Quality & Performance

Excellence, 8th Edition

Chapter 3

Tools and Techniques for

Quality Design and
Control

S
 Outline

 Describe approaches to designing products and

services
 Illustrate the application of a variety of tools for
process improvement
 Describe principles of statistical thinking as a
basis for effective management

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 Process Management

 …the key activities necessary to achieve a high level

of performance in key value creation and support
processes, identifying opportunities for improving
quality and operational performance, and,
ultimately, customer satisfaction
 Design
 Control
 Improvement
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AT&T Process Management Principles

 Process quality improvement focuses on the end-to-end process.

 The mind-set of quality is one of prevention and continuous improvement.

 Everyone manages a process at some level and is simultaneously a customer

and a supplier.
 Customer needs drive process quality improvement.

 Corrective action focuses on removing the root cause of the problem rather
than on treating its symptoms.
 Process simplification reduces opportunities for errors and rework.

 Process quality improvement results from a disciplined and structured

application of the quality management principles
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 Designing Quality Goods and
Services

 Concept development, in which product functionality is determined based

upon customer requirements, technological capabilities, and economic
realities.

 Design development, which focuses on product and process performance

issues necessary to fulfill the product and service requirements in
manufacturing or delivery.

 Design optimization, which seeks to minimize the impact of variation in

production and use, creating a “robust” design.

 Design verification, which ensures that the capability of the production

system meets the appropriate level of performance.

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 Concept Development and
Innovation

 Concept development is the process of applying scientific,

engineering, and business to produce a basic functional
design that meets both customer needs and manufacturing
or service delivery requirements.

 Creativity is seeing things in new or novel ways.

 Innovation involves the adoption of an idea, process,

technology, product, or business model that is either new
or new to its proposed application.

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 Quality Function Deployment
(QFD)

 …a process of translating customer requirements

into technical requirements during product
development and production. QFD benefits
companies through improved communication
and teamwork between all constituencies in the
value chain, such as between marketing and
design, between design and manufacturing, and
between purchasing and suppliers.

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8
Building the House of Quality

 Identify customer requirements.

 Identify technical requirements.

 Relate the customer requirements to the technical requirements.

 Conduct an evaluation of competing products or services.

 Evaluate technical requirements and develop targets.

 Determine which technical requirements to deploy in the

remainder of the production/delivery process.
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Example

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 DFMEA

 Design failure mode and effects analysis

(DFMEA) – identification of all the ways in
which a failure can occur, to estimate the
effect and seriousness of the failure, and to
recommend corrective design actions.

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 DFMEA Specifications

 Failure modes

 Effect of failures on customers

 Severity, likelihood of occurrence, and detection

rating
 Potential causes of failure

 Corrective actions or controls

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Scoring Rubric for DFMEA

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 Design for Manufacturability

 Design for manufacturability (DFM) is the

process of designing a product for efficient
production at the highest level of quality.
 A Samsung manager noted that 70 to 80 percent of
quality, cost, and delivery time is determined in the
initial design stages.
 Simplifying designs can often improve both cost and
quality.

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 Design and Environmental
Responsibility

 Design for environment, or DFE, is the explicit

consideration of environmental concerns during the design
of products and processes, and includes such practices as
designing for recyclability and disassembly.

 DFE offers the potential to create more desirable products

at lower costs by reducing disposal and regulatory costs,
increasing the end-of-life value of products, reducing
material use, and minimizing liabilities.

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 Design for Services

 Outputs not as well defined as in manufacturing

 Higher interaction with customers

 Involve both internal and external activities

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 Service Process Design

 Three basic design components:

 Physical facilities, processes and
procedures
 Employee behavior
 Employee professional judgment

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 Key Service Dimensions

Customer contact and interaction

Labor intensity

Customization
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 Designing Quality Processes

1. Identify the product or service: What work do I do?

2. Identify the customer: Who is the work for?
3. Identify the supplier: What do I need and from whom do I get it?
4. Identify the process: What steps or tasks are performed? What are the
inputs and outputs for each step?
5. Mistake-proof the process: How can I eliminate or simplify tasks? What
“poka-yoke” (i.e., mistake-proofing) devices can I use?
6. Develop measurements and controls, and improvement goals: How do I
evaluate the process? How can I improve further?

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 Design for Agility

 Agility is a term that is commonly used to characterize

flexibility and short cycle times.
 Agility is crucial to such customer-focused strategies as mass customization, which
requires rapid response and flexibility to changing consumer demand.

 Enablers of agility include close relationships with customers

to understand their emerging needs and requirements,
empowering employees as decision makers, effective
manufacturing and information technology, close supplier
and partner relationships, and breakthrough improvement.

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 Poka-Yoke

 An approach for mistake-proofing processes

using automatic devices or methods to avoid
simple human or machine error, such as
forgetfulness, misunderstanding, errors in
identification, lack of experience,
absentmindedness, delays, or malfunctions

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 Two Levels of Mistake-
Proofing

 Prediction, or recognizing that a defect is about to

occur and providing a warning; and detection
 Recognizing that a defect has occurred and
stopping the process

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 Common Poka-Yoke Examples
(from John Grout’s Mistake-Proofing Website)

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 Service Errors (1 of 2)

 Task errors include doing work incorrectly, in the wrong order, or too slowly,
as well as doing work not requested

 Treatment errors arise in the contact between the server and the customer,
such as lack of courteous behavior, and failure to acknowledge, listen, or
react appropriately to the customer

 Tangible errors are those in physical elements of the service, such as unclean
facilities, dirty uniforms, inappropriate temperature, and document errors

 Customer errors in preparation arise when customers do not bring necessary

materials to the encounter, do not understand their role in the service
transaction, or do not engage the correct service

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 Service Errors (2 of 2)

 Customer errors during an encounter can be because of

inattention, misunderstanding, or simply a memory lapse,
and include failure to remember steps in the process or to
follow instructions

 Customer errors at the resolution stage of a service

encounter include failure to signal service inadequacies,
learn from experience, adjust expectations, and execute
appropriate post-encounter actions

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 Control

 …the activity of ensuring conformance to

requirements and taking corrective
action when necessary to correct
problems and maintain stable
performance

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Components of Control Systems

 Any control system has three components:

1. a standard or goal,
2. a means of measuring accomplishment,
and
3. comparison of actual results with the
standard, along with feedback to form
the basis for corrective action.
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 Statistical Thinking

 All work occurs in a system of

interconnected processes
 Variation exists in all processes

 Understanding and reducing variation are

the keys to success

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Problems Caused by Variation

 Variation increases unpredictability

 Variation reduces capacity utilization

 Variation contributes to a “bullwhip” effect

 Variation makes it difficult to find root causes

 Variation makes it difficult to detect potential

problems early
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 Statistical Process Control (SPC)

 … a methodology for monitoring a process to identify special

causes of variation and signal the need to take corrective
action when appropriate.

 When special causes are present, the process is deemed to be

out of control. If the variation in the process is due to
common causes alone, the process is said to be in statistical
control . Basically, statistical control means that both the
process average and variance are constant over time.

 SPC relies on control charts

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Control Chart Example

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Applications in Service
Organizations

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 Process Control in Action

 Lexus

 The Kroger Company

 Chugach School District

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