Quality Management Assignment

By Arjun Venugopal 28005

1. What is the business case for this project? Reduction of the project proposal turnaround time to less than 55 days 2. Did the original goal statement meet the criteria for a good goal statement (SMARTspecific, measurable, agreed upon, realistic, time bound; found in the Tools section of your Lean Six Sigma Pocket Reference)? No. The initial goal was not specific and was not measurable either. 3. Review the CTQ matrix. Can anything be added? Other departments like Finance department can be added as the Voice of the customer, at initial overview, with Timeliness as critical to quality.
4. What do you think about the projects scope? Is it too large, too small?

I believe the scope is not too large or too small. It covers all the potential fail points in the process and does not look into irrelevant areas.
5. Is the goal a sufficient stretch? Do you agree with the teams modification to

the goal? To reduce the turnaround time to less than 55 days was considered to be achievable by everyone. So I dont think that the initial goal had a sufficient stretch. But the modified goal is a more specified challenge. 6. What are the pros and cons about aggressive stretch goals? Pros - achievement of goals, market position which the company earlier had, competitive advantage and customer satisfaction. Cons - demotivation of the employees, late working hours, bad work life balance 7. What should the team do next? Analyze the entire process using tools like SIPOC and find areas of improvement to achieve the new goal. 8. Was the level of analysis adequate for the information they were trying to obtain? The level of analysis done was sufficient for current levels. Comparing with competitors data, if possible, would have been better. 9. List the Y(s) for this project. Timeliness, Error rates and Cost (Rework cost as well) 10. List some of the X(s) that may contribute to the project Y(s).

length of proposal, time at each step, department, type of project.

11. Did the process map help the team advance the project? How?

The process map given by the team helped in a way that they got to know the entire process and how convoluted it is. This helped them to design the cause-effect diagram and in getting the Y(s).
12. Review the Cause-Effect Diagram. Could you add more depth?

The delay in giving the preliminary client order to the PMD by other departments could also have been added as a cause.
13. What should the team do next?

Now they have the Xs and the Ys. They should try and come up with ways to eliminate these Xs and improve Ys. 14. Look at the histograms the team generated. What do they tell you about the theories? It clearly tells us that the bottleneck time at the R&D dept and TS Dept are much higher when compared to other departments. 15. What would the histograms (R&D and Technical Services) look like if the process were to be improved? The width of the bar that signifies the number of days taken to complete the work would be greatly reduced.
16. Are some departments good enough (little variation) to leave alone? Why?

Yes. Departments like finance, PMD (Writing) and to some extent Senior management had little variation. 17. What does the scatter plot suggest? The Scatter plot suggests, as rightly hypothized, that the more complex the project, the longer it takes for the proposal development.
18. Is the scatter plot the right tool to prove or disprove the theory of complexity?

Do you have any other thoughts regarding complexity? The Scatter plot tells us that the complexity of a project and the number of pages in the report are positively correlated. But it does not tell us by how much. It does not give us the magnitude. 19. Do you think the team has a clear understanding of the root cause(s)? Why?

The team has understood that complexity of the project is the root cause of the delay. But the team has not delved into reasons for this too deeply. Look at the list of solution alternatives. Could you add more items? There should be a limit to the number of times a proposal is sent to particular dept. Such a constraint would ensure more careful examination and getting it right the first time . 20. Do you agree with the way the team scored the solutions? Would you have done something different? The team scored most of the solutions well. But they could have added some criteria so as to measure the benefit/cost of implementing their 4th solution which was to eliminate the PMD. 21. Look at the Barriers/Aids chart. Can you add more issues and aids, or countermeasures? Complacency at R&D levels can be a Barrier. 22. What issues do you think the team overlooked which would have an impact on the culture? While discussing, the team probably overlooked the effect this changes would have on the organization structure, as some autonomy loss would be a cost. 23. Was the goal of the project charter met? Yes. The goal to reduce the time to bring it to the average of 55 days, by at least 80% was met. 24. Revisit the slide about the Process Owner (see Roles and Responsibilities section). Do you think the team did enough to ensure a good handoff? Communicating the lessons learnt to the entire organization is very important. The only mass channel used by the team was the company newsletter which I dont feel has a good reach. This process improvement should be taught to at least one key member in every team 25. What metrics or charts could be used to assist in maintaining the new process? Histograms, Pareto charts, control charts can be used to assist in maintenance of the new process. 26. If the problem flares up again, should the team be reconvened? No, there is no need, unless there is a major or new problem in process or process control. Otherwise, the current teams should be competent to handle it. 27. Are there any lessons learned to apply to future projects?

Yes. 1) A careful structuring of every proposal and every department it must go through to minimize the time spent should be done. 2) Reduce redundant processes, and increase the number of personnel if the job is complex