Project Quality Management Tools & Techniques Essay.

Project Quality Management Tools & Techniques

• Definition of Quality
• Quality Management Concepts
• The Cost of Quality
• The Seven Quality Control Tools
• The 5 Why’s
• Kaizen Events

“Quality is determined by the customer and is defined as those products and services that are perceived to meet or exceed the needs and expectations of the customer at a cost that represent out standing value”

Quality is important to:

• Retain existing customers
• Win back lost customers
• Win new customers

“All costs incurred over the life of the product by investing in preventing non-conformance to requirements, appraisal of the product or service for conformance to requirements and failure to meet requirements.”

The COQ for projects can be associated with the following:

• Prevention costs – Costs related to the prevention of the poor qualityin the products, deliverables or services of the specific project.
• Appraisal costs – Costs related to evaluating, measuring, auditing and testing the products, deliverables or service of the specified project.
• Failure costs – Costs related to non-conformance of the products, deliverables or services to the needs or expectations of the stakeholders

Determining current process performance usually requires the collection of data and may be presented in table format. When developing a measurement plan ensure that:

The Seven Quality Control Tools – Data Tables

• Data collected in meaningful
• Data collected is valid
• All relevant data is collected as per the agreed data collection plan taking into consideration the

– Sample size

– Frequency of data collection

– Duration of data collection

– What tools are necessary for data collection

– Who will collect the data, where and when?

• Data that is collected must be presented in an effective way that will facilitate decision making

– Data used to identify trends, variations or deficiencies in the process?

Seven Quality Control Tools

In business management needs proper approach in production, selling to final customer service to become successful in the market (Dunning, 2013). The current business situation shows that PEW is falling behind in the market in comparison to their competitor business. PEW pvt ltd is equipment manufacturing organization and performing well in past few years. The customers of an organization is includes the major telecommunication service providers.  The impact of this strong completion is impacting the situation of profitability in the business where the profit is down by 45%. Under this circumstance the current report would try to investigate the problem for the company in dept to explore different solutions for PEW. The analysis and exploration would use seven different techniques like five why technique, control through chart, scatter diagram, histogram, analysis of cause and effect, Pareto analysis.

Why techniques  

The main problems for decreasing the performance and quality is lacking of adoption of the advancement of a technology at workplace. In order to solve these issues, management needs to build effective strategies and implements the new and innovation technology at workplace.      

PETRO analysis tables

Issues associated with business	Reason of issues associated with business		Count
Products are not meet the quality standards	Due to lack of quality management tools and techniques		5
Products price is high as compared to its competitors	Due to lack of advance technology		25
Unskilled labor hampered the products performance	Organization has not conducted proper training and development classes		10
Cost issues	high cost of production		6
Reason of issues associated with business		Count		percentage distribution
Due to lack of quality management tools and techniques		25		54%	54%
Due to lack of advance technology		10		22%	76%
Organization has not conducted proper training and development classes		6		13%	89%
high cost of production		5		11%	100%

From the Petro analysis, it can be observed that lack of tools and management techniques hampered the performance and reduces the profitability. Due to lack of technology adoption at workplace also hampered the quality performance and increases the costs of products and services.         

Scattered tools

Scattered tools analysis techniques mainly implemented by the management to determine the relationship between two variables i.e. dependent and independent variables (Montgomery, Runger, & Hubele, 2009). Here, independent variables are technology adoptions and dependent variables are organization performance. The analysis shows that technology adoption has positive correlation in organization performance.           

Histogram tools and techniques

Histogram analysis shows that lack of the quality of management tools and techniques and lack of advancement technologies are considered the main issues associated with the organization. In order to increase the performance and accomplished better profits management of an organization needs to implement automatic machinery tools and techniques.         

