Quality Management Assignment Analysing Different Business Scenarios

Question

Task:
Quality Management Assignment Task:
Long Answer Questions
QUESTION 1 – Quality Management Principle
Describe what you understand by the quality management principle of ‘Leadership’ Support your answer with a minimum of two (2) journal articles Also present your thoughts in the form of a mind map Why do you think that Leadership is an important factor in the implementation of a TQM program

Question 2 – Statistical Process Control
The operations team at ABC Motor Company feel that the executive management team ignore the company’s science related to emission technology which has contributed to several of the quality issues experienced. In your own words, write a section of the business report that provides a concise answer for each of the following questions that both the executive and operations team will read.

ABC Motor Company installs approximately 10 engines per hour. The process manager measures the maximum Nitrous Oxide (NOx) emissions of each engine to be installed. As part of the process, a subgroup of n=7 measurements is randomly taken each time the engine is tested. This occurs during a 6-minute test on every engine. There was an issue with testing during sample 5 that is under investigation. The results are given in Table Q1.

Table Q1 –Engine emissions of NOx (g/min)

Calculate the upper and lower control limits of an X ? and R Chart for the data. Note: Constants for Upper and Lower Control limits for X ? and R Charts are given in the Appendix.

Plot the X ? and Range charts and hence determine whether the process is in control.

If the process is not in control, what do you have to do to bring the process under control? Support your answer with two journal references. How can you show that the process is now under control? Demonstrate this task.

Short Answer Questions
Question 3
What are the main differences between carrying out an assessment based on one of the Business Excellence Frameworks and carrying out an audit based on the requirements of the ISO 9001:2015 standards?

Question 4
Describe three of the key drivers of workforce engagement in an organisation? What are the benefits of having an engaged workforce when you are trying to implement a quality improvement program?

Question 5
Do you think that the benefits of implementing a TQM program outweigh the effort required to overcome the blockages? Justify your opinion.

Question 6
Describe the role that the Purchasing Department plays in forming an effective relationship between its organization and its suppliers.

APPENDIX A

n = the number of samples in each group
A2, D3 and D4 are constants used in the following calculations

Control Charts

Range Charts

Answer

Quality Management Assignment- Long Question
Answer 1
a. Leadership is one of the essential factors in terms of quality management, because at all the levels, leaders build a unity of purpose, while directing and creating conditions, within which people are engaged in order to achieve the quality objectives of the organization. One of the major responsibilities of leadership to create, provides, and maintains the internal environment of the organization, enabling the employees to involve within the environment, with the aim to achieve the goal of the organization. Being one of the essential factor of the organization, there are many leadership challenges as well. Some biggest and unexpected challenges in the role of leadership are such as driving the cultural change of the organization, engaging with both the internal and external stakeholders, maintaining physical health, stress, in the process of team development, and in terms of balancing both the short and long term financial transformation of the company. In terms of quality management, leaders have the responsibility for the establishment of a vision which stimulates a mission and hope, in order to transform hope in to reality. While creating a vision, strategy, and plans for the team, as well as the company, the leaders also aims towards motivating the employees, and encourage them to deliver a better performance with the aim to achieve organizational goal. The three different types of leadership are transformational leadership, transactional leadership and adaptive leadership. Hence, the entire leader strives to achieve a productive balance between fulfilling the goal of the organization, and maintaining a friendly and cohesive work group. The transformational leaders access the environment of the organization, share visions, and motivate the performance beyond the expectation, while clarifying the contribution of the individual towards the organizational performance. The transactional leaders mainly focused on the policy of the organization, while planning the schedule, and budgeting, and give more emphasis on the task. The achievement and the implementation of the goal of the organization are highly influenced, and depend upon the ability of the leader in terms of organizing and collaboration of the staff and the organization. Adaptive leadership enables the organizations to deal with the challenges and prepares them adjust with the change process taking place in the business. Such approach of leadership includes diagnosing, interrupting as well as innovating the performances in the form of developing capabilities, which associates with the aspirations of the business(Yawson and Johnson-Kanda, 2018). A proper leadership encourage and motivates the members of the organization, in order to achieve the goal of the organization, along with the improvement in the quality of service given and differentiating the service sectors of the organization. Leadership is related with the person’s influence on goals, and group of the organization and a good leadership can make a direct impact on the efficiency of the work, productivity, skill, and knowledge(?ižikien?, 2019).The approaches of the leadership are associated with the variables of promoting change, which leads towards the success of the organization, buy achieving the objectives of the organization. Leadership is the personality characteristics, which influence the members of the organization to purser towards the goal of the organization, by attending the expectations and the need of the customers. In terms of quality management, leaders act as an agent of transformation, and change in the organization, addressing the vision of the organization and the changes required within the organization(Barbosa et al., 2017).

b. ?ižikien?, (2019), and Barbosa et al., (2017)
c) Mind Map

Planning-The first idea in the above-shown mind map is planning, which is the major feature of leadership that flourishes the significance of leadership. Leadership is the main principle of quality management and is a significant part of the implementation part of TQM because leadership plans the overall process in a clear way which serves as a better way of achieving organizational goals.

