1. Discuss the eight principles of the ISO 9000 standard
PRINCIPLE 1: CUSTOMER FOCUS
As it should be with any quality management system customer focus is the most pivotal characteristic. A business should always emphasize on what a customer needs and try to match their expectation in terms of attributes and specifications provided in the product and also the customer service. A business should always try to exceed customers’ expectation and find a new way to keep the distinction in the market and never let the competition till neck.
As the customer satisfaction increases their loyalty towards the company increases and the business increases its’ chance of attracting a customer back.
PRINCIPLE 2: LEADERSHIP
Without clear and strong leadership, a business flounders. Principle 2, is concerned with the direction of the organisation. The business should have clear goals and objectives, and ensure its employees are actively involved in achieving those targets.
The benefits are higher levels of employee engagement and increased motivation to satisfy customer needs. Research shows, if employees are kept ‘in the loop’ and understand the business vision, they’ll be more productive. This principle seeks to rectify employees complaints about ‘lack of communication’.
Every worker of the company at every level should be clear of the company’s short, intermediate and long term goals and should have a goal congruent with the company’s this is known as goal congruence.
Goal congruence can be achieved by proper communication and proper education of every worker and encouragement provided by means of incentives.
All of the above can be achieved when a company has a top level managerial team with excellent leadership skills, so this point is crucially included in ISO 9000.
PRINCIPLE 3: PEOPLE INVOLVEMENT
The process approach is all about efficiency and effectiveness. Well-managed processes reduce costs, improve consistency, eliminate waste and promote continuous improvement.
By becoming a more efficient organisation, you will build confidence in your stakeholders by optimizing performance. Manage processes by making responsibilities clear and ensuring your resources are used in the best way.
PRINCIPLE 4: PROCESS APPROACH
The process approach is all about efficiency and effectiveness. It’s also about consistency and understanding that good processes also speeds up activities.
In process approach workers are expected to increase the effectiveness and efficency of the product and this can be done by proper understanding of the process.
A good process approach leads in decrease of rework, scrap and waste and result in reduction of costs.
PRINCIPLE 5: SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO MANAGEMENT
ISO defines this principle as:
– Quote 1: British Assessment Bureau
This is a simple logic in which similar processes in an organization are recognized and managed together to get a better efficacy and efficiency.
PRINCIPLE 6: CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT
This principle is very straightforward: continual improvement should be an active business objective.
The benefits of this are clear: increased ability to embrace new opportunities, organisational flexibility and improved performance. Especially in difficult economic times, the businesses that thrive are those that can adapt to new market situations.
PRINCIPLE 7: FACTUAL APPROACH TO DECISION MAKING
A logical approach, based on data and analysis, is good business sense. Unfortunately, in a fast-paced workplace, decisions can often be made rashly, without proper thought. Implementing the Quality Management Principles we’ve discussed will allow decisions to be made with clarity.
Informed decisions lead to improved understanding of the marketplace as data is collated and analysed, and the ability to defend past decisions.
PRINCIPLE 8: MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL SUPPLIER RELATIONS
This principle deals with supply chains. It promotes the relationship between the company and its suppliers; recognizing it is interdependent. A strong relationship enhances productivity and encourages seamless working practices.
The result is optimization of costs and resources, improving and building long-term relationships and the ‘flexibility of joint responses to changing market or customer needs and expectations’.
2. Discuss Pareto Charts.
Pareto Charts are charts which consists of bar graphs and line graph. The left vertical axis is the frequency of occurrence, but it can alternatively represent cost or another important unit of measure. The right vertical axis is the cumulative percentage of the total number of occurrences, total cost, or total of the particular unit of measure. Because the values are in decreasing order, the cumulative function is a concave function.
Pareto charts are used to analyze the problems and their frequency , it is mainly used to find the most significant problems in a set of problems.
– Fig 1 : Pareto chart for problems in a bicycle (BY ME)
So, to create the above chart I first listed down the problems in a bicycle and then assigned the frequency of occurrence according to my judgement, the plot of cumulative frequency and percentage of occurrence of events gives us the above bar graph and line, this shows that Major portion of bicycles will be solved by resolving the tyre pressure issues by using a better valve or a rubber material or by using a high quality chain which can take more shear and be less deformed.
3. Fish Bone diagrams.
Fish bone/ Ishikawa diagrams are representation techniques in the shape of a fish bone structure hence called as fish bone diagram The head of the fish represents the problem and the bones in the remaining diagram represent causes for the problem, in this way together fish bone diagram is a way to represent and recognize a problem and also its root cause. Below is a fish bone diagram of the same example used in the pareto charts i.e problems in a bicycle the root problems have been analysed with brakes handle chain and tire and the causes have been represented on the bones of the fish below.