Check sheet analysis

Defect type(major/ minor)	Defect in manufacturing items							Total count
	Sun	Mon	Tue	Web	Thu	Fri	Sat
Damaged in packaging	1	4	0	3	2	1	1	12
Wrong item issues	1							1
Failed to pass quality test		1		3		2		6
Damage in products		1	3	1		2	1	8
Unavailability of resources				5				5
Missing components	2	3	2	2	3	1		13
Labelling errors		5	4	2			3	14
Incorrect dimension				5
total	4	14	9	21	5	6	5	59

A check sheet is utilized by the management for purpose of gathering and analyzing the information (Goetsch,., & Davis, 2014). This tools and techniques are more generic and widely implemented in the organization (Magar, & Shinde, 2014). It is used to gather the pattern or frequency, defects, problems, defect cause and defects locations. The analysis indicates that labelling error, damaging in packages and mission components are the main issues associated with the organization manufacturing process. Therefore it can be said that to solve these issues in better manner organization needs to incorporate an effective management strategies and also needs to use better monitoring tools and techniques at workplace.              

PEW Pvt. Ltd. Business Analysis

Control chart analysis

A control chart analysis is used by the management of the organization for purpose of analyzing and evaluating the issues associated with the organization and business process (Kalpakjian, Vijai Sekar, & Schmid, 2014). The main benefits of implementation of this analysis methods in quality control procedures is that it helps the business to determine whether organization process is stable or not. The findings indicates that data is above from the upper control limits and also data is below the lower control limits which indicates that performance of an organization is not up the mark and stable. Therefore it can be said that organization needs to incorporate an effective business strategies and implement them in successful manner.            

• In the fishbone diagram the assumption would be that the leadership of the business was focused and able to take proper decision for the business, still lack on those selected part are the main cause of lower profitability.
• PETRO analysis model has identified certain issue for the business. In this part it is assumed that the business marketing and customer service were up to the market and are not the main cause of the current lower profitability figure.
• In the scattered tool application it is shown that the incremental improvement in technology has been able to provide the better outcome to the business by assuming that the skill improvement for this process also happened incrementally.
• In this overall process one general assumption was that the resource availability was never been a significant issue for the current problem.

Problem identification	Quality issue in production The main problem for the business in the market is the less competitive status of the business in the market. Considering this one of the identified problem for the business is the quality problem of the production. This lower level of quality is causing the problem for the business to become completive in the market.
Taking action	This problem needs to be addressed through proper route of quality improvement. This problem would be improved through some useful approach. One of the approaches would be better organise the manufacturing process to improve quality. The use of team based approach would be useful in quality improvement. The next approach would be better assessment of the situation of quality. The assessment would be done on the basis of the customer expectation (Goetsch & Davis, 2014).  In this stage the quality of the process would be seen from the current manufacturing perspective and necessary adjustment would be brought about. The problems identified in the current situation would be managed through proper system development. After that a strong process of manufacturing process discipline would be implemented in the current situation.
Resource needed	Considering the above situation of manufacturing the required resources are the human resource for the team development, the hardware required for new process development, and necessary financial support (Mitra, 2016).
Action and status following	Any improvement plan needs proper monitoring and control process. One quality supervisor would be employed for this process of monitoring and control. Proper documentation of regular quality check, strategy development and final outcome would be recorded for the future improvement process (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). This investigation of the problem, action taken, resource mobilisation and monitoring would be again done in repetitive manner to continuously improve the quality.

Problem identification	Lack of advance technology   The lack of completive advantage of the business in the market is having another issue of non advance technology used for the production. New suppliers in the market are using the new technology that is useful for the quality, rate of production, efficiency of production.
Taking action	In recent time different technologies in the field of manufacturing automation are some of the most useful approaches of competitive advantage development. Considering this a plan for atomisation of the current manufacturing process would be developed. The automation process also needs to be implemented in the logistics and supply process also (Porter & Tanner, 2012). Another supporting action in the process would be rehabilitation of the current workforce because of the automation process would be address separately in the next section.
Resource needed	In this part of the improvement plan a large financial resource would be required for the different automation related hardware installation. This current technology process implementation would not only use the financial resource but appropriate human resource to operate that hardware.  The process of automation would reduce the dependency on the labour but would need further refined skill based staffs to operate.
Action and status following	This continuous improvement plan would require the proper assistance through the monitoring and controlling process. in this process from the installation process onward a proper monitoring and control process would be implemented in the organisation (Porter & Tanner, 2012). At the time of selecting the staffs for the current process this evaluation method would be applied to judged the appropriateness of the appointment to develop best outcome for the current situation.

