Elucidate a relationship between strategy and data quality

Organisations are turning to be more dependent on data; nearly every modern organisation depends upon data and creates huge quantities of data. So, to meet the requirements of the organisation, a comprehensive data management program is necessary. But data is distinctive from other resources and requires diverse management techniques. Organisational framework required to tackle the above concerns often does not exist. Hence, it is necessary to develop a comprehensive data quality strategy that can address many of these issues. For example, as with many organisations, formal data quality strategy was not documented for the New Zealand Ministry of Health. A planned data quality framework was later introduced which informed the overall development of a data quality strategy for the Ministry of Health. All results of the development of the strategy were documented for each collection of data. And it enabled internal members to access all the information about data collection. The documents are: Guidelines for the usage of data and original purpose for the collection Roles and responsibilities Results of assessment of collection using data quality framework Action plan for quality improvement Current and previous data quality initiatives The data was available both on paper and Web. As defined by Joseph Juran3, Data are of high quality, if they are fit for their intended uses in operations, decision-making and planning. Data are fit for use if they are free of defects and possess desired features. Hence, a data quality strategy in an organisation is a must to define the level of quality required to make the data useful. The data quality strategy also needs to look forward to the future potential uses of the data. The strategy for data quality is acquired from basic checking calculations to the analysis of data collection and system controls. The Audit Commission has identified five key standards that strengthen this process. They are: Governance and leadership Policies and procedures Systems and processes People and skills Data use and reporting Data quality standards outline a corporate approach to quality of data and set a strategy throughout the organisation. It also defines a framework of management activities to ensure that the quality of data collected is appropriate and is used to manage and report business activities.

These standards are intended to promote better data quality, rather than as a firm set of requirements. Alternative approaches to accomplish these aims may also be appropriated to secure reliable, which supports decision making. In this section, you will learn the five data quality standards that are well defined and identified by the Audit Commission. The five key standards are explained in the following sub-section: Data governance1 is a discipline that controls quality, consistency, usability, security and availability of the organisations data. Through data governance, organisations are implementing positive control over the processes and methods used by knowledge-workers to handle data. Data governance ensures that important data resources are properly managed in all the departments of the organisation. It also ensures that data can be trusted and people can be held responsible for low data quality. In an organisation, people are put in-charge to fix and prevent data issues so that they become more efficient. It also describes the companys evolutionary processes, changing its way of thinking and setting up the processes to handle information. It reduces risk and costs, improves business alignment and increases data management. Leadership plays an important role in management. It is an integral part of an effect strategy. Leaders establish unity of purpose and direction of the organisation. They should create and maintain the internal environment in which people become fully involved in achieving the organisations objectives. Key components The following key components outline arrangements for accountability and responsibility of data quality: A member of the managerial team is responsible for the quality of data, and this responsibility is not delegated. Organisational objectives for the data quality are clearly and formally defined. These objectives are directly linked to business objectives and the organisations activities that are adopted by the managerial team. Strategic approach for the data quality is associated with a delivery plan. The plan consists of clearly identified actions and timelines to support improvement. Assurance for the quality of data is clearly communicated to the employees, which describes their responsibility for the data quality. Accountability for the data quality is properly defined and it forms a part of the performance appraisal system. Risk management activities of the data quality are regularly assessed for risks that are directly related to reliability and accuracy of information produced and used. Data is subjected to robust examination by the management team to report data quality issues. Data is periodically reviewed and reported to support key performance measures and indicators of the quality of data. Whenever necessary, the managerial team takes action to address the results of previous internal and external reviews of data quality.

2. Briefly describe Deming's 14 points philosophy. Elucidate Juran's trilogy in brief.

The 14 points seem to be a radical idea, but the key to understanding them is Demings thoughts about variation. Variation was considered by Deming as the disease that menaced U.S. manufacturing industry. Deming strongly believed that quality is the responsibility of the management. He derived the fourteen points that can be applied to both small and large organisations, to the manufacturing or service industry. They also apply to a department within a company. The Demings fourteen points[6] are summarised as follows. 1. "Create constancy of purpose towards improvement". Substitute short-term response with long-term planning. 2. "Adopt the new philosophy". The significance is that the management should actually adopt his philosophy, rather than just expecting the workforce to do so. 3. Cease dependence on inspection". If variance is reduced, there is no need to check manufactured items for defects, because there would not be any. 4. "Move towards a single supplier for any one item." Multiple suppliers mean variation between raw materials. 5. "Improve constantly and forever". Always strive to reduce variation. 6. "Institute training on the job". If people are not properly trained, they will not work the same way, and this will bring in variation. 7. "Institute leadership". Deming differentiates leadership and supervision. The latter is number and target based. 8. "Drive out fear". Deming considers management as counter- productive in the long term, because it keeps workers from acting in the organisations best interests. 9. "Break down barriers between departments". Another central idea to TQM is the concept of the internal customer, that each department serves other departments that use its output, but not the management. 10. "Eliminate slogans". Another central idea to TQM is that it is not people who make mistakes; instead it is the process they are working within. 11. "Eliminate management by objectives".

