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Q1.  Discuss the eight principles of the ISO 9000 standard.

 

ANS: The ISO 9000 QMS is based on eight principles from total quality management (TQM):

Customer Focus. Understand the customer’s needs, meet the customer’s requirements, and strive to exceed the customer’s expectations.
Leadership. Establish unity of purpose and organizational direction and provide an environment that promotes employee involvement and achievement of objectives.
Involvement of People. Take advantage of fully involved employees, using all their abilities for the benefit of the organization.
Process Approach. Recognize that things accomplished are the results of processes and that processes along with related activities and resources must be managed.
System Approach to Management. The multiple interrelated processes that contribute to the organization’s effectiveness are a system and should be managed as a system.
Continual Improvement. Continual improvement should be a permanent objective applied to the organization and to its people, processes, systems, and products.
Factual Approach to Decision Making. Decisions must be based on the analysis of accurate, relevant, and reliable data and information.
Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships. Both the organization and the supplier benefiting from one another’s resources and knowledge results in value for all.

 

Q2.  Discuss Pareto Charts.

 

ANS: The Pareto (pah-ray-toe) chart is a very useful tool wherever one needs to separate the important from the trivial. The chart, first promoted by Dr. Joseph Juran, is named after Italian economist and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923). He had the insight to recognize that in the real world a minority of causes lead to the majority of problems. This is known as the Pareto Principle.

Pick a category, and the Pareto Principle will usually hold. For example, in a factory you will find that of all the kinds of problems you can name, only about 20% of them will produce 80% of the product defects: Eighty percent of the cost associated with the defects will be assignable to only about 20% of the total number of defect types occurring. Examining the elements of this cost will reveal that once again 80% of the total defect cost will spring from only about 20% of the cost elements.

Charts have shown that approximately 20% of the professionals on the tennis tour reap 80% of the prize money and that 80% of the money supporting churches in the United States comes from 20% of the church membership. All of us have limited resources. That point applies to you and to me, and to all enterprises—even to giant corporations and to the government. This means that our resources (time, energy, and money) need to be applied where they will do the most good. The purpose of the Pareto chart is to show you where to apply your resources by distinguishing the significant few from the trivial many. It helps us establish priorities.

 

Q3.  Discuss fishbone diagrams.

 

ANS: The cause-and-effect diagram was developed by the late Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa, a noted Japanese quality expert; others have thus called it the Ishikawa diagram as well as the fishbone diagram. Its purpose is to help identify and isolate the causes of problems. It is the only one of the seven basic quality tools that is not based on statistics. This chart is simply a means of visualizing how the various factors associated with a process affect the process’s output. The figure below illustrates a completed fishbone diagram.

 

Q4.  Discuss histograms.

 

ANS: Histograms are used to chart frequency of occurrence. How often does something happen? Any discussion of histograms must begin with an understanding of the two kinds of data commonly associated with processes: attributes and variablesdata. Although they were not introduced as such, both kinds of data have been used in the illustrations of this chapter. An attribute is something that the output product of the process either has or does not have. Variables data are data that result when something is measured. A histogram is a measurement scale across one axis and a frequency of like measurements on the other.

 

Q5.  Discuss control charts for variables.

 

ANS: In the context of the seven total quality tools, run charts and control charts are typically thought of as being one tool together. The control chart is a more sophisticated version of the run chart. The run chart records the output results of a process over time. For this reason, the run chart is sometimes called a trendchart. The weakness of the run chart is that it does not tell whether the variation is the result of special causes or common causes. This weakness gave rise to the control chart. On such a chart, data are plotted just as they are on a run chart, but a lower control limit (LCL), an upper control limit (UCL), and a process average are added. The plotted data stay between the UCL and LCL, while varying about the centerline or average, only so long as the variation is the result of common causes such as statistical variation.

 

Q6.  Discuss flowcharts and give a simple example.

