Individual Final Project – A process improvement

Subject: Quality Management and Customer Service

Teacher: Augusto Choy
Section: S-004
Date of submission: November 27th

Student:
Pacheco Prieto, Alexandra Gabriela

Lima, 2018
Process Name
“Travelling to university”

Brief Explanation of the background of the activity

I live in San Juan de Lurigancho district which is located at a far distance from University.
Therefore, my trip to university takes a lot of time: approximately one hour and a half. On
Mondays, my classes start at 5pm but from Thursday to Friday all my classes are scheduled
in the mornings. I always have to leave home two hours before my classes start in order to
arrive early at university. To get to the bus stop, I have to walk three blocks and cross two
avenues. Then, I take the bus to “Puente Nuevo”. After that, I have to take the bus to ‘Puente
Primavera’. Finally, I take another bus from Puente Primavera stop to university. Nevertheless,
there are days when there are no share taxis available. As a result, I have to take the bus to
UPC university. On Mondays, I leave university at nights and the rest of the week I leave
university in the afternoons.

Dependent Variable
 Time used to go to university from home in the mornings

Independent Variable
1. Leave the house and walk 3 blocks
2. Take the bus to ‘Puente Nuevo’
3. Take the bus to ‘Puente Primavera’
4. Take the share taxi to ‘UPC University’
5. Walk from UPC bus stop to ESAN University
Process Flow Chart
Travelling to university
Data collection
The data collected only includes registration of times from Mondays to Fridays because I do not have classes at weekends. For this first draft,
the table shows the time taken up to 19th October, when the process was performed without any improvement. The observations for the final
project will be taken from 1st October to 13th November, resulting in 30 days of study. Times have been recorded in minutes.

1st Oct 2nd Oct 3rd Oct 4th Oct 5th Oct 8nd Oct 9rd Oct 10th Oct 11th Oct 12th Oct 15th Oct 16th Oct 17th Oct 18th Oct 19th Oct

1. Leave the house and walk 3

4 3 4 3 6 3 2 3 4 3 2 3 5 3 3
blocks
2. Take the bus to ‘Puente
36 35 45 41 40 45 41 35 46 56 45 46 39 36 39
Nuevo’
3. Take the bus to ‘Puente
25 21 32 25 35 29 34 33 30 40 26 22 35 35 29
Primavera’
4. Take a share taxi to 'UPC
19 15 25 15 24 18 17 22 24 22 25 24 19 23 25
University'
5. Walk from UPC bus stop to
3 2 4 2 2 3 2 4 3 1 3 3 4 2 4
ESAN University
With this first collection of data and the aid of several quality tools, now we will carry on
analyzing which activities are likely to last more time and make the whole process slower, and
of course find out the reasons why these delays are occurring. As a result, we would be able
to set up some improvements to make the process much more efficient.

Control Charts:
For this case in particular, “n” will be the number of activities and “k” (samples) will be the
number of days. Range (R) is only being considered for the calculation of Xbar, but it is not
going to be taken into consideration as the range per sample is too variable because the times
per sample were taken for distinct activities. Therefore, there is a wide difference between the
maximum and minimum values.

It is important to highlight that those days when I had to take the bus to UPC university instead
of the share taxi have not been recorded since this activity was not performed daily.

Activity
Sample 1 2 3 4 5 Sum Range
nd
1 22 Oct 4 36 25 19 3 87.00 33
2 23rd Oct 3 35 21 15 2 76.00 33
3 24th Oct 4 45 32 25 4 110.00 41
4 25th Oct 3 41 25 15 2 86.00 39
5 26th Oct 6 40 35 24 2 107.00 38
6 29th Oct 3 45 29 18 3 98.00 42
7 30th Oct 2 41 34 17 2 96.00 39
8 31st Oct 3 35 33 22 4 97.00 32
9 5th Nov 4 46 30 24 3 107.00 43
10 6th Nov 3 56 40 22 1 122.00 55
11 7th Nov 2 45 26 25 3 101.00 43
12 8th Nov 3 46 22 24 3 98.00 43
13 9th Nov 5 39 35 19 4 102.00 35
14 12th Nov 3 36 35 23 2 99.00 34
15 13th Nov 3 39 29 25 4 100.00 36
 Xbar UCL LCL n 5
99.07 121.61 76.5252 k 15
99.07 121.61 76.5252 X bar 99.07
99.07 121.61 76.5252
99.07 121.61 76.5252 R bar 39.07
99.07 121.61 76.5252 A2 0.577
99.07 121.61 76.5252
99.07 121.61 76.5252
99.07 121.61 76.5252 UCL 121.61
99.07 121.61 76.5252 LCL 76.53
99.07 121.61 76.5252
99.07 121.61 76.5252
99.07 121.61 76.5252
99.07 121.61 76.5252
99.07 121.61 76.5252
99.07 121.61 76.5252

Control Chart without Improvement

140.00

120.00

100.00

80.00

60.00

40.00

20.00

0.00
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Sum Xbar UCL LCL

Evidently, those days when I had to take the bus to UPC University are not considered in or
out of control, as times were simply not recorded those days and so they were not considered
for the calculations needed to draw the graph. Still, some days show the process is actually
out of control, surpassing both lower and upper control limits; this is taking more time than the
average indicates. That is why we need to make further analysis in order to know what the
most important reasons and causes for delays are, especially those days.
Ishikawa
Now, using the Ishikawa tool, deeper causes for delays in the overall process will be identified.