Problem identification	Proper training and development classes   In PEW the old way of working in the organization is the most important aspect of current problem. Therefore the current staffs are also highly used to this way of working. This inefficient and ineffective way of working in the organization needs to be improved. In this regard the skill up gradation is highly necessary under the current circumstances. Therefore the training and development need is another important problem area for the organization.
Taking action	In this process actions would be developed through the application of the HRM process. The process of training and development would be done through the following steps. First action in this regard would be utilisation of the bench marking process for the current training and development process. This process of benchmarking would help the organization in identification of training requirements in comparison to other organisations.  In this stage of investigation an employee survey and interview of management would be done to develop further understanding about the issue (Phillips, 2012). After the assessment of the training and development needs the plan of training would be aligned with the greater goals of the organisation. This alignment would help to deliver better outcome from the current process. At the next step the action plan of the training process would be developed for the current program development. In this stage the management need to use the traditional training tool along with the innovative approach of training delivery. In this process the instruction of some of the approaches of the new way of working would be provided to the staffs in their smart phone. This innovative approach along with the traditional training support would help the staffs to improve fast. This new approach would also have a personalisation angel of training delivery (Stewart, 2014). For examples the specific need of the individual would be met through this smart phone based approach of training delivery. A special training and development plan would be developed for the displaced worker because of the automation process implementation. This skill improves would help the organization to put the staffs for other or advanced work. This approach would boost morale among the staffs.
Resource needed	In this current process the traditional and the new approach of training delivery need certain type of resource apart from the general financial and human resource. Some specific resources are like the technological resources for the e-learning and mobile learning, venue for training.
Action and status following	Application of the current training and development plan implementation would result in certain productivity improvement. But the monitoring and control process would start from the very end of the training process delivery. A survey questionnaire would be provided to the staffs to rate the current training process. This process would provide certain idea for the future process development. Then at the next stage the monitoring process would gather data from the actual work process (Phillips, 2012). This would provide the understanding about the actual change that is brought about from this current activity. Any future needs or unfulfilled aspect of the process would have the repetition of this process.

Problem identification	High cost of production The loss of competitive advantage has some major issue in the organization and its way of doing business. In this situation one of the most important problems is the higher cost of production for the PEW. This higher production cost is getting transferred in the price of the product and that is becoming the cause of lower competitive advantage in the market.
Taking action	The problem would be solved through few significant processes. One of the approaches is the technology improvement which has been discussed in the earlier section. Apart from that the other approaches would be as follows. One of the important aspects is the improvement of the manufacturing design process. This action would streamline the manufacturing process and make the process much leaner to improve efficiency (Rahani & Al-Ashraf, 2012). The next approach is the standardisation of the manufacturing process. In this part the automation process along with the economy of scale improvement approaches would be utilised (Hartley, 2017). Therefore this improvement plan would have some shared approach along with the technology improvement process. Another important action in this regard would be the part time labour force. This flexible labour force use would reduce liability for the organization but in exchange the business would provide good benefit and flexible working facility to the workers. All of these steps would be essential for cost cutting in the manufacturing process.
Resource needed	Apart from the human resource and financial resource this part would need certain special types of other resource. Other resources are the equipments for the better designed manufacturing process (Rahani & Al-Ashraf, 2012).
Action and status following	The cost of production in this approach would certainly be lower than the earlier approaches of production in the organisation.  But one of the important aspects would be the full potential of the current process implementation (Hartley, 2017). Therefore the current process would need a proper evaluation process of this new system implementation and how that is helping to reach to the most cost reduction potential.