 

ANS: A flowchart is a graphic representation of a process. A necessary step in improving a process is to flowchart it. In this way, all parties involved can begin with the same understanding of the process. It may be revealing to start the flowcharting process by asking several different team members who know the process to flowchart it independently. If their charts are not the same, one significant problem is revealed at the outset; there is not a common understanding of the way the process works. Another strategy is to ask team members to chart how the process actually works and then chart how they think it should work. Comparing the two versions can be an effective way to identify causes of problems and to suggest improvement possibilities. The figure below illustrates a typical process flowchart.

 

Q7.  Explain what a FMEA is.

 

ANS: Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) tries to identify all possible potential failures of a product or process, prioritize them according to their risk, and set in motion action to eliminate or reduce the probability of their occurrence. FMEA attempts to identify all the possible types (modes) of failures that could happen to a product or a process before they happen. Once the possible “failure modes” have been identified, the “effects analysis” kicks in and studies the potential consequences of those failures. Next, the consequences of each potential failure are ranked by:

  • Seriousness/Criticality to the customer

  • Probability of the fault’s occurrence

  • Probability of the fault’s detection by the systems responsible for defect prevention or detection

 

Q8.  Provide an overview of the Toyota practical problem solving process.

 

ANS: Whether you are reacting to an existent problem that has just come up or working to prevent future problems, it will be helpful to follow a procedure that defines the methodology of problem solving and establishes an order of execution of the critical steps. Toyota’s “Practical Problem-Solving Process” contains seven main steps in approaching problems:

Step 1: Perceive the Initial Problem. The action in Step 1 simply perceives that a problem (latent or existent) exists. One may be brought to that perception by an alarm, a failed inspection, a limit being breached, a search for potential future failure modes (as with FMEA), or many other events.
Step 2: Clarify the Problem. Toyota rightly holds that before action can be taken, problem solvers must “grasp the situation.” Experience has shown Toyota that grasping the situation thoroughly before proceeding with the problem solving is vitally important, but it is a very difficult concept to teach. Most of us are too eager to jump to conclusions and get on with it. That approach is not allowed at Toyota—even if a production line is stopped. Before a solution can be offered, the problem must be defined and objectives for improvement set.
Step 3: Determine the Point of Cause (POC). Armed with a problem definition and an improvement objective from Step 2, we now have to determine the location, geographically and within the process or product, of the problem’s cause.
Step 4: Determine the Root Cause Using the Five-Why Analysis. Ask why the observed variance exists. Ask why the answer to that question is as stated. Repeat the “why” question at each succeeding level until the root cause is determined. Use other total quality tools.
Step 5: Develop and Implement a Countermeasure. If multiple solutions are possible, select the one that is most advantageous, being careful to avoid introduction of any new problems.
Step 6: Determine the Effectiveness of the Countermeasure. The team now has to determine whether the improvement objective developed in step 2 is being satisfied by the implementation of the countermeasure.
Step 7: Change the Standard Whether the “standard” in question is a product specification, a manufacturing process, or a work instruction, the team must update it to reflect any change(s) made through the countermeasure.

 

Q9.  Explain a total quality decision making process.

 

ANS: Decision making is the process of selecting one course of action from among two or more alternatives. Decision making is a critical task in a total quality setting. Today’s business decisions and problem solutions cannot be made without sufficient knowledge of all the relevant factors, which often means that the collective knowledge of the organization must be tapped.

Today’s business environment:

  • Demands more large-scale change via new strategies, reengineering, restructuring, mergers, acquisitions, downsizing, new product or market development, and so on.

Decisions made inside the firm:

  • Are based on bigger, more complex, more emotionally charged issues and are made more quickly.

  • Are made in a less certain environment.

  • Require more sacrifice from those implementing the decisions.

A new decision-making process:

  • Is required because no one individual has the information needed to make all major decisions or the time and credibility needed to convince lots of people to implement the decisions.

