MGMT-6087 - Degreasing Solutions: Quality Management Case Study

This case study examines the quality management challenges faced by Degreasing Solutions, focusing on issues with their Grease-Away product. The analysis identifies problems such as a careless attitude among employees, negligence in business processes, inadequate training for the chief operator, failure to maintain and update equipment, and a lack of preventative maintenance. The study includes a SWOT analysis to assess the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It proposes several alternatives, including live inspections, proper machinery use, employee training, product redesign, and improved communication. The final recommendation involves short-term measures like weekly job training and regular meetings, as well as long-term strategies such as implementing safety regulations, maintaining machinery contracts, and prioritizing social responsibility. An implementation timeline is also provided to ensure the company's sustainable improvement. Desklib provides students with access to this document and many other solved assignments.

Running head: CASE STUDY ON QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Case Study on Quality Management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1CASE STUDY ON QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Main Issue........................................................................................................................................2
Issue.................................................................................................................................................2
Assumptions....................................................................................................................................3
Analysis...........................................................................................................................................4
Alternatives......................................................................................................................................6
Final Recommendation....................................................................................................................6
Short Term...................................................................................................................................6
Long Term...................................................................................................................................7
Implementation timeline..................................................................................................................7
Bibliography....................................................................................................................................9

2CASE STUDY ON QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Main Issue:
The main issue that is affecting the company of Degreasing Solutions is the quality
ineffectiveness of the produced product, namely Grease-Away that is having a high pressure in
the cans due to which, eight cartons were rejected by the inspector who inspected them as
samples. This has been hampering the entire company not only because of the reputation that
would be at stake but also because of the rejection of cartons and holding them back from further
distribution. The issue of the ineffectiveness in quality management in the business in regard to
the grease cans has been costing a lot of money to the company and this is equally posing threat
to the users in regard to safety.
Issue:
The main problem in regard to the company is the ineffective quality management that
has been observed in the business. However, considering the information that can be accessed
from the case study, some of the issues are discussed below-
 The attitude of the people concerned in the business seemed to be very careless. The way
people responded with muted smiles and reluctant attitude showed their lack of concern
for the production as well as reputation of the business.
 Negligence relating to the business process has been manifested in the company. With the
spread of the products that were put on hold, those have reached the customers. However,
the people engaged in the market seemed to completely forget about the incident and
showed no concern relating the issue (Asif et al., 2013). With this attitude of the workers,
it is very difficult for any business to be progressive in future.

3CASE STUDY ON QUALITY MANAGEMENT
 There is no proper training of the chief operator responsible for the filling equipment in
the company. He was merely transferred from the shipping role and had no formal
training relating to the new job role. He was simply taught to run the equipment and was
absent from the situation when the issue stoke the company, which he later came to know
after the shift.
 It is also noticed that there is a huge negligence in updating and maintaining the
equipments used in the business production. The automated filing equipment that was
responsible for the damage was purchased two years ago and used for another product. It
began to be used for the product Grease-Away without proper checks and modifications.
Thus, the use of machine for products for which it is actually not designed has led to
serious consequences damaging the quality that the product must have had.
 Moreover, no tests were done prior operating the machines. Lack of preventative
maintenance also caused the dysfunction. Moreover the sensitive filling head of the
machine was replaced and repaired by a local machine shop. This shows the lack of
responsibility in the workers who must have brought professional and experienced
machine experts for such cases. A lack of proper scheduling for the maintenance of 12
work orders in a month also led to the issue.
 The downtime was not standardized and ran 15% of the actual running time. This shows
the degrading condition of the machine that contributes to the negative consequence for
the company.
Assumptions:

4CASE STUDY ON QUALITY MANAGEMENT
The detailed study of the case of Degreasing Solutions shows that the company has been
affected with quality management issues in the present times. Some of the assumptions made in
respect to its business situation in this context are as follows-
 The operator of the company who is responsible for the filling equipment has been
transferred from his prior role of shipping two weeks ago.
 The person was not given any formal training regarding his new job role and was
simply taught to run the equipment. Thus, not just that he lacked experience in the
operation of the machine, but the operator had no knowledge about the machine’s
operation.
 The automated filling equipment was bought two years ago for a different product
which has been put to use for the production of the Grease-Away product. Thus, with
no tests, the machine has been used for other job purpose deviating from the initial
reason of its purchase for a different product.
 The machine was under continuous maintenance that claimed a regular check of it
and needed a replacement of the filling head in every two months that it functioned.
 The maintenance of the machines and their replacements were done in the non-
standard local machine shop.
 Non-standard downtime of 15% of the actual running time prevailed in the marketing
condition of the company.
Analysis:

