Kokulan Vanniyasingam | Total Quality Management |

April 25, 2017

Chapters 19-22

TQM
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMNET & JIT
1. Explain why continual quality improvement is important
Continual improvement is essential to achieve perfection of quality in the global
marketplace. A company that is just maintaining the status quo in such key areas as
quality, new product development, adoption of new technologies, and process. Customer
needs are not static; they change continually. A special product feature that is considered
innovative today will be considered just routine tomorrow. A product cost that is
considered a bargain today will be too high to compete tomorrow. A good case in point in
this regard is the ever-falling price for each new feature introduced in the personal
computer. The only way a company can hope to compete in the modern marketplace is to
improve continually.

2. What is management's role in continual quality improvement?

Management can play the necessary leadership role in continual improvement by doing
the following:
Establishing an organization-wide quality council and serving on it
Scheduling periodic progress reviews and giving recognition where it is deserved.
Building continual quality improvement into the regular reward system, including
promotions and pay increases.
Providing the necessary moral and physical support. Moral support manifests
itself as a commitment. Physical support comes in the form of the resources
needed to accomplish the quality improvement objectives
Working with the quality council to establish specific quality improvement goals
with timetables and target dates

3. Discuss the Kaizen approach

Kaizen is a Japanese word for the philosophy that defines managements role in
continuously encouraging and implementing small improvements involving everyone.
Kai means change and Zen means good. Kaizen, therefore, means making changes
for the better on a continual, never-ending basis. The improvement aspect of Kaizen
refers to people, processes, and products.
The Five-Step Plan is the Japanese approach to implementing Kaizen:

Step 1: Straighten up. This step involves separating the necessary from the unnecessary
and getting rid of the unnecessary in such areas as tools, work in process, machinery,
products, papers, and documents.
Step 2: Put things in order. This step involves putting such things as tools and material in
their proper place and keeping things in order so that employees can always find what
they need to do the job without wasting time looking.
Step 3: Clean up. This step involves keeping the workplace clean so that work can
proceed in an efficient manner, free of the problems that can result when the work site is
messy.
Step 4: Standardize. This step was originally aimed at standardizing how the first three of
the Five-Ss were implemented and maintained, but since then expanded to include
standardizing on best practices. Visual management is also a major component of
standardization.

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Step 5: Discipline. This step involves careful adherence to standardized work procedures.
This requires discipline.

Figures below describe elements of kaizen and kaizen check list for continuous
improvement.

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 Source: (Goetsch, David L and Stanley Davis, 2014, P. 366)

4. How would you describe a lean system?

Lean is a generic version of TPS Toyota Production System developed by the Japanese
Taiichi Ohno. A lean system is one in which a better product is developed or a better
service is delivered using less of everything required (human, financial, technological,
and physical resources). At the heart of the concept are the reduction and ideally
elimination of waste and the improvement of work flow. Those wastes are the followings:
overproduction waste, inventory waste, motion waste, transportation waste, over
processing waste, defects waste, waiting waste, underutilization waste

5. What is lean six-sigma and how would you apply it to a quality management system?
Lean Six Sigma is nothing more or less than the marriage of Lean and Six Sigma. The
objective of Lean Six Sigma is to make the organization superior in its day-to-day work
and processes, its products and services, and its business results. This has also been the
objective of many organizations that have found that Lean alone, or Six Sigma by itself,
did not quite provide all the results needed in their quest for a better competitive posture.
A lot of those organizations have found that by combining Lean with Six Sigma,
significant performance gains relative to processes, products, services, employees,
customer satisfaction, and the business bottom line have been realized. Lean and Six
Sigma complement each other with their strengths, namely Leans elimination of waste
and Six Sigmas breakthrough methodology for solving performance problems and
making improvements, DMAIC, and its infrastructure system of Belts.
Advantages of Lean Six Sigma include:
Elimination of the Eight Wasteswaiting, overproduction, rework, motion,
transportation, processing, inventory, and intellect

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 Means of improving process flow whether on the manufacturing floor, in an
office, or any other setting
A structured means for identifying the key factors that determine the performance
of all kinds of processes
Ordered methods for establishing key factors at the best possible level
Disciplined means of sustaining key factors at the best level
Synergistic advantage of linking the Lean tools with the Six Sigma tools in a
systematic way and in a specified sequence
Trying all of these to the financial health of the organization

6. Define benchmarking
Benchmarking is the process of comparing and measuring an organizations operations or
its internal processes against those of a best-in-class performer from inside or outside its
industry. Benchmarking is finding the secrets of success of any given function or process
so that a company can learn from the informationand improve on it. It is a process to
help a company close the gap with the best-in-class performer without having to
reinvent the wheel. Benchmarking involves two organizations that have agreed to share
information about processes or operations. The two organizations both anticipate some
gain from the exchange of information.
Key points to remember about benchmarking are as follows:
Benchmarking is an increasingly popular improvement tool.
Benchmarking concerns processes and practices.
Benchmarking is a respected means of identifying processes that require major
change.
Benchmarking is done between consenting companies that may or may not be
competitors.

