibility in their own company.

5. Lack of understanding:

As most of the companies keep an eye on their competition instead of their own growth, it is quite clear for all the company that such type of obsession with another company can not lead the company anywhere.

Therefore, it is advisable for all the companies that they need to understand the need for benchmarking in their company instead of spying on another company.

6. Increased dependency:

Most of the companies think that benchmarking helps them improve their company position as it helped those successful companies to be in the top. But most of the companies forget that those companies which made themselves to that top position have earned their hard work.

Therefore, instead of depending on the ideas which made that company successful, they can build their own network to make them independent for a better future.

Examples of Benchmarking:

As per the definition, benchmarking is a process of comparing your performance with your competitors in the market. This competitive analysis helps you improve your strategies for growth and development.

The outcomes of the benchmarking process can be used in promotion and sales. Some of the best examples of benchmarking are

• Technology

• Financial

• Marketing

• Products

• Markets

• Operations

• Productivity

• Processes

• Governments

• Services

• Strategy

• Cities

• Retail

For more information relating to the characteristics of successful benchmarking implementation, refer to this article (pdf): characteristics of benchmarking

Conclusion:

Finally, the bottom line is that this discussion about the aspects of benchmarking and their process can provide essential information about the actual activities of the company. And those activities of the company create a marginal line between successful and aspiring companies.

Most of the company looks forward to those companies which made quite a great effort in their business. Therefore, this information about benchmarking can provide skillful knowledge about the advantages and disadvantages of the benchmarking for their own company understanding.

           Reason of benchmarking

Here are our top five reasons why your business must benchmark:

1. Benchmarking allows you to dive in deep to find out why top performers in your industry are so successful. You’ll be able to analyse the key behaviours and ingredients for success, so that you can emulate them.

2. Benchmarking enables you to identify the strengths and weaknesses in your own business. Without this insight, you could be traveling blind and making business decisions without the right information.

3. Benchmarking provides objectivity, so that you can take an objective view of your business. It’s difficult to do this otherwise – you may be just too close and emotionally invested in your business so making it difficult to stand back and be unbiased. The most successful businesses take off the rose-tinted spectacles and make realistic assessments about their performance.

4. Benchmarking empowers you to understand personnel productivity in detail, and subsequently, set reasonable expectations for staff productivity. There’s no benefit in setting expectations that simply can’t be met by humans. Likewise, it’s foolish to set expectations that are too low to drive real value in your business. Comparing your staff productivity to more successful players will help you identify your productivity gaps.

5. Benchmarking can also help you assess performance in the area of finance. A wide range of expenditure questions can be answered to help you make strong conclusions – on anything from average industry salaries, to the cost of office supplies.

Like any management activity that’s worth doing, benchmarking takes a little effort. But outside help is available. If done right, benchmarking holds the key to future prosperity, for you and your business.

3.2 What is Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a structured approach to discovering potential failures that may exist within the design of a product or process.

Failure modes are the ways in which a process can fail. Effects are the ways that these failures can lead to waste, defects or harmful outcomes for the customer. Failure Mode and Effects Analysis is designed to identify, prioritize and limit these failure modes.

FMEA is not a substitute for good engineering. Rather, it enhances good engineering by applying `the knowledge and experience of a Cross Functional Team (CFT) to review the design progress of a product or process by assessing its risk of failure.

There are two broad categories of FMEA, Design FMEA (DFMEA) and Process FMEA ( PFMEA).

Design FMEA

Design FMEA (DFMEA) explores the possibility of product malfunctions, reduced product life, and safety and regulatory concerns derived from:

• Material Properties

• Geometry

• Tolerances

• Interfaces with other components and/or systems

• Engineering Noise: environments, user profile, degradation, systems interactions

Process FMEA

Process FMEA (PFMEA) discovers failure that impacts product quality, reduced reliability of the process, customer dissatisfaction, and safety or environmental hazards derived from:

• Human Factors

• Methods followed while processing

• Materials used

• Machines utilized

• Measurement systems impact on acceptance

• Environment Factors on process performance

3.3 Major benefits of quality function deployment (QFD)

 

Quality Function Deployment (QFD)-House of Quality –is an effective Management tool to drive the design process and production process with the main aim of satisfying the customer needs. The benefits of QFD are

 

1. A systematic way of obtaining information and presenting it.

2. Shorter product development cycle.

3. Considerably reduced start-up costs.

4. Fewer engineering changes.

5. Reduced chance of overnights during design process.

6. An environment of team work.

7. Consensus decision.

8. Everything is preserved in writing.

 

9. It facilitates identification of the causes of customer complaints and makes it easier to takes prompt remedical action.

10.    It is a useful tool for improving product Quality.

11.    It is a useful tool for competitive analysis of product quality.

12.    It is stabilizes quality.

13.    It cuts down on rejects and rework at the production site.

 

14.    It decreases claims substantially.

15.    Marketing benefits are obtained by identifying sales point.

3.4 Quality function management (QFD)

Definition:  Quality function deployment is a systematic approach of specifying the customer needs and desires, rating them in terms of priority and designing the quality products and process to serve these requirements, through proper planning. QFD is a process of bridging the gap between where we stand and what we aim at, by providing target values and competitive analysis.