12. "Remove barriers to pride of workmanship". Other problems outlined within an organisation reduce worker satisfaction. 13. "Institute education and self-improvement". 14. "The transformation is everyones job". Jurans Trilogy His philosophy can be best approached by the Juran Trilogy. It consists of Quality planning, Quality control and Quality improvement. Dr. Jurans pillars for the trilogy are as follows: Quality planning Identify customers Determine customer requirements Develop a product that can meet the customer requirements Develop processes Determine process controls Quality control Evaluate actual performance Compare actual performance to quality goals Act (process improvement) on the difference between actual performance and the goals Quality improvement Prove the need for improvement and identify specific projects for improvement Diagnose to discover causes Provide remedies Prove that the remedies are effective Provide control to maintain the gain

Dr. Jurans philosophy underlined that in order to deliver quality products and services; every part of the organisation must be passionately involved, from market studies and research to customer service. It also requires a concentrated effort of management, statistics and technology that coordinate together throughout the company and must be planned and organised accordingly.

3. Describe the evolution of Six Sigma in General Electric. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of Six Sigma in brief.

The recognised benchmark for Six Sigma implementation is General Electric (GE). The effort by General Electric in particular, was driven by the former CEO Jack Welch. He brought significant media attention to the concept and made Six Sigma a popular approach to quality improvement. In the mid-1990s, quality emerged as a concern of many employees at GE. Jack Welch invited Larry Bossidy, then CEO of Allied Signal, who has extraordinary success with Six Sigma, to talk about it at a corporate executive council meeting. The meeting drove the attention of GE managers and, as Welch stated, I went nuts about Six Sigma and launched it[1], calling it the most determined task the company has ever taken. To ensure success, GE changed its incentive compensation plan so that 60% of the bonus was based on financials and 40% on Six Sigma, and provided stock option grants to employees in Six Sigma training. In their first year, they trained 30,000 employees at a cost of $200 million and got back about $150 million in savings. From 1996 to 1997, GE increased the number of Six Sigma projects from 3,000 to 6,000 and achieved $320 million in productivity gains and profits. By 1998, the company has generated $750 million in Six Sigma savings over and above their investment, and would receive $1.5 billion in savings the next year. GE cites Six Sigma with a ten-fold increase in the life of CT scanner X-ray tubes, a 400% improvement in return on investment in its industrial diamond business, a 62% reduction in turnaround time at railcar repair shops, and $400 million in savings in its plastics business. One of the key learning GE discovered was that Six Sigma is not only for engineers. Welch observed the following: Plant managers can use Six Sigma to reduce waste, improve product consistency, solve equipment problems or create capacity. Human resource managers need it to reduce the cycle time for hiring employees. Regional sales managers can use Six Sigma to improve forecast reliability pricing strategies or pricing variation. For that matter, plumbers, car mechanics, and gardeners can use it to better understand their customers needs and tailor their service offerings to meet customers wants.

After many years of implementation, Six Sigma has become a vital part of GEs company culture. In fact, as GE continues to acquire new companies, integrating Six Sigma into different business cultures is a significant challenge. Six Sigma is a priority in acquisitions and addressed early in the acquisition of process. Many other organisations such as Texas Instruments, Allied Signal (which merged with Honeywell), Boeing, 3M, Home Depot, Caterpillar, IBM, Xerox, Citibank, Raytheon and the U.S. Air Force Air Combat Command have developed quality improvement approaches designed around the Six Sigma concept and also reported significant results. Advantages : The following are the benefits of Six Sigma: Six Sigma is influenced by the customer and thus aims to achieve maximum customer satisfaction and minimum defects. It targets customer delight and new innovative ways to exceed the customer expectations. Implementation of Six Sigma methodology leads to increase in profit and decrease in costs. Thus improvements attained are directly related to financial results. Six Sigma is successfully implemented in every business category including return on sales, return on investment, employment growth and stock value growth. Six Sigma targets variation in processes and focuses on the process improvement instead of final outcome. Six Sigma is a potential methodology as compared to other quality programs as it focuses on prevention on defects rather than fixing it. It is thoughtful to the entire business processes and training is integral to the management system where the top down approach ensures that every good thing is capitalised and every bad thing is quickly removed. Disadvantages : Though SIX Sigma is a very beneficial concept, it does have some drawbacks. The following are the disadvantages of Six Sigma: The Six Sigma critics are being arguing about applicability of Six Sigma. They suggest that the quality standards should be according to specific task and measuring 3.4 defects per million as standard leads to more time in areas which are less profitable.

 Six Sigma emphasises on the rigidity of a process which essentially contradicts innovation and kills creativity. An innovative method means deviations in production, redundancy, unusual solutions and insufficient study which are opposite to Six Sigma principles. People contend that Six Sigma is simply a re-branding of continues improvement techniques and tools. Hence it promotes outsourcing of improvement projects with lack of accountability. Six Sigma implementation continuously require skilled work force. Therefore, control and employee dedication are hard to accomplish if it is not implemented regularly. While changing over the theoretical concepts into practical applications there are lot of real time barriers which needs to be resolved.

