Continuous Improvement Plan: Precision Engineering Works (PEW)

This report presents a continuous improvement plan for Precision Engineering Works Private Limited (PEW), an original equipment manufacturing company specializing in plastic molding parts. Facing increased competition and employee attrition, the report addresses the need for quality improvement and customer retention. It proposes integrating the ISO 9001 quality management system. The plan outlines specific actions for resource management, general quality management, and product realization, including establishing quality objectives, implementing quality policies, and improving customer feedback mechanisms. The report also details necessary resources, such as skilled personnel and IT infrastructure, and suggests follow-up actions for supervision and product quality assessment. Furthermore, the report identifies key competencies required for success, including business and strategic management, technical management, and leadership, providing recommendations for training and development in these areas to ensure PEW can effectively compete in the market. The plan aims to improve PEW's performance within a three-month timeframe.

Running head: A CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT PLAN 1
A CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT PLAN FOR THE PRCISION ENGINEERING WORKS
PRIVATE LIMITED
Student
Institutional Affiliation
Tutor
Date

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Introduction
The continuous improvement plan is a fundamental aspect of lean project management
companies. The Precision Engineering Works Private Limited (PEW), is no exception. The PEW
organization is an original equipment manufacturing company which is specialized in plastic
molding part in the telecommunication industry. However, with the emergence of many
companies in the field, PEW organization finds it very difficult in winning their contracts as
usual as the market is already flooded with more industries providing more options with better
prices than PEW. This situation has made many of the organization’s experienced employees to
join its competitors. Following the case scenario, this section will devise a continuous
improvement plan based on the ISO 9001 quality management plan.
Business needs
The management of PEW organization is the sector which has led to the need for this
continuous improvement plan. The organization’s management has a need to review the quality
of the products; the products have limited options. The PEW’s customers now prefer its
competitors to the organization because they have explored more options that PEW does not
provide and because other organizations have better prices compared to PEW. The organization
therefore needs a way to get back its customers.
Objective
Following the aforementioned needs, the primary objective is to determine what needs to
be done for the organization to adopt the quality management system into the PEW organization.
In order to accomplish this process, the following question will be answered: How can ISO 9001
quality management system be integrated into PEW organization management? Therefore, the

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focus here will be development of a continuous improvement plan in accordance with the ISO
9001 quality management standards to improve the performance of PEW.
Problems
To identify the problem areas, the ISO 9001 analysis has been done in order to
understand how well PEW organization is in line with ISO standards. According to the current
state of the organization in the case scenario, the organization is currently not in line with the
ISO 9001 standards (Karthi, Devadasan, & Murugesh, 2011; Tonchia, Tonchia, & Mahagaonkar,
2018). PEW is losing its experienced personnel to other organizations, the customers are also
leaving the PEW Company for other companies since they have explored more options. This is
because the company does not provide quality design, development, production and purchasing
as well as product provision.
Analysis of the organization’s resource management on human resources, infrastructure,
working environment, product development resources suggests that the PEW’s resources are in
good condition. However, the problem lies in the roles and regulations of the management team
and quality manager. PEW organization should make clear the roles and responsibilities of the
management staff in the corporation (Karthi, Devadasan, & Murugesh, 2011). Analysis of
product realization, however, shows that the organization’s product realization is almost
conforming. However, PEW does not have the knowledge of the current information regarding
the customer complaints.
It can be seen from the analysis that the areas which need improvement in the
organization involve the quality management system areas and management responsibilities

