ASSIGNMENT MB-0016

Q1. Explain Benchmarking, Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and their benefits? ANS. Reason and benefit of benchmarking:There are many reasons of benchmarking. The following list summarises the benefits. Benchmarking: Provides realistic and attainable targets. Prevents companies from being industry led. Challenges operational satisfaction. Creates an atmosphere favourable to continuous improvement. Allows employees to depict the improvement which can be a strong motivator for change. Creates a sense of urgency for improvement. Verifies the belief that there is a need for change. It identifies the weak areas in organisation and helps to improve it.

Benchmarking process:The benchmarking process consists of five phases. Planning. Analysis. Integration. Action. Maturity.

Planning:Identify what is to be benchmarked. Identified comparatives companies. Determine data collection method and collection data. Analysis:Determine current performance GAPS. Project future performance levels. Integration:-

Communicate benchmark findings and gain acceptance. Establish functional goals. Action:Develop action plan. Implement specific actions and monitor progress. Recalibrate benchmarks. Maturity:Leadership position attained practises fully integrated into processes. Types of benchmarking:There are various types of benchmarking implemented in the organisation. They are: Process benchmarking: - Firms focus on one or other benchmarking firms to observe the best practises implemented by them. In process benchmarking, activity analysis is needed for cost and efficiency. Financial benchmarking:- It performs the financial analysis and estimates the overall competitiveness and productivity. Benchmarking from an investor perspective:- According to the investors, they compare their company to the peer company and consider it as an alternative investment opportunity. Performance benchmarking:- Organisations assess their competitive situation by comparing products and services with those of target firms. Product benchmarking:- In this products are redesigned or upgraded. It involves reverse engineering which compares the strength and weakness of a company and the competitors firm. Strategic benchmarking:- This is not industry specific as it is a silent observer. It observes how the other firms compete. Functional benchmarking:- Company tries to focus on single function so that it can improve its operation. Technology cannot be compared in relation to cost and efficiency, so each function has to be focussed separately to make valid comparison. Best-in-class benchmarking:- It involves analysing the leading competitors which is best in carrying out a specific function. Operational benchmarking:- It includes everything from staffing and production to office flow and analysis of events performed.

House of quality:House of Quality (HOQ), resembling a house used for describing the relationship between customer desires and the firm/product capabilities. it includes: Customer requirement. Planning matrix. Technical requirements. Interrelationship. Roof. Targets.

HOQ is a part of the QFD and it utilises a planning matrix to convey what the customer wants, how a firm (that produces the products) is going to meet those wants. In HOQ, the roof signifies "correlation matrix, customer wants versus product features as the main part, competitor evaluation as the balcony etc. It states that "the belief that products should be designed to reflect customers' desires and tastes. The basic structure is a table with What as the labels on the left and Hows across the top. It can be described with Hows from one level transforming to Whats of a lower leve l. QFD process benefits:There are many benefits of QFD. They are as follows. Customer driven. Competitive analysis. Reduce development time. Reduce development cost. Documentations.

Q2. Write a note on the Pre-requisites of Quality planning? ANS. Quality planning requires the following pre-requisites Comprehend customer needs: This is done using voice of the customer techniques to find out customer needs and using quality function deployment to organise those needs and translate them into product characteristics/necessities.

Proactive response and remedial action: The advance quality planning procedure provides response from other related projects with the aim of developing counter-measures on the current project. Other mechanisms with confirmation and justification, plan reviews, analysis of customer feedback and warranty data also satisfy this objective. Design within process capabilities: This objective considers that the company has brought methods under statistical control, has determined its process capability and has communicated its process capability to its development employees. Once this is done, development employees need to formally determine that critical or special characteristics are within the enterprises process capability or commence action to develop the process or acquire more proficient equipment. Examine and mitigate failure modes: This is done using techniques such as failure modes and effects analysis or anticipatory failure determination. Confirmation and validation: Design confirmation is the process of testing the productivity level and the quality to guarantee that the design outputs meet design input necessities. Design confirmation may include activities such as: design reviews, performing alternate calculations, accepting tests and demonstrations and reviewing of plan documents before release. Validation is the process of ensuring that the product conforms to defined user needs, requirements and/or specifications under defined operating conditions. Design validation is performed on the final product design intended for normal production. Plan reviews: Plan reviews are formal reviews conducted during the development of a product to guarantee that the issues related to the stage of development are understood, the risks are being managed and there are good business criteria for development. Typical design reviews include: requirements review, preliminary plan review, final plan review and a production readiness/launch review.

