Which Ethical and Social Responsibilities Do Companies Have When It Comes To Quality?

 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Social responsibility requires businesses must act in a manner benefiting society, rather than just the bottom line. It has become increasingly important to investors and consumers who seek investments that not only are profitable but also contribute to the welfare of society and the environment. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a self-regulating business model that helps a company be socially accountable to itself, its stakeholders, and even the planet. 

Business Ethics

Companies usually adopt principles of corporate ethics that are imposed by legislation or by itself such as codes of conduct that apply to their employees. Business ethics is what drives that code of conduct. And it also shapes the way companies are seen by the world. Basically, it makes sure a company operates according to all applicable laws and maintains the company's respect among its peers and potential clients or customers.

Which Ethical and Social Responsibilities Do Companies Have When It Comes To Quality?

There are numerous effective quality tools have been used by industry for decades to reduce waste and improve efficiency, but they have not been widely recognized in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) space. Quality is generally based on a set of values and beliefs at its center such as zero waste and maximizing customer satisfaction. Similar to CSR, quality management also has a very strong focus on people, not just customer satisfaction, but also the quality of working life such as employee satisfaction. 

In addition to a strong link in the core values and concepts, CSR and quality management also share an interest in several common issues such as waste reduction, safety, supplier accountability, and empowerment. For CSR, waste minimization and pollution prevention address key issues related to resource use, energy, and significant environmental trends that affect a wide range of stakeholders. 

There is a strong correlation between quality and ethics as well. When leadership demonstrates its philosophy and practice of ethical behavior, it impacts the whole organization, whether in education, government, or commercial enterprises. ISO9000 and the EFQM Model both emphasize heavily on leadership. Great leaders put ethics, quality, effectiveness, and respect for people to eliminate fear in the system, and they look in the mirror often to see if their own thinking is ethical and a cause of quality throughout the system. 

The Consequences of Poor Quality

Poor quality can lead to considerable negative outcomes that are associated with customers, daily operations, or society. Obviously, poor quality can cause customers to take their business elsewhere, leading to job losses and a decrease in company productivity. For example, back in 2011, HTC was the third biggest phone manufacturer by global market share, only behind Samsung and Apple. Poor quality also has an impact on employee productivity. Employees working on products or services of poor quality may be less productive and may experience stress due to the lack of quality assurance. HTC's smartphones were the go-to Android devices and offered an extremely good price-to-performance ratio. However, it took hundreds of millions of years for dinosaurs to evolve, but it takes only a few years for a hot smartphone brand to turn into a dinosaur. That’s what happened to HTC.

Moreover, poor quality can have several adverse effects on society as a whole. These can include increased costs, decreased efficiency, and even harm to people and the environment. For example, the reason pharmaceutical drugs are inherently safer than nutritional supplements is probably due to the fact drugs produced by the pharmaceutical industry are regulated by the FDA. If all these drugs are inadequately produced, how many people will be affected? During the pandemic of COVID-19, it was difficult to ensure the supply of necessary hygiene products, including disinfectants. In many countries, therefore, the framework conditions for production and marketing were eased. The FDA's concerns for quality and safety do not only include hand disinfectants. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the disinfection of surfaces has also played a more important role than before. However, not all devices on the market offer the required safety standard for the user.

Quality, Responsibility, or Maximize Profits for Shareholders?

I reckon that all businesses have certain ethical and social responsibilities that they have to fulfill because of operating in society and using society's resources to produce their products and services. Ethical responsibility includes showing moral characteristics such as providing labor insurance and caring for the environment. Businesses have a social and ethical responsibility to maintain the quality of their products as poor quality can harm the health of the people and the environment. For example, selling expired or unhygienic food can be lethal for humans consumptions and customers can be both the shareholders and stakeholders of the company. Businesses' demand for superior quality can be considered a response to both categories of profit-making and social responsibility. In Taiwan, Ting Hsin Oil Company made illegal profits of more than 100 million NTD by importing low-quality oil products and processing them into edible oil from 2012 to 2014. Chairman Wei Yingchong was charged with violating the Food Safety and Hygiene Management Law and sentenced to four years in prison by the judge.

Reference

Consequences of poor quality. Quality Gurus. (2022, September 5). Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://www.qualitygurus.com/consequences-of-poor-quality/ 

ECA Academy. (2022, August 30). FDA draws consequences for poor quality of hand disinfectants and UV wands. ECA Academy. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://www.gmp-compliance.org/gmp-news/fda-draws-consequences-for-poor-quality-of-hand-disinfectants-and-uv-wands 

Ganti, A. (2022, September 8). Social Responsibility in business: Meaning, types, examples, and criticism. Investopedia. Retrieved October 22, 2022, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/socialresponsibility.asp 

Indeed Editorial Team. (n.d.). The ethics of Quality. The W. Edwards Deming Institute. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://deming.org/the-ethics-of-quality/ 

Sapru, R., & Schuchard, R. (n.d.). CSR and quality - home | BSR. CSR and Quality: A Powerful and Untapped Connection. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://www.bsr.org/reports/BSR_ASQ_CSR_and_Quality.final.pdf 

2022 registration trends for ISO9000

 ISO 9001 sets out the criteria for a quality management system and It can be used by many large and small organizations. The standard is based on several key quality management principles such as customer focus, leadership, and process approach. Businesses are using ISO 9001 to ensure that their customers get consistent, good quality products and services, which in turn brings many business benefits. Nowadays, it has adapted to various sectors like manufacturing, technology, and even the healthcare industry.

