Kyle Caas, BSHM 301-A

CASE STUDY: SOLAR CELL MANUFACTURER

Solar Cell is a manufacturing company based in southern part of Korea that manufactures different types
of solar-powered products. They have customers based in the local parts of the country and abroad. The
company is growing fast due to the increased demand for non-conventional energy. The CEO of the
company associates their success in the use of control charts for their manufacturing procedures which
lets them control the quality of their final outputs. Although the company has been quite successful in
the use of control charts for their manufacturing operations, it has extended the applications of control
charts in their non-manufacturing sectors such as HR and Finance. The reason for this implementation is
because of the major increase in employee attrition and significantly large budget allotted to several
departments of the company. Based on the result of the exit interviews, most of the employees who left
the company claimed that they experienced work-life imbalance particularly for the operators since they
were required to work in extended hours in circumstances when their substitute partners would not be
able to arrive to work on time or would not be able to report to work at all. The minority of the resigned
employees thought that they were misaligned and not trained for their job, they felt undervalued and
afraid that growth opportunities were not present in the company. Another problem area that the top
management has observed involves the finance team of the company. The management have found out
that allotted budgets in some departments or work units of the firm are unrealistic, inaccurate, and
unreasonable. After reviewing all the problem areas of the organization, the company’s quality
assurance team suggested the use of control charts in the two (2) departments where the problems are
prevalent. However, another difficult situation arises due to the resistance of the employees toward the
use of control charts which gains several complaints from the employees pertaining to exhausting
additional workload since they would have to monitor and notate the different outflows and inflows in
their major and minor day-to-day operations. There was a clear lack of understanding of the benefits of
control charts and the need for change using control charts as a catalyst for change. The senior
management team decided to provide a one-day awareness program for the HR and Finance people so
that they can understand the expectations and the need for the control chart initiative within the
company. Moreover, an executive awareness was also introduced to all senior management team so
that they would understand the importance and benefits of control charts in the business.

Follow the suggested outline below in answering the case study:

I. Background

Solar Cell is a manufacturing base of the company in the southern part of Korea that makes a wide
variety of solar powered products. They have a costumers base in local parts of the country and abroad.
The company is growing rapidly due to increased demand for non- conventional energy. The CEO of the
company attributed their success to the use of control charts for their manufacturing methods that let
them control the quality of their final output. The control chart was also implemented in their HR and
Finance sector due to the addition of employees and most of the employees felt undervalued and
untrained that is why they left the company. Management decided by providing a one day awareness
program for HR and Finance people so they understand the expected needs for the control charts
initiative.

I I .Statement of the Problem

A. How can Solar Cell Manufacturer control or eliminate attrition and overspending in their
organization through the use of control charts?

-The Control charts can help them to understand the variations that are always present in processes.
Variations within their control limits indicate that the process in working Varieties inside their control
limits show that the cycle is working .Various spikes outside their control limits indicate issues that need
to be fixed. See if something has go wrong. These difficult clues let them know that the restoration
movement must be made. The examples show potential causes, which can help them to discover
potential arrangements, anticipate future execution and produce ground-breaking thoughts for
improving the quality dependent on their examination.

B. What steps should the top management employ in order to overcome the resistance of the
employees in the change initiative?

-The strategy to overcome resistance to change is to communicate. Try letting the employees initiate the
conversation. Some people want to be heard sometimes and giving them a chance to voice out their
opinions it will help to relieve the frustration they feel over the situation. What is more, employee’s
thoughts, concerns and suggestions will prove wildly value to guide the change project. Understanding
them will help to identify the root of employee’s resistance to change.

C. What steps in implementing Statistical Process Control (SPC) should Solar Cell Manufacturer apply
in order to succeed in the initiative?

The company should follow all the implementation of Statistical Process Control which is the following
steps:

Step 1: Commit to SPC.

Step 2: Form an SPC committee.

Step 3: Train the SPC committee.

Step 4: Set SPC objectives.

Step 5: Identify target process.

Step 6: Train Appropriate Operators and Teams.

Step 7: Ensure Repeatability of Methods.

Step 8: Delegate Responsibility to the Operators.

Step 9: Flowchart the process.

Step 10: Eliminate the Special Causes of Variation.

Step 11: Develop Control Charts.

Step 12: Collect And Plot SPC data.

Step 13: Determine Process Capability.

III. Areas of Consideration

-The areas of Solar Cell Manufacturer that need to consider for the development is the employee, to
make sure that their employee’s doing well, try to talk to them and try to ask them how they are.
Second is Finance and Human Resource Department these areas should not leave behind because there
are possibility that the company bankrupt just because of the carelessness of the management or the
boss they should check it every day to make sure that they spending the right amount of money every
day.

IV. Alternative Course of Action

-The alternative action that we can use to these problem is control chart because through this we can
monitor the runs and how all areas functions and we can also use the Statistical Process Control through
using this they have the guideline on what they should to do and through using these two methods they
can prevent the future problem and if there is they can see it and solve it directly.

The advantage of this solar cell, it is harness the energy from the sun and transform this into usable
electricity. It also Eco-friendly energy it’s provides a great opportunity to save on electricity bill since it
no need to pay for the energy. The disadvantage of solar sell is weather dependant. Although solar
energy can still be collected during cloudy and rainy days, the efficiency of the solar system drops and
associated with pollution, although pollution related to solar energy systems is far less compared to
other sources of energy, solar energy can be associated with pollution. Transportation and installation of
solar system have been associated with the emission of greenhouse gases.

Recommendation

Control charts and statistical process control is used to improve performance by allowing the solar
manufacture organization's staff to focus on problems by turning them into opportunities .Finding the
problems on the chart that identify problems with solutions that have an increased probability of
potential improvement. The chart outlines multiple different problems, their frequency of occurrence,
and their size in a graph. This graph is then used by the organization to determine the issues and how to
solve the greatest problems and impact performance.

Management lessons learned

In this case we learned about the importance of SPC., SPC helps the organization to reduce scrap,
waste, defects, and rework, improve product quality, eliminate variation in processes, and maintain
compliance with regulatory and customer requirements.