ITS 631 Paper 2: Deming's Points, JIT, Six Sigma, Forecasting Software

This assignment, prepared by a student for ITS 631 Paper 2, delves into the core concepts of operational excellence. It begins with an analysis of Deming's 14 points of management, emphasizing their role in enhancing organizational effectiveness and continuous improvement. The paper then examines the implementation of Just-in-Time (JIT) production in both standard and special product scenarios, highlighting the differences and infrastructure requirements. Furthermore, it describes the key aspects of implementing the Six Sigma concept, including the utilization of technical tools for data analysis and the importance of employee involvement. Finally, the assignment outlines ten essential guidelines for selecting forecasting software, covering features, platform compatibility, user-friendliness, and data capabilities. The student provides references to support the analysis and adheres to APA format as required by the assignment brief.

Running head: OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
Operational excellence
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
Question: 1
Deming’s 14 points of management are, creating constancy of purpose, initiating new
philosophy, ceasing dependence on inspection, ending the lowest tender contract, continually
seeking out problems, initiation of institute training on the job, institute supervision, diving out
fear, breaking down barriers, eliminating exhortations, elimination of targets, permitting pride of
workmanship, initiation of institute education and transformation in everyone’s job. All the
elements are focused on enhancing the organizational effectiveness and productivity along with
initiating the process for continuous improvement in the organization in the long term (Kaynak
& Rogers, 2013). This should also be noted that effective and proper implementation of the 14
points of management will help the business organizations in transforming their workplace
trends and practices. In addition, the effectiveness of the organizational values and system will
be further enriched with more profound knowledge in the long term. Hence, it can be concluded
that these 14 points will help in enhancement of the entire process of management.
Question: 2
In case of the separate production process of the standards and specials, the JIT
implementation will be different. This is due to the reason that it will be easier to be
implemented in the standard products as simpler production process is involved. While on the
other hand, the JIT implementation of the specials will be complex as quality factors are focused
here. Quality factors are not uniform, which is demanded in the case of JIT production (Faccio,
2014). In the case of JIT implementation, both the production lines will require added
infrastructure. This is due to the reason that with the existing production line, they are requiring

2OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
15 minutes of changeover time. With the implementation of more production line in place, these
changeover time will get lowered and this will be coupled by the more employees.
Question: 3
One of the major aspects of implementing the six sigma concept is the usage of technical
tools. This refers to the process of identification and mitigation of the major reasons of the
emergence of the quality issues. This should be noted that the concept of six sigma is heavily
depended on the quantitative data and with the use of the technical tools; this data can be
gathered and analyzed properly (Canato, Ravasi & Phillips, 2013). This will further help in
enhancement of the entire process of the six sigma. Another aspect of implementing this concept
is involvement of the employees in the process. This is due to the reason that the more will be the
training and development programs for the employees involved in the process, the more
effectively they will be able to able to deal with the challenges. Hence, the overall effectiveness
will get enhanced in the long term.
Question: 4
The ten major guidelines of selecting the forecasting software are checking the exact
features and characteristics that are expected from the particular software, platform based on
which the software will turn. This is important because the platform should be aligned with the
existing process and systems of the organization. Another guideline is user friendliness of the
software for the users, which will enable to have the understanding about how easily the software
can be learned by the involved stakeholders (Rana et al., 2014). Other guidelines are possibility
of implementing new methods in the concept while ensuring flexibility, method to be used for
forecasting, which may include interactive or repetitive method of forecasting and availability of

3OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
the large data sets with the software. Apart from these guidelines, others are availability of the
local support and training, probability of getting the right answers from the software, cost of the
software and compatibility of the new software with that of the existing ones in the workplace.

4OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
Reference
Canato, A., Ravasi, D., & Phillips, N. (2013). Coerced practice implementation in cases of low
cultural fit: Cultural change and practice adaptation during the implementation of Six
Sigma at 3M. Academy of Management Journal, 56(6), 1724-1753.
Faccio, M. (2014). The impact of production mix variations and models varieties on the parts-
feeding policy selection in a JIT assembly system. The International Journal of Advanced
Manufacturing Technology, 72(1-4), 543-560.
Kaynak, E., & Rogers, R. E. (2013). Implementation of total quality management: A
comprehensive training program. Routledge.
Rana, R., Staron, M., Berger, C., Hansson, J., Nilsson, M., Törner, F., ... & Höglund, C. (2014).
Selecting software reliability growth models and improving their predictive accuracy
using historical projects data. Journal of Systems and Software, 98, 59-78.