In the past few years, the global economic situation and the practice of the business community pushed ISO to expedite the finalization of the international standard for risk management. Due to the pandemic of COVID-19, the certification is more focused on the area of risk management. Because of this reason, more and more companies are getting their ISO 9000 certification done, meaning that the registration trend is positive. In addition, Organizations are showing interest now more than ever, in getting their ISO 9000 certification done since it is one of the most effective tools of quality management available in the market. Since workplace safety has become more and more emphasized, high-risk industries such as construction and basic metal production have shown the highest level of registration. With the need for more stringent safety requirements, ISO 9000 certification provides the all-in-one solution to follow. Moreover, not only western countries but also countries in the East have increased the rate of registration for ISO 9000 certification. 

In conclusion, I believe that risk can further be described as a situation involving exposure to danger and also refers to the result of uncertainty in situations that can be avoided through pre-emptive action. If organizations are able to ensure the risk doesn’t threaten the continuity of the organization, they are more likely to thrive in the long run. There are two most recent ISO9000 trends, risk management and eastern countries are increasing their registrations.

Reference

ISO 9000 family - quality management. ISO. (2020, March 11). Retrieved October 17, 2022, from https://www.iso.org/iso-9001-quality-management.html 

Risk management and based thinking in ISO 9001. ISO Global. (n.d.). Retrieved October 17, 2022, from https://isoglobal.com.au/articles/risk-management-iso-9001/ 

How can your organization benefit from organizational learning? How would you implement it?

I think that before we discuss how we benefit from organizational learning, we should understand why we are doing organizational learning first. Briefly, organizational learning allows a business to continue to advance its professional growth and align its employees as a team. As the company improves, it develops and accumulates a broad range of knowledge and information for its future. Now, we know the advantages. Let's look at how to implement it. 

There are many vital aspects we must consider such as leadership, customers, alignment, widespread, support, measurement, and communication. Based on this concept, I believe that I have to plan an organizational learning program. Therefore, I sorted these factors into interconnected principles. Starting with customer satisfaction and leadership, I believe that developing and clearly communicating the desired vision is the first step. Then, develop the measurement system, and align and support the learning processes. After that, widespread the story and keep it in the policies and management. For example, Dyson, a name that has become synonymous with vacuum cleaners and is known for transforming a brilliant engineering idea into a bright success. The consistency in the open culture is embedded in the very fabric of the organization where mistakes are not punished but rather valued because of the potential to be turned into success. In addition, 3M’s unique 15% Culture encourages employees to set aside a portion of their work time to proactively cultivate and pursue innovative ideas that excite them. Whether it’s experimenting with new technology, forming a special interest group around a fresh idea, or finding a new way to run a process, its 15% Culture gives employees in all areas the license to innovate. 

Two years ago, when I worked at a coffee shop, I found that the barista is more likely to actively practice and make better latte art when they feel valued and respected. Employees can do one thing as good as 60% or as good as they can to make it close to 99%. I think it is the core of effective learning, so I discussed this observation with my boss and provided my recommendations. She(the boss) accepted my idea and began to share their art stories. Moreover, I suggested a Tasty Program. In this program, everyone can discover and find their favorite formula of drink with the support of the shop. And, they can directly benefit from the revenue generated by the formula which means a proportion of the profit per sup of the drink sold. Each week, the most popular top three will be listed in a specific area of the menu called, The Barista, "the innovator's name" series. 

Reference

How leaders can change company culture: Lessons from 3M and Six sigma. Network for Business Sustainability (NBS). (2022, February 21). Retrieved May 14, 2022, from https://nbs.net/other/the-challenge-of-change-3m-six-sigma-and-corporate-culture/

Indeed Editorial Team. (2021, July 7). Career development | indeed.com. What Is Organizational Learning and Why Is It Important? Retrieved October 9, 2022, from https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development

Ltd, A. A. (2021, December 31). Dyson Company Analysis: Industry and Culture. UK Essays. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/business/examining-the-rise-of-the-dyson-company-business-essay.php

Quality Management (Knowles) Ch 13 p 150-166, Ch 15 p 177-185

The Expectation of Conformity Implied in Organizational Learning Is A Threat To The Free Will of Individuals? Should Managers Favor Organizational Learning or Individual Learning for Their Employees?

 The Expectation of Conformity Implied in Organizational Learning Is A Threat To The Free Will of Individuals?

To answer this question, we have to understand what is "free will" first. Based on my research, there are two views of free will, libertarians and determinism. According to libertarians, free will is based on the principle of alternate possibilities which means that an action is free only if a person doing a thing could have done otherwise. In brief, truly free actions require options. However, determinism doesn't allow options. It holds that every event is caused by previous events which means that a person can never have done anything other than what they did, and therefore the person is never free. In my opinion, free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. It is somewhat closer to libertarianism, even though it runs counter to what we know about the world with one thing causing another.