As we can see from the diagram, most causes for delays in the process are related to the
Method area, basically because I’ve chosen to take the bus to and from university which really
takes up a large amount of time since I live far away from university. Commuting by public
transport implies that I had to face traffic congestion which certainly increases my commuting
time. In addition to this, during peak hours, I also have to deal with the discomfort created by
crowdedness as the system copes with a temporary surge in demand.
Why-Why Diagram

Setting up Improvements
Taking into consideration the observations collected from the quality tools above, being aware
of those activities which delay the process, then the following improvement could be
implemented in order to make the process more efficient:
- As commuting by bus is taking up most of the time, an alternative way of transport will
be used. I have decided to take the ‘Metro’ from ‘Santa Rosa Station’ to ‘Angamos
Station’. This will certainly affect the list of activities highlighted in first place. Therefore,
a new flow chart will be developed.
 List of activities modified – Process
1. Leave the house and walk 3 blocks
2. Take the bus to ‘Santa Rosa’ Metro station
3. Take the Metro from ‘Santa Rosa’ station to ‘Angamos’ station
4. Take the bus to ‘UPC University’
5. Walk from UPC bus stop to University

Modified flow chart

Now, being aware of which improvements should be implemented, from 22nd June, times were
recorded again taking changes into consideration, and so times were faster. Times were
recorded in minutes and these are shown in the following table:

22nd Oct 23rd Oct 24th Oct 25th Oct 26th Oct 29th Oct 30th Oct 31st Oct 5th Nov 6th Nov 7th Nov 8th Nov 9th Nov 12th Nov 13th Nov

1. Leave the house and walk 3

3 2 4 4 3 2 3 2 4 5 4 4 3 3 2
blocks
2. Take the bus to ‘Santa
10 6 6 8 10 7 6 8 7 6 8 7 10 8 7
Rosa’ Metro station
3. Take the Metro from ‘Santa
Rosa’ station to ‘Angamos’ 35 36 36 37 37 35 34 36 35 32 34 35 33 33 35
station
4. Take the bus to ‘UPC
25 22 21 20 25 22 25 24 21 25 28 23 27 25 27
University’
5. Walk from UPC bus stop to
3 2 2 3 3 3 2 4 2 2 2 4 3 2 2
University
With these new recording of times, a new control chart was designed in order to know if the
overall process is now under control, this is within the limits.

Activity
Sample 1 2 3 4 5 Sum Range
nd
1 22 Oct 3 10 35 25 3 76.00 32
2 23rd Oct 2 6 36 22 2 68.00 34
3 24th Oct 4 6 36 21 2 69.00 34
4 25th Oct 4 8 37 20 3 72.00 34
5 26th Oct 3 10 37 25 3 78.00 34
6 29th Oct 2 7 35 22 3 69.00 33
7 30th Oct 3 6 34 25 2 70.00 32
8 31st Oct 2 8 36 24 4 74.00 34
9 5th Nov 4 7 35 21 2 69.00 33
10 6th Nov 5 6 32 25 2 70.00 30
11 7th Nov 4 8 34 28 2 76.00 32
12 8th Nov 4 7 35 23 4 73.00 31
13 9th Nov 3 10 33 27 3 76.00 30
14 12th Nov 3 8 33 25 2 71.00 31
15 13th Nov 2 7 35 27 2 73.00 33

n 5 Xbar UCL LCL

k 15 72.27 91.00 53.5334
X bar 72.27 72.27 91.00 53.5334
72.27 91.00 53.5334
R bar 32.47
72.27 91.00 53.5334
A2 0.577 72.27 91.00 53.5334
72.27 91.00 53.5334
72.27 91.00 53.5334
UCL 91.00 72.27 91.00 53.5334
LCL 53.53 72.27 91.00 53.5334
72.27 91.00 53.5334
72.27 91.00 53.5334
72.27 91.00 53.5334
72.27 91.00 53.5334
72.27 91.00 53.5334
72.27 91.00 53.5334
 Control Chart with Improvement
100.00
90.00
80.00
70.00
60.00
50.00
40.00
30.00
20.00
10.00
0.00
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Sum Xbar UCL LCL

Those days when I did not take the share taxi are not considered in or out of control, as times
were simply not recorded those days and so they were not considered for the calculations
needed to draw the graph. With the improvements made, the overall process was controlled,
as times remained within both the upper and lower control limits.

Recommendations and Conclusions

- It is concluded that due to the poor public transport system, commuting by bus certainly
implied dealing with major issues such as traffic jams and overcrowded buses. As a result, my
commuting time was harshly affected which caused the process to take longer.
- It would be recommended to make a comparison between the expenses underlying both
means of transport: the bus and the metro, in order to know if the new mean of transport to be
used would, indeed, help me to save money.