– Fig 2 : Fish bone diagram for bicycle problems (BY ME)
4. Discuss histograms
Histograms are essentially graphs which represent the probability density function of any activity it is plotted for.
The total activity is divided into bins which are intervals and frequency of activity resulting in an interval is represented by the height if the histogram.
The histogram is used for a continuous function, and bar graph is used for categorical activities.
Examples of continuous data: Amount of rain, Weight of a student
Examples of categorical data: Blood group A,B,AB+/-, Types of fruit (Orange, Apple)
The height of histogram represents the frequency of the activity in a particular event and width of the histogram represents the interval width or proportion if the interval in the total data sample.
– Fig 3 :Histogram of travelling time of population sample (US census 2000)
Here since the population having travel time beyond 50 min is less the interval width is increased and still the graph gives well understanding of the frequency being less.
5. Discuss control charts for variables
Variables control charts plot continuous data, as discussed above for example length or pressure as a function of time. In contrast, attribute control charts plot count data, such as the number of defects or defective units. Variables control charts, allow us to see if the process parameters are in control, there are patterns like 7 points above the line/ 7 points below the line repeating patterns all signifies that there is some problem in the system and it is recurring.
There are two main types of variables control charts:
- Charts for data collected in subgroups (data under similar condition or in one trial).
- Charts for individual measurements.
Say we take 6 readings in a go and 10 such readings our subgroup size will be 6 and group size will be 10. All the below are plotted for data with subgroups.
Variables control charts include Xbar, R, and S.
Here S stands for standard deviation chart, R stands for Range chart and X chart stands for mean charts.
Apart from these to see the variations in a single data measured I charts and Moving range charts are used as represented below.
– Fig 4&5 :All charts from minitab support
6. Discuss flowcharts and give a simple example
Flow chart is a diagram which explains an algorithm or represents a process step by step.
An activity or process step is represented in a rectangle
A decision is represented by a diamond.
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– Fig 6 :Flow Chart of credit card payment algorithm(Partially by me)
Above is a flow chart representing an algorithm of paying through credit card the processes are represented with rectangle and the decisions like validity of credit card is put in a diamond and the arrows give the direction of steps in order of the algorithm and the last and first step to be marked are represented in a circle. So, as we see the number of diamonds increases so does the number of branches increase, and the process becomes elaborate.
7. Explain what is an FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis)
FMEA is an acronym for Failure Modes and Effects Analysis, it is essentially a risk assessment tool, that evaluates the severity, occurrence and detection of risks to prioritize which ones are the most urgent. And creates a number which indicates the risk priority of a task
Each of three categories of severity, occurrence and detection has a score range between 1-10 .
- Severity of 1 denotes low risk to the end customer, and a score of 10 denotes high risk to the customer.
- Occurrence of 1 denotes low probability of the risk happening, and a 10 denotes a very high probability of the risk happening.
- Detection of 1 denotes a process that is unlikely to catch a failure, and a 10 means the process will almost certainly catch a failure.
After scoring of each category is complete for each risk, the three scores are multiplied together (Severity x Occurrence x Detection) to determine the Risk Priority Number (RPN). The higher the RPN the more is the priority is to resolve the problem.
After the activities are improved the RPN’s are again calculated and if the new RPN is low the corrective measure has successfully worked.
8. Provide an overview of the Toyota practical problem solving process
– Fig 7 : Toyota way practical problem solving
A well thought system or process always decreases the errors than an unplanned expedition.
The Toyota Way, suggests a framework to Practical Problem Solving. According to the framework, when confronted with a problem, first stwp is recognition of cause of problem. That’s followed by a series of 5 WHYs? to investigate the root cause. And finally countermeasures, evaluations, and countermeasures.
1. Initial Problem Perception
Large, vague and complicated problem is presented. The first step is to perceive all the information available at this point information of time.
Ex: “The pressure inside the boiler is above UCL”
This doesn’t show the actual problem, but just a perception of it.
2. Clarify The Problem
Next step is to clarify the problem and narrow the possible causes with rationale. To do this information must be gathered.
Ex: “Maybe the gauge was faulty”
3. Locate Point Of Cause
Next step is to dig a little deeper and try finding the point of cause.Where is the problem observed? Where is the likely cause? This will lead us to the vicinity of the root cause, which we find in step 4.
Ex. “The gauge was not calibrated”
4. Ask, 5 WHYs? Investigation of the root cause
Here from the direct cause, we expose and go deep to the root cause of the problem by asking WHY five times.
Ex.
1. 1st why – Why was pressure above control limit: Because gauge wasn’t working.
2. 2nd Why – Why gauge wasn’t working – Because it wasn’t calibrated.