So, the expectation of conformity implied in organizational learning is a threat to the free will of individuals? Back to the moment when a person decided to join a company, are they forced or threatened? Most of them "choose" to apply for a job depending on their skills or interests, although they can be either for the paycheck or a better career. So, this is quite a libertarianism since they have options to join other companies. However, at some level, joining a company can mean you are not free because you need a job to feed yourself and your family if you don't have other income sources. 

To summarize, I reckon that the expectation of conformity implied in organizational learning can be both a threat to free will and also a benefit to free will. Before or after we join an organization, we always have options. We can either be in conformity with organizational learning or quit. However, when people think of the results of conformity or resistance, they act differently. Depending on their mental strength, the environment, or many other factors, they can feel free or stressed. Therefore, it can be either free or not free, from case to case.

Should Managers Favor Organizational Learning or Individual Learning for Their Employees? 

For effective organizational learning in the long term, both the processes and the environment are required. However, the processes and environment are constructed by each employee or individual piece by piece. If managers only favor one of them(organizational or individual), it would be like a powerful machine without fuel in its tank. I believe the key factors between the two are spread and keep. Spread the experience and information for members in an organization to learn. Keep the results for the long-term growth and its new blood. 

Reference

Libertarianism.org. (n.d.). Retrieved October 7, 2022, from https://www.libertarianism.org/what-is-a-libertarian 

If you have to implement a continuous improvement methodology in your organization, how will you deal with resistance to change from various stakeholders?

First of all, I think before we consider the possible solutions, we have to understand what are stakeholders and then the possible reasons why they resistance to change.

What Is A Stakeholder? 

A stakeholder is a party that has an interest in a company and can either affect or be affected by the business. The primary stakeholders in a typical corporation are its investors, employees, customers, suppliers, communities, and governments(Fernando, 2022). Stakeholders can be internal(employment, ownership, or investment)or external(suppliers, creditors, and public groups).

Resistance To Change from Various Stakeholders

No matter the size or scale, people resist change. Overcoming this resistance to change is an inevitable challenge. A common problem that arises for companies with multiple stakeholders is that the various stakeholder interests may not align(Fernando, 2022), or even in direct conflict such as labor costs and maximizing profits. If a company may seek to keep these costs under tight control, it is likely to upset other stakeholders such as its employees. I think leadership is one of the vital elements of any solution to deal with these kinds of resistance. If leaders better understand resistance and successfully motivate those opposition to support for change, it would be a huge competitive advantage.

In addition, I have to identify the company’s stakeholder groups first. Then, I reckon that creating a value proposition for each stakeholder group targeting how you will create value for them may be helpful. This value creation for each stakeholder group needs to be balanced by what the business will gain in return. For example, switching a fossil fuel automaker to an electric car maker inherently feeds the fear of a possible massive layoff. However, we can provide training for employees to upgrade their skills and keep them aligned with the company. 

Usually, implementing a change inevitably means some trade-offs among the stakeholder groups, especially a big one. Leaders have to understand the levels of influence of the stakeholders. Some stakeholders may interact directly with the company, some were not. I think for companies to build a successful stakeholder management strategy to figure out what each stakeholder needs and how the leaders can best communicate with them.

Reference

Dolfing, H. (2020, January 3). How to deal with stakeholders resistance to change. Henrico Dolfing - Interim Management and Project Recovery. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://www.henricodolfing.com/2020/01/deal-with-stakeholders-resistance-to-change.html 

Fernando, J. (2022, September 9). What are stakeholders: Definition, types, and examples. Investopedia. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/stakeholder.asp 

(Fernando, 2022)

Reflection on the article “Why You Can Safely Ignore Six Sigma” in Fortune Magazine, Jan. 22, 2001(http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2001/01/22/295545/index.htm). Why You Can Safely Ignore Six Sigma The management fad gets raves from Jack Welch, but it hasn't boosted the stocks of other devotees.

 Reflection on the article “Why You Can Safely Ignore Six Sigma” in Fortune Magazine, Jan. 22, 2001(http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2001/01/22/295545/index.htm). Why You Can Safely Ignore Six Sigma The management fad gets raves from Jack Welch, but it hasn't boosted the stocks of other devotees.

Let's read the original text first:

A few years back Whirlpool, the appliance maker that had been reliably pumping out dishwashers and dryers for decades, decided to tackle quality head-on. Executives at the company implemented their proprietary version of the highly touted principles of Six Sigma, a quality-assurance strategy that has come into vogue in the past several years. Companies like Motorola and General Electric swear by Six Sigma. But as an investor, can you use it as a litmus test of whether a stock is going to appreciate? Probably not. 