What were the improvements made to QMS? Why do think management responsibility is an essential requirement of QMS?

Improvements made to Quality Management Systems One of the changes made between 1994 and 2000 in the ISO 9000 family of quality management system standards is the language used. Table 4.1 depicts a simple count of the number of times certain words are found in each of the versions of ISO 9001. These reflect the main forces of the new standard: Increased customer focus Process approach (at the expense of procedural documentation) Continuous improvement Skill-based approach to human resource management

Table 4.1: Change in Vocabulary in ISO 9001:2000

The adoption of a process approach reflects the changes in management thinking and improved process management delivers a better performance in most organisations. The standard now clearly recognises the process-oriented nature of many organisations. It also addresses all important areas such as risk assessment, relationship and interactions between departments, the internal customer/supplier chains and the critical one of capability. Therefore, the revised standard is a major step forward from the earlier versions. It pays main attention to the management of people, an area which many organisations have neglected in their past quality initiatives, particularly those concerned with documenting quality systems.

Organisations making the transition from the 1994 version to ISO 9002:2001 are finding how important are the management of skills, including those of the auditors (external as well as internal). A mindset change is required from the procedures-based approaches which led to changes in mechanistic and bureaucratic systems. With understanding, commitment and the right attitude, particularly in the senior management, a quality management system can support a dynamic organisation. It also helps to achieve its aim and objective through a thorough understanding of the hows. The ISO 9000:2000 family of standards is now much more associated with the EFQM Excellence Model in terms of the spontaneous appealing: direction-process-people-performance structure. Managerial responsibility plays a very important role in the QMS. It is essential to retain and manage the system components. Customer needs/requirements The organisation must focus on customer needs and specify them as defined requirements for the organisation. The aim of this is to achieve customer assurance in the products and/or services provided. It is also necessary to ensure that the defined requirements are clearly understood and amply met. Quality policy The organisation must define and publish its quality policy, which forms an element of the corporate policy. Complete commitment is required from the senior management to ensure that the policy is communicated, understood, implemented and maintained at all levels in the organisation. It should, therefore, be authorised by top management and signed by the chief executive, or equivalent signatories. Quality objectives and planning Organisations must publish quality objectives and define the responsibilities of each function and level in the organisation. A manager reporting to top management, with the necessary authority, resources, support and ability must be given the responsibility to coordinate, implement and maintain the quality management system. He must also resolve any problem and ensure prompt and effective corrective action. This includes responsibility for ensuring proper handling of the system and reporting on needs for improvement. Those who control sales, service operations, warehousing, delivery and reworking of non-conforming product or service processes must also be identified. Management review Management reviews of the system must be carried out by top management at defined intervals, with records to indicate their actions. The effectiveness of these actions must be considered during subsequent reviews. Reviews include data on the internal quality audits,

customer feedback, product conformance analysis, process performance and the status of preventive, corrective and improvement actions. Quality manual The organisation must prepare a quality manual that is appropriate. It must include the following: A quality policy Definition of the quality management system; its scope, exclusions and more. Description of the interaction between different processes of the quality management system Documentation of procedures required by the QMS In the quality manual for a large organisation it is convenient to indicate the existence and contents of other manuals containing the details of procedures and practices in operation in specific areas of the system.

Control of quality records Quality records must demonstrate conformance to requirements and effective operation of the quality management system. Quality records from suppliers also need to be controlled. This includes record identification, collection, indexing, access, filing, storage and disposition. In addition, the retention time of quality records must be established.

Explain the goals and programs of strategic plan. What are the reasons of failure of the strategic plans?

Next are the Goals, these are specific immediate or ultimate time-based measurements to be achieved by implementing strategies in quest of the companys objectives. For example, to achieve sales of Rs.3 million in two years time, goals should be quantifiable, reliable, practical and realisable. They can relate to factors like market (sizes and shares), goods, funds, prosperity, operation and competency. A goal should be able to: Describe a future end-state desired outcome that is encouraging of the mission and vision. Shape the way ahead in actionable conditions. Applicable where there are obvious choices about the future. Put planned focus into the organisation specific ownership of the objective should be assigned to people within the organisation. Work well where things are changing fast. Goals should be apt for long-term environments that have limited choices about the future.

Failure to execute by overcoming the four key organizational hurdles[87] o Cognitive hurdle o Motivational hurdle o Resource hurdle o Political hurdle Failure to understand the customer o Why do they buy o Is there a real need for the product o inadequate or incorrect marketing research Inability to predict environmental reaction o What will competitors do Fighting brands Price wars o Will government intervene Over-estimation of resource competence o Can the staff, equipment, and processes handle the new strategy o Failure to develop new employee and management skills Failure to coordinate o Reporting and control relationships not adequate

Organizational structure not flexible enough Failure to obtain senior management commitment o Failure to get management involved right from the start o Failure to obtain sufficient company resources to accomplish task Failure to obtain employee commitment o New strategy not well explained to employees o No incentives given to workers to embrace the new strategy Under-estimation of time requirements o No critical path analysis done Failure to follow the plan o No follow through after initial planning o No tracking of progress against plan o No consequences for above Failure to manage change o Inadequate understanding of the internal resistance to change o Lack of vision on the relationships between processes, technology and organization Poor communications o Insufficient information sharing among stakeholders o Exclusion of stakeholders and delegates
o

What are the characteristics of Ideal indicator? What are the two Six Sigma models undertaken for Quality improvement?