3.5 QFD Process

A quality function deployment emphasizes on product and process design. It involves the following four phases:

 

Phase 1: Product Planning

The initial step of QFD exercise involves product planning. It is a process of analyzing the customer requirements and comparing these with the product’s technical specifications to ensure quality optimization while designing a product. It involves the creation of the house of quality for a particular product.

House of Quality

House of quality is a matrix which is the basis of product planning, and its diagram looks like a house. It is a realistic approach which analyzes the consumer desires and matches it with the technical attributes of a product, to optimally fulfil these requirements by utilizing the resources available with the organization.

This matrix determines the following parameters:

 

• Customer needs or requirements;

• Product design to suit these needs and wants;

• The priority of each item and its importance while designing a product and process;

• Competitive assessment and analysis of each element;

• Establishing benchmarks and target values for each component.

The above diagram gives an overview of the different sections of a house of quality matrix.

Phase 2: Design Deployment

At this stage, the product design is developed by identifying the suitable assemblies or systems, sub-systems and components.

Following are the various levels analyzed at this phase:

• System Level: It includes the analysis of technical requirements for a product, prioritization of these specifications and their impact over a particular system or assembly.

• Sub-system Level: The complex systems are then distributed into sub-systems to list, rank and study the critical components.

• Component Level: The characteristics are then figured out in terms of purchased components, thus provides as a source of information to the suppliers.

Phase 3: Process Planning

Now comes the process development stage of QFD. This phase evaluates the correlation between the various processes or steps and the technical and functional specification of the product. It helps to identify the process which meets the part requirements in the best possible manner.

Following functions are performed in this stage:

• Analyze the crucial processes;

• Identify the process flow;

• Find out the need for production equipment;

• Develop the framework for a critical process.

•

Phase 4: Production Planning

It is the last phase of quality function deployment. At this stage, the product’s quality control throughout the production process is determined.

In other words, quality targets are decided during production planning. The various related activities carried out are as follows:

• Examine the crucial technical and process characteristics;

• Identify methods of process control;

• Analysis and testing of the process and associated parameters.

3.6  Taguchi Loss Function

Taguchi Loss Function is a statistical method developed by Genichi Taguchi, a Japanese business statistician that shows how manufacture of each non-perfect part results in a loss for the company. This concept is a landmark in describing quality and has helped spread the concept of continuous improvement, and finds relevance in lean manufacturing and Six Sigma.

    Taguchi’s loss function explains that quality does not suddenly plummet and private and social costs do not rise suddenly when products are not in conformance to specifications. Instead, the losses to the manufacturer and the society are a function of the deviance or variability from the target value or best quality level. The private and social loss is zero at the target value, and the losses gradually increase as the product specifications deviate from the target value.

The three characteristics that shape the definition of Taguchi loss

1. Nominal, where the best characteristic or target value is the median of the specified upper and lower acceptable limits, and the losses owing to deviance from the target value rise proportionate to the extent of deviance on either side of the mean. Here an example includes the frequency settings in radio and wireless equipment. For instance, the equipment not confirming exactly with the set frequency is defective increases the social costs for repair or replacement.

2. Smaller-the-Better, where the ideal target value or best quality standard is zero, and the higher the actual value, the higher the private and social costs. Examples of such instances include heat loss in heat exchanger, or carbon dioxide emissions. For instance, the more heat lost by the heat exchanger, the less efficiently it functions, and the higher the social costs.

3. Larger-the-Better, where the ideal characteristic or best quality standard is infinity, and the higher the actual value, the better, and the lower the actual value, the more the private and social costs. Examples of such instances include maximizing product yield from a process, agricultural output, and the like. For instance, the higher yields indicate better quality seeds, and lower yields increase the social costs.

3.7 Total productive maintenance (TPM) 

 Total productive maintenance  is the process of using machines, equipment, employees and supporting processes to maintain and improve the integrity of production and the quality of systems. Put simply, it's the process of getting employees involved in maintaining their own equipment while emphasizing proactive and preventive maintenance techniques. Total productive maintenance strives for perfect production. That is:

• No breakdowns

• No stops or running slowly

• No defects

• No accidents

 Benefits of Total Productive Maintenance

1. Less unplanned maintenance

With carefully planned and scheduled maintenance, equipment is extremely well maintained. Additionally, TPM empowers all plant personnel to take ownership of their machines and maintenance is a positive investment for them. Since TPM makes maintenance personal, assets are better cared for.

2. Reduced equipment downtime

More planned maintenance means fewer failures. By implementing proactive maintenance activities, downtime events are minimized.

3. Lower manufacturing costs

As overall equipment efficiency (OEE) increases, production costs are also minimized. Higher productivity leads to higher profits and reduced spending on equipment stoppage time and repairs.

4. Strengthened workplace safety

Because TPM is built on the 5S foundation, the workplace is systematically organized and cleaned. The steps in the 5S method - sort, straighten, shine, standardize, and sustain - uncover underlying problems and challenges to maintaining the work environment.