Six Sigma, and a couple of similar-looking knockoffs, are nothing short of a full-on corporate fad, the latest in a long line of must-have efficiency crazes that perpetually spread through corporate America. Fueled in large part by GE CEO Jack Welch--who frequently talks it up to the media--companies today are constantly pumping out press releases hyping their own Six Sigma initiatives. What's more, consultancies have sprung up across the country to help CEOs muster the troops, and the term itself has turned into the financial equivalent of a Good Housekeeping seal of approval. (Incidentally, the name comes from statistics, where the Greek letter sigma is used to measure how far something deviates from perfection. Six Sigma means a company tries to make error-free products 99.9997% of the time--a minuscule 3.4 errors per million opportunities.) 

In the right hands, admittedly, it works. Welch wrote in GE's 1999 annual report that its initiatives had saved the company more than $2 billion in 1999, just three years after implementing Six Sigma. And there's certainly nothing wrong with a company's trying to improve quality and reduce errors. Whirlpool wanted to make itself more efficient by building its products right the first time rather than spending cash later to fix malfunctioning dryer doors and appease disgruntled consumers. 

But like a lot of management trends, certain aspects of Six Sigma can get downright silly. The corporate efficiency experts who implement it are coined "black belts"--martial artists who get deployed to chop, kick, and block until errors are virtually nonexistent. Raves Mikel Harry, one of the founders of Six Sigma at Motorola in the 1980s and now head of the Six Sigma Academy, a consulting firm that helps companies train their warriors: "A black belt can save $300,000 to $400,000 per project and return that to the company, and they can do four to six projects a year. On the conservative side, they can save the company $1 million to $1.5 million per black belt!" 

So what happened at Whirlpool? Though a company spokesman says the program has resulted in "substantial" efficiency gains, analysts aren't quite as impressed. "You'd have to get out an electron microscope" to see any real impact, says Nicholas Heymann, an analyst who follows the company for Prudential. And incidentally, the stock is down 12% over the past two years. So much for the martial arts. "It can be wildly successful," says David Fitzpatrick, the worldwide leader of Deloitte Consulting's Lean Enterprise Practice, "but I would say fewer than 10% of companies are doing it to the point where it's going to significantly affect the balance sheet and the share price in any meaningful period." 

Why? First are the obvious pitfalls: a CEO who isn't committed, an inability to motivate employees, or a company that allows its initiative to trail off before there's been any progress. But beyond that, Six Sigma can be mind-numbingly vague. If you're manufacturing pills, defects are easy to track, but what about at a customer service center? Exactly what constitutes an "error" or "mistake"? You guessed it--it depends on which black belt is counting. 

Then there's the latecomer issue raised by some analysts. "Six Sigma's ability to incrementally improve performance and shareholder value is highly correlated to how early a company has implemented it," says Heymann. Bob Hendricks, the CEO of international consulting concern Holt Value Associates, also ventures that the competition is a factor: "If Whirlpool implements it, and then Maytag does too, who wins? The consumers--those savings will mostly get passed along to them." 

But the main reason Six Sigma is no guarantee of stock market success is also the most obvious one: Defects don't matter much if you're making a product no one wants to buy. As one consultant notes, referring to Motorola's disastrous foray into satellite-linked mobile phones: "Remember, Iridium came out of a company that's famous for Six Sigma." 

So while dozens of companies may be saving money with these error-reduction programs, a lot of others are spending valuable time and resources on something that may never have any tangible payoff for shareholders. Even the concept's biggest booster can't argue with that. Says Mikel Harry: "I could genetically engineer a Six Sigma goat, but if a rodeo is a marketplace, people are still going to buy a Four Sigma horse."

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Now, let's discuss its criticism of the Six Sigma approach. Do you agree with its criticism of the Six Sigma approach? Before we discuss them, we have to understand what is Six Sigma. 

What Is Six Sigma?

Six Sigma is a statistics and data analysis process for analyzing and reducing errors or defects in management or manufacturing. It is a method that offers organizations tools to improve their capabilities in managing their businesses such as reducing defect rates, improving employee morale, and improving the quality of products or services(Kumar, 2022). Six Sigma methodology is based on the concept of six standard deviations from the product or process goal, and it's the average distribution of variations with a specific data set of your process(Simplilearn, 2021). Six Sigma can help businesses reduce defects by effectively solving problems. In addition, Six Sigma develops a sense of ownership and accountability for employees and increases their effectiveness at delivering results for any improvement project they are involved in.

How Does The Six Sigma Work?

Based on the DMAIC concept, there are five procedures.

i. Define: Define the problem and what is required to satisfy your customer. 

ii. Measure: Map the current process to collect data.

iii. Analyze: Investigate and identify what causes the problem.

iv. Improve: Implement a fix that will solve the problem.

v. Control: Sustain the improved results.

Now, let's look at each of the criticism of the Six Sigma approach. 

Do the results of Six Sigma have an impact on the financial statements, and therefore on stock value?

Financial statements can have a drastic effect on the stock price of a company. Many investors look at the financial statements when making investment decisions. If information is presented in a financial statement that is better or worse than expected, it can send the stock price up or down. Investors often use financial ratios based on information from financial statements to make assumptions. The income statement and statement of cash flows are two crucial parts of the financial statements. When Six Sigma reduces the number of defective products manufactured or services provided, resulting in increased revenue and greater customer satisfaction, it also means higher income and increasing cash flows.

