Continuous Improvement Case Study: Seven Quality Tools and Techniques

This case study focuses on the issues faced by PEW organization and how they can be solved through effective management strategies and implementation of new technology at the workplace. The report shows that the lack of management monitoring tools and techniques and the lack of adoption of advancement technology at the workplace are the main issues associated with the organization. The continuous improvement plan suggests implementing an effective technology at the workplace to improve performance and solve issues in a better manner.

Assessment 2: Case study: Continuous
Improvement
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Executive summery
Seven quality tools and techniques are considered one of an effective quality tools and
helps the business to improve efficiency. The report shows that main issues associated
with the PEW organization are lack of management monitoring tools and techniques and
lack of adoption of the advancement technology at workplace. The main impact of these
issues of an organization is to reduce performance and customer’s satisfaction. The
continuous improvement plans shows that implementation of an effective technology at
workplace helps to improve performance and solve issues in better manner.
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Table of Contents
Executive summery.............................................................................................................2
Introduction..........................................................................................................................4
Determine root causes using 7 tools and techniques...........................................................5
Assumptions......................................................................................................................13
Continuous improvement plan...........................................................................................14
Employee and management competency requirement for the change management.........18
Business and its strategic management..........................................................................18
Technical management..................................................................................................19
Leadership approach......................................................................................................19
Conclusion.........................................................................................................................19
References..........................................................................................................................20
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Introduction
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.
Determine root causes using 7 tools and techniques
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Cause and Effect (“Fishbone”) Diagram
Limited staffs
Limited skilled
staffs
Lack of written
procedures
Need to monitor
respondents
Tracking real time
work performance
Traditional
equipment
Not updated tools
and techniques
Not updated quality
measurement tools
Lack of agency
policy
Grant requirement
change
Change is required
lists
Lack of allocation
Lack of resources
Perso
n
Metho
d
Machin
e
Materi
al
Policies
Reduced
profitability

Why techniques
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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
distributio
n
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 6 13% 89%
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development classes
high cost of production 5 11% 100%
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0
5
10
15
20
25
30
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
Count
percentage distribution
PETRO analysis
tables
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
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
f(x) = 0.18648310387985 x + 0.949937421777221
R² = 0.0995913350469451
Scattered tools
Organization performance (profitability increased)
Technology adoption
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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
Due to lack of quality
management tools and
techniques
Due to lack of advance
technology Organization has not
conducted proper
training and development
classes
high cost of production
25
10
6 5
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
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Damage in
products
1 3 1 2 1 8
Unavailabilit
y 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.
Control chart analysis
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1
0
1
1
1
2
1
3
1
4
1
5
1
6
1
7
1
8
1
9
2
0
2
1
2
2
2
3
2
4
2
5
2
6
2
7
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
X-bar Chart for Mean Number of Ounces
Sample Mean
LCL
UCL
Mean
Days
Sample mean
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1
0
1
1
1
2
1
3
1
4
1
5
1
6
1
7
1
8
1
9
2
0
2
1
2
2
2
3
2
4
2
5
2
6
2
7
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
R Chart for Mean Number of Ounces
LCL
UCL
R-bar
Range
Days
Range
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.
Assumptions
 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.
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Continuous improvement plan
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.
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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
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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
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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
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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.
Employee and management competency requirement for the change
management
The competencies would be required at different segment of this change plan. Some of the
aspects of competency requirements are as follows.
Business and its strategic management
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
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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.
Technical management
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.
Leadership approach
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.
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References
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implementing TQM: An empirical study in Thai manufacturing
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Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
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Ortega, M. J. R. (2010). Competitive strategies and firm performance: Technological
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Porter, L., & Tanner, S. (2012). Assessing business excellence. Routledge.
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Rahani, A. R., & Al-Ashraf, M. (2012). Production flow analysis through value stream
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