UNIT 4 

    4.1 Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a business management strategy which aims at improving the quality of processes by minimizing and eventually removing the errors and variations. The concept of Six Sigma was introduced by Motorola in 1986, but was popularized by Jack Welch who incorporated the strategy in his business processes at General Electric. The concept of Six Sigma came into existence when one of Motorola’s senior executives complained of Motorola’s bad quality. Bill Smith eventually formulated the methodology in 1986.

Quality plays an important role in the success and failure of an organization. Neglecting an important aspect like quality, will not let you survive in the long run. Six Sigma ensures superior quality of products by removing the defects in the processes and systems. Six sigma is a process which helps in improving the overall processes and systems by identifying and eventually removing the hurdles which might stop the organization to reach the levels of perfection. According to sigma, any sort of challenge which comes across in an organization’s processes is considered to be a defect and needs to be eliminated.

Organizations practicing Six Sigma create special levels for employees within the organization. Such levels are called as: “Green belts”, “Black belts” and so on. Individuals certified with any of these belts are often experts in six sigma process. According to Six Sigma any process which does not lead to customer satisfaction is referred to as a defect and has to be eliminated from the system to ensure superior quality of products and services. Every organization strives hard to maintain excellent quality of its brand and the process of six sigma ensures the same by removing various defects and errors which come in the way of customer satisfaction.

The process of Six Sigma originated in manufacturing processes but now it finds its use in other businesses as well. Proper budgets and resources need to be allocated for the implementation of Six Sigma in organizations.

Following are the two Six Sigma methods:

 DMAIC

 DMADV

DMAIC focuses on improving existing business practices. DMADV, on the other hand focuses on creating new strategies and policies.

DMAIC has Five Phases

D - Define the Problem. In the first phase, various problems which need to be addressed to are clearly defined. Feedbacks are taken from customers as to what they feel about a particular product or service. Feedbacks are carefully monitored to understand problem areas and their root causes.

M - Measure and find out the key points of the current process. Once the problem is identified, employees collect relevant data which would give an insight into current processes.

A - Analyze the data. The information collected in the second stage is thoroughly verified. The root cause of the defects are carefully studied and investigated as to find out how they are affecting the entire process.

I - Improve the current processes based on the research and analysis done in the previous stage. Efforts are made to create new projects which would ensure superior quality.

C - Control the processes so that they do not lead to defects.

DMADV Method

D - Design strategies and processes which ensure hundred percent customer satisfaction.

M - Measure and identify parameters that are important for quality.

A - Analyze and develop high level alternatives to ensure superior quality.

D - Design details and processes.

V - Verify various processes and finally implement the same.

     4.2  Features of Six Sigma

• Six Sigma's aim is to eliminate waste and inefficiency, thereby increasing customer satisfaction by delivering what the customer is expecting.

• Six Sigma follows a structured methodology, and has defined roles for the participants.

• Six Sigma is a data driven methodology, and requires accurate data collection for the processes being analyzed.

• Six Sigma is about putting results on Financial Statements.

• Six Sigma is a business-driven, multi-dimensional structured approach for −

o Improving Processes

o Lowering Defects

o Reducing process variability

o Reducing costs

o Increasing customer satisfaction

o Increased profits

The word Sigma is a statistical term that measures how far a given process deviates from perfection.

The central idea behind Six Sigma: If you can measure how many "defects" you have in a process, you can systematically figure out how to eliminate them and get as close to "zero defects" as possible and specifically it means a failure rate of 3.4 parts per million or 99.9997% perfect.

4.3 Goals of Six Sigma Implementation

If you’re a manager interested in increasing the bottom line, you can’t afford not to investigate Six Sigma.  The benefits are indisputable, as witnessed by the infamous Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, who claimed Six Sigma was directly responsible for $1 billion in yearly savings.  But should you implement Six Sigma?  Here are six things you should expect from a Six Sigma implementation:

 Increase Profits

 Reduce Defects

 Improve Quality

 Know the Stats

 Provide Career Advancement

 Improve Corporate Culture

 Increase Profits

Although all of these goals result in increased profits in one form or another, I have to mention this on its own because Six Sigma revolves around it.

Most companies produce one of two things:

Product

Service

Six Sigma is a quality improvement program.  Therefore, if you produce a product, you will see a reduction in defects.  If you are a service based enterprise, you will see an increase in the quality of services you provide.

I should mention that Six Sigma was developed for the product side (manufacturing) rather than the service side, and is therefore better suited to that.  But it has strong benefits in the services as well.  Services are my background so I can safely say we have made significant improvements at my engineering firm since I became a black belt.

How much will you save?  It depends how many defects are eliminated, or in the case of a service business, how much more business you receive because of an increase in service quality.  If you are a manager that is considering implementing Six Sigma, you probably already have an idea how much of an improvement can be made and what that would be worth to the organization.  Training at least one Six Sigma green belt and black belt will require an expenditure, but in return they will rigorously analyze your production system.  They will produce things like failure mode and effects analyses, cause-effect analyses, and others (that’s just the tip of the iceberg).  They will recommend improvements in the daily processes and methods in use at your company.

 Reduce Defects

The goal of Six Sigma is to have a defect rate of six standard deviations from the mean, or 3.4 defects per million products, and Six Sigma practitioners (green belts, black belts) will be trained to strive for this level.

