Quality Improvement Implementation

Quality Improvement Implementation

In today's business world, competition is high and most organizations search for ways to gain an advantage in their respectable markets. One of the obvious, but unfortunately overlooked, ways to be at the forefront is establishing, maintaining, and constantly improving quality processes within an organization. Riordan Manufacturing has an established quality culture and strives to maintain the quality processes that are currently in place. Through its quality development team, Riordan actively seeks areas or processes that need improved quality standards.

In an effort to achieve a higher level of quality, the quality development team at Riordan Manufacturing would like to present to the Executive Management team a Quality Improvement Implementation Process and Plan. Riordan is committed to a quality culture through its current Process for Post Project Reviews. Currently this process provides project history and feedback, however, a decision to enhance this process will ensure Riordan Manufacturing's strategic direction towards a total quality culture. This new quality process, called the "Continuous Project Review" (CPR,) is the best solution to drive a spirit of quality throughout the organization.

The quality development team will identify the steps of the quality process improvement and implementation plan, define variations and how identifying and controlling is integral to total quality management, provide quality tools and the monitoring process, and explain why this model/methodology is correct for Riordan Manufacturing.

Riordan Manufacturing Quality Management Process and Implementation for CPR

Step 1. Adopt New Philosophy - Continuous Project Review Process (CPR). This objective is to gain approval for our CPR process. We will identify problems before they happen!

Step 2. Set Goals for Improvement - This objective is to identify needs, define projects, prioritize, obtain authorization and funding, assign responsibility, and provide a solid understanding for CPR (Burrill & Ledolter, 1999, p. 4).

Step 3. Establish Quality Teams - Everyone takes part in a team aimed at process improvement. This objective will focus on the human side of everyone that is involved. Establishing an environment of mutual respect and commitment to the CPR process.

Step 4. Provide Training - Everyone must understand their job and their role in a quality work environment.

Step 5. Report Progress - Diagnose CPR - Find causes & remedies, specify needs for improvement, determine effective operating conditions, provide and gain control.

Step 6. Reward Recognition - Share the success through continuous mutual trust, improved working environment, skill knowledge, greater responsibility, a winning team culture, and potential profit sharing.

Step 7. Repeat the process on a continuous basis.

Implementation of the Continuous Project Review (CPR) begins today with the approval of Executive Management team to drive the spirit of quality throughout the organization. The following phases have been developed to implement the plan.

Phase 1 - Management's leadership of quality effort

Phase 2 - Focus on customers, obtain confidence

Phase 3 - Focus on employees, gain trust & support

Phase 4 - Apply quality concepts

Phase 5 - Build on improvement

Phase 6 - Adopt solutions to problems

Phase 7 - Make quality permanent

The actual capacity of the process is rarely equal to its maximum capacity, because the process rarely performs to its full potential. (Melnyk, Swink, Ch.5, pg.21) This can be due to variations that might exist in outputs, inputs or the Post Project Review Process itself. When contemplating a reliable process, Riordan has visions of a Project Review Process with minimum or no variation that produces the same outcome every time. Riordan's goal is to develop a Continuous Project Review Process that would meet those requirements.

After this goal is achieved, the next goal will be to redesign the Project Review Process to produce outcomes/products that are improved and exceed customer requirements. To accomplish this, Riordan's Research & Development Department will identify the variability in the production and the overall research process. Identifying and controlling these variations is very important to the whole process of TQM, because they have a huge impact on process performance and outcome of the process. Not doing so will cause variations in quality and lead to decreases in customer satisfaction, and also will be conflicting with Riordan's commitment to a maintaining a quality culture.

There are few different ways to deal with the variability, but according to Melnyk and Swink the best way to deal with it is to eliminate it. This required finding the actual source of variation and eliminating it or controlling it. Our quality development team has identified the variability in the product review process. Due to scheduling limitations user participation in product review meetings generally is unpredictable. Members of Riordan's Research & Development Department will put great effort in eliminating or controlling this variation. In place of the substantive user feedback, Riordan can supplement the current on-site meeting process with online/virtual review or forward confidential documentation to users for off-line review at their convenience. This will help in minimizing or eliminating the variation in user participation in the product review process.

Quality tools are used to analyze and understand any variability in a process. Riordan uses several quality tools to improve the process of making plastic products in their manufacturing plants. The quality tools used include control charts, surveys; and newly implemented is the six-sigma process. Data is collected using these tools to improve the variability in production and ultimately improve Riordan's product.

First, the control chart is reviewed to understand how small or large the variability has become over time. "A control chart is a graphical tool that can be used to understand a production process and help assure that the quality of products produced by that process is consistent (or stable) over time" (Achieving, pg. 430.) Riordan will use the X-bar chart or the mean chart to determine a pattern in the variability of their production of the new plastic bottle they have