Controlling- Another effective idea in the mind map is controlling, which is also one of the most significant features of leadership. This is because, in leadership, leaders tend to control their employees in such a way that encourages as well as motivates them to increase their efficiency.

Managing-Leadership is the major principle of quality management because of its managing feature, wherein leaders tend to show their followers a correct track instead of ordering them to pin regards to their work. The leaders also make sure that they provide an adequate amount of training to their employees, which perks up their managing system.

Supporting-Leaders serve as a support system to their followers that makes the employeesfeel familiar and motivated to be more enthusiastic about their work. This feature of leadership also makes them be significant in the implementation of total quality management.

Evaluating-Leadership also includes an important feature that is evaluating the performance level of their employees on a constant basis, which will help them to identify the needs and requirements of the employees with regard to their task. It will then eventually fulfill the needs of training to the workforce.

d) TQMstands for Total Quality Management that refers to the approaches of the management to achieve long-term success by the help of customer satisfaction. However, for the implementation of the TQM, leadership plays a vital role because it is considered to be the backbone of any improvement strategy. Leadership is important in the TQM program because the leaders tend to offer a set of major aims and goals by developing the direction of the organization. Moreover, the main focus of the leaders will be on creating a set of cultures for the TQM program in order to make sure that it is enhancing. In this process, the leader will aim more to enable the employees a familiar environment in the workplace(Al- Saffar and Obeidat, 2020). Another reason for leadership’s importance in the TQM program is that it can serve as the superior management tool during the implementation of quality management. In order to make sure that the implementation of quality management is successful, there must be an involvement of proper leadership wherein leaders can direct their followers on the correct path that can definitely make them achieve their goals and objectives. Therefore, it can be said that leadership is the most important part of the quality management program. This is because the leader is the one that aims to promote the significance in the organization that provides adequate training and education to the employees that are the major part of accomplishing the potential goals and objectives.

Answer 2

[a] upper and lower control limits of an X ? and R Chart for the data

[b] Plot

[c] Process out of control
In statistical process Control system, the control charts play pivotal role. Through control charts and R charts, it can be inferred whether the process is in control or out of control. There is a simple way of observing whether the process is out of control or not. Taken for example, in the given case scenario, the x bar chart is showing that the sample mean graph crossed the UCL line at one point. Hence, from x bar chart point of view, it can be concluded that the given process is out of control process. Similarly, the r chart is also indicating that the range is outside the UCL line, which means the process is out of control. Now, as studied by Sánchez-Fernández et al. (2018), an out of control process can be controlled by identifying the deviation and removing from the sample. Here, the study conducted by Vetter, and Morrice (2019), also supports this view. According to them removing the specific sample, which causes the issue, the process can be turn back to a controlled process. Now, in order to identify such deviation, there needs to apply an effective control strategy. Taken for example, the below figure is showing a form applying which any deviation can be easily tracked and therefore can be removed in case the process become out of control process due to this specific sample.

Figure 1: Basic control strategy

[d] Demonstrating a process
Here, the study is showing that sample 5 is showing the deviation. Hence by removing this sample, the process can be controlled. The details are shown as below. Here, the constants are used for n = 9

Short Question
Answer 3
With the help of the Business Excellence Frameworks, the assessment is carried out with an integrated leadership and management system that helps to evaluate the factors significant to sustainable organizational excellence. The assessment carried out through this framework goes through factors such as leadership, people, strategy and planning, results and sustainable performance, consumers and other stakeholders, process management, improvement, and innovation, along with the information and knowledge.

On the other hand, the audit based on the requirements of the ISO 9001:2015 standards involvesaudits that relate to the consumers, suppliers, verification, and observation. It is different from that of the business excellence framework because the requirements of the specified standards enable a detailed evaluation in the audit process separately. Each audit can provide detailed information of the organization that can reveal where the firm is going wrong or any drawbacks in the firm. Therefore, an audit carried out with ISO 9001:2015 standards is more effective and helpful as compared to that of the assessments done through the business excellence framework.

Answer 4
a) The key drivers of workforce engagement in an organization are as follows:
Commitment to organizational Values-The most important factor that drives workforce engagement in an organization is to have a full commitment to the values and norms of the business. Each member of the organization should follow common values that will lead to a better workforce relationship and a better future of the organization subsequently.