Is Six Sigma only valuable to early adopters?

I think logically if Whirlpool succeeds with Six Sigma and has a cost advantage, latecomers may have to implement the Six Sigma or better methods just to keep up. For example, what do you think when Ford, Toyota, or Volkswagen(the latecomers) are chasing after Tesla? Of course, consumers can benefit from a competitive market compared with a monopoly market. However, does it means that Tesla start to lose its advantages? Six Sigma goes beyond defect reduction to emphasize business process improvement in general, which includes cost reduction and increased customer satisfaction. 

Does Six Sigma apply to the service industry, since it focuses on defects, which are difficult to identify in services?

Six Sigma is only a manufacturing concept? This is incorrect. Service organizations can also incur the cost of poor quality and that can be a significant amount of the overall budget. In the manufacturing process, the actual product is going through the process and the customer sees it only at the end. In contrast in the service process, it is the customer who is going through the process(Wanniarachchi, 2020). Consider a hotel service process. Customers book a stay and interact with the waiter throughout the sub-processes. When the room is not clean, it will significantly affect customer satisfaction. Therefore, the hotel has to define the problem, map the current process to collect data, investigate what causes the problem(what causes the room unkempt?), and implement a fix that ensures the rooms should be always clean and sustain improved results.

Does Six Sigma help products find a market?

In my opinion, Six Sigma is a fact-based, data-driven disciplined approach to growing market share by providing targeted markets with superior value. Therefore, I think Six Sigma is not so good at "FIND" customers in a market. Instead, it is good at "ATTRACT" the customers in a market. However, attracting customers can also mean discovering a new market.

Leadership

Finally, I would like to mention that leadership is one of the vital elements to successfully implementing Six Sigma or any other methods. A leader who isn't committed and inability to motivate employees is probably the major cause of defects rather than Six Sigma itself.

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Reference

Arthur, L. (2016, October 26). The impact of financial statements. Small Business - Chron.com. Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/impact-financial-statements-23794.html 

Kumar, P. (2022, September 7). What is Six sigma: Everything you need to know about it [updated]. Simplilearn.com. Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://www.simplilearn.com/what-is-six-sigma-a-complete-overview-article 

Simplilearn. (2021, October 28). Your complete guide to six sigma methodology. Simplilearn.com. Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://www.simplilearn.com/six-sigma-methodology-article 

Six sigma in service sector a comprehensive review. Six Sigma In Service Sector A Comprehensive Review. (n.d.). Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://www.greycampus.com/blog/quality-management/six-sigma-in-service-sector-a-comprehensive-review 

Thomas Pyzdek and Six Sigma--Quality Digest columnist. (n.d.). Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://www.qualitydigest.com/april01/html/sixsigma.html 

Wanniarachchi, P. (2020, June 14). Can we apply lean six sigma in service industry? LinkedIn. Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/can-we-apply-lean-six-sigma-service-industry-pradeesh-wanniarachchi- 

Think of one of the processes in your life you identified and apply the 5S methodology to it. Explain each step. How is the resulting process different?

 In my learning journal unit 3, I upgraded my academic task system to sufficiently manage what I have to do, what I am doing, and what I have done. In addition, I also added some parameters to further improve it and eliminate those distraction factors to get a more focused mindset. So, what happens if I apply the 5S methodology to it? Let's find out.

After I read the Using 5-Step Workplace Management for Continuous Improvement by Tom Dossenbach, I rewrote these steps for my work to be straightforward like a program.

i. Do I actually have to do this task? YES/NO (Step 1: Sort)

If the answer is YES, keep it on the to-do list. If the answer is NO, delete it.

ii. Rearrange them by time and importance(Step 2: Straighten)

Is it important to me? YES/NO 

If the answer is YES, mark it with a star. If the answer is NO, remove the star mark. 

Does it have to be completed within a specific period? YES/NO

If the answer is YES, set a timer. If the answer is NO, set a relatively longer timer. 

iii. Highlighting (Step 3: Scrub)

For me to raise productivity and quality to all-time highs, the third step in the 5S management system cannot be overlooked. After rearrange them by time and importance, it means that cleaning them to the point, to better which task should be the top priority and which one is not. By highlighting them with different colors, I can lay the foundation for an effective preventive maintenance program and a automatic procedure to do it.

iv. Smart List (Steo 4: Standardize)

Daily tasks are ongoing. There should be a regular schedule for completing the previous steps and systematically check to see if the procedures are being followed. Thanks to the modern technoloy and advanced smartphone apps, I can now set multiple "smart list" by using tags, time, priority, and notes to organize them. So, when the next time I add a new task, it automatically sort and organize it to where it belong.

v. (Step 5 : Sustain)

The final step is where most people get lost. After I built the standardize program for all the future tasks, I asked myself what's next? Is it over? Of couse, not. What happen if we only make a rule but no one wants to protect it? In the final step, I also adopted an additional tool to monitor it. It's PDCA(Plan, Do, Check, and Act). All the previous steps are like a plan but I have to do the tasks, check the progress, and act when some tasks need to be reorganized or reprogram.

