American Connector Case

Based on the 3 types of quality costs that have been discussed and reviewed above, I recommend that we look at doing more appraisals and inspections during the manufacturing process, this will limit the number of design changes that happen early in the process but it should help in cutting down our external failure costs and help limit

* As the company is planning to expand itself, maintaining a good track record of on time delivery can be helpful.

Teams have become very common and effective since they have proven to be effective in areas as cost reduction, developing new and innovative products, and improving quality (Effective Human relation, 2008). Team development is supported, in fact, required by almost all managements today, but still it may take quite a long time for the members to learn the task and activities and to fit themselves in the particular environment. Team work may vary as the organization or company varies. Team work involves a lot of important aspects such as relationships, cooperation, learning, leadership etc. since a team works together in

Throughout history there has been development and implementations of methodologies that will allow faster dissemination of quality control. Some methods and tools have provided knowledge and sustainability to the system more than others. This is the case of PDCA initially introduce by Dr. Walter Shewhart in the 1920’s and revolutionize by Dr. W. Edwards Deming in 1950’s as a methodology to increase quality. Deming introduce Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle as a learning and improvement methodology (Ransom, 2008). Under this methodology Deming emphasize on the importance of continuous improvement and visualizing the manufacturing industry as a system that can be improve. Ever since the introduction of PDCA cycle other performance enhance methodologies after this one have some basic relation to PDCA. PDCA is broken down in steps as means to make it easy for practitioners to implement. First we start with P, which stands for “Plan”. Under this phase objectives, questions, predictions, and plans to implement the cycle takes place (Who?, What?, When?, and Where?) (Ransom, 2008). Second we move to “Do,” this phase is specifically developed for the purpose of education, plan implementation, documentation of problems and observations, and data analysis. At this stage the team using this cycle can change, try out, expose, and/or cancel the plan if there is evidence that will make it unsuccessful. Next we move to the third phase “Check” under this par, plan

However, if the cost of “perfection” is so expensive that the company cannot be profitable, it is not realistic to spend too much on a zero defect mindset. Instead the company must first identify what an acceptable percentage of defects is and where the defect could have been prevented. Then the company can further quantify which cost of quality is presenting the greatest risk and put procedures and policies in place in an attempt to minimize defects. Since prevention costs many times are considered the least expensive and can have the biggest affect on non-conforming products most companies will focus its initial and largest efforts into prevention. The next initiative would be appraisal and last would be identifying

As Intel’s facilities organization worked to transition the entire structure of how we contracted and executed construction projects on Intel’s Ronler Acres campus, I made countless judgement calls. One in particular stands out. I needed to decide if we would use cost based incentives as part of the contracting strategy and execution processes, and if we decided to use them, how it would

Also recognized through collected case studies, assembling of cluster teams plays a crucial roles in the project teams distribution, such as mechanical, electrical, & plumbing engineering (MEP), structural, etc. This concept not only helps increase the organization and team management, also constitutes and develops a truly environment of interdependence, communication, and cooperation. Based on some healthcare projects, the cluster teams involve in both design and construction phases with the ability to set up the Target Design Value (TDV), another tool from Lean theory discussed later in this section, and strengthen IPD applications by integrating all participants in the decision-making and throughout the entire delivery process. Figure 7, for instance, gives a typical case of cluster groups observed from data collection part.

This report is dealing with the case of ACME Electronics vs. Otto Gunter. Gunter purchased a computer from ACME Electronics in 2002. In 2004, the hard drive crashed and he brought it in to ACME Electronics to have it replaced, as well

One could say they set the mark for everyone to target in customer service. And they make it the core of their marketing strategy. (Schoultz, 2013)

A third disadvantage of applying JIC manufacturing operations is having lower quality assurance methods and even further, lower customer satisfaction (“Just-in-case and just-in-time…”). While the just-in-case system is beneficial in

As we know, Ian Wyckoff has to make a decision between “buy” or “built” opportunity, and it is not an easy decision because it is related to the operation of the company in the next few years. After reading the case along with McCarthy’s recommendation and doing some researches online to understand more about the company, I completely agree with McCarthy that the company should invest in developing in house molding capability. To prove why building the new capability in-house is better than buying the plant of GenieTech, I compare tangible and intangible cost of two alternatives, and I also look at the current state of the company to evaluate how their business develop over the next few years.

Since its founding, sales have grown exponentially from US$1.6 million in 2000 to US$1B in 2008 (Exhibit 1.). This strong growth was dependent on a strong and loyal customer base, which in turn was dependent on employees who were passionate about and took pride in their work by providing exceptional customer service in their quest to ‘WOW’ their customers.

Excellent customer service is a way to set the organization apart from its competitors. Differentiation can be achieved through fast and correct execution of product ordering. To improve on the order process it is important to have the correct information provided in a timely fashion to all divisions. For integration to be successful information must be available throughout the entire supply chain.

Deming's third point focuses on using inspections as part of a continual improvement system. When a company results to inspecting finished items through a kind of sampling and quota system, this can lead to a more costly and more time consuming fix than there otherwise might have been if routine inspections at regular intervals throughout the process were had. If inspection is used as more of a statistical tool throughout the process of product development, it could be more easily remedy any potential issues that are outside normal acceptable variation levels. That way, the product line can be fixed mid-assembly so that additional products are not created with the same issue. The inspection portion of quality management is not a device that should be used for fear against employees, but rather, inspections should be used to gather data and understand more about the process,

There are different ways through which a performance of a system can be assessed (order fill rate, production condition, accurate documentation among the most important), and the measure used by ALP seems to have some deficiencies in assessing the real impact of the operations undergone by the company and the final customer satisfaction. In fact can be said that such a measure doesn’t take in to consideration returned items, and considered the logistic process concluded in the moment in which the freight leaves the stocking point, in this way lacking an overall view of the process that can be seen as an old view of the logistic system. If customer service is defined as “the entire process of filling customer’s order […] handling the possible return of the goods” the current measurement system adopted by ALP is leaving out all the post-transaction elements which are vital to establish a good relationship with the customer and have to be planned for in advance. This is also one of the reasons why the service level is so strongly affected by stock availability. Focusing on the end-user side could give a more realistic picture of the performance of the company at a logistic level.