The competencies would be required at different segment of this change plan. Some of the aspects of competency requirements are as follows.

Till now the business was having a great advantage in the market as the competition was very low. But under the new circumstances new suppliers in the market has imaged who are capturing the market. Under this circumstances the cost and quality, both become a issue for the business for the strategic viability of the business. Under this condition the profitability has dropped for the business. This profitability can be recovered through better business margin or through improving sales volume. Therefore under this current circumstance a proper strategic approach needs to be decided for the business which would improve profitability and sustainability. The management needs to have the competency of market analysis, business internal situational analysis, quantitative insight development, better decision making capability with quantifiable outcome delivery, process and result monitoring competency would be highly important (Singh & Singh, 2015). Under the current circumstance PEW would take the differentiation approach of business strategy. Here PEW would deliver the best quality product which would support their time tested operation in the market. This strategy would help to deliver better margin from the products. On the other hand the cost minimisation approach in the production would provide better scope for better margin delver to the business (Ortega, 2010). Both the way the profitability would improve. This strategy needs the support from the higher production management competency, better marketing of the product, sale management competency to become successful.

In the current continuous improvement plan one of the important aspects is the technological improvement in the current manufacturing process for the cost reduction and quality improvement (Singh & Singh, 2015). These high levels of competency would be required to use this new hardware, machine to generate best performance from those.

In the current improvement process there are some significant changes that would be brought in the organisation. This would bring uncertain situation in the organisation. Under this circumstance the leadership situation would be highly important for the organization (Das, Kumar & Kumar, 2011). Higher leadership competency would help manage the chaos in the change process, motivated effort for successful implementation.

Conclusion

The current evaluation shows that the main reason for the lower profitability is supported by the problems like the product quality, cost of production, lack of faster technological adoption and lack of proper skills. The issues are addressed in the current situation through a proper continuous improvement plan. The competency required for the improvement plan also needs to be well supported for better outcome.

References

Das, A., Kumar, V., & Kumar, U. (2011). The role of leadership competencies for implementing TQM: An empirical study in Thai manufacturing industry. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 28(2), 195-219.

Dunning, J. H. (2013). Multinationals, Technology & Competitiveness (RLE International Business). Routledge.

Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.

Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.

Hartley, J. R. (2017). Concurrent engineering: shortening lead times, raising quality, and lowering costs. Routledge.

Kalpakjian, S., Vijai Sekar, K. S., & Schmid, S. R. (2014). Manufacturing engineering and technology. Pearson.

Magar, V. M., & Shinde, V. B. (2014). Application of 7 quality control (7 QC) tools for continuous improvement of manufacturing processes. International Journal of Engineering Research and General Science, 2(4), 364-371.

Mitra, A. (2016). Fundamentals of quality control and improvement. John Wiley & Sons.

Montgomery, D. C., Runger, G. C., & Hubele, N. F. (2009). Engineering statistics. John Wiley & Sons.

Ortega, M. J. R. (2010). Competitive strategies and firm performance: Technological capabilities' moderating roles. Journal of Business Research, 63(12), 1273-1281.

Phillips, J. J. (2012). Handbook of training evaluation and measurement methods. Routledge.

Porter, L., & Tanner, S. (2012). Assessing business excellence. Routledge.

Rahani, A. R., & Al-Ashraf, M. (2012). Production flow analysis through value stream mapping: a lean manufacturing process case study. Procedia Engineering, 41, 1727-1734.

Singh, J., & Singh, H. (2015). Continuous improvement philosophy–literature review and directions. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 22(1), 75-119.

Stewart, C. (2014). Transforming professional development to professional learning. Journal of Adult Education, 43(1), 28-33.