Reference

ASQ. (n.d.). What are the five S's (5s) of lean. ASQ. Retrieved September 23, 2022, from https://asq.org/quality-resources/lean/five-s-tutorial 

The Case Study : Quality at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company

 Introduction

  Ritz-Carlton. The name alone evokes images of luxury and quality. As the first hotel to win the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, The Ritz treats quality as if it is the heartbeat of the company. This means a daily commitment to meeting customer expectations and making sure that each hotel is free of any deficiency. In the hotel industry, quality can be hard to quantify since guests do not purchase a product when they stay at the Ritz, they buy an experience. Ritz-Carlton has become a leading brand in luxury lodging by rigorously adhering to its own standards. It is the only service company in America that has won the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award twice, and Training Magazine has called it the best company in the nation for employee training. One of its remarkable policies is to permit every employee to spend up to $2,000 making any single guest satisfied. 

Before applying for the Baldrige Award, company management undertook a rigorous self-examination of its operations in an attempt to measure and quantify quality. Nineteen processes were studied, including room service delivery, guest reservation and registration, message delivery, and breakfast service. This period of self-study included statistical measurement of process workflows and cycle times for areas ranging from room service delivery times and reservations to valet parking and housekeeping efficiency. With specific, quantifiable targets in place, Ritz-Carlton managers and employees now focus on continuous improvement. The goal is 100% customer satisfaction: if a guest’s experience does not meet expectations, Rit-Carlton risks losing that guest to the competition.

Achieving Quality

  According to Simon Cooper, the president and Chief Operating Officer of Ritz-Carlton, he focuses on three fundamentals. Location, product, and people. Ritz-Carlton's top leaders communicate what they are going to be serving and also talk about great things that their employees have done. Ritz-Carlton entrusts each staff member without approval from their general manager to spend up to a meaningful amount of $2,000 on a guest per incident. Although it may not get used frequently, it means a deep trust in its staff's judgment. It could be that someone finds out it's a guest's birthday and there's champagne and cake in the room. Cooper values every employee's opinion. One of the most important internal metrics Ritz-Carlton measures is voluntary turnover, which is an indicator of talent acquisition and training. For Ritz-Carlton, training is crucial, because it nurtures the careers of its employees(its ladies and gentlemen).

More Than A Slogan

 One way the company has put more meaning behind its quality efforts is to organize its employees into “self-directed” work teams. Employee teams determine work schedules, what work needs to be done, and what to do about quality problems in their areas. Ritz-Carlton believes that a more educated and informed employee is in a better position to make decisions in the best interest of the organization. It takes an extraordinarily long time to build a culture. No culture sticks if it's not lived at the highest levels of the organization. Cooper believes a good culture is built on trust. And if leadership doesn't live the values that it requires of the organization, that is the swiftest way to undermine the culture(Reiss, 2013). 

Identifying Quality Problems at A Hotel, Control Charts, Pareto Diagrams, and Cause-and-Effect Diagrams

  The Control charts can help a hotel determine whether its process will produce great services consistently. Also known as the Shewhart chart or statistical process control chart, it is a graph used to study how a process changes over time. It provides a visualized look that helps a hotel improve its management. By comparing current data to these lines, a hotel can conclude whether the process variation is consistent or out of control such as affected by special causes of variation. And, also, how many or much these data are and the quality of these data directly determine its decisions. Cause-and-Effect Diagrams can also be adopted by a hotel to evaluate possible causes and effects of its quality issues. Hotels are able to resolve these issues even before they start to affect their quality of services. A Pareto chart is a bar and weighted graph to analyze variations. Its core concepts are frequency and effect. A hotel can use this tool to analyze its variations. In addition the frequency and effect of these variations. This tool makes me think of one of my favorite books, "Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World — and Why Things Are Better Than You Think". The world can seem scarier and more dangerous because what you see and hear is selected, either by your internal filters or information outlets like the news and media for the very fact that it is scary. Plane crash events are far fewer than car crashes, but they have very different effects. Some events happen even daily but some barely happen in decades.

Nonfinancial Measures of Customer Satisfaction

Non-financial metrics are quantitative measures that cannot be expressed in monetary units. Common financial metrics include earnings, profit margin, average order value, and return on assets. Outcome-based measures such as customer satisfaction, market share, category ownership, and new product adoption rate fall into the non-financial metrics(Patterson, 2022).

Brand preference is one of the good measures that help Ritz-Carlton understand the position of its products and services in relation to competitors. The Take Rate is how many customers act on the seller's call to action such as signing up for a free trial or subscribing to a new channel. For a hotel like Ritz-Carlton, it can be a membership program. Customer retention is also a sign of future revenue or constant cash flow which is crucial for Ritz-Carlton. Retention is how many customers continue to stay in Ritz-Carlton hotels.

Customer experience has a direct impact on customer retention. To measure customer experience, you need to take into account all of the major touch points where a customer interacts with your company. For example, Ritz-Carlton entrusts each staff member without approval from their general manager to spend up to a meaningful amount of $2,000 on a guest per incident. And, finally, Market share. Each of the prior metrics, customer retention, take rate, and customer experience all impact Ritz-Carlton's market share. Market share is one of the primary measures of a company's success. An increase in market share can mean a better profit margin.

