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."

---------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

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 

What are some of the processes in your professional, personal or academic life that can be managed differently? How so? What would you expect this new approach’s outcomes to be?

 The typical process of my academic life were start with a to-do list where I write down what I have to do such as the discussion post, learning journal, and reading assignments. Then, it was a long list. I only strikethrough each item when they were done. However, this system has two issues, priority and progress. I don't know which one is more important than the others or their expiration date. Moreover, I don't know which one is what I am focusing on right now or I am just multitasking. 

To robust it, I make two major upgrades, the first is to sort the tasks by priority, and the second is to create a hashtag "#in progress" to highlight the tasks that I am working on right now. After this upgrade, I become much more productive than ever before. Instead of being trapped in a mess, I begin to make better progress and also increase my efficiency. 

However, I reckon that this method benefits when I only care about when I have to finish these tasks and what tasks should I accomplish. It does not provide me further details about HOW I have done these tasks. The quality of the results that have been processed by me. Do I truly understand the core concept of the readings? How could I know if the quality of my journal or written assignments are good or poor, even though I did put intense effort into them? 

To further improve it, I add some parameters to this system. I started to monitor the variations such as notifications from my phone and the schedule of my full-time job. Distractions take attention away from what I need to do when performing a task and divert my attention from a desired area of focus and thereby blocking or diminishing the reception of desired information. I believe this update will further improve my focus on my assignments and tasks. After eliminating those distraction factors, I can feel my efficiency has improved due to the more focus mindset.

What do you think should be an organization’s priority to achieve excellence: its processes, or its people? Why? How do the two relate and interact?

 Organizational excellence is the ongoing efforts to establish an internal framework of standards and processes intended to engage and motivate employees to deliver products and services that fulfill customer requirements within business expectations(ASQ, 2022). Organizational excellence continues the progress established by a foundation such as total quality management, in which all levels of the organization participate in continual improvement(ASQ, 2022).

Processes are crucial components of how a company operates and delivers value to its customers. However, back to where an organization was founded, there are always a leader(or leaders) and a team(or multiple teams). Leaders share their vision and motivate the team to construct it. After that, leaders keep focusing on the vision and motivation, and those teams are focusing on operations and monitoring the results. These teams follow the vision and mission to design the processes and keep them effective. If the vision is to land on the moon, the team will design and build a rocket and hire astronauts to accomplish the mission. If the vision is to be a coffee chain like Starbuck, the team will start to hire baristas and find suitable places to operate. Then, at every stage of the progress, the employees carry out each process and see to it that everything is done properly. Employees implement the vision and goals created and motivated by the leaders and the whole organization.

I believe people are one of the most important elements when it comes to an organization that functions effectively. An organization is only as good as its employees. To achieve consistently superior performance such as outputs that exceed meeting objectives, needs, or expectations, the original source of this motivation I think, is people. Processes are like the laws and rules. They are designed and executed by people to meet certain expectations, objectives, and needs. Even though we are using AI nowadays, it is still "Artificial" intelligence. That doesn't mean that the processes are not important at all. The computer and the program are there to assist us and we can keep them upgraded. They are somewhat interdependent. Feed the probiotics that live in your body and they will contribute to your health. If a company already has excellent processes but does not have good employees, those processes are hard to be effective. Likewise, if a company has talented employees but does not have good processes in place, the skills of the employees would go to waste.

Reference

What is organizational excellence? ASQ. (n.d.). Retrieved September 17, 2022, from https://asq.org/quality-resources/organizational-excellence 

What do you think should be an organization’s priority to achieve excellence: its processes, or its people? Why? How do the two relate and interact?

Organizational excellence is the ongoing efforts to establish an internal framework of standards and processes intended to engage and motivate employees to deliver products and services that fulfill customer requirements within business expectations(ASQ, 2022). Organizational excellence continues the progress established by a foundation such as total quality management, in which all levels of the organization participate in continual improvement(ASQ, 2022).

Processes are crucial components of how a company operates and delivers value to its customers. However, back to where an organization was founded, there are always a leader(or leaders) and a team(or multiple teams). Leaders share their vision and motivate the team to construct it. After that, leaders keep focusing on the vision and motivation, and those teams are focusing on operations and monitoring the results. These teams follow the vision and mission to design the processes and keep them effective. If the vision is to land on the moon, the team will design and build a rocket and hire astronauts to accomplish the mission. If the vision is to be a coffee chain like Starbuck, the team will start to hire baristas and find suitable places to operate. Then, at every stage of the progress, the employees carry out each process and see to it that everything is done properly. Employees implement the vision and goals created and motivated by the leaders and the whole organization.

I believe people are one of the most important elements when it comes to an organization that functions effectively. An organization is only as good as its employees. To achieve consistently superior performance such as outputs that exceed meeting objectives, needs, or expectations, the original source of this motivation I think, is people. Processes are like the laws and rules. They are designed and executed by people to meet certain expectations, objectives, and needs. Even though we are using AI nowadays, it is still "Artificial" intelligence. That doesn't mean that the processes are not important at all. The computer and the program are there to assist us and we can keep them upgraded. They are somewhat interdependent. Feed the probiotics that live in your body and they will contribute to your health. If a company already has excellent processes but does not have good employees, those processes are hard to be effective. Likewise, if a company has talented employees but does not have good processes in place, the skills of the employees would go to waste.

Reference

What is organizational excellence? ASQ. (n.d.). Retrieved September 17, 2022, from https://asq.org/quality-resources/organizational-excellence 

In your organization, how can you contribute to the quality of delivery? Which skills or behaviors can you develop individually to improve collective excellence?

 Usually, when workers think of how can they contribute to the quality of delivery, they feel powerless and helpless because they just follow the rules and policies constructed by managers or business owners. However, workers are also an example of internal customers. For example, when I worked in my friend's cafe' as a barista, I frequently observed those customers who enjoy their coffee in the store and tried to figure out their satisfaction through their actions and expressions. If I observed a dissatisfied signal, I would be thinking why he(or she) is unhappy and what I can do about this. With the excellent leadership of my friend, I was motivated to do and think more about how to improve my service on my job. I reckon that for me to effectively improve my services, three factors have to be included. Excellent leadership, Understanding of what customers needs, and Resources. In my case, the company already has excellent leadership. How to understand what customers need is either through life or experiences, or I have the empowerment and resource to do an extra survey. Then, after identifying the real issue, I can start to think of possible solutions to the issue or make recommendations.

Source :https://blog.aiesec.org/is-leadership-a-skill-or-a-quality/

As I mentioned above, I believe that leadership is the key to improving collective excellence. With excellent leadership skills, I can influence others through my own ability, even though I am not at the top position or one of the board members. Therefore, anyone who can influence people to follow them has leadership qualities. However, it is more than not just a word. Effective leadership enables followers to succeed. I have to set a direction, build a vision, and adapt as circumstances require it. It is about mapping out what kind of results are identified as excellent. Moreover, although everyone can be a leader in their own way, it still depends on some key required skills such as a strategic plan or relationship building. 

Reference

the Mind Tools Content Team By the Mind Tools Content Team, Team, the M. T. C., wrote, B. T., & wrote, M. (n.d.). What is leadership?: How to lead your team skilfully. From MindTools.com. Retrieved September 13, 2022, from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_41.htm