An ideal indicator should have the following key characteristics: (i) indicator is based on standardised definitions, and described thoroughly and completely; (ii) indicator is highly specific and sensitive, (iii) indicator is applicable and consistent; (iv) indicator distinguishes well the results obtained after the changes made to enhance the quality; (v) indicator relates to evidently exclusive events for the user (example, if meant for service providers, it is relevant to service practice); (vi) indicator permits useful comparisons; and (vii) indicator is evidence-based. Benefits of the Indicators for Quality Improvement: Brings assured indicators together into one place. Allows the management to benchmark and measure quality. Encourages teams to work together to improve services and the production. Six Sigma is another form for improvement. The phrase comes from its use in statistics of the Greek Letter (sigma) to signify Standard Deviation from the mean. Six Sigma is a measurement-based approach for process improvement and problem reduction in an organisation. This is undertaken through the use of two Six Sigma models: DMAIC and DMADV. DMAIC (define measure, analyse, improve, control) is an improvement system for existing processes looking for improvement.

 DMADV (define, measure, analyse, design, verify) is an improvement approach used to expand new processor products at Six Sigma quality levels.

1. What are the different types of Reliability estimates? What are the important components of retest reliability There are several types of reliability estimates, such as: Inter-rater reliability is the difference in measurements when undertaken by different people but with the same method or instruments.

Test-retest reliability is the difference in measurements undertaken by a single person or instrument on the same item and under the same conditions. This is called intra-rater reliability.

Inter-method reliability is the difference in measurements of the same target when undertaken by a different methods or instruments, but with the same person. It is termed as parallel-forms reliability.

Internal consistency reliability, measures the consistency of results across items within a test.

Most common form of reliability is the retest reliability, which refers to the reproducibility of values of a variable when the measurement is done more than once on the same product. Here, we take the example of 10 people weighed twice with a gap of two weeks between tests. This example is used to explain the three important components of retest reliability: change in the mean typical error, retest correlation kappa coefficient and alpha reliability.

1. Change in the Mean The difference between the two tests conducted is the change in the mean. The change consists of two components: a random change and a systematic change.

Random change in the mean is due to the sampling error. This kind of change arises from the typical error, which is like a randomly selected number added to or subtracted from the true value every time the measurement is conducted.

Systematic change in the mean is a systematic change in the value between two measures. This variation in the mean value is an important issue when subjects perform a series of trials as part of a tracking the program. The subjects are usually tracked to determine the effects of an intervention (example, a change in diet or training), so it is important to perform trials to make learning effects or other systematic changes insignificant before applying the intervention.

Typical Error of Measurement In the above example, the first few weights show a slight trend downwards it shows that the subjects lose a bit of weight, so there is a random variation of about a kilogram. This random variation is the typical error. It is quantified as the standard deviation in each subjects measurements between tests, after any shifts in the mean have been taken into account. The variation/error is also known as the within-subject standard deviation, or the standard error of measurement.

Coefficient of variation is an important form of typical error. This is the typical error is expressed as a percentage of the subjects mean score. Another form of within-subject variation is reliability limits of agreement, which represent the 95% likely range for the difference between a subjects scores in two tests4.

2. Retest Correlation When the test and retest values are determined, it is obvious that the closer the values are to the true value, the higher is the reliability. Therefore, a retest correlation is one way to quantify reliability. A correlation of 1.00 represents perfect agreement between tests, whereas 0.00 represents no agreement whatever. In our example the correlation is 0.95, which represents very high reliability.

Kappa Coefficient: Reliability of Nominal Variables Reliability can also be defined for supposed variables, to represent the constancy with which something is classified on several occasions. The best measure is something called the kappa coefficient. It is equivalent to a correlation coefficient and has the same range of values (-1 to +1).

3. Alpha Reliability The alpha reliability of the variable is derived by assuming that each item represents a retest of a single item. For example, if there are five items, it is as though the five scores are the retest scores for one item. But reliability is calculated such that it represents the reliability of the mean of the items and not the reliability of any single item. Hence, the alpha reliability of 10 items would be higher than that of 5 similar items.5 Alpha reliability is regarded as a measure of internal consistency of the mean of the items at the time of supervision of the questionnaire. It refers to the ability to reproduce the results whenever it is required. This is essentially enhances faith in the statistical analysis and the results obtained.

