A Case Study in Quality Improvement

A Case Study in Quality Improvement
You will review the Case Study supplied and go through a sequence of analyses designed to
identify problems and then home in on solutions.
Question 1: Learning the Processes
Knowledge of processes is one of the most difficult problems for an outsider. Workers will make
assumptions about your knowledge, and unconsciously overlook details that they might
consider trivial. A good way to learn a process is to develop a flowchart of it and give it to a
knowledgeable worker to critique.
Task for Question 1:
Based on the interview with Doit (and any other information you can find), make a flowchart of
the process flow. Identify on the flowchart any processes that the interviews have indicated
might have quality problems.
Question 2: Finding the Problem
Regardless of what you have been told about what the problems are, independent problem
identification is the first step. A fresh look at the system by an outsider can reveal problems
that people close to it cannot see. If this analysis only confirms that assumed problems are real
problems, then the analysis is still valuable, because it strengthens our beliefs based on facts.
Task for Question 2:
Go back through the interviews and make a list of as many potential problems as you can find.
Include potential non-process problems,such as human resources and disagreements. For each
problem that you list, give a brief description of it and a potential solution (if you can find
one).
Question 3: Cause and Effect Diagrams
A critical piece of engineering is thinking about causes rather than symptoms. It appears that
Etcetera pays a lot of attention to symptoms (through inspection) rather than causes. Jim Bob
Twister is already thinking about causes in wondering if vendor problems are causing edge
flaws. You have arranged a meeting of Doit, Scriptus, Loomer, and Twister. After explaining the
importance of identifying causes, you lead them through an exercise of identifying potential
causes. In this exercise, which is a sort of brain-storming exercise, your objective is to go beyond
what they think they know about causes of problems. A list of potential causes will allow further
study, without limiting the study by preconceived notions about quality problems. To structure
the problem, we have limited the exercise to two areas for the creation of two cause and effect
diagrams.A. First, you note that printquality is a major source of customer complaints. Print quality
problems occur in both metal and plastic tags. The following outline of major and subsidiary
causes are found:
B. You note that Edge flaws is the dominant defect based on inspection data. The list of causes
for edge flaws is slightly different in structure:
Tasks for Question 3:
1. Based on what you know so far, in data and from interviews from the case study,
create a list of the most likely causes for Print Quality and a list of the most likely
causes for Edge Flaws.
2. Based on the above information, for both A and B, develop a separate cause-andeffect diagram for each.Regulatory Individual Assignment Submission Details:
• Ethical Script Cover Page
• Use Table of Contents
• Answer for Question 1
• Answer for Question 2
• Answer for Question 3
• Typed in Calibri 12-point font, 1.5 spaced, with pages numbered.
• Page Count: 1400 – 1600 words NOT including cover page, table of comments, process
flow chart, or appendices.
• PDF format
• File named: Regulatory_Assignment20%_Student_Name_StudentNumber_Report.pdf
• Date: Submitted to Moodle on or before the date and time specified in the Assignment
Submission folder on Moodle
• Folder on Moodle for report submission: “Regulatory Assignment(20%