  • Must be guided by a powerful coalition that can act as a team.”

The figure below illustrates a decision-making model.

 

Q10.  Explain why quality tools are important.

 

ANS: With statistical process control, or SPC, the total quality tools have a dual role. First, they help eliminate special causes from the process so that the process can be brought under control. Only then can the control charts be developed for the process and the process monitored by the control charts. Their second role comes into play when, from time to time, the control chart reveals a new special cause or when the operator wants to improve a process that is in control.

 

 

SOCIAL NETWORKING ARTICLES SUMMARY:

 

Executive Summary 1: Quiet Supersonic Jet is on the Horizon with New NASA program

 

Another traveler jet that can fly at supersonic rates without the particular yet earsplitting sonic "blast" produced when these super quick planes travel speedier than the velocity of sound is one stage nearer to getting in the air. NASA has granted an agreement to Lockheed Martin Aeronautics to concoct a preparatory configuration for the supersonic plane. The organization will get $20 million more than 17 months to think of a preparatory outline, as per NASA. The Lockheed group incorporates people from GE Aviation and Tri Models Inc. Creating, building and flight testing a calm supersonic X-plane is the following sensible stride in our way to empowering the business' choice to open supersonic go for the flying open.

 

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Executive Summary 2: Aston Martin to Open New Factory in Wales

 

Aston Martin, the producer of the fanciful autos since quite a while ago included in James Bond movies, has declared arrangements to open another production line in Wales subsequent to taking a gander at more than 20 other conceivable areas around the world. The choice means the hand-made forte carmaker will have two creation offices in Britain. The other is in Gaydon, 90 miles northwest of London. Aston Martin said Wednesday it will construct another model to be known as the DBX at the Wales plant beginning in 2020. It has manufactured autos in England for over a century. The organization says more than 750 occupations will be made. Authorities in Wales said the opening of the processing plant will stamp the first run through autos have been produced in Wales in about 50 years. Aston Martin rivals Ferrari, Lamborghini, Jaguar and others in the extravagance sports auto showcase, a part that has been developing as of late. The new industrial facility will be situated in St. Athan in south Wales, 170 miles west of London.

 

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Executive Summary 3: Dream Big But Be Humble: Lessons That Led Me from the Factory Floor to the Executive Floor.

 

In this article the bad habit administrator of AT&T Ralph de la Vega expresses that how lessons that are found out from the others in the plant level leads you to the Executive level. He began working in an industrial facility while still in secondary school to help his family, first clearing floors and in the long run advancing to transportation and deals. In the wake of finishing his instruction he was offered a vocation in the telecom business, it was an exceptionally particular field that required industry-particular preparing.

The quantity of migrants has been on the ascent and is expanding everyday.But its extremely troublesome for them to get acquainted with everything around them and the new surroundings.The all the more fascinating and troublesome errand is to get a job.This article lets us know the experience of a man who was a foreigner and how he functioned his way up the step in his life.This article demonstrates to us the significance of being modest and continually being prepared to gain from others.It's a known certainty that experience dependably matters.Even if a man is profoundly specialized and is exceptionally knowledgeable,he/she should in any case tally the variables from an accomplished person.Because that individual has been through the situation,has hands on information and will definetly know the best answer for it.In the article the writer's viewpoint changed when he thought he knew everything,but was brought around the senior administrator on focuses which the writer never at any point thought about.The lesson,learn from others-the experts. You dont need to judge however you can simply listen.Listening helps in acquiring more information.The point was demonstrated again with reference to the writer's friend.The companion was to be sure exceptionally educated yet was loathed by his team. The reason ?? His group had more involvement in the field and he never listened to them.But this changed in his next posting when he really began listening to them and working accordingly.And it was smooth cruising after that.So essentially the writer tries to pass on that the most ideal approach to be effective is to be humble,listen to individuals who know progressively and continue gaining from them.

 

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