What are the different types of Quality Costs? What is the relevance of Cost and Schedule Information in an organisation? Quality costs are the costs associated with preventing, evaluating and rectifying defective work. These costs are enormous, running at 20% - 40% of sales. Many of these costs can be considerably reduced or avoided. One of the major functions of a Quality Engineer is the diminution of the total cost of quality associated with a product. The different types of organisational Quality Costs are: Prevention Costs: Costs of activities that are specially planned to prevent poor quality. Examples of "poor quality" include coding errors, plan errors, mistakes in the user manuals and poor documentation or unmentionably intricate code. Prevention costs are not applicable within the Testing Groups budget. This money is spent by the programming, and marketing staffs. Appraisal Costs: Costs of activities intended to find quality problems, such as for any type of testing. Plan reviews are part prevention and part appraisal. To the degree that one looks for errors in the proposed plan it signifies doing an appraisal. To the degree that one looks for ways to reinforce the plan, one is doing prevention. Failure Costs: Costs that are the outcome from poor quality, such as the cost of setting up bugs and the cost of dealing with customer complaints. Internal Failure Costs: Failure costs that occur before company supplies its product to the customer. There are many internal failure costs borne by the organisational groups outside of Product Development. If a bug blocks someone in the company from doing job, the costs of the wasted time, the missed milestones, and the overtime to get back onto schedule are all internal failure costs. For example, if a company sells hundreds of copies of the same program, you will probably print several thousand copies of a multi-colour box that contains and describes the program. The organisation will often be able to get a better deal by booking press time in advance. However, if one does not get the artwork to the printer on time, the company might have to pay for all of that wasted press time anyway, and then one may have to pay additional printing fees and run charges to get the printing done on the new schedule. This can be an added expense. External Failure Costs: Failure costs arise once a company supplies the product to the customer, such as customer service costs, or the cost of patching a released product and distributing the patch. External failure costs are vast. It is much cheaper to solve the problems before delivering the defective product to customers. Total Cost of Quality: The sum of all the incurred costs that is Prevention cost + Appraisal cost + Internal Failure + External Failure cost Cost and Schedule Information

Actual projects involve a compound inter-relationship between time and cost. As projects progress, different types of delays influence costs and create budgetary problems which may in turn demand adjustments to activity schedules. Unexpected events might result in increases in both time and cost to complete an activity. For example, quarry problems may easily lead to much lower than expected productivity on activities requiring deep analysis. While project managers perfectly identify the inter-play between time and cost on projects, it is difficult to witness effective project control systems which include both elements. Usually, project costs and schedules are tracked and reported by separate application programs which require the project managers to perform the task of relating the two sets of information. The difficulty of integrating schedule and cost information starts chiefly from the level of details necessary for successful integration. Generally, a single project activity involves a numerous cost account categories. For example, an activity for the preparation of a building foundation would involve labourers, cement workers, concrete forms, concrete, reinforcement, transportation of materials and other resources. Different cost accounts are normally used to record these various resources. Similarly, various activities might involve expenses linked with particular cost accounts. For example, a particular material such as standard electrical wiring might be used in abundant different schedule activities. To incorporate cost and schedule information, the disaggregated charges for definite activities and definite cost accounts must be the basis of analysis. A simple means of relating time and cost data in sequence is to identify individual work elements representing the resources in a particular cost category associated with a particular project activity. Work elements would signify an element in a two-dimensional medium of activities and cost accounts as illustrated in figure 8.2. An identifying system for work elements includes both the relevant cost account and the associated activity. In some cases, it also identifies work elements by the organisation or individual. In this case, a three dimensional representation of work elements is essential, with the third dimension corresponding to responsible individuals. More usually modern computerised databases can accommodate a flexible structure of data representation to assist aggregation with respect to numerous different perspectives. With this organisation of specific data, a number of management reports could be generated. In particular, the costs associated with specific activities can be attained as the sum of the work elements appearing in any row in Table 8.1. These costs can be used to assess alternate technologies to achieve particular activities or to derive the expected project cash flow over time as the schedule changes. From the management perception, problems rising from particular activities could be acknowledged since costs would be accomplished at such a disaggregated level. As a result, project control becomes at once more precise and thorough. Table 8.1: Illustrations of a Cost Account and Project Activity Matrix

Until data collection is computerised, the use of work elements to control activities in large projects is likely to be difficult to implement. However, certain segments of project activities can profit extremely. Material requirements can be tracked in this fashion. Materials involve only a division of all cost accounts and project activities, so the burden of data collection and control is much smaller than for an entire system. Moreover, the benefits from incorporation of schedule and cost information are particularly perceptible in materials control since delivery schedules are directly affected and bulk order discounts can be identified. As a result, materials control systems can reasonably include a "work element" accounting system. If in any case the work element accounting system is not present, costs associated with particular activities are anticipated by summing expenses in all cost accounts openly related to an activity plus a quantity of expenses in cost accounts used jointly by two or more activities. The base of cost allocation would be the level of effort or resource required by the different activities.
What are the basic steps involved in audit reporting? Explain. What is the purpose of product auditing?