3. 3rd Why – Why was gauge calibrated– Because of wrong previous calibration entry date
4. 4th Why – Why previous calibration entry date – Because of the human error of the operator.
5. 5th Why – Why human error of operator – Because of carelessness.
By asking a series of 5 whys, we can generally get to the root cause of the problem and fix it there instead of just duct-taping it and be waiting for it to rise again.
5. Countermeasures
This step is fixing the root cause of the problem so that this doesn’t come up again.
Ex. Moved to a more sophisticated auto-calibration indicator system.
6. Evaluate
After the countermeasure have been executed, it’s important to evaluate the effect post that. Was the problem solved?
Ex. “Now the pressure data is in control and even if the gauge miss getting calibrated, we get an alert to know it beforehand and take action.”
7. Standardize
This resonates with another Toyota principle of jidoka, meaning building in the quality.
How can we standardize the countermeasures such that similar problems are not faced again? How can we propagate our learning across the organization?
Ex. “Document and standardize the process that for all our instances and jobs proper alerts must be in place so that we know when they are malfunctioning”.
9. Explain a total quality decision making process
Decision-making is a critical task in a total quality setting. It is a process of selecting one course of action among two or more. Decisions play the same role in an organization that fuel plays in an automobile engine: They keep it running. The work of an organization cannot proceed until decisions are made. The decision-making process is a logically sequenced series of activities through which decisions are made. Numerous decision- making models exist. Although they appear to have major differences, all involve the various steps shown in Figure and discussed next.
- Identify or Anticipate the Situation: – Anticipating the situation is like driving defensively; never assume anything. Look, listen, ask, and sense.
- Gather the Facts: – This manager might identify the problem as poor morale and begin trying to improve it. However, he or she would do well to gather the facts first to be certain of what is behind the negative attitudes.
- Consider Alternatives: – Considering the alternatives involves two steps: (1) list all of the various alternatives available and (2) evaluate each alter- native in light of the facts.KM
- Choose the Best Alternative, Implement, Monitor, and Adjust: – After all alternatives have been considered, one must be selected and implemented, and after an alternative has been implemented, managers must monitor progress and adjust appropriately.
10. Explain why quality tools are important
Quality management tools are follow: Project Planning, Pareto Charts , Fish-bone Charts, Histogram,Charts and Graphs. These Quality tools have a dual role. Quality tools are important for many reasons such as help collecting and displaying information in ways for us to understand quickly and thoroughly, also help identify problem areas and provide future improvement opportunities, enable employees to do their job effectively.
Social Networking
Trump administration plans to scrap rule meant to limit abuses at for-profit colleges
The article explains about Trump administration scraping a rule which was implemented by Obama administration to protect students from abuses of non profit colleges. The rule imposes that loan payments for a typical graduate cannot exceed 20 percent of discretionary income or 8 percent of total earnings. So the colleges needed to have high income yielding courses in compliance with the rule. Trump administration has called this an imposition on higher education sector and special targeting of for profit organizations in this sector. I along with saravanan and shashank read this article and the reactions of and predictions of journalists and find that scraping out this rule would cause a serious debt on students head an make a lot of money for for-profit organizations.
Women and men get research grants at equal rates — if women apply in the first place
https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/scicurious/women-men-nih-research-grants-equal-rates
The article starts with a statement that women can maintain their huge grant as well as men but challenges the assumption that women get to a level to get grant fairly amd equally as men. Greenberg an organization, conducted research on grants awarded to women and the renewal said there are more number of qualified women eligible for grants in comparison to men but the grants awarded are less proportionate to women the reason being found that women are hesitant to file for grants.
This rationale is explained by Linda Babcock’s book, says Dawson-psychologist, Cornell University, the reason being men play a game of negotiating the salaries and getting paid well, adding to it dawson says women are judged on achievements rather than potential
So the prose leads to the reason of women not receiving grants is not because of less negotiation or less application of grants, but the fact that women are judged far more seriously than men and this leads to them not applying in the first place, I and my team mates support the reason and hope women find their voice and not put up with gender biased reviewers and be proud of their achievements and apply for grants fearlessly.
CHINA IS CRACKING DOWN ON A COMPANY SELLING UNSAFE VACCINES
The article is about Changsheng Bio-Tech which has been producing unsafe DPT vaccines. The concern here is the vaccines are shipped to government healthcare centers where according to the Chinese government’s program every child is compulsorily given the vaccine. No cases of disease outbreak have been registered, but Chinese people have lost faith on the governmental healthcare schemes, I and pretty much everybody agrees that healthcare is never to be compromised with. And it is natural for the Chinese people to be skeptical about the healthcare they receive.
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