5CASE STUDY ON QUALITY MANAGEMENT
SWOT analysis has been done in order to determine the situation of the company
reflecting its internal strengths and weaknesses. It also assesses the threats that it has and the
various opportunities that it could use up in order to improve the market for its business.
SWOT ANALYSIS
Strengths
 Have a good
number of
employees
who are
technically
trained.
 Have a wide
range of
products for
the market.
 Have the
potential to
sell out
products on
short demand.
 Delivery
timings are
met.
Weaknesses
 Non-standard
maintenance of
equipments.
 Lack of
training for
operators.
 Use of
improper
equipments.
 Lack of
scheduled
practices in
company.
 Negligent and
lethargic
attitude of
people.
 Irresponsible
behavior of
workers.
 Lack of
eligible
workers in
specific job
roles.
Threats
 Low quality
products
would defame
the company.
 Switch of
customers for
damaged
products.
 There is
always a
changing work
environment
and culture.
 Reported
failures of
equipments.
 Loss of
resources and
materials for
production.

Opportunities
 The company
can initiate
new policies
for the proper
working in the
internal
scenario.
 It can initiate
training
programs to
increase
efficiency.
 It can have
better
production
with the use of
upgraded and
new machines.
 Hiring skilled
workers would
make the
business
smooth.
 Safety
procedures
and corporate
social
responsibility
of the
company must
be heightened.
This would

6CASE STUDY ON QUALITY MANAGEMENT
enable it to
increase
customer
loyalty.
Alternatives:
Some alternatives that the company can adopt has been discussed further-
 With the live inspection of the production batch in the presence of the Operator and the
quality inspector, the final batch of products should have been dispatched.
 Use of proper machine in the place of the poorly maintained automated filling machine
would have become more productive.
 Training and cross training of the employees would have resolved the problem of
unskilled labor activity (Akgün et al., 2014).
 Proper designing of the product would have efficiently improved production.
 Downtime running must be resolved by scheduling maintenance contract on the
machinery and other parts involved in the business.
 Regular meetings and daily reports regarding the business proceedings would have
improved the quality of production.
 A proper synchronization among the human resources, the management engaged in
product designing, in maintenance, manufacturing as well as marketing would have
helped the company to deviate from such issues and evolve stronger in the market
(Oakland, 2014).
Final Recommendation:
Short Term-

7CASE STUDY ON QUALITY MANAGEMENT
 In order to bring about a short term improvement in the business of the company,
Degreasing Solutions must set up programs for weekly job training for the employees.
Before the production, they must have meetings that would discuss the design and
evaluate it. Industrial experts must be invited and brought into the company to guide and
assist the employees and people engaged in the production process on regular intervals.
 The company must also integrate a job procedure manual with the various safety
regulations addressed in it. This would keep the employees informed about the processes
and help them perform the regular activities.
 The board of directors and company head can organize meetings at least twice a month to
hear the various issues that the people engaged in the business processes are facing and
thus adopt measured to eradicate such problems and lead them to a resolved way of
working (Cascio, 2018).
Long Term-
For the long term success of the company, some recommendations have been given
below-
 Implementation and up gradation of every single step that the company takes would
enable it to be more sustainable in the market.
 Working with the greater concern for safety regulations would aid both the company and
the workers to perform effortlessly and efficiently.
 Maintenance of contracts for the use of machinery to reduce their dysfunctions would
enable the company to provide quality production for the customers (Dale, 2015).

8CASE STUDY ON QUALITY MANAGEMENT
 Working with the objective of social responsibility alongside the motive of profit making
would aid the company to survive in the market for a much longer time.
Implementation timeline:
Implementation Timeline
Training
safety procedures training
maintenance of quipments
check and inspection
evaluating the operator's
performance
The implementation timeline shows that before the release of the products into the market, the
company must provide training for the employees for about 3 months.
For about 6 months, they must guide the employees and the operators to be well aware of the
safety procedures to handle the operations in the production.
It must invest time of about 9 months annually to maintain and replace the equipments (if
needed). This would increase productivity of the company as a whole.
9 months for the checking and inspection of the production process and the produced products
must be done in order to provide quality assurance to the customers.

9CASE STUDY ON QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Throughout the year in all the 12 months, the execution of the operators’ jobs must be initiated
in an organized way.
Bibliography:
Akgün, A. E., Ince, H., Imamoglu, S. Z., Keskin, H., & Kocoglu, İ. (2014). The mediator role of
learning capability and business innovativeness between total quality management and
financial performance. International Journal of Production Research, 52(3), 888-901.
Asif, M., Searcy, C., Zutshi, A., & Fisscher, O. A. (2013). An integrated management systems
approach to corporate social responsibility. Journal of cleaner production, 56, 7-17.
Cascio, W. (2018). Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill Education.
Dale, B. (2015). Total quality management. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Dale, B. G., & Plunkett, J. J. (2017). Quality costing. Routledge.
Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Kwon, O., Lee, N., & Shin, B. (2014). Data quality management, data usage experience and
acquisition intention of big data analytics. International Journal of Information
Management, 34(3), 387-394.
Oakland, J. S. (2014). Total quality management and operational excellence: text with cases.
Routledge.

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