Control special/critical characteristics: Special/critical characteristics are recognised through quality function deployment. Once these characteristics are understood, and there is an evaluation that the process is competent of meeting the required characteristics; a control plan is prepared to indicate how the characteristics can be achieved. Control plans provide a written account of systems used in minimising product and process variation including equipment, equipment set-up, processing, tooling, fittings, objects, preventative maintenance and methods.

Q3. What are the different statistical distributions used to model various reliability parameters? ANS. Many statistical distributions are used to model various reliability parameters. The type of distribution used depends on the nature of the data/product being analysed. The exponential distribution:The exponential distribution is used to model electronic reliability failures in the operating domain that tend to show a constant failure rate. To fail exponentially means that the distribution of failure times fits the exponential distribution.

Characteristics of the exponential distribution: It has a single parameter, , which is the mean. For reliability applications, is called the failure rate. , the failure rate, is a constant. If an item has survived for t hours, then the chance of it failing during the next hour is the same as if it had just been placed in service. The mean-time-between-failure (MTBF) = 1/ . The mean of the exponential distribution occurs at about the 63rd percentile. Thus, if an item with a 1000-hour MTBF had to operate continuously for 1000 hours, the probability of success (survival) would be only 37%.

The Weibull distribution:The Weibull distribution is used to represent many different distributions and as such it has many applications. The 2-parameter, Weibull distribution for different values of and a given value of .

Characteristics of the Weibull distribution: It considers two ( and ) or three (, , and ) parameters. The shape parameter, , describes the shape of the curve. The scale parameter, , is called the characteristics life and it is the 63rd percentile value of the distribution. Sometimes, is used as the symbol for the characteristic life. The location parameter, , represents a failure-free value or prior use period for the item. If there is no prior use of the item or period where the probability of failure is equal to zero, then = 0 and the Weibull distribution becomes two-parameter distribution. The parameters , and can be estimated using Weibull probability paper or software programs. When = 1 and = 0, the Weibull distribution is similar or equivalent to the exponential distribution. When = 3.44, the Weibull closely approximates to the normal distribution.

The normal distribution:The normal distribution is also termed as the bell curve because of its unique shape. The normal distribution for different values of and a fixed value of . Characteristics of the normal distribution: It has two parameters, they are: The mean, , which is the 50th percentile of the distribution. The distribution is symmetrical around the mean. The standard deviation, , which is a measure of the amount of spread in the distribution. If t is defined in figure 7.3 and = 0 and = 1, then t is said to have a standardised normal distribution. The integral of a distribution is its cumulative distribution function, used to develop the reliability function. However, numerical integration methods have been used to calculate the integral and tabularise values for standard normal distribution.

Lognormal distribution:The lognormal distribution is used in maintenance task in case of complex services and products. Characteristics of the lognormal distribution: It has two parameters, they are: The mean, . Unlike the mean of the normal distribution, the mean of the lognormal is not the 50th percentile of the distribution and the distribution is not symmetrical around the mean. The standard deviation is represented by .

The logarithms of the measurements of the parameter of interest (example, time to failure, time to repair) are normally distributed.