Audit Reporting The purpose of a quality audit report is to communicate the results of the investigation. The report should provide correct and clear data that will be effective as a management aid in addressing important organisational issues. The audit ends when the report is issued by the lead auditor. Basic Steps 1. Review and finalise audit results: The final audit report properly communicates the audit results to the client and the auditee. The audit report is prepared, signed, and dated by the lead auditor. It should be reviewed and approved by the management of the auditing organisation as well as by the client before it is sent to the auditee. 2. Audit details: Most audit reports contain an introduction, a summary, a listing of the findings or nonconformities, and requests for corrective actions. A report must refer to positions, titles, or systems when identifying deficiencies. There is no standard length for an audit report. A report may or may not include the attachments. 3. System effectiveness: A system is a set of processes supported by an infrastructure to manage and coordinate its function. In a system, processes interact and work together to

achieve a common goal or objective. Effectiveness of a process or system is determined by its capacity to achieve its objectives or intended purpose. 4. Conclusion to be reported: The overall conclusion will be reported in the form of summary. The summary or abstract is the synopsis of the audit result. 5. Request for corrective actions: Management of an audited organisation should be asked to review and investigate the audit findings to determine the root cause and take appropriate corrective action. They should be asked to respond to the report in writing. The response should clearly state the root cause, corrective action planned or taken to prevent recurrence and the scheduled completion date for the corrective action. If corrective action is not appropriate, the response specifies the reason for no action. Effective audit reports The effectiveness of audit reports can also be enhanced with a cover letter or executive summary. A cover letter or executive summary should link organisation objectives to audit results. For a first-party audit, a cover letter or executive summary may link the audit results to risk or financial performance. A second-party summary can link audit results to a suppliers share of current and future business. A third-party executive summary can state that the certificate or license has been renewed. Record retention The lead auditor and audit team members must follow organisational procedures concerning the retention of audit records. Audit records should be reasonably secure to prevent inadvertent access by outside parties. All audit records have to be considered confidential. For high-risk areas, there may be elaborate procedures for securing or destroying audit records The purpose of product auditing includes: Estimating the quality level delivered to customers. Evaluating the effectiveness of the inspection decisions in deciding conformance to specifications. Providing information helpful in improving the outgoing product quality level and improving the effectiveness of inspection. Providing additional guarantee beyond routine inspection activities. Stage of evaluation

The product audit should compare actual service performance with users service needs. For many simple, stable products, the approximation of test results versus specification is a useful, economical way of conducting a product audit. Scope of the product audit The scope of some product audits totally misses the mark in measuring customer reaction. For simple products, a representative sample of finished goods can be bought on the open market. These samples are then checked for fitness for use and conformance to specification. For complex consumer products, e.g., household appliances, it is possible to secure product audit data at multiple stages of the product progression. Sampling for product audit For product manufactured by mass production, sample sizes for product audit can often be determined by using conventional statistical methods. These schemes determine the sample size required for stated degrees of risk. Sample sizes for product audit determined by these schemes when applied to mass production still represent a small fraction of the product that needs to be sampled. In contrast, for products produced as large units or in small quantities, the conventional concepts of statistical sampling are prohibitively costly. Reporting the results of product audit The results of a product audit appear in the form of the presence or absence of defects, features, etc. A continuing score or rating of quality is then prepared based on the audit results. In addition to summarising the defects found, the audit results can be tallied by functional responsibility. Audit results can be summarised to show the effectiveness of the previous inspection activities.
What is quality culture? Explain the five key drivers that are essential for developing quality culture

Quality culture can be defined as the incorporation of quality in the overall system of an organisation which leads to a positive internal environment and creation of delighted customers. The essential tool for implementation of such a culture is a changed mindset at all the levels of management. The process of initiating quality culture begins with managers who understand the value of the systems view and also believe in its implications. So to create such a culture, a changed mindset is important. And it is achieved either through self realisation at the top level or through trainings and workshops or following of benchmark organisations. Key drivers for developing quality culture

There are essentially five key drivers for developing quality culture. They are: 1. Provide quality goals and measurements at all levels Providing quality goals and measurements at all levels is a starting point to ensure action on quality (see Figure 10.1). In this process we develop goals and measures that are aligned with the mission, the critical success factors and the quality strategy of the organisation. Clear quality goals for people are important stimuli for inspiring superiority in quality. Human beings commit themselves in two different ways: external and internal (Argyris. 1998). Under external commitment, management defines the goals for employees and also the tasks required in achieving those goals. Under internal commitment, management and employees together define goals, and the employees define the tasks to achieve the goals. Management must encourage an environment of internal commitment. Two important issues in publishing information on quality are the language used and the content of the information. Information in different languages should be presented for different populations in an organisation. The pyramid in figure 10.2 depicts these populations. Management is at the top, usually the general manager and the top management team, at the base are first-line supervisors and the workforce; in between are middle managers and specialists.

Figure 10.1: Goal Alignments (Rununler and Brache, 1995) These segments of the organisation use different languages in everyday operations, and creating consciousness of the need for quality must reflect this fact. Middle managers must understand their local languages and also be fluent in the languages of the other levels (upper management and lower management and workforce). So, middle managers must be bilingual.

At the upper management level, importance should be given to threats of sales income or opportunities for cost reduction. When quality can be related to either of these factors, an important step in inspiring upper management action has to be taken. At middle management and lower levels, we can translate the impact of quality directly into the language of job security. When this step can be based on data, the result can be dramatic.

