MBA576: Operations Management Discussion

MBA576: Operations Management Discussion

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MBA576: Operations Management Discussion

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Unit 6: Discussion

Katelyn Franklin

Park University

MBA576: Operations Management

Dr. Kevin Loy

September 21, 2021

Abstract

Businesses face a range of challenges throughout operations and management of processes in production. Quality of product is a crucial factor in the production business that impacts customer satisfaction, reputation, creditability, costs, and more. Quality issues must be taken seriously and addressed purposefully. With process improvement, data collection, inspections, and root cause identification and analysis, quality issues can be overcome and prevented in the future.

Keywords: quality, improvement, inspections, point of measure, quality control, root cause analysis

Quality Improvement

With the current month’s quality issues resulting in customer dissatisfaction, Kibby and Strand must act in response with identification of quality issues and an improvement plan. The quality of Kibby and Strand products and customer satisfaction is at the heart of the company. These complaints must be addressed with thorough identification of issues as well as an impactful quality improvement measures based on those issues (Stevenson, 2020). Without action, Kibby and Strand risks not only the reputation within the industry market, but also the values and pride the business holds in true quality products that supersedes customer expectations.

The quality improvement plan consists of five steps that impacted the creation of the plan to include: setting goals, the collection and analyzation of data, the origination of quality issues, goal targets, and counter measures (Anjoran, 2020). The main goal set to this improvement plan is the reduction of poor-quality materials received from suppliers and poor-quality product sent out to customers.

With this goal, the company will also reduce costs, duplicate work, and duplicate labor efforts towards that work (Anjoran, 2020). The data collection will consist of reports from the receiving manager regarding the percentage of defective materials received from suppliers with detail of supplier name, type of material, and lead time. Additionally, the production manager will be responsible to implement a quality check process of finish products before packaging. This new process will track and produce data with a percentage of defective finished products with details regarding what product, where in the production process caused the poor-quality, and impact to overall contract processing time (Anjoran, 2020).

With the data, Kibby and Stand leadership will be able to identify the main issues the company is having regarding the quality issues. This allows for a pinpoint strategy to hone in on and give the attention it needs. From this point, the company can make decisions based on supplier, specific materials causing issues, machinery, employees and needs for additional training, etc. Furthermore, with this plan, Kibby and Strand can set target goals to improve quality of products with the knowledge of the key problem areas and implementing improvement plans within the team (Anjoran, 2020).

Quality Inspections

Specifically to quality control, quality will be measured within a range of tolerances, impacting both receiving and production departments. With the complaints from our customer base regarding incorrect sizing, Kibby and Strand must implement guidelines to each type of garment or material for a type of product with point of measurement consistent with sizing guide provided to customers (Burkhart, 2019). The point of measure will have measurement range that is acceptable with specificity to each type of material and product (Burkhart, 2019). This allows the customer to trust the Kibby and Strand sizing guide and receive the same quality of product as promised.

As previously mentioned, the production manager is to implement a quality control process before sending product to the shipping department. This process should include a series of tests to prove the ultimate quality of the finished product (Burkhart, 2019). The fitting test will consist of mannequin modeling for the respective size being tested.

The seam strength test will inspect the strength and durability of the product seam to ensure there is no breakage or weak points. The fatigue test applies to products with buckles, zippers, fastener, etc. With a test of 50 cycles of opening and closing the fastener, there should not be a change in functionality or durability of the fastener. The stretch test will inspect the straps or elasticity of the applicable garment manually to ensure the durability does not wear (Burkhart, 2019).

With this quality control process implemented, Kibby and Strand will tackle the quality concerns that it is currently experiencing. This will reduce costs, duplicate work, and improve overall customer satisfaction. This plan must be carried out with attention to detail and precision. If the production manager sees fit, leadership will support the recruitment of additional staff in order to meet these crucial quality improvement goals.

Root Cause Analysis

With the quality issues at hand, it is essential for the best success to identify the root causes of the quality issues. With the knowledge of the root cause, the best decision making can be made to tackle the problem at hand. A root cause analysis (RCA) can be conducted to discover the problem or problems, develop in detail how to fix the problem, and apply what is learned to reduce the potential of similar issues going forward (“Root cause”, n.d.).

Kibby and Strand will adopt the 5 Whys Approach as it will utilize the data of defective materials and products to answer the “hows” and “whys” to each issue reported. The answers should begin to reveal root causes either pointed back to a certain supplier, machine malfunction, employee performance, etc. (“Root cause”, n.d.). Throughout the life of the data collection, the root cause analysis will clarify information and reveal additional trends which will be considered in the adaptive plan (Root cause”, n.d.).

References

Anjoran, R. (2020, August 12). Setting up a step-by-step process improvement plan in your factory. China Manufacturing Consultants. Retrieved September 21, 2021, from https://www.cmc-consultants.com/blog/setting-up-a-step-by-step-process-improvement-plan-in-your-factory.

Burkhart, M. (2019, April 16). 3 ways to manage garment quality control. QC in China. Retrieved September 21, 2021, from https://www.intouch-quality.com/blog/3-key-areas-of-quality-control-for-garments.

Root cause analysis explained: Definition, examples, and methods. Tableau. (n.d.). Retrieved September 21, 2021, from https://www.tableau.com/learn/articles/root-cause-analysis.

Stevenson, W. J. (2020). Operations management (14th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.

MBA576: Operations Management Discussion

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