Q4. For modern products, explain the concepts on what on which design reviews are based? ANS. For modern products, design reviews are based on the following concepts: Design reviews become compulsory because of either customer demand or an upper management policy declaration. Design reviews are conducted by a team consisting mainly of specialists who are not directly associated with the development of the design. These specialists should be highly experienced and must bring with them the reputation of objectivity. The success of design reviews largely depends on the degree to which management supports the program by insisting that the best specialists be made available for design review work. The program goes down into superficial activity if inexperienced people are assigned to design product information prior to design review meetings. Design reviews are formal. They are planned and scheduled like any other legal activity. The meetings are built around prepared plans and documentation sent out in advance. Minutes of meetings are prepared and circulated. Follow-ups for action are likewise formalised. Design reviews cover all quality-related parameters and others as well. The parameters can include reliability, maintainability, safety, reducibility, weight, packaging, appearance, and cost. As much as possible, design reviews are based on defined criteria. Such criteria may include customer requirements, internal goals, and experience with previous products. Design reviews are conducted at several phases in the progression of the design, such as design concept, prototype design and test and final design. Reviews are done at several levels of the product hierarchy, such as system and subsystem. The final decision on inputs from the design review rests with the designer. The designer must listen to the inputs, but on matters of structural integrity and other creative aspects of the design, the designer retains a monopoly on decisions. The control and publication of the specification remain with the designer.

Q5. What are the basic steps involved in audit reporting? Explain? ANS. Basic step involved in audit reporting are: Review and finalise audit results: The final audit report properly communicates the audit results to the client and the audited. The audit report is prepared, signed, and dated by the lead auditor. It should be reviewed and approved by the management of the auditing organisation as well as by the client before it is sent to the audited. Audit details: Most audit reports contain an introduction, a summary, a listing of the findings or nonconformities, and requests for corrective actions. A report must refer to positions, titles, or systems when identifying deficiencies. There is no standard length for an audit report. A report may or may not include the attachments.

System effectiveness: A system is a set of processes supported by an infrastructure to manage and coordinate its function. In a system, processes interact and work together to achieve a common goal or objective. Effectiveness of a process or system is determined by its capacity to achieve its objectives or intended purpose. Conclusion to be reported: The overall conclusion will be reported in the form of summary. The summary or abstract is the synopsis of the audit result. Request for corrective actions: Management of an audited organisation should be asked to review and investigate the audit findings to determine the root cause and take appropriate corrective action. They should be asked to respond to the report in writing. The response should clearly state the root cause, corrective action planned or taken to prevent recurrence and the scheduled completion date for the corrective action. If corrective action is not appropriate, the response specifies the reason for no action.

Q6. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of Six-Sigma in brief? ANS. Following are the advantages of six-sigma: Six-Sigma is influenced by the customer and thus aims to achieve maximum customer satisfaction and minimum defects. It targets customer delight and new innovative ways to exceed the customer expectations. Implementation of Six Sigma methodology leads to increase in profit and decrease in costs. Thus improvements attained are directly related to financial results. Six-Sigma is successfully implemented in every business category including return on sales, return on investment, employment growth and stock value growth. Six-Sigma targets variation in processes and focuses on the process improvement instead of final outcome. Six-Sigma is a potential methodology as compared to other quality programs as it focuses on prevention on defects rather than fixing it. It is thoughtful to the entire business processes and training is integral to the management system where the top down approach ensures that every good thing is capitalised and every bad thing is quickly removed.

Following are the disadvantages of six-sigma: The Six-Sigma critics are being arguing about applicability of Six Sigma. They suggest that the quality standards should be according to specific task and measuring 3.4 defects per million as standard leads to more time in areas which are less profitable. Six-Sigma emphasises on the rigidity of a process which essentially contradicts innovation and kills creativity. An innovative method means deviations in production, redundancy, unusual solutions and insufficient study which are opposite to Six Sigma principles.

People contend that Six Sigma is simply a re-branding of continues improvement techniques and tools. Hence it promotes outsourcing of improvement projects with lack of accountability. Six-Sigma implementation continuously require skilled work force. Therefore, control and employee dedication are hard to accomplish if it is not implemented regularly. While changing over the theoretical concepts into practical applications there are lot of real time barriers which needs to be resolved.