However, this might not be feasible for all organizations and products.  Six Sigma was developed by Motorola and popularized by General Electric, which produces many different products.  Thus, it has been used as a standard for many manufacturing processes.  But Six Sigma has been criticized in that the six standard deviation (six sigmas) rule does not apply universally across all industries and products.  Many industries would hesitate to lower the defect rate to that amount because it is cheaper to deal with more defects.  Customers could also be satisfied with a higher defect rate.

 Improve Quality

However, I can tell you this for sure.  That when Six Sigma practitioners are unleashed on any business process, quality improvement will result.  This is the basic premise of Six Sigma – to improve the quality of a product or service.  If your goal is to increase the quality of your products and services, a Six Sigma implementation is the right place to start.

 Know the Stats

Do you know how many of your products are defective, or where your services fall short?  Do you know the standard for quality compared to your competitors?  Do you know how to increase your quality of service?  Do you want to be better than the average?

A Six Sigma implementation will give you all the numbers.

Where your product/service quality is now.

Where you should be.

How to get there.

How to stay there.

If nothing else, you will know the numbers.

 Provide Career Advancement

Do you struggle to keep people motivated and provide them with career advancement goals that keep them happy?  Giving someone a Six Sigma green belt or black belt certification is a great way to keep them engaged, learning, and moving forward in their career.

 Improve Corporate Culture

Only a few people will become Six Sigma green or black belts, but the entire organization will see the focus on quality and respond accordingly.  Implementing Six Sigma is an easy way to tell everyone that “quality matters.”  That’s a benefit you can’t readily put a price on.

4.4  DMAIC

DMAIC  refers to a data-driven quality strategy for improving processes, and is an integral part of the company’s Six Sigma Quality Initiative. DMAIC is an acronym for five interconnected phases: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control.

THE DMAIC PROCESS

1. Define the problem, improvement activity, opportunity for improvement, the project goals, and customer (internal and external) requirements.

o Project charter to define the focus, scope, direction, and motivation for the improvement team

o Voice of the customer to understand feedback from current and future customers indicating offerings that satisfy, delight, and dissatisfy them

o Value stream map to provide an overview of an entire process, starting and finishing at the customer, and analyzing what is required to meet customer needs

2. Measure process performance.

o Process map for recording the activities performed as part of a process

o Capability analysis to assess the ability of a process to meet specifications

o Pareto chart to analyze the frequency of problems or causes

3. Analyze the process to determine root causes of variation and poor performance (defects).

o Root cause analysis (RCA) to uncover causes

o Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) for identifying possible product, service, and process failures

o Multi-vari chart to detect different types of variation within a process

4. Improve process performance by addressing and eliminating the root causes.

o Design of experiments (DOE) to solve problems from complex processes or systems where there are many factors influencing the outcome and where it is impossible to isolate one factor or variable from the others

o Kaizen event to introduce rapid change by focusing on a narrow project and using the ideas and motivation of the people who do the work

5. Control the improved process and future process performance.

o Quality control plan to document what is needed to keep an improved process at its current level

o Statistical process control (SPC) for monitoring process behavior

o 5S to create a workplace suited for visual control

o Mistake proofing (poka-yoke) to make errors impossible or immediately detectable

4.5  EIGHT STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL LEAN SIX SIGMA IMPLEMENTATION

For any organization, the first step in a Lean Six Sigma deployment is deciding to use the methodology. Once the leadership of an organization believes they can benefit from using Lean Six Sigma, they can follow eight steps – from creating a burning platform for adopting the approach to recognizing team member contributions – to complete the rollout.

Step 1: Create a Burning Platform

Organizations must have a compelling reason for implementing Lean Six Sigma. Some examples of a burning platform message:

• “We are suffering huge quality losses. They account for more than 45 percent of our costs.”

• “Our competitors are gaining our market by 12 percent every quarter.”

Without a burning platform, there is seldom a motivation to implement a continuous improvement initiative. Company leadership should become familiar with the burning platform, and understand how Lean Six Sigma can address the problems in the platform statement.

Step 2: Put Resources in Place

     Do not hesitate to hire the right resource at right price. This is applicable to any resource, be it employees, material or technology. But resources alone do not ensure that a deployment will be successful. They must be able to work together as a team, and be empowered to carry out initiatives.

      It is important to know what to look for in a potential resource. 

Step 3: Teach the Methodology

As the saying goes, if I give a man a fish, he can only survive a day. But if I teach the person to catch the fish, he can live for a lifetime.

For Lean Six Sigma to survive for a lifetime, organizations need to train their team members to be powerful change agents. Yellow Belt, Green Belt and Black Belt training, along with skilled mentors, can help increase organizational awareness. The employees identified for training should share the organization’s vision.

Step 4: Prioritize Activities

Once resources and training are in place, a number of opportunities may present themselves. Organizations must make it a priority to:

• Listen to the customer

• Identify critical-to-quality criteria

• Ensure Lean Six Sigma efforts are linked to business goals

It is important to learn what to overlook and where to take risks. Activities must be assessed to ensure they are meeting the expectations of the organization’s goals.