7. How can you apply benchmarking data?

At the conclusion of the benchmarking project with your partner, data analysis will have
produced both quantitative and qualitative information. The quantitative information is
effectively the stake driven into the ground as the point from which future progress is
measured. It is also used as the basis for improvement objectives. Qualitative information
covers such matters as personnel policies, training, management styles and hierarchy,
total quality maturity, and so on. This information provides insights on how the
benchmarking partner got to be best- in-class.The quantitative data are clearly the
information sought and are always used. However, there may be more value in the
qualitative information. It describes the atmosphere and environment in which best-in-
class can be developed and sustained. Do not ignore it. Take it very seriously. Study it,
discuss it in staff meetings, and explore the possibilities of introducing these changes into
your culture.

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 Source: (Goetsch, David L and Stanley Davis, 2014, P. 395)

8. What is a JIT system?

Just-in-time/Lean is producing only what is needed, when it is needed, and in the quantity
that is needed. It approaches the manufacturing process from the opposite end of the line.
Rather than pushing materials into the processes and storing them whenever they cannot
be accommodated, JIT/Lean controls the line from the output end. Indeed, it can be said
that the customer controls the line because nothing is built until there is an order for it.

9. What are the benefits of JIT/lean?

A discussion of the benefits of JIT/Lean must include four very important topics:
inventory and work-in-process, cycle time, continual improvement, and elimination of
waste. The discussion could be expanded to include such topics as reduced time-to-
market, improved employee work life, flexibility, and employee ownership. All of these
are definite benefits of JIT/Lean, but this discussion will be confined to the critical four
mentioned. These are the usual targets of a JIT/Lean implementation.
Inventory and work-in-process: just-in-time attempts to drive inventory to zero.
As a philosophical objective, zero inventories make no sense because without
some inventory you have nothing from which to produce some goods. The real
objective is to minimize the inventory to the maximum possible extent without
shutting down the production.

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 Cycle time: production cycle time is defined as the period bounded by the time
materials are sent to the manufacturer for the making of a product and the time the
finished goods are dispatched to a customer. The shorter is the production cycle
time, the lower will be the cost.
Continual improvement: continual improvement seeks to eliminate all forms of
waste, improve quality of products and services, and improve customer
responsiveness.
Elimination of waste: Taiichi Ohno created the JIT/Lean to eliminate the seven
wastes in saw in the Ford mass production system (waste arising from
overproducing, from wasting time, from transport, from processing itself, from
unnecessary stock on hand, from unnecessary motion, and waste arising from
producing defective.

10. Discuss automation system ideas for JIT/lean

Automation is the use of control systems for operating equipment such as machinery,
boilers, processes, aircraft and the automobile industry. Automation was first performed
in the automobile by General Motors in 1947 where productions of parts were done by
the use of robots as equipment. Automation produces efficiency and increased production
with quality. Therefore using automation with JIT/LEAN will produce an enormous
result that will lead to high profitability, high quality and high efficiency.

11. Social networking

Proterra Announces Delivery of 100th All-Electric Bus

Summary: Proterra, electric bus manufacturer has announced the delivery of the 100th all-
electric bus. Overall it has now supplied 36 municipal, commercial and transit customers
across 20 states. San Joaquin is the first agency in Northern California to provide all-
electric technology with 12 Proterra buses in their fleet. By today Proterra buses have
traveled more than 3.1 mil miles curtailing the emission of approximately 6.000 tons of
greenhouse emissions. The use of all-electric buses has reduced fuel and maintenance
costs by more than $2 million.

Kokulan Vanniyasingam: Increasing use of electric vehicles will leave positive impact
on our eco system. This is a great milestone achieved by Proterra but it seems like slow
pace. If this could be improving the environment and adding good-paying local jobs we
should see massive increase in orders. I am not sure what is holding back American
consumers from adding more electric buses to their transit system. As per article if it can
save millions of dollars by reducing fuel and maintenance cost, that would help to save
taxpayers some dollars. I believe if the Trump administration offers good incentive
programs for using electric buses, will increase demand in near future.

