Quality Information Systems

STEPS TO HAVE A QUALTIY SYSTEM

Quality Information Systems Quality Planning Quality Control Quality Assurance

QUALITY INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Quality Information Systems consists of providing quality information during the life cycle of a project/product to all of the people involved such as the employees using the system and the customers involved.

Quality Information Systems Cont

Quality Information Systems should allow for people who work on the project/product to be able to gain a quick knowledge about it Information should be able to be relayed quickly and accurately to customers Should help to improve the quality in all other areas of the project/product

Involved in Quality Information Systems

Defining the necessary objectives of the system, for example through Quality Planning Users of the system need to be trained properly and have a good understanding of how the system works Integration of higher level systems Validation of the system, for example through Quality Control Ongoing support and maintenance, for example through Quality Assurance

Quality Planning
Quality Planning is setting the objectives for a product/process and then planning the means in which to reach to those objectives

Quality Control
Quality Control should be involved within the users daily work. Must be done efficiently and accurately Also through validation

Quality Assurance
Quality Assurance gives the confidence that a project/product conforms to a certain level of quality, and continues to have quality improvement.

Effective Quality Assurance

Quality Audits A constant flow of information about the product/project Having an effective process

Critical Success Factors

-Emphasize the prevention of quality problems, rather than concentrate only on detection and correction of these problems -Facilitate awareness of and learning by the user of the quality system with respect to product and process quality
-Focus on continuous quality improvement, rather than on attaining a fixed level of quality

Critical Success Factors

(continued)

Make quality measurable Operate efficiently in order to prevent distortion of daily work (integrate information system into users primary process) Give guidelines for the interaction between the supplier and purchaser of a good, both during the initial phases and during the development process

Potential Problems In Setting Up A Quality System

ISO 9000 and ISO900-3 Identifying and Correcting of Problems Quality Improvement and Learning Measuring Quality Overhead is Large Lack of Support Guidelines for Interaction

ISO 9000 and IS0 9000-3

ISO 9000 Standards meant to cover entire range of organizations ISO 9000-3 Standards meant for companies producing software Causes standards to be very generalized

Identifying and Correcting of Problems

Preventative Measures High Failure Costs

Quality Improvement and Learning

Guidelines focus on attaining level of quality defined by users of the Quality System 3 Negative Consequences
Defined level may be low No Preventative Action No Continuous Improvement

Measuring Quality
Software is still active area of research Difficult to implement in practice

Overhead is Large
Every process, action, problem, correction, etc. must be documented Quality System cannot just be placed on top of the current way of working

Lack of Support
ISO guidelines offer no tools to provide different rules and standards for different processes Example: One uses different types of production organization, multiple development methodologies, and has different customers: There is no support

Guidelines of Interaction
Guidelines for supplier and purchaser, but very little for interaction between the two One of main purposes should be closer cooperation between business partners Good Communication Goal selection Selecting acceptable level of risk

Real time Production Tracking

Tracker- Serves as the command center for all production tracking activities

Real time production tracking (cont)

Web Overview: The homepage of the test system

Real time production tracking (cont)

Web Overview 2: Automatically cycles between two pages every 15 seconds

Real time production tracking (cont)

Model Editor: The web model editor allows you to change limits, program the test sequence, or customize the operator prompts from your web browser.

Real time production tracking (cont)

Top Reject Report: The rejects for a shift are categorized, counted, sorted and displayed in a table or chart.

Case Study: United Parcel Service

Worlds largest package distribution company 335,000+ employees worldwide Provide service to 200+ countries $21 billion in revenue in 1995 on a volume of 3.1 billion packages and documents

United Postal Service

Mobitex- similar to the digital cellular technology used in cell phones Drivers equipped with DIADs (Delivery/Driver Information Acquisition Devices) DIAD scans bar-code which retrieves shipping #, service level, and package tracking #

United Parcel Service

Driver records name of person accepting package DVA (IAD Vehicle Adapter) connected to a radio modem transmitting data over Mobitex network Sent real-time to UPS mainframe Info is accessible by customers online

Case Study: Western Digital Corporation

Manufacture of hard drives 200+ components manufactured by outside suppliers Manufactures 100,000+ hard drives/day in Malaysia HQ in Irvine and San Jose, CA 7,000+ employees $2 billion annual revenue

Western Digital Corporation

QIS combined electronic commerce, customer relationship, management data warehousing, and integrated data from a dozen systems Most valuable aspect of QIS is the systems ability to provide online analytical processing

Western Digital Corporation

From web browsers WD can query the data warehouse and analyze results in minutes Managers can focus efforts on analyzing the info to make critical business decisions to deliver enhanced customer service

Western Digital Corporation benefits with QIS

QIS has already provided a strong quantifiable return on investment Ability to pinpoint individual defects before products are shipped to the customer Trace back cause of failure Provides closed loop feedback which allow the company to address quality issues to impact business performance