Step 5: Establish Ownership

It must be clear who owns the Lean Six Sigma initiative. This may involve appointing a committee to find out who is responsible for the entire team. With ownership comes empowerment and a sense of pride, and team members who are more committed, accountable and engaged.

Step 6: Take the Right Measurements

What cannot be measured cannot be improved. By creating a measurement system, practitioners can determine baseline performance and use the data in objective decision making and analysis of variation.

The key for measurement is to get the cost of quality right. The following example, which took place while I was working as a trainee engineer in an engineering firm, helps illustrate this premise. I was posted to a field warehouse to take stock of all the nuts, bolts and other parts as part of an annual inventory exercise. I realized that if I were to start counting each and every part, I would be spending weeks doing this – it would not be the right way to measure. Therefore, I devised a way to count the nuts and bolts by working on a system of weighing the parts in large batches and converting them into units. It took a fraction of the time to count the parts than other methods used in the past.

      Organizations also must find a way to measure process performance to ensure they receive data at a fast pace. Having too many items on a scorecard may shift practitioners’ attention from the critical few metrics. They need to identify and measure the key leading indicators instead of measuring the many lagging indicators.

Step 7: Govern the Program

A proper governance structure can help a program sustain momentum. Poor governance or too much governance can lead to the vision falling apart. For instance, establishing a business quality council can help to clear any hurdles that may slow a project, allowing the project to adhere to timelines.

Proper governance also helps practitioners create a best practice sharing forum, which helps projects to be replicated and can highlight common challenges. Without regularly scheduled, productive meetings or review sessions, the program can veer off course and employees may lack guidance.

Step 8: Recognize Contributions

Rewards and recognition play a valuable role in making sure team members remain satisfied in their roles. They can help build enthusiasm for the program from a top-down and grassroots level. Rewards and recognition also can help drive innovation throughout the organization.

 4.6  LEAN SIX SIGMA

Six Sigma focuses on reducing process variation and enhancing process control, whereas lean drives out waste (non-value added processes and procedures) and promotes work standardization and flow. The distinction between Six Sigma and lean has blurred, with the term "lean Six Sigma" being used more and more often because process improvement requires aspects of both approaches to attain positive results.

Lean Six Sigma is a fact-based, data-driven philosophy of improvement that values defect prevention over defect detection. It drives customer satisfaction and bottom-line results by reducing variation, waste, and cycle time, while promoting the use of work standardization and flow, thereby creating a competitive advantage. It applies anywhere variation and waste exist, and every employee should be involved.

4.7 Five Lean tools and principles to integrate into six sigma 

1. Value Stream Mapping

In the Analyze phase of a DMAIC project, a value stream map can be created that shows the flow of materials and information, and categorizes activities into three segments: value enabling, value adding and non value adding. The focus of this tool is on identifying and eliminating the non-value added activities in each process step and reducing the wait time between consecutive steps wherever possible. Value enabling activities, however, cannot be totally eliminated from a system. Instead, they can be sub-classified into value adding and non-value adding activities, allowing those value enabling activities that are non-valued added to be eliminated. These eliminations help make a process more compact – a benefit in process improvement projects aimed at reducing variation. This tool also can be a part of a Kaizen cycle, incorporated within the Analyze and Improve phases.

2. Takt Time

Takt is a German word that can be roughly translated as “beat.” Takt time is the rate at which a completed project needs to be finished in order to meet customer demand. For processes involving cycle times, such as manufacturing or incident management, the as-is cycle time can be captured in the Measure phase. Then, during the Analyze phase, the cycle time can be compared with existing service level agreements (SLAs). If a mismatch exceeds the tolerance, improvements would be needed to match the cycle time with the takt time for the system.

3. Ishikawa (Cause-and-Effect) Diagram and 5 Whys

In the Analyze phase, the absence of concrete statistical data sometimes can make the identification of a root cause difficult. In those scenarios, the 5 Whys – asking “Why?” five times – along with a cause-and-effect diagram, can make the task more manageable. The 5 Why’s tool also can help uncover the process dynamics and the areas that can be addressed easily.

4. Heijunka (Load Balancing)

A Japanese term, Heijunka refers to a system of production designed to provide a more even and consistent flow of work. This principle can be incorporated in the Design phase if the root cause analysis during Analyze points to bottlenecks in the process. Load balancing can be used to introduce a pull in the system rather than letting it operate on push – thus alleviating the bottlenecks. Efforts for introducing a level load balance in the system also automatically reduce inventory. If takt time principles are used while designing the system, it would help ensure a level load balance.

5. Poka-yoke (Mistake Proofing)

A Japanese phrase meaning mistake proofing, poka yoke can be used to tune process steps and also when designing a new system altogether with DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify). A combination of an Ishikawa chart and Pareto analysis can be useful in Analyze in listing the major issues plaguing the as-is process. During the Improve and Design phases, the possibilities for eliminating a major cause of errors can be explored by improving or redesigning the system to avoid error-inducing scenarios.

            UNIT 5

5.1  Statistical process control (SPC) is defined as the use of statistical techniques to control a process or production method. SPC tools and procedures can help you monitor process behavior, discover issues in internal systems, and find solutions for production issues. Statistical process control is often used interchangeably with statistical quality control (SQC).