Ensure Customer Satisfaction-Consumers are the main stakeholders of any kind of business, and to make sure that the organization has a smooth run of business, the firm must ensure a fine level of customer satisfaction. Therefore, the firms must operate as per the consumer's needs and desires so that they are satisfied with the products and the quality provided by the firm. The clarity in Work Expectations- In order to achieve the organizational goals and objectives, the entire level of the workforce must be cleared about what exactly they should do and how they should contribute to the organizational growth and success. When the workers are cleared about the future goal, they can work with adequate efficiency that would eventually lead to a smooth run of the business.

b) In the implementation of a quality improvement program, the engaged workforce can have the following benefits:
A strong relationship with the organization-Engaged workforce can have a strong relationship with the organization while implementing the quality improvement program because it leads to the full participation of the workers in the organizational events and their decision-making process. The workers will feel that they are also considered an important aspect of the business.

Focus on Organizational growth- When the workforce is adequately engaged with the organization, they will sometimes go beyond their actual job responsibilities in order to achieve the growth of the organization. Therefore, the workers will be more focused on achieving the business goal and objectives than to just complete their task.

Answer 5
Total quality management is a set of methodical activities, which is carried out by the whole organization, in order to achieve the objectives of the organization efficiently, and effectively. It also provides a service and product within a quality level, satisfying the need and expectations of the customers. Therefore the benefits of the implementation of the TQM program will outweigh the effort that is required to overcome the blockages. The implementation of TQM will provide the benefits of building strong competitive position of the organization in the market, which will increase the productivity of the organization, which will help the organization to overcome the overcome the blockages in terms of productivity. Along with the elimination of waste, and defects, the implementation of TQM enhanced the market image of the organization, while reducing and managing the cost and efficiently increasing the profitability of the organization. The organization may faces several blockages in the different aspects, and hence the implementation of TQM provides many opportunities to the organization to overcome those blockages. The TQM also aware the organization about the importance of quality production, and service, while considering the customer satisfaction, focus, retention, and loyalty, at the same time improving the morale of the employees.

Answer 6
The purchasing department plays a vital role in the formation of the effective relationship between the organization and the suppliers. The primary objective of the purchasing department is to get the appropriate materials, equipments, and services in the right quantity and quality, from the precise origin at the right cost and time. The purchasing department also documents, and assigns the responsibilities, while defining the measures of selecting suppliers, specifying the documentation to be used. The purchasing department of the organization often deals with the suppliers in terms of goods and service specification, which are to be purchased by the organization. On demand of the purchasing department, if the suppliers provide the required goods and services, along with the fair price and delivery requirements, then it will help the suppliers to maintain an effective relationship with the organization. Also, the rating system of the purchasing department of the organization evaluates the performance of the supplier, and hence the if the suppliers are highly rated by the purchasing department, then the organization will demand more of the goods and services from the same supplier, which will also establish an effective relationship between the supplier and the organization, thorough the purchasing department.

References
Al- Saffar, N.A.G. and Obeidat, A.M. (2020). The effect of total quality management practices on employee performance: The moderating role of knowledge sharing. Management Science Letters, [online] pp.77–90. Available at: http://www.growingscience.com/msl/Vol10/msl_2019_227.pdf [Accessed 4 Aug. 2021].

Barbosa, F.M., Gambi, L. do N., Gerolamo, M.C., Barbosa, F.M., Gambi, L. do N. and Gerolamo, M.C. (2017). Leadership and quality management – a correlational study between leadership models and quality management principles.Gestão&Produção, [online] 24(3), pp.438–449. Available at: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0104-530X2017005013102&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en [Accessed 4 Aug. 2021].

?ižikien?, J. (2019). The Role Of Leadership in Adopting Quality Management System in Social Service Sector. Journal of Intercultural Management, [online] 11(2), pp.179–199. Available at: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/286117726.pdf [Accessed 31 Jul. 2021].

Sánchez-Fernández, A., Baldán, F. J., Sainz-Palmero, G. I., Benítez, J. M., andFuente, M. J. (2018). Fault detection based on time series modeling and multivariate statistical process control. Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems, 182, 57-69.

Vetter, T. R., andMorrice, D. (2019). Statistical process control: No hits, No runs, No errors?.Anesthesia& Analgesia, 128(2), 374-382.

Yawson, R.M. and Johnson-Kanda, I. (2018).Complex Adaptive Leadership for Organization and Human Development. [online] ResearchGate. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329439765_Complex_Adaptive_Leadership_for_Organization_ and_Human_Development [Accessed 5 Aug. 2021].