important Dimensions of Quality Assignment - Free Essay Example

Quality Analysis II Imagining yourself to be the customer, construct a House of Quality to provide the organization with your perspectives on what the important dimensions of quality are and how well the organization is currently meeting your needs A House of Quality is a first matrix in a four-phase Quality Function Deployment process. The name is associated with the correlation matrix that has a roof shaped top that sits on the main body of the matrix. The House of Quality is used to translate the voice of the customer into design requirements. These requirements must meet the specific target values and must show how the requirements will be met by the organization. A basic house of quality is shown below (Hauser, Clausing, 2007). The house of quality consists of five parts. The exterior walls that show the customer requirements, the left side has what the customer expects, right side has the prioritized customer requirements; the ceiling or second floor contains technical descriptors, interior walls represent the relationship between the technical descriptors and customer requirements. The customer expectations are translated to engineering characteristics. The roof of the house shows the interrelationship between technical descriptors. The foundation of the house consists of the list of prioritized technical descriptors (Hauser, Clausing, 2007). In this case we shall explore the customerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s requirements in terms of quality dimensions and how well the company is meeting the current customer need s. The primary requirements for the farm products are aesthetics, features, reliability, durability, conformance, serviceability, perceived quality and performance. The secondary requirements under aesthetics include appropriate color, well packaged, appealing look and well instructed on usage. The secondary requirements under features include after sales and guarantees offered. The products should be consistent, able to last for days without being highly perishable, organization should offer service of the products, they should conform to the set standards, they should perform in accordance to what they were manufactured for and the perception about the products should be highly regarded (Hauser, Clausing, 2007). The goal of house of quality is to design the product in such a way it meets the customer expectations or exceeds them. Thus the farm should come up with technical descriptors (HOWS) that will affect the quality requirements of the customer. Two primary descriptors inc lude material and manufacturing. Quality materials and manufacturing equipment should be used by the farm. The relationship between the customerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s quality requirements and technical descriptors is achieved by turning the list of technical descriptors perpendicular to the list of customer requirements. A strong relationship exists when a there is a double circle, single circle represents medium relationship, triangle a weak relationship and if box is blank no relationship exists. The symbols are later replaced by figures such as 9, 6, and 3. The roof of the house of quality identifies any interrelationships between each of the technical descriptors. It is a triangular table. Symbols are used to describe the strength of the interrelationships; for example, a double circle represents a strong positive relationship, a single circle represents a positive relationship, a single X represents a negative relationship and a double X represents a strong negative relationshi p. The complete house of quality of the farm will look as below (Hauser, Clausing, 2007). Develop a SPC checklist for each dimension of the product that you believe would be subject to statistical control Quality control is essential to development of any product. Quality control helps to achieve the quality demands of consumers. Quality control can be accomplished in a number of ways that includes selection of products that have gone through manufacturing and ensuring that they have meet certain criteria (Andres, 2003). The products that do not meet quality control are removed from the line of production. Failure to implement quality control standards leads to increased costs, reduction in competitive advantage, unhappy customers and reduced productivity. To prevent such problems an approach that builds quality control aspects. Statistical Process Control is one approach that can be used to achieve quality control. A proper SPC involves looking at products at each level of production. SPC focuses on process and prevention. SPC is can be additionally linked to Total Quality management. Utilizing SPC ensures that the entire process is focused on movement of a product from one step to the next while involving as little rework as possible (Wheeler, Chambers, 2010). It focuses on how inputs, outputs and the product are moved from point A to B. When creating the steps they must be designed in such a way that they repeat themselves thus benefits cost savings and productivity and at the same time ensuring quality control. Quality control does not equal a perfect product and thus SPC works under assumption that there are variances that exist when the product is being produced. For, example in production of farm products it may be acceptable that some vegetables may have less leaves if at all they have than what others have. When utilizing SPC several methods can be used to evaluate the product not only in terms of production quality but also in the quality perceived and realized by the customer (Andres, 2003). Below is a check list for evaluating the product in terms of dimensions of quality. How do the farm products meet the customer expectations? What is offered together with the purchased product? Are there supplements offered? How long will the farm product last before being perishable? How many methods can the product serve? Is the materials used conforming to specifications? Does the company hear out problems associated with the product for improvement? Is there a hotline number for handling complains and recommendations? Do the farm products have a natural taste? How are the products packaged? Do the farm products have a good aroma? Does the product have rich flavors? Is the perception of the farm product high? Evaluate the product using the five-step plan that is associated with the Kaizen philosophy. Observation à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" in depth process analysis, variation identification, manufacturing line interruptions, standardization processes or the lack thereof, process vision, countermeasures. One failure point in farm products is lack of accurate date for perishability Standardization à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" The farm products should be produced in accordance with strict guidelines in order to ensure that every product is designed and built to the exact standards by which farm produce industry is expected to produce products. Kaizen Flow Process à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Combining manufacturing steps, proper maintenance of lines and appropriate audit procedures ensures the farm products are of the best quality and thus meets the needs of the customers. The employees should be well trained. Kaizen-Equipment: The organization should improve equipment placement, start up time, dispose old equipments, do frequent maintenance and be up-to-date with recent technology. Kaizen Layout: Find the most efficient method by which to move products through the line. The organization should have a branch com pany where most of its produce is manufactured which excites the workers. Determine what elements of the production and delivery of the product or service would be subject to benchmarking and describe how you would identify those organizations to which comparisons could be made in a benchmarking process. Bench marking is the comparing of oneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s business processes and performance metrics to an industry or companies which are known to have best practices. Production elements that would be subject to benchmarking include; how to reduce wastage of raw materials, how to maximize labor, how to efficiently economize on time, how to reduce costs of production, how to increase productivity, the best product design to use, how to have a free flow of production process and how to overall manage the production unit. Benchmarking on delivery includes; how to minimize lead times, how to process orders, fleet management, loading and unloading of fleet, mode of transport to us e, how to deal with late deliveries and how to deliver emergencies. Identification of companies to benchmark follows a series of steps starting with an analysis of the history of the company in the industry, a company that offers the same products but in a superior way, a company that has existed for a long time in the industry, a company with reputable employees and a company that customers rate high in terms of delivery or production (Meybodi, 2009). References Andres, V. (2003). Quality Assurance for the Food Industry:A Practical Approach CRC Press. Hauser, J. R., Clausing, D. (2007). The house of quality. Isao, K. (2010).Toyota Kaizen Methods:Six Steps to Improvement. Art Smalley CRC Press. Meybodi, M. Z. (2009). Benchmarking performance measures in traditional and just-in-time companies.Benchmarking: An International Journal,16(1), 88-102. Wheeler, D. J., Chambers, D. S. (2010).Understanding statistical process control. Knoxville, Tenn: SPC Press