Latino Engineering Continuous Improvement â€Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Latino Engineering Continuous Improvement? Answer: Introducation The paper analyses the case study of Latino Engineering, a company that started from scratch under the leadership of Dominic Latino. Perhaps the name Latino Engineering was drawn from its owner Dominic Latino. However, in the case study Dominic Latino, after a long service in the company decided to sell it to Investment Group that maintained the companys name even after the takeover. It is glaringly notable that the company is facing a raft of problems since its takeover even after it retained some of the companys previous employees before even the purchase. As clearly stated in the case study, during the reign of Dominic Latino he singlehandedly made decisions, but the company was still stable and afloat. In his leadership, the management relationship with its employees was cordial and perhaps that made workflow quick and efficient. Ideally, when the working relationship is superb, definitely the employees would work synergistically to deliver excellent results and that is why the c ompany gained customer loyalty. Nonetheless, the paper would have to use some quality tools to examine the root causes of the problems Latino Engineering is experiencing today in the case study. The quality tools to be used in the identification of the root cause of this problem are accordance with the requirements of the total quality management. Besides, after quality tools have been used to identify the causes of the problems in the case study, the paper would also develop an implementation plan that would be used to eliminate or perhaps minimize the root causes of the challenges the company is facing today (Salah, Rahim, Carretero, 2014, P.250). Finally, in accordance with the continuous improvement plan approaches, PDCA methodology would be used to develop an improvement plan Latino Engineering would use to streamline its business operations. Identification of roots causes using quality tools and techniques In total quality management there are seven main quality tools that are used to identify the root causes of problems an organisation can face (Goetsch, Davis, 2014, P.67). They include: histogram, Scanner plot, check sheet, the Pareto diagram, control chart, cause, and effect diagram. All the seven tools can equally be employed to identify the sources of problem in this case study. But, picking one or two quality tools would still give some root cause of the problem. This being a problem that can be analyzed qualitatively as opposed to quantitatively, Pareto Diagram and Cause-effect Diagram are the most appropriate in establishing the root causes of the challenges of Latino Engineering. Cause and effect Diagram This quality tool shows the systematic relationship that exists between the cause and effect or results. However, the relationship can also be between symptoms, effects or outcomes and the causes (Magar, Shinde, 2014, P.365). In essence, this quality tool is easy to apply, business it helps in digging deep into the root cause. It traces the source of the problem and relates its effects and outcome. This tool simply uses the approach of reverse engineering, where the effect or the results at hand are analyzed to understand its causes. This quality tool follows the procedure below: Agreeing on defining the effect, this then is used to understand the causes. The effect must be defined clearly, and analyzed properly so that it leads to the understanding of the cause (Sokovi?, Jovanovi?, Krivokapi?,. Vujovi?, 2009, p.5). On this step, one needs to be meticulous because any misstep in this stage can make it impossible to identify the actual root causes. After defining the effect, and thoroughly analyzing it, the TQM consultant would then have to determine some main groups of the problems (Magar, Shinde, 2014, P.365). The categories can be people, process, management or generally the environment. The categories or classes of the problem are then connected to the backbone to assist in understanding the effect. Ideally, the cause and effect diagram is like this one below here: Application of Cause and Diagram to the Latino Case Study Using this tool, it is apparent that Latino engineering requires engineering equipment to carry out its business activities. However, going by the reports of customers, they have complained that the company is using faulty equipment. Therefore, without any doubt, equipment is one of the root causes as far as this case study is concerned. Businesses are required to use the right equipment to carry out their roles excellently, but in this case in point it is crystal clear that some defective equipment was used. Process Apparently, the wrong equipment impacted the process of servicing vehicles in the right way to the satisfaction of customers. Therefore, the process can also be considered to one of the root causes, because if the process is right, definitely the use of wrong or faulty engineering equipment would not have happened. The process is said to be right, effective or efficient if it uses the material or equipment to perform some task. Thus, if