Figure 10.2: Common languages

Quality measurements as a continuous focus The message on quality must be sustained through continuous reinforcement. One form of reinforcement is quality measurement. Quality measurement is projected for major functional activities, i.e., product development, purchasing, manufacturing, marketing and customer service and administrative and support operations. These measurements become the vital signs that provide people with data to perform their everyday jobs and also to maintain continuing awareness of quality. Units of measure should be carefully defined to motivate a positive priority for quality. Reports and scoreboards of quality measurements can be highly effective. Where the measurements show an unfavourable level of quality, the distinction between managementcontrollable and worker-controllable causes must be identified. When the problem is mostly management controllable, management must clearly be responsible for taking action. Otherwise, publication of the data implies that the low level of quality is the error of the workers. Such an implication will be severely resented and will undermine a positive culture about quality. For problems that are mostly worker controllable, the publishing or

posting of the data must be accompanied by showing the workers correctly what steps they must take personally to progress their quality of output. Human skills provide an unending array of possibilities. But ideas for maintaining a focus on quality can never be an alternative for real action by management. Few management groups expect the employees to improve quality when the management-controllable causes of poor quality are not corrected. 2. Provide evidence of management leadership The most important element to motivate action within a company is management leadership in quality with the evidence to prove it. The leadership task includes establishing, aligning and deploying quality goals and plans and then serving on a quality council to lead the quality effort. In short, upper management must initiate and support a vision of a total quality culture. Providing evidence of leadership may involve changes in the way management work together with employees, i.e., the style of leadership. A prerequisite to such a change is having knowledge about the present style. The issue of leadership for quality applies to all levels of management. Middle management and supervision must take the initiative to act as leaders in quality. 3. Provide for self-development and empowerment Motivating people to take positive steps in quality is greatly influenced by the nature of the work performed by those people. Self-control and job design Individuals must have knowledge of what they are supposed to do, feedback on their performance and the means of regulating their work if they are not able to achieve the goals. If one or more of these three elements have not met then it means that quality problems are management controllable. Placing workers in a state of self-control is essential for behavioural approaches to motivate employees. Few forms of job design, place workers in a greater degree of self-control. These are examined below.

Job characteristics

According to the Hackman and Odham(1980) there are five characteristics of jobs that provide more meaningful and satisfying jobs for workers. These characteristics are represented in the table 10.2. Hackman and Oldham point out that most but not all people want more demanding jobs. The chances are endless, but one must keep away from placing employees in jobs to which they are not interested or otherwise suited. Table 10.2: Job Enrichment Characteristics and Management Actions Characteristics Skill variety Definition Action Extent to which the job has a Combine tasks in order to sufficient variety of activities to produce larger work require a diversity of employee module. skills and talents. Task identity Degree to which work requires Organise work into doing a job from starting till endmeaningful groups, and results in a complete visible example, by customer, by unit of output. product. Task significance Degree to which the job affects Gives means of direct internal and external customers. communication and personal contact with customer. Autonomy Amount of employee self Gives employee greater control in planning and doing self-control for decision the work. making. Feedback Degree to which direct Create feedback system to knowledge of results is provide employees with provided to employee. information directly from the job. Self-directed teams An unusual form of job enlargement is applied to a group of workers. i.e., a self directed team. Two factors are highlighted: (I) each worker is trained to have a variety of skills, thereby permitting rotation of tasks, and (2) the team is given formal authority to carry out certain job-planning and supervisory tasks Empowerment It is the process of allotting decision-making authority to lower levels within the organisation. Empowerment of the workforce is mostly remarkable. Nevertheless empowerment goes far beyond delegating authority and providing additional training. It means cheering people to take the initiative and broaden their scope. It also means being kind if mistakes are made.

As the workers become more empowered in the work, the feeling of ownership and responsibility become more meaningful. Additionally, the act of empowering employees provides evidence of managements trust. Extra evidence is provided when management shares confidential business information with employees. For many organisations, such steps are clearly a change in the culture. The theory of empowerment applies both to individuals and to groups of workers. The need to redefine the basic roles of upper management, middle management and the workforce comes with empowerment. The workforce is the foremost producer of the output for customers. Its closeness and awareness about its work means that it should use its empowerment to find out how the work can be done best. Performance appraisal Performance appraisal is the process by which an organisation periodically evaluates an employees behaviour and accomplishments. Performance appraisal has become a subject of intense debate (and confusion). When properly conducted, performance appraisal is a useful tool. Appraisal that coaches employees to a higher level of performance can be helpful; appraisal that is done only to rank employees for purposes of pay and advancement can be destructive. A related approach is the 360-degree appraisal process. In this approach, several individuals who frequently work together with the employee participate in the appraisal process. Any person who has significant contact or useful information about the employees performance may be included. In the ideal 360-degree process, the individuals play a part in both goal setting (at the beginning of a period) and performance appraisal (at the end of a period). Selection and training Selection and training of personnel clearly has an important influence on individuals progress. Many of the theories are well known but are not always practiced with sufficient intensity. Interviewers and testing prior to service assure compatibility of the candidate and the job. Rotational assignment then assists to build up a broad base of technical skills, thus facilitating cooperation across departments. At the managerial level, rotational assignments help to develop the individuals concern for the company as a whole. 4. Provide participation to inspire action The concept of participation is an age-old principle that helps to alter behaviour. By personally participating in quality activities, people acquire new knowledge, see the

