Homework Assignment 1

Due Date: February 14, 2016

IE 673 Total Quality Management (eLearning)
1. What is quality?
According to the class text book Quality Management for Organizational Excellence;
Introduction to Total Quality there are different definitions of quality like service,
response time, food preparation, environment or atmosphere, price and selection.
Those are the results aspect, but quality is a dynamic state associated with products,
services, people, processes, and environments that meets or exceeds expectations and
help produce superior value.

2. What is TQM?
According to the text book TQM is an approach to doing business that attempts to
maximize the competitiveness of an organizations through the continual improvement of
the quality of its product, services, people, and environments. Total quality consist of
the continual improvement of people, processes, products an environments.

3. How can we achieve organizational excellence with quality?

We can achieve organizational excellence with quality as soon we have a trained and
competent people managing and analyzing quality data and quality costs. If we have a
trained manager with almost 10 years of experience, a quality engineer with minimum of
8 years of experience and a quality technician with at least 4 years of experiences, that
will be sufficient to build a team to achieve the organizational excellence.

4. What is Deming cycle?

According to the text book deming cycle was developed to link the production of a
product with consumer needs and focus the resources of all departments (research,
design, production, and marketing) in a cooperative effort to meet those needs. The
following drawing explain better the deming cycle.

5. What are the most common errors when starting quality initiatives?
According to the text book the most commons error implementing quality initiates are as
follow:

Senior management delegation and poor leadership

o Delegate responsibility to a hired expert rather than applying the
leadership to get everyone involved.
Team mania
o Rushing and putting everyone in teams before learning has occurred and
the corporate culture has changed will create problems.
Deployment process
o Develop quality initiatives without concurrently developing plans for
integrating them into all elements.
Taking narrow, dogmatic approach
o When organizations are determine to take the different approaches and
none of them advocated by these and other leading quality experts is truly
a one-size-fits-all proposition.
Confusion about the difference among education, awareness, inspiration, and
skill building
o They most have the skills to apply the fundamental tools of quality. Is not
enough the knowledge but helping them develop the actual skills
necessary to implement the concept.

6. Explain the cost of poor quality.

The cost of poor quality could be affect the companys overhead, the ability to satisfy
the customers and reduce the companys potential to develop new business in the
future. In addition poor quality will affected the ability of any company to compete in
their respective markets. At the end will be affecting all cost of operation in a company.
The following graphic illustrate the different cost of poor quality according to the text
book.

Hidden Costs

Traditional Costs

Waste
Rejects
Testing
Rework
Customer returns
Inspection
Recalls

Excessive overtime
Pricing errors
Billing errors
Excessive turnover
Premium freight costs
Development cost of
the failed product
Field service costd
Overdue receivables
handling complaints
Expediting
System costs
Planning delays
Late paperwork
Lack of follow-up
Excess inventory

7. What are the quality characteristics of world-class organizations?

The quality characteristics of world-class organizations are strategies. Competitive
analysis strategies is focus operations cost efficiencies, speed, logistic, suppliers, zero
defects, delivery, etc. The production and supply chain management strategies is more
for the planning, forecasting, and supplier managed inventory. Customization are
building to order and global sourcing. Electronic commerce are for tracking, internet
ordering, purchasing and supply management, and compensation systems.

8. Responsibility and total quality.

Responsibility and total quality go hand in hand to each other because the responsibility
is and ethical behavior in modern workplace. According to the text book this is because
employees are drawn from a society that, as a rule, shuns responsibility-which is why
ours has become such a litigious society (p. 57). Something that is very common today
is passing blame to other. Most of the time the employee said they rather than we.
Sometimes people are responsible for their actions and performance and blame others
is not ethic. Accepting responsible will help any company or organization to build trust
and reach the total quality. In other words employees need to feel that they are part of
the team.

9. Discuss some models for ethical quality decisions.

The models for ethical quality decisions are multiples. The Categorical Imperative model
I, known as the black-and-white model is a good one because the right is right and
wrong is wrong is no gray or in between. The Doctrine of the Mean model contrary to
the first one this one refer to the average or in between of two extremes. Another one is
the Golden Rule model, this model is based on values because is based on the Golden
Rule Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And one that is the most
common in the engineering fields is the Professional ethic model. This model is based
on professional code of ethics.

10. What is the engineering managers role in quality ethics?

As an engineer manager you need to have a moral framework, values, and integrity to
expect that from your team. The engineering managers role in quality ethics is to be
responsible for following through and actually exemplifying ethical behavior. The text
book said they (organization and managers) are responsible for establishing high
ethical standards, setting a consistently positive example of exceeding those standards,
and acting immediately when they observe unethical behavior. There is three
approaches to ethics, Best-Ratio, Black-and-White, and Full-Potential Approaches. The
manger will determine which approach is used.

