Operations and Quality Management

Operations and Quality Management

Introduction

Globally, many businesses and organizations are increasing their ventures into new projects and initiatives. These projects often comprise of numerous tasks and activities which need to be planned and done to complete the undertaking on time and within the allocated budget. Some projects may be multi-departmental and sometimes may involve different companies. It is therefore crucial that a business ensures it practices good project management strategies to provide efficient and effective use of the company’s resources.

Effective project management contributes towards the success of a project by ensuring the project is done within the allocated budget and time. The fast-growing technologies have contributed to the rapid increase in new projects in the 21^st century since the new technologies help in minimizing cost while maximizing output within a shorter duration of time. The purpose of this paper is to analyze strategies on operations and quality management.

Project management

The scope of project management

            Define. It is essential to clearly define the project in terms of the goals of the project, the responsibilities, the allocated budget and the time for completion of the project.

            Plan. In this stage, the different steps required to complete the project are outlined and explained. A project schedule is developed by approximating the duration required to complete each task and ensuring that they are in line with the projects due date.

            Organize. This stage involves activities such as the creation of a team, allocation of resources, cost calculation, risk assessment and preparation of project documentation. It is at this stage that the project manager is identified who will oversee the completion of the project goal.

            Control. This stage evaluates how effectively a project meets its goals and objectives. Necessary adjustments are also made to manage the challenges that may have arisen during the implementation of the project.

            Close. This stage involves compiling statistics, releasing and reassigning people to another project.

Techniques for planning, scheduling, and controlling projects

Most project management choices require three factors; time, resources and cost.  The following steps are involved in planning, scheduling, and control projects;

1. Project definition: It refers to the activities that must be completed are identified and the order that would be followed to perform them.
2. Resource planning: The resources, personnel, time, money, equipment, and materials are determined for each process.
3. Project scheduling: The duration required for completion of every task is calculated and specified.
4. Project control: Establishment of proper controls for evaluation of progress and developing back-up plans needed to solve problems and challenges that might be encountered.

Project definition

It is important first to determine project objectives and deliverables. In coming up with the project objectives, an integrative software package that is within an allocated budget and the expected project completion date is developed. The activities and their order are shown graphically by a project network, which consists of an arrangement of circles or boxes referred to as nodes. The nodes represent activities. A set of arrows known as arcs, join the nodes and explain the precedence relationships between events. This representation is referred to as an activity-on-node (AON) network representation.

Quality management

Quality refers to how well the products of a manufacturing or service are in line with the design specifications. Specifications refer to the targets and tolerances that are designed for goods and services. Many laws and policies have been formulated all over the world to ensure businesses adhere to standards and quality of goods and services in production. Due to strict regulations, many organizations find it necessary to hire quality managers. These quality managers are responsible for

• Design and implementing quality control tools
• Working together with other company managers towards meeting the goals and strategy of the organization.
• Finding the causes of product and process failure
• Help conduct experiments necessary to improve product or process quality.

Measurement of quality is often done on the basis of the following approaches;

The Gap Model

Most people view the quality of a product by comparing the features of the goods and services to predetermined expectations. The gap model is a framework for assessing the quality of goods and services and recognizing areas to focus on design and make improvements. Quality managers can use this model to evaluate goods and services, and the methods used in their production.  They are able to identify the gaps and take the necessary measures to close the largest gaps thus improving performance.

ISO 9000:2000

ISO certification was formed to standardize quality requirement for countries in the European Union and those countries interested in conducting business with countries from this Union. It provides good basic practices necessary for developing a quality management system. This system requires periodic audits which help reinforce the established quality system until it becomes part of the company’s policies. The ISO 9000: the following eight principles support 2000 standards.

Principle 1- Mutually beneficial supplier relationship

Principle 2- Customer focused organization.

Principle 3- Process approach

Principle 4- Involvement of people

Principle 5- Continual improvement

Principle 6- System approach management

Principle 7- Factual approach to decision making

Principle 8- Leadership

Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a strategy that aims at finding causes of errors and defects in manufacturing. The strategy mainly focuses on removing defects and minimizing process variability. The approach involves measurement, improvement and validation activities. Under this approach, defect refers to any error or mistake that is passed on to the customer.  Output quality can be measured by determining the defects per unit (DPU)

This method has developed and can be used to measure the overall strategy hence allowing improvements and enabling organizations to achieve higher performance levels. Six Sigma is based on the following key concepts

1. Emphasizing dpmo and opmo as a standard metric that can be applicable to all parts of an organization.
2. Providing extensive training which would improve profitability in the organization.
3. Focusing on corporate sponsors who will be responsible for supporting team events.
4. Creating highly qualified process improvement experts who can apply improvement tools and lead teams
5. Ensuring that appropriate methods are identified early in the process and that they focus on business results
6. Setting stretch objectives to allow for improvement.

Cost-of-Quality Measurement

Cost of quality are the costs related to avoiding poor quality or those received out of poor quality products and services. The analysis of Cost of quality can help managers to identify and justify opportunities for product development. It also helps to assess the importance of quality and improvements in an organization’s operations.

Quality costs are categorized into the following categories

• Prevention costs
• Appraisal costs
• Internal failure costs
• External failure costs

The seven quality-control tools

These tools provide a way of communication best suited for group problem-solving areas. The tools are:

• Flowcharts
• Run and control charts
• Checksheets
• Histograms
• Pareto diagrams