Investment Group followed the right process obviously customers would not have raised complaints indicated in the case study. Employees Also, since employees are the ones that carry out the processes, then they can also be categorized as a root cause of the problem (Sokovi?, Jovanovi?, Krivokapi?,. Vujovi?, 2009, p.5). They allowed the use of faulty equipment or material to carry out their roles and as an employee one must be able to ascertain if the equipment they are using is effective or right before proceeding with the process. Thus, the poor quality the customers are reporting is because the employees at Latino Engineering stopped following the right process, like the former owner of the company Dominic Latino. Management It essential to note that Investment Group is the one managing Latino Engineering, and before them the management of the company was effective and that is why there were no any complaints from customer. In the case study it is reported that Dominic Latino could make here decisions independently and that did not affect the quality of their products or services (Pettersen, 2014, P. 209). However, with the new management at the company, cases of poor quality are being reported and also the service team at the company is not attentive to the customer needs. All the complaints about poor quality, incompetent service team reflect the kind of leadership at the company. In summary, poor quality, poor customer care services and drop in returns at the company can be attributed to the following root causes: equipment, process, employees and management. In the use of this cause and effect, it is evident that one cause leads to another problem. If these causes are represented in a diagram they would then be able to form a diagram like the one shown above. Thus, cause and effect diagram is effective in identifying the root causes that are leading to a certain results or effect. Pareto diagram This quality tool is like a bar chart, and it is equally instrumental in identifying a root causes in any problem as in the case study of Latino Engineering so that a strategy for improvement can be developed (Magar, Shinde, 2014, P.365). Ideally, using this tool categories are also required depending on the data collected. First, what a QTM consultant should do identifying an area with most complaints and establishing the nature of the complaints. Identifying the frequency of complaints would then help in drawing a Pareto diagram like the one below. Using the example of the Pareto diagram below, then one can conclude that documentation is the root cause of a problem An example of Pareto Diagram Product quality- Considering the case study of Latino Engineering there are complaints that the product quality has dropped unlike during the time of Dominic Latino (Sokovi?, Jovanovi?, Krivokapi?,. Vujovi?, 2009, p.5). In the case study, it is indicated that the designs are bad and also the engineering equipment used is faulty. It is notable that during the time of Dominic Latino the customers liked his products due to better designs and quality, hence poor quality is indeed a root cause of the problem in this case study. Packaging- There has been cases of wrong products being shipped to the customers. In all honesty, from the perspective of customers, a company that is unable to deliver the right product to satisfy their needs, is not caring and is not committed to meeting their needs. As a result, customers can shift their loyalty to cares about their needs. Poor service delivery- Since Dominic Latino quit the company and the new management of the Investment Group took over, customers have started raising complaints about service delivery. They are complaining about the service team at the company not keen to listen to their needs. Service team at any organization should observe customer care relations, and the failure of this team at the company indeed is a root cause to the problem Latino Engineering is grappling with. Management- However there is no direct complaint about the current management of Latino Engineering, but from the concept of the buck stops with the top leadership, it is perfectly right to assert that the entire failure witnessed at Latino Engineering is due poor management. The management needs also to be looked into, to understand their leadership and failures to maintain excellent product quality at the company. Being a minor problem, the management root cause can be categorized as others, because if broken down it can be learnt that the top leadership may not be the cause of the companys problems as outlined in the case study (Kerzner, 2013, P.65). In summary, using the Pareto Diagram to identify the root causes, product quality could be the main cause the company is failing. Also, poor packaging, poor customer care relations and management are some of the root causes. Nevertheless, using both the cause and effect diagram and Pareto Diagram, it is evident that the root causes are almost similar if they are both analyzed in details. Thus, it is effective to use more than one quality tools in order to ascertain root causes from different perspectives, to establish the right approach to solving a problem as in