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defined in ISO 9001. Therefore, next step after analysis of PEW’s problems, is the actions taken
for improvement.
Actions taken
The corresponding actions will be planned on basis of the problems at PEW organization,
the requirements of ISO 9001 as well as discussions with the manager of the PEW organization
concerning the organization requirements to alter the situation as requested by the organization
management. As a result, I, together with my organization’s management team have come up
with actions in this continuous improvement plan with all the actions which need to be taken in
order to mitigate the situation of PEW organization (Salah, Rahim, & Carretero, 2010). The
actions are specifically designed for the organization’s quality manager and management team.
Improvement actions on resource management responsibilities
i. PEW management shall establish and quality objective goals and objectives of the
organization according to act 5.1 and 5.4.1 of ISO 9001.
ii. The management team shall implement a quality policy to govern the quality of their
products as cited in section 5.3 of ISO 9001 act.
iii. The management team in coordination with quality manager shall ensure the planning of
quality management system after establishment through internal audits as referenced in
section 5.4.2 of ISO 9001 standards.
Improvement actions on general and quality management system area.
i. The quality manager will be in charge of the general documents, establish and
maintain the preventive action procedures (Chiarini, 2011). The action is linked to
acts 1.1 and 4.2 of the ISO 9001 standards.

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ii. The PEW’s quality manager will also establish the corporate’s quality manual to
improve the quality of its management as documented in act 4.2.2 of the ISO 9001.
Improvement action for product realization
i. The management team will develop a system which is more effective to handle
feedbacks and complaints from customers to access customers view concerning their
product. This actioned is linked to act 7.2.3 of the ISO 9001 standards.
Resources
i. The organization will employ more skilled personnel to be 45 employees to replace those
who moved to other organizations.
ii. Sufficient raw materials and machines will be availed for product development.
iii. Computers, internet connections and network devices will be put into place to facilitate
IT management
iv. Three months will be allocated to change PEW’s situation
v. The organization’s environment will be improved to facilitate the production process.
Follow up actions
i. The management team shall be supervised to ensure that the actions are taken
accordingly failure to which penalty or consequences apply.
ii. An assessment will be done to evaluate the quality of the products to ensure that the
products satisfy the needs of customers.
iii. The organization’s customers will be updated about improvements made on products.

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Overall, this continuous improvement plan has accomplished its objective in the limited
time schedule i.e. three months and it covered all fundamental areas required by PEW to alter its
situation. However, the plan still has space for improvement as environmental factors cannot be
controlled.
The competency required to bring about change
To succeed in the stiff competition, PEW need competency in the following three
aspects: business and strategic management, technical management and leadership.
Business and strategic management
Business and strategic management is one of the core aspects of success in every business
organization including PEW organization. Besides having a complete management team, the
PEW organization still lags behind the new players in the market as cited in the scenario script.
This is because the organization lacks competency in its business and strategic management.
Following this rationale, some competencies based on the Project Management Body of
Knowledge PMBOK that will be essential for the organization to bring about the change in its
current situation are as follows (Hitt, & Duane Ireland, 2017).
i. In order for PEW to get back its customers, the strategic management team will focus on
improving customer satisfaction, analyzing the market data and exploring other options
provided by rivals that the company does not offer and change their products’ scope.
ii. To enhance the competency of the organization’s strategic management, PEW will
execute coaching and training plan for its business and strategic management team in
order for the management team to gain skills required for competition in the flooded
market.

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Technical management
i. Technical management is a useful position that requires competency in technical skills. In
PEW corporate, the technical management shall be capable of contributing their skills in
changing the scope of the organization’s product to suit its customer’s needs (Apple,
2017).
ii. The technical management of PEW through their competent skills and with the aid of
technology shall ensure that the issues in the organization are solved within three months.
iii. IT management must have skills in reporting the progress of the organization based on
testing and technological milestones periodically to evaluate the organization.
Leadership
Leadership is a determinant of a project’s success in every organization. The solution to
the PEW organization’s problems will depend on competency of the leadership in the
organization. Significant competencies that a leader will display in the organization are (Rodney
Turner, Müller, & Dulewicz, 2009):
i. A leader must have skills to motivate the corporate’s employees and increase the
productivity of the organization by promoting team work as well as commitment and
upgrading the employees, this will mitigate the situation where the organization’s skilled
personnel move to another organization.
ii. PEW leaders must have skills to negotiate goals and expectations of the organization with
regards to cost, and scope of its products in order to achieve solutions which are mutually
acceptable to increase the productivity of the company.

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