The Fish-Bone Diagram

Common uses of the fish-bone diagram are product design and quality defect prevention to identify potential factors causing an overall effect. Each cause or reason for imperfection is a source of variation. Causes are usually grouped into major categories to identify and classify these sources of variation. For a hotel like Ritz-Carlton, a not cleaned room is definitely not acceptable.

Quality Tools Ritz Carlton Might Needs

The Five S’s (5S) is the first tool that came to my mind since 5S is defined as a methodology that results in a workplace that is clean, uncluttered, safe, and well organized to help reduce waste and optimize productivity. It's designed to help build a quality work environment, both physically and mentally. 

i. Sort

The first step in the 5S process is to go to the workplace and determine which of the items there are necessary and which are not. And then, get rid of or remove the unnecessary items. For Ritz-Carlton's customers, staying in a clean room is less likely to be stressed by the jumbles of junk as they try to fall asleep at night. A cluttered room can have an effect that clutters their thoughts.

ii. Straighten

Now that the property or workplace is uncluttered, what should be done with it? Straighten it up and get it organized. The necessary items need to be arranged logically in the hotel. Supplies that are used daily need to be convenient to the users, but not placed so that they hinder workflow or compromise safety.

iii. Scrub

For Ritz-Carlton's leaders who want their employees to love to work for them and would like to raise productivity and quality to all-time highs, the scrub is a total and thorough cleaning of the workplace. After removing the clutter, clean the overhead areas, walls, floors, and machines. It means cleaning them to the point where the smallest crack in a cast frame or a small oil leak can be easily seen.

iv. Standardize

Most importantly, this 5S program is not a one-shot effort. There should be a regular schedule for completing the previous steps, to systematically check to see if the procedures are being followed. 

vi. Sustain

oftentimes, everything fell through the cracks, making the effort all but worthless because it was not sustained. Therefore, the final step is to sustain these steps and check them regularly.

Pareto Chart 

Pareto Chart is a bar graph that shows which factors are more significant. For example, if complaints about uncluttered or room services cause the most distress to the customer, working on eliminating such complaints would have the most impact. When Ritz-Carlton hotel has to solve a room services problem, it has to determine why it happened and the causes of it.

References

Pareto chart (service example). We stand with Ukraine. (n.d.). Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://www.moresteam.com/toolbox/pareto-chart-service.cfm 

Patterson, L. (2022, February 24). Six non-financial metrics every marketer should measure. VisionEdge Marketing. Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://visionedgemarketing.com/non-financial-metrics/ 

Reiss, R. (2013, June 19). How Ritz-Carlton stays at the top. Forbes. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/2009/10/30/simon-cooper-ritz-leadership-ceonetwork-hotels.html?sh=6247862110b1

In your opinion, which of the tools explored in this unit is the most efficient at improving quality?

 Before I make the decision, I explored each of these tools and thought about their efficiency in improving quality. And in the last of this discussion, I summarize my thought.

The Five S’s (5S)

5S is defined as a methodology that results in a workplace that is clean, uncluttered, safe, and well organized to help reduce waste and optimize productivity(ASQ, 2022). It's designed to help build a quality work environment, both physically and mentally(ASQ, 2022).

The 5S is focusing on continuously optimizing productivity in a workplace. Basically, it's like organizing and cleaning your own room and desk. When these places are clean and well-organized, you may find that it is easier to find something you need on your tidy desk and it is also safer when your room is clean since having a messy room really could cause you problems. I think when someone has a messy and unorganized room really can truly lead to life-threatening situations such as blocked pathways that cost you extra time to pass or even find yourself with a sprained or broken ankle. Just like a keystone habit that can hugely change your life, they are small changes that people introduce into their routines that unintentionally carry over into other aspects of their lives, according to Charles Duhigg in his book, The Power of Habit. According to a nearly three decades of research on high-achieving people, making your bed every morning can inspire you to have a productive mindset for the rest of the day and spark other productive behaviors(Jacques et al., 2022).

However, this tool isn't always perfect. First, you are required to spend additional time to do it and sustain it like regularly cleaning your room and putting all stuff on your desk in order. It has to be a habit. Secondly, it's pretty diverse. Different individuals think differently when they have to decide which one is necessary and which one is not in the first step. The top managers or leaders may have to be consistent with the rules and policies. Moreover, how to do it is another question that requires they are on the same page.

Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA)

According to the definition, failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) is a step-by-step approach for identifying all possible failures in a design, a manufacturing or assembly process, or a product or service(ASQ, 2022). Failure modes mean the ways, or modes, in which something might fail. Failures are any errors or defects, especially ones that affect the customer and can be potential or actual. Effects analysis refers to studying the consequences of those failures(ASQ, 2022). 