benefits of the quality discipline, and obtain a sense of accomplishment by solving problems. This participation leads to lasting changes in behaviour. Participation at all levels is significant in inspiring action on quality. Participation should comprise the officers of labour unions. Competitive economic challenges faced by most organisations require that management and unions find ways to work together for their mutual benefit. 5. Provide recognition and rewards Recognition can be defined as public acknowledgement of superior performance of specific activities. Rewards are benefits that are presented for generally superior performance against goals. An even more satisfying form is the positive feeling that people have internally when (1) their jobs have been designed to focus on self-development and (2) they are given opportunities to participate in planning and decision making. This environment informs employees that their skills, their judgment and their integrity are trusted. Recognition from public acknowledgment of superior activity can be provided at several levels: individual, team and business unit. In planning for recognition, here are some questions to deal with:[3] What type of activity will receive formal recognition, example, normal participation in an activity such as workforce teams, superior effort, or tangible results.. Will recognition be given to individuals, to groups, or to both? Will selection of those to receive recognition be on a competitive or non-competitive basis? What form will the recognition take, example, ceremonial, token award, or other? Who will decide on the form of recognition, example,. a group of managers? Will others have input? Who wilI select the recipients, example, a management committee, peers of potential recipients, or someone else? As these questions apply to other activities experience is available in planning recognition.

For modern products, explain the concepts on what on which design reviews are based

Design review is a formal, documented, comprehensive and systematic examination of a design to evaluate the design requirements and the capability of the design to meet the requirements and to recognise problems and propose solutions. Design review is not new. The term has referred to an informal evaluation of the design in the past. A formal design review recognises that many individual designers do not have specialised knowledge in reliability, maintainability, safety, producibility and the other parameters that are important in achieving an Optimum design. The design review aims to provide such knowledge. For modern products, design reviews are based on the following concepts: Design reviews become compulsory because of either customer demand or an upper management policy declaration. Design reviews are conducted by a team consisting mainly of specialists who are not directly associated with the development of the design. These specialists should be highly experienced and must bring with them the reputation of objectivity. The success of design reviews largely depends on the degree to which management supports the program by insisting that the best specialists be made available for design review work. The program goes down into superficial activity if inexperienced people are assigned to design product information prior to design review meetings. Design reviews are formal. They are planned and scheduled like any other legal activity. The meetings are built around prepared plans and documentation sent out in advance. Minutes of meetings are prepared and circulated. Follow-ups for action are likewise formalised. Design reviews cover all quality-related parameters and others as well. The parameters can include reliability, maintainability, safety, producibility, weight, packaging, appearance, and cost. As much as possible, design reviews are based on defined criteria. Such criteria may include customer requirements, internal goals, and experience with previous products. Design reviews are conducted at several phases in the progression of the design, such as design concept, prototype design and test and final design. Reviews are done at several levels of the product hierarchy, such as system and subsystem. The final decision on inputs from the design review rests with the designer. The designer must listen to the inputs, but on matters of structural integrity and other creative aspects of the design, the designer retains a monopoly on decisions. The control and publication of the specification remain with the designer.

A universal problem to design review is the resistance of the design department. The common practice for this department has been to hold a virtual monopoly on design decisions, i.e., these decisions have historically been unaffected from challenge unless actual product trouble is encountered. With such a background, it is not surprising that designers have resisted the use of design reviews that challenge their designs. Designers have argued that such challenges are based purely on theory and analysis rather than on the traditional grounds of failed hardware. This resistance is further worsened in companies that permit reliability engineers to propose competing designs. Designers have resisted the idea of having competitors even more than they have resisted the idea of design review. An exciting concept that overcomes some of these cultural obstacles is concurrent engineering. Concurrent engineering This is the process of designing a product using all inputs and evaluations simultaneously and early during design to ensure that internal and external customer needs are met. The aim is to reduce the time from product concept to market, prevent quality and reliability problems and reduce costs. Traditionally, activities during product development are handled one after the other, not concurrently. Thus, a marketing or research department finds out a product idea. Next, design engineering creates a design and builds a few prototype units; the purchasing department then calls for bids from suppliers after that, the manufacturing department starts the production. At each step, the output of one department is thrown over the wall to the next department. i.e., there is little input during design from functions that are impacted by the design (see figure 11 1). Concurrent engineering is not a collection of techniques it is a concept that enables all that are affected by a design to (1) have early access to design information and (2) have the ability to influence the final design to identify and prevent future problems.

Walls of Functional Departments

What are the five dimensions of the quality that were identified by the SERVQUAL model?

Tangibles: Appearance to facilities, equipment, personnel, materials.

 Reliability: Ability to perform dependably and accurately. Responsiveness: Provide timely service. Assurance: Trust and confidence in the employees. Empathy: Individualised attention to the customer