Sustainable Green
Sustainable green focus is a way of living that every people, company, and
organization should be doing to help the world to be a better place of living. One
of the most affecting of pollution in the world is the eco-system. After watched
some YouTube videos of Paul Ranky, an example of what everyone need to do
to be sustainable and green at the same time. One of my concern is the air and
the automobile industries had been modified their cars from petroleum to hybrid,
from hybrid to electric to help the environment. How I will prevent pollution is
doing the same as the transportation industry. I'm one that is helping to make this
possible and I drive an hybrid car.GM is one of the automotive industry that is
incorporating the electric cars using batteries since 2011
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiTu-3LTKxU). Another example is a diesel
engine that had added some components to reduce gas emissions helping the
environment (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFh8AUSEHrw). He following
link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_6Yu-APwuk) talk about how they
create a different motor a completely green motor. Electric car no need the
same weight as conventional gas car and therefore a reduced gas emission is
the goal. Honda is a good example because they consider themselves as
mobility company and create an ergonomic artifact to help people to reduce
muscular fatigue (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYKuK9mkJ8c). Another is
how the Tokyo metro is using new ergonomics features on their trains. New
handles that fit in most of the hands (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTWTyMg_6s).

Social Networking Articles

Discussion Article 1: Homework Assignment 1

Manufacturing Trends to Watch in 2016

2016 would be the year of big changes on manufacturing. According to the article
Manufacturing Trends to Watch in 2016, manufacturing have to move more faster to be
more effective, creative and at the same time the need to start implementing new
technology on the process. The article predict that the 2016 will be a challenge for the
small and medium manufacturer in the world because the demand of products from
China and other big Country.
This year is the first time of a USA president is going to assist to the Hannover Fair of
the manufacture in Germany. This is a good step for USA but the new candidates to the

presidency don't demonstrate interest in the manufacturer and this is going to be a great
year to start moving to implement the new technology.

Something that is interesting for me is the automotive industry because they are getting
the approach or the interest of companies like Google and Apple that want to get in that
market with smart platform creating better interaction between the cars and owners.
That is amazing!

In addition other technologies like robots, simulation and 3D printing will help every
manufacturer to be more accurate and productive reducing cost. The technology is
moving faster now they have to live together to be more innovative in their area
(industry) of expertise.

"Better Demand Planning Emerges" that is going to be the key for each of the
manufacturer that really want to stay in their own industry.

My prediction for the manufacture industry is more focus on the automotive industry
because they already have a car on the market with android system and people can
control the car talking to them or interacting by a touch screen. In that way have my own
idea to get in to that industry and innovates the industry. For manufacturers like modular
homes, concrete, etc. (civil engineering area) this year have to be great if they
implement the use of robots, 3D printing and simulations to create better and faster
infrastructure in this country. Great year for this 2 industries.

Reference: http://www.gilcommunity.com/blog/manufacturing-trends-watch-2016/

Re: Social Network Discussion

by Michael Failla
It is very interesting how companies like google and apple can provide technologies and
materials to car designers and that they can co-exist. Going back to the 50's with basic
automobiles to now having parking sensors, high tech touch screens, and automatic
breaking. It will be even more interesting what will come in the next 50 years.
Discussion Article 2: Homework Assignment 1
Quality Management Spotlight: Corrective & Preventive Action

This article talk about how to identify problems and them assigned a corrective respond
to get back on track of the scope in any project. One important thing is the ability to
know which problem is more critical and identify as a crucial event. After that apply the
Risk Management, for me this is a good method to assigned levels of priority to any task
perhaps address corrective actions in the order which they received. After analyzed the
situations and apply the risk management the author said is time to apply the corrective
action using workflows and intelligent business rules and help streamline the process of
ensuring the goals. But this not the end now because the action need a follow up of
effectiveness and then report the path of the decisions made before. All of this in
conclusion is call quality and project control for every type of industries.

Reference:
http://hosteddocs.emediausa.com/Identify%20Critical%20Events%20for%20Immediate
%20Resolution.pdf

Re: Social Network Discussion 2

by Michael Failla

Danny,
I agree, risk management is a huge part of correcting a problem in the process.
Engineering managers need to be aware and how to use risk management in the work
place. This is especially important in for example construction management for a
project manager. The risks and rewards need to be properly and proportionately
weighed out.

Discussion Article 3: Homework Assignment 1

Take Full Control of Your Fleet!
This article is about how introduce the GPS Tracking to your employees. Yes is really
hard to do because the perspective of Big Brother. The author said that you as
manager need the GPS to improve service and/or reduce cost but employees do not
understand that. So the best to get the best attitude from them is been clear and honest.
Start talking about the benefits of no paper work, tracking mileage, best and fast driving,
safe driving, GPS could safe you for any problem on the streets, and if telling them that
the will be better reducing cost, would have more client and they will keep the job for
long time. Im not a big fan of GPS because the Big Brother but as manager I will use
this tool to keep tracking and control of the work. In my opinion I totally agree with the

author on the way to introduce the GPS to employees as a manager always with a long
view of the system in other words without hide any details of how its work.

Reference: www.gpsinsight.com Take Full Control of Your Fleet!

Re: Social Network Discussion

by Michael Failla
Danny,
I agree, I think in the long run that people will start to understand that gps tracking is a
tool for the future. And it needs to be introduced to them in a positive spotlight rather
than thinking about "Big Brother" all the time. Which I also completely understand as a
huge concern to them as well. It is one thing if it is being used as a positive, cost cutting
tool, but another thing to invade their privacy.