5.2   The seven QC tools are:

1. Stratification (Divide and Conquer)

2. Histogram

3. Check Sheet (Tally Sheet)

4. Cause-and-effect diagram (“fishbone” or Ishikawa diagram)

5. Pareto chart (80/20 Rule)

6. Scatter diagram (Shewhart Chart)

7. Control chart

1. Stratification (Divide and Conquer)

Stratification is a method of dividing data into sub–categories and classify data based on group, division, class or levels that helps in deriving meaningful information to understand an existing problem.

The very purpose of Stratification is to divide the data and conquer the meaning full Information to solve a problem.

 Un–stratified data (An employee reached late to office on following dates)

5-Jan, 12-Jan,13-Jan, 19-Jan, 21-Jan, 26-Jan,27-Jan

 Stratified data: (Same data classified by day of the week )

2. Histogram

Histogram introduced by Karl Pearson is a bar graph representing the frequency distribution on each bar.

The very purpose of Histogram is to study the density of data in any given distribution and understand the factors or data that repeat more often.

Histogram helps in prioritizing factors and identifies which are the areas that need utmost attention immediately.

3. Check sheet (Tally Sheet)

A check sheet can be metrics, structured table or form for collecting data and analysing them. When the information collected is quantitative in nature, the check sheet can also be called as tally sheet.

The very purpose of checklist is to list down the important checkpoints or events in a tabular/metrics format and keep on updating or marking the status on their occurrence which helps in understanding the progress, defect patterns and even causes for defects.

4. Cause-and-effect diagram. (“Fishbone” or Ishikawa diagram)

Cause–and–effect diagram introduced by Kaoru Ishikawa helps in identifying the various causes (or factors) leading to an effect (or problem) and also helps in deriving meaningful relationship between them.

The very purpose of this diagram is to identify all root causes behind a problem.

Once a quality related problem is defined, the factors leading to the causal of the problem are identified. We further keep identifying the sub factors leading to the causal of identified factors till we are able to identify the root cause of the problem. As a result we get a diagram with branches and sub branches of causal factors resembling to a fish bone diagram.

In manufacturing industry, to identify the source of variation the causes are usually grouped into below major categories:

 People

 Methods

 Machines

 Material

 Measurements

 Environment

5. Pareto chart (80 – 20 Rule)

Pareto chart is named after Vilfredo Pareto. Pareto chart revolves around the concept of 80-20 rule which underlines that in any process, 80% of problem or failure is just caused by 20% of few major factors which are often referred as Vital Few, whereas remaining 20% of problem or failure is caused by 80% of many minor factors which are also referred as Trivial Many.

The very purpose of Pareto Chart is to highlight the most important factors that is the reason for major cause of problem or failure.

Pareto chart is having bars graphs and line graphs where individual factors are represented by a bar graph in descending order of their impact and the cumulative total is shown by a line graph.

Pareto charts help experts in following ways:

 Distinguish between vital few and trivial many.

 Displays relative importance of causes of a problem.

 Helps to focus on causes that will have the greatest impact when solved.

6. Scatter diagram

Scatter diagram or scatter plot is basically a statistical tool that depicts dependent variables on Y – Axis and Independent Variable on X – axis plotted as dots on their common intersection points. Joining these dots can highlight any existing relationship among these variables or an equation in format Y = F(X) + C, where is C is an arbitrary constant.

Very purpose of scatter Diagram is to establish a relationship between problem (overall effect) and causes that are affecting.

The relationship can be linear, curvilinear, exponential, logarithmic, quadratic, polynomial etc. Stronger the correlation, stronger the relationship will hold true. The variables can be positively or negatively related defined by the slope of equation derived from the scatter diagram.

7. Control Chart (Shewhart Chart)

Control chart is also called as Shewhart Chart named after Walter A. Shewhart is basically a statistical chart which helps in determining if an industrial process is within control and capable to meet the customer defined specification limits.

The very purpose of control chart is to determine if the process is stable and capable within current conditions.

In Control Chart, data are plotted against time in X-axis. Control chart will always have a central line (average or mean), an upper line for the upper control limit and a lower line for the lower control limit. These lines are determined from historical data.

By comparing current data to these lines, experts can draw conclusions about whether the process variation is consistent (in control, affected by common causes of variation) or is unpredictable (out of control, affected by special causes of variation). It helps in differentiating common causes from special cause of variation.

Control charts are very popular and vastly used in Quality Control Techniques, Six Sigma (Control Phase) and also plays an important role in defining process capability and variations in productions. This tool also helps in identifying how well any manufacturing process is in line with respect to customer’s expectation.

Control chart helps in predicting process performance, understand the various production patterns and study how a process changes or shifts from normally specified control limits over a period of time.

UNIT 6

Quality standards  are defined as documents that provide requirements, specifications, guidelines, or characteristics that can be used consistently to ensure that materials, products, processes, and services are fit for their purpose.

Standards provide organizations with the shared vision, understanding, procedures, and vocabulary needed to meet the expectations of their stakeholders. Because standards present precise descriptions and terminology, they offer an objective and authoritative basis for organizations and consumers around the world to communicate and conduct business.

WHO USES QUALITY STANDARDS?

Organizations turn to standards for guidelines, definitions, and procedures that help them achieve objectives such as:

 Satisfying their customers’ quality requirements

 Ensuring their products and services are safe

 Complying with regulations

 Meeting environmental objectives

 Protecting products against climatic or other adverse conditions

 Ensuring that internal processes are defined and controlled

Use of quality standards is voluntary, but may be expected by certain groups of stakeholders. Additionally, some organizations or government agencies may require suppliers and partners to use a specific standard as a condition of doing business.

ISO 9000 

ISO 9000 is a set of international standards of quality management that have become increasingly popular for large and small companies alike. "ISO is grounded on the 'conformance to specification' definition of quality, " wrote Francis Buttle in the International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management. "The standards specify how management operations shall be conducted. ISO 9000's purpose is to ensure that suppliers design, create, and deliver products and services which meet predetermined standards; in other words, its goal is to prevent non-conformity." Used by both manufacturing and service firms, ISO 9000 had been adopted by more than 100 nations as their national quality management/quality assurance standard by the end of 1997.

This quality standard was first introduced in 1987 by the International Organization for Standards (ISO) in hopes of establishing an international definition of the essential characteristics and language of a quality system for all businesses, irrespective of industry or geographic location. Initially, it was used almost exclusively by large companies, but by the mid-1990s, increasing numbers of small-and mid-sized companies had embraced ISO 9000 as well. In fact, small and moderate-sized companies account for much of the growth in ISO 9000 registration over the past several years. The total number of ISO 9000 registrations in the United States increased from a little more than 2, 200 in 1993 to more than 17, 000 in 1998; of those 17, 000 registrations, nearly 60 percent were held by companies with annual sales of $100 million or less.

The increased involvement of small and midsized firms in seeking ISO 9000 registration is generally attributed to several factors. Many small businesses have decided to seek ISO 9000 certification because of their corporate customers, who began to insist on it as a method of ensuring that their suppliers were paying adequate attention to quality. Other small business owners, meanwhile, have pursued ISO 9000 certification in order to increase their chances of securing new business or simply as a means of improving the quality of their processes. "The pressure for companies to become ISO 9000-certified is absolutely increasing and will continue to increase, " predicted one management consultant in an interview with Nation's Business. "The question many smaller companies have to ask is when, not if, they [will] get ISO 9000-registered."

ELEMENTS OF ISO 9000 QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

The standards of ISO 9000 detail 20 requirements for an organization's quality management system in the following areas:

 Management Responsibility

 Quality System

 Order Entry

 Design Control

 Document and Data Control

 Purchasing

 Control of Customer Supplied Products

 Product Identification and Tractability

 Process Control

 Inspection and Testing Control of Inspection, Measuring, and Test Equipment

 Inspection and Test Status

 Control of Nonconforming Products

 Corrective and Preventive Action

 Handling, Storage, Packaging, and Delivery

 Control of Quality Records

 Internal Quality Audits

 Training

 Servicing

 Statistical Techniques



MODELS OF ISO 9000

The ISO 9000 quality standards are broken down into three model sets—ISO 9001, ISO 9002, and ISO 9003. Each of these models, noted Industrial Management contributors Stanislav Karapetrovic, Divakar Rajamani, and Walter Willborn, "stipulate a number of requirements on which an organization's quality system can be assessed by an external party (registrar)" in accordance with the ISO's quality system audits standard. "A quality system, " they added, "involves organizational structure, processes, and documented procedures constituted towards achieving quality objectives."

Each of the three sets concentrates on a different quality area. ISO 9001 is the most wide-ranging, for it specifies the various operating requirements in such areas as product design and development, production, installation, and servicing. ISO 9002 is concerned with quality assurance at the production and installation stages. ISO 9003 covers testing and inspections. As Karapetrovic, Rajamani, and Willborn noted, "if the minimum requirements are met [for the above operating areas], a registrar accredited by a national accreditation institution issues a certificate of compliance and the organization's quality system becomes ISO 9001, 9002, or 9003 registered."

It is worth noting that certification is handed out for individual quality systems, not companies; this means that one company may hold more than one ISO 9000 registration. Moreover, Harvey R. Meyer pointed out in Nation's Business that "the standards do not certify the quality of a product or service. Rather, they attest that a company has fully documented its quality-control processes and consistently adheres to them. If that's done, quality products and services generally follow."

In addition to ISO 9000, two related quality standards emerged in American industries in the late 1990s. ISO 14000, also known as the Environmental Management Systems Standards, is intended to combine environmental management systems with the ISO 9000 quality system. The second system, QS9000 is an adaptation of ISO 9000 to meet the specific needs of the "big three" American automobile manufacturers—Ford, General Motors, and Daimler Chrysler. Both systems were expected to have a substantial impact on U.S. companies.