Olga Grankina: The fact that all-electric buses are starting to be in demand is great.
Even though people have started using hybrid and electric cars, public transport still
remains to be one of the biggest CO2 emissaries. The example of San Joaquin shows that

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not only the transition from traditional to all-electric with zero emission buses is possible,
but that it also is cost-effective.

Suchandra Das: The advent of the environment-friendly buses is on the rise which was
being anticipated for quite a while now. With the emissions of greenhouse gases being
cut, eliminating dependency on fossil fuels, global warming rates under control, these
buses would be helpful in achieving pollution-free atmosphere. Additionally, Proterra is
both flexible, durable, light-weight and hence has better performance. They have an
advantage over conventional combustion engines offering best efficiency.
Not only has that, the maintenance costs gone down as well. Now the commute would be
much easier, comfortable and faster. We are already in the midst of revolutionized era, as
they say and hopefully, it would be better in the coming years too

The Deceiving & Often Counterproductive Appeal of Uber, Lyft, & More Convenient
Transport

Summary: Based on research study done by Mr.Alejandro Henao, this article talk about
how lack of infrastructure for bike and transit service is affecting day to day travelers to
much more rely on demand taxi services such as uber and lyft. It also address that US
does not have enough and convenient mass transit to cover the needs. Further, it looks at
hourly wage of a driver in reality compare to corporate advertisement.

Kokulan Vanniyasingam: As technology has evolved significantly, we are relying on it

more than ever. This article clears some of the hidden truth behind the so called
convenient transport systems. The miles driven per passenger increase that would
increase the environmental pollution though less number of space needed for parking. If
we take a closer look at Q5 from the survey majority of the people leaning toward public
transportation as alternative if there is no uber or lyft. So, the concern is wheatear our
public transportation is capable of handling the needs. Recent example of delayed NJ
train transit system tells us that our mass transit system is not capable. This type of
incident and lack of infrastructure for other travel system such as bike or carpool would
increase the chances of public to look for uber or lyft though there is negative impact to
the society. I believe the government can pay attention to it by regulating the way we
utilize the transportation system.

Olga Grankina: This article is interesting and discusses the point that is not very popular
- how ride services add traffic and emissions to already existing problems. The main issue
addressed is the research, conducted by Alejandro Henao and whether the public
transportation can provide efficient substitution to Uber or Lyft and other taxi services.
But in my opinion in the US public transport system is underdeveloped in the first place
(in comparison to European countries for example). Having a personal auto has been a
part of culture for a long time and it has started to change recently when big cities started
to choke in traffic. Maybe in cities like New York where subway and bus routes are
efficient using taxi services is a waste of money, time, and pollution. But in Orlando,
Florida, the public transport is way less convenient, using ride services is justified.

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Beyshyh Wong: Rideshare services definitely take away even the thought of using other
means of transport such as biking and walking. In Mexico City, the cost of an Uber ride
from the airport to a destination 30 minutes away was $5 US Dollars. At that price you
can't turn it down. I have never taken Uber or Lyft in the ti-state area but hear that it is
quite convenient. In a city filed with people whose time is more valuable than anything
else, rideshare services will win.

E-Boats,anyone? Electric Boat Market to Reach $20 Billion by 2027, According To New
Study

Summary: Electric boats and vehicles have been manufactured and are in use since many
years. The article states that since the maintenance costs and the environmental costs of
the boats powered by fossil fuels is huge, pure electric or hybrid electric boats would
become widespread in the coming years. Small and medium boats only have pure electric
driven systems, whereas hybrid electric systems are used for larger boats.

Kokulan Vanniyasingam: Using marine EV has many advantages including reducing

local air and water pollution which would increase the quality of marine life. However,
the amount of consumer attracted to EVs seems a lot less if this technology has been
around since 1890. What are reasons for slow developments of this technology? Even if
this technology becomes fully accessible in near future there are few questions need to be
answered such as; Could it strong enough to sustain any types waves? Will it have
enough power to handle any weight as traditional ones? Most importantly, will it be cost
efficient?

Suchandra Das:Although, they have many advantages which include easier autonomous
navigation, better acceleration, quiet or no-sound features, reducing air or water
pollution, still there will be a long wait before it can be commercialized on a large scale
because of its cost and affordability. The question here is how long it will take for the
battery costs to go down.

Reference:

Goetsch, David L., and Stanley Davis. "Chapter 19 - 22." Quality Management for
Organizational Excellence: Introduction to Total Quality. Harlow, Essex, England:
Pearson, 2014. N. page. Print.

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