The key concept of this tool is that failures are prioritized according to how serious their consequences are, how frequently they occur, and how easily they can be detected. Like in life, we always make mistakes, but we can learn from them and build a better future by understanding the consequences of our mistakes and how can we do to detect them. However, not doing anything wrong, or techniquely, not detecting them is not always a good thing. Sometimes, peace has cost your strength and victory has defeated you. 

The Fishbone Diagram

It is a cause-and-effect diagram, the Ishikawa diagram. The fishbone diagram identifies many possible causes for an effect or problem(ASQ, 2022). Usually, the fishbone diagram was drawn by a manufacturing team to figure out the source of periodic iron contamination. It is pretty useful when you are trying to identify possible causes for a problem. However, quality management needs to be assimilated into each part of a process rather than be considered only when something is going wrong. 

The Check Sheet

A check sheet is a defect concentration diagram, a structured, prepared form for collecting and analyzing data(ASQ,2022). Start with deciding what event or problem will be observed and collecting data needed. Then, label them and test them. Each time the targeted event or problem occurs, record data on the check sheet. I think this tool provides us with a data-driven decision that helps us gain more confidence while making decisions and heading in the right direction.

However, I reckon that this tool is built on the data that we select and collect. So, how many or much these data are and the quality of these data directly determine our decisions. It put almost all risks on the data I collect. If the data fails, I fail. Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok all tried to find out what your favorite things are and promote products to you. But, these data are not always accurate and it also depends on how accurate the algorithm can do.

The Control Chart

Also known as Shewhart chart or statistical process control chart, it is a graph used to study how a process changes over time(ASQ, 2022). It provides a visualized look that helps us improve our management. Like a check sheet, these lines are also determined from historical data. By comparing current data to these lines, you can conclude whether the process variation is consistent or out of control such as affected by special causes of variation. And, also, how many or much these data are and the quality of these data directly determine our decisions.

The Histogram

A histogram is the most commonly used graph to show frequency distributions(ASQ, 2022). It looks very much like a bar chart and shows how often each different value in a set of data occurs. It is a helpful data collection and analysis tool. It is used to see the shape of the data’s distribution, especially when determining whether the output of a process is distributed approximately(ASQ, 2022). However, it also depends on how accurate these data can benefit our decision. 

The Pareto Chart

A Pareto chart is a bar and weighted graph to analyze variations. Its core concepts are frequency and effect. This tool makes me think of one of my favorite books, "Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World — and Why Things Are Better Than You Think". The world can seem scarier and more dangerous because what you see and hear is selected, either by your internal filters or information outlets like the news and media for the very fact that it is scary. Plane crash events are far fewer than car crashes, but they have very different effects. Some events happen even daily but some barely happen in decades. 

The Scatter Diagram

Also known as a scatter plot, an X-Y graph, it graphs pairs of numerical data, with one variable on each axis, to look for a relationship between them(ASQ, 2022). However, it focuses on the relationship between the paired numerical data you choose. So, be careful about the data selection when you trying to identify potential root causes of problems.

The Stratification

Stratification is defined as the act of sorting data, people, and objects into distinct groups or layers. It is a technique used in combination with other data analysis tools(ASQ, 2022). However, there are two major issues with this tool, data collection and how to separate these data. 0.999999% is still not 1 if you set a "1" lay to separate 1 from "less than 1". This data collection and analysis technique separates the data so that patterns can be easily seen.

Quality Function Deployment (QFD)

QFD is a customer-focused methodology for carefully listening to the voice of the customer and then effectively responding to those needs and expectations. One of its important features is that it deploys them to the appropriate organizational function for action. 

Summary

I think all of these tools are trying to avoid cost, mistakes, and waste, and take appropriate actions or make changes to improve efficiency. Just like what we learned at school, we have seen further than others by standing upon the shoulders of giants. There is no one-fit-all tool while improving quality. It depends on what we want to achieve or what we are trying to understand. 

Reference

ASQ. (n.d.). What are the five S's (5s) of lean. ASQ. Retrieved September 24, 2022, from https://asq.org/quality-resources/lean/five-s-tutorial 

ASQ. (n.d.). Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA). FAILURE MODE AND EFFECTS ANALYSIS (FMEA). Retrieved September 24, 2022, from https://asq.org/quality-resources/fmea 

ASQ. (n.d.). Fishbone diagram. ASQ. Retrieved September 25, 2022, from https://asq.org/quality-resources/fishbone 

Barnes, B. (2020, January 7). Factfulness by Hans Rosling: Summary and key insights. Rapid Business Plans. Retrieved September 25, 2022, from https://rapidbusinessplans.com/blog/factfulness-hans-rosling-book-review-summary 

Garner, F. (2015, September 23). A clean room can save your life? SafeMocs. Retrieved September 24, 2022, from https://blog.utc.edu/safety-risk-management/a-clean-room-can-save-your-life/ 

Jacques, Scott, S. J., Michal, Donlin, K., & Kumar, S. (2022, January 5). What is a keystone habit? 11 examples of Keystone Habits in life. Develop Good Habits. Retrieved September 24, 2022, from https://www.developgoodhabits.com/what-are-keystone-habits/ 

What is stratification? ASQ. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2022, from https://asq.org/quality-resources/stratification