ADVANTAGES OF ISO 9000

The advantages associated with ISO 9000 certification are numerous, as both business analysts and business owners will attest. These benefits, which can impact nearly all corners of a company, range from increased stature to bottom-line operational savings. They include:

 Increased marketability—Nearly all observers agree that ISO 9000 registration provides businesses with markedly heightened credibility with current and prospective clients alike. Basically, it proves that the company is dedicated to providing quality to its customers, which is no small advantage whether the company is negotiating with a long-time customer or endeavoring to pry a potentially lucrative customer away from a competitor. This benefit manifests itself not only in increased customer retention, but also in increased customer acquisition and heightened ability to enter into new markets; indeed, ISO 9000 registration has been cited as being of particular value for small and mid-sized businesses hoping to establish a presence in international markets.

 Reduced operational expenses—Sometimes lost in the many discussions of ISO 9000's public relations cache is the fact that the rigorous registration process often exposes significant shortcomings in various operational areas. When these problems are brought to light, the company can take the appropriate steps to improve its processes. These improved efficiencies can help companies garner savings in both time and money. "The cost of scrap, rework, returns, and the employee time spent analyzing and troubleshooting various products are all considerably reduced by initiating the discipline of ISO 9000, " confirmed Richard B. Wright in Industrial Distribution.

 Better management control—The ISO 9000 registration process requires so much documentation and self-assessment that many businesses that undergo its rigors cite increased understanding of the company's overall direction and processes as a significant benefit.

 Increased customer satisfaction—Since the ISO 9000 certification process almost inevitably uncovers areas in which final product quality can be improved, such efforts often bring about higher levels of customer satisfaction. In addition, by seeking and securing ISO 9000 certification, companies can provide their clients with the opportunity to tout their suppliers' dedication to quality in their own business dealings.

 Improved internal communication—The ISO 9000 certification process's emphasis on self-analysis and operations management issues encourages various internal areas or departments of companies to interact with one another in hopes of gaining a more complete understanding of the needs and desires of their internal customers.

 Improved customer service—The process of securing ISO 9000 registration often serves to refocus company priorities on pleasing their customers in all respects, including customer service areas. It also helps heighten awareness of quality issues among employees.

 Reduction of product-liability risks—Many business experts contend that companies that achieve ISO 9000 certification are less likely to be hit with product liability lawsuits, etc., because of the quality of their processes.

 Attractiveness to investors—Business consultants and small business owners alike agree that ISO-9000 certification can be a potent tool in securing funding from venture capital firms.

ISO 9001:2000   is a company level certification based on a standard developed and published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) titled "Quality Management Systems-Requirements". This standard revises ISO 9001:1994 to follow a more logical format, to be more compatible with the environmental standard, ISO 14001 and to place more of an emphasis on customer satisfaction by expecting organizations to communicate with customers and measure and monitor customer satisfaction. This revision also combines the ISO 9002 and ISO 9003 standards. The 2000 version has now been revised by ISO 9001:2008.

ISO 9001:2000 is a non-industry specific certification that indicates that gives guidelines and requirements on how to implement and maintain a quality management system. The standard lists clauses related to topics such as documentation and personnel dedication required to sustain a certified quality management system.

ISO 9001:2008   is a company level certification based on the standard published by the International Organization for Standardization titled "Quality management systems-Requirements". This standard revises ISO 9001:2000; the revision does not include any new requirements, changes were made to further clarify the existing requirements. Any certifications issued to ISO 9001:2000 will no longer be valid twenty four months after the publication of ISO 9001:2008.

ISO 9001:2008 is a non-industry specific certification and is intended for any organization that wants to implement and maintain a quality management system.

Certifications are issued by third party certifying bodies.

Annual or regularly scheduled audits will be conducted to evaluate the organization for continued compliance to the standard.

What Is ISO 14000?

ISO 14000 is a set of rules and standards created to help companies reduce industrial waste and environmental damage. It’s a framework for better environmental impact management, but it’s not required. Companies can get ISO 14000 certified, but it’s an optional certification. The ISO 14000 series of standards was introduced in 1996 by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and most recently revised in 2015 (ISO is not an acronym; it derives from the ancient Greek word ísos, meaning equal or equivalent.)

Understanding ISO 14000

ISO 14000 is part of a series of standards that address certain aspects of environmental regulations. It’s meant to be a step-by-step format for setting and then achieving environmentally-friendly objectives for business practices or products. The purpose is to help companies manage processes while minimizing environmental effects, whereas the ISO 9000 standards from 1987 were focused on the best management practices for quality assurance. The two can be implemented concurrently. 

ISO 14000 includes several standards that cover aspects of the managing practice’s inside facilities, the immediate environment around the facilities, and the life cycle of the actual product. This includes understanding the impact of the raw materials used within the product, as well as the impact of product disposal.  

The most notable standard is ISO 14001, which lays out the guidelines for putting an environmental management system (EMS) in place. Then there’s ISO 14004, which offers additional insight and specialized standards for implementing an EMS. 

Here are the key standards included in ISO 14000: 

• ISO 14001: Specification of Environmental Management Systems

• ISO 14004: Guideline Standard

• ISO 14010 – ISO 14015: Environmental Auditing and Related Activities

• ISO 14020 – ISO 14024: Environmental Labeling

• ISO 14031 and ISO 14032: Environmental Performance Evaluation

• ISO 14040 – ISO 14043: Life Cycle Assessment

• ISO 14050: Terms and Definitions

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About Prajjwal pokharel

"Push yourself no one else is going to do it for you".

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