this case in point (Meredith . Mantel, 2014, p.8). Nevertheless, after identifying the root causes, as a TQM consultant the next step is coming up with an implementation plan that can help eliminate or reduce the root causes. To develop an implementation plan, lean management and six sigma have to be integrated to solve eliminate some of the root causes at Latino Engineering so that the company can go back to its profit-making era. Besides, the origin of lean management is reported to be from Toyota in Japan and later many firms in the USA have implemented it objectively to eliminate things that can prevent them expanding and making profits (Groves, Knopman, Syme, Kalra, Mao,2017, P.9). Implement Organisational culture change Lean management and six sigma are today have advanced in the management system and that is why they are applied to eliminate some problems in an organization (Arnheiter, Maleyeff, 2005, p.9). Both Lean management and six sigma recommend change of organization culture. Investment Group need to change its organisational culture, from that culture where employees are reckless and not customer-centered to one that is customer-centered, keen on details and synergistic (Lam,O'Donnell, Robertson, 2015, P.211). Ideally, lean management recommends eliminating things that are derailing an organization, and through a new organisational culture Latino would be able to solve a problem of non-responsive service team that has completely derailed the companys customer care relations. Organisational culture would inculcate some values that would drive Latino Engineering forward. Respect Responsibility According to TQM, six sigma it is the responsibility of everyone to ensure that the quality of goods and services is excellent at an organisation (Goetsch, Davis, 2014.p.8). As an employee, it is important that one needs to understand that they have an obligation to the organization. As mentioned earlier, Latino Engineering needs to change its organisational culture; it is through this culture that every employee would nurture the ownership culture (Fryer, Antony, Douglas, 2015, P.6). When employees feel that they own a company they feel indebted to serve it. Therefore, the management needs to ensure that every employee in their capacity needs to ensure that the Latino Engineering offers its customers high quality product or services. As a result, the company would have to change its leadership at the service team, and some of the employees in the department should be retrained on customer care management (Groves, et, al, 2017, 89). Also, those employees that fail to take their res ponsibilities as required by the company should be sacked. Sacking and hiring According to lean management, a firm should do away with waste and in this case study it is apparent that some mechanical engineers are becoming burden and unprofessional and that is why they could just use faulty engineering equipment (Andersson, Eriksson, Torstensson, 2006, p.283). Also, in the use of cause and effect diagram quality tool, it was observed that customers complained about receiving wrong products from the ones they orders. In such a situation, the company would have to sack the individuals who packaged the wrong products and delivered to the customers (Singh, 2015, p.87). In essence, the company is correcting weaknesses and it is necessary to have some individuals sacked and competent ones hired. Creation of Communication Department Another significant element associated with six sigma is its focus on customers (Salah, S., Rahim, Carretero., 2010, P. 250). In TQM, customers are the primary stakeholders, and Latino Engineering must marketing some radical changes which must be communicated to customers (Pettersen, 2009, P.128). First the company should reassure its customers that they are regretting its past failures and they are determined to satisfy their needs. Also, the company should embrace organization communication by creating a PR department, to help the company management frame its agenda and strategies and communicate to its publics. Also, through the PR department, the company should run adverts on radio, newspaper and other media reassuring customers that the company is committed to meeting their needs, as it has been since its inception. In addition, to the advert the company should apologize to customers that were affected by poor quality, and use of faulty engineering equipment. Monitoring and evaluation As recommended by both lean management and six sigma monitoring and evaluation should be used to achieve perfection at the company (Bendell, 2006, P. 258). The control stage is important in undertaking any project and therefore the companys management would now have to augment its monitoring and performance evaluation. Also, the management would directly have to inspect the engineering equipment, so as to avoid the use defective ones. In a nutshell, if Investment Group implements the above listed recommendations it would be possible to eliminate the root causes as explained using the Pareto diagram and cause and effect diagram (Bernhardt, 2013, P.269). Continuous Improvement (CI) Plan PDCA is a model for CI with four stages and these stