LECTURE OUTLINE LECTURE NOTES

E. Specific Approaches for Improving

Quality
LEARNING OBJECTIVE 4
Define the following terms: continuous
improvement, kaizen, six sigma, lean
manufacturing, and quality at the source. (Text
page 343-346)
1. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT POWERPOINT 12-7
refers to an ongoing effort to make Specific Approaches for
Improving Quality
improvement in every part of the (Refers to text pages 343-
organization relative to all of its 346)
products and services.
2. KAIZEN is a philosophy for
improvement that originated in Japan.
a. Kaizen, literally meaning “good
change,” is a subset of continuous
improvement
b. It is not based on large technical
leaps, but incremental refining of
processes.
c. Employees are viewed as the
organization’s most valued assets.
d. Kaizen focuses on improving the BONUS CASE 12-2
Kaizen: Redesigning the
methods and procedures used in Manufacturing Process
the existing situation. Manufacturing consultant
Anand Sharman advises
3. QUALITY AT THE SOURCE refers to manufacturers on how to
the philosophy of making each utilize the Japanese concept
of kaizen with an American
employee responsible for the quality of flair. See complete case,
his or her own work. discussion questions, and
suggested answers on page
a. Quality control inspectors and 12.Error: Reference source
production employees are no not found of this manual.
longer adversaries.
b. This philosophy encourages
employees to take pride in their
work.
4. SIX SIGMA is both a precise set of
LECTURE OUTLINE LECTURE NOTES

statistical tools and a rallying cry for

continuous improvement.
a. Six sigma was pioneered by
Motorola and means, in statistical
terms, six standard deviations
from the mean.
b. To achieve this high level of
quality, the entire production or
service system must be improved.
c. Six sigma can be applied to any
business process.
5. LEAN MANUFACTURING is a
systematic approach to identifying and TEXT FIGURE 12.4
Comparison of Traditional
eliminating waste and non-value- Organizations with Those
added activities. Using TQM (Text page 344)
6. TQM is not a collection of techniques,
but a philosophy.

CASE INCIDENT 12.1

Production Problems (Text page 344)

Braddock Company, a sheet fabrication company, is experiencing post-production problems

with its wheelbarrow trays. Further investigation leads to some ideas about where the problem lies. One
of the machine operators, Shorty McCune, has recently been accused of drinking on the job and fired.
McCune may have been involved with the selection of a new raw metal supplier because of an attractive
price break. The operations manager, Hal McCarthy, has to sort out all the problems that have led to
this production incident and find some solutions to correct the problems.

1. What do you think is causing Braddock’s problem?

The control systems are inadequate. and problems have resulted because of this. Companies that
produce products need to establish an effective operating system: design and control. Once a system is
designed and implemented, the day-to-day operations must be controlled. For the operation to be
efficient, the system must be monitored, quality must be assured, inventories must be managed, and all
these functions must be accomplished within cost constraints.

2. Why is the problem more pronounced on the construction model than on the homeowner model?
The construction model requires more prefabrication work compared to the homeowner model.
The construction model is deeper, so the corners are sharper and more prone to creasing. Faulty
construction materials will be more pronounced with the construction model.
LECTURE OUTLINE LECTURE NOTES

3. How can Braddock eliminate its problem?

Braddock can take the quality assurance approach that emphasizes the prevention of defects and
mistakes rather than finding and correcting them. The idea of “building in” quality as opposed to
“inspecting it in” is the basic philosophy of quality assurance. This approach views quality as the
responsibility of all employees rather than the exclusive domain of a quality control department.
Furthermore, suppliers are treated as partners.

4. What systems or processes should Braddock put in place to make sure this doesn’t happen
again?
To implement the operations control system, which is one of design first and control second, the
operations controls generally relate to the areas of costs, quality, and inventories. Cost control looks at
the organizations accounting and budgeting system and then monitors costs relating to labor, materials,
and overhead. Quality control can be implemented by a variety of systems from quality assurance,
TQM, ISO 9000. or ISO 1400. Finally inventory control can be monitored by implementing such
programs as just-in-time (JIT), to establishing inventory tracking systems.

F. REENGINEERING, also called business

process engineering, is searching for and
implementing radical change in business
processes to achieve breakthroughs in
costs, speed, productivity, and service.
1. It involves a one-time concerted effort
to make major improvements in basic
processes.
2. The organization basically starts with a
clean slate and redesigns itself.
G. Other Quality Standards
1. ISO 9000 is a set of quality standards POWERPOINT 12-8
Other Quality Standards
created in 1987 by the International
(Refers to text page 346-348)
Organization for Standardization (ISO)
for international business.
a. The U.S. representative is the
American National Standards
Institute (ANSI).
b. The ISO originally published five
international standards.
c. ISO 9000:1994 was a revision that
focuses on the design and
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operations processes.
d. ISO 9000:2000 focuses more on
continuous improvement and
customer satisfaction.
e. Organizations in 154 countries
have been certified in ISO
9000:2000.
2. ISO 14000 is as addition to the ISO
9000 to control the impact of an
organization’s activities and outputs on
the environment.
a. The goal is to provide international
environmental standards that are
compatible.
b. ISO 14000 provides an
international standard for
environmental management
systems and will ultimately include
20 separate standards.
3. A ZERO-DEFECTS PROGRAM
attempts to increase quality by
increasing everyone’s impact on
quality.
a. Cutting defects to zero would be
cost ineffective.
b. The objective is rather to make
everyone aware of his or her
potential impact.
PROGRESS CHECK QUESTIONS (Text page 348)
5. Who are the quality gurus?
6. Explain the term kaizen.
7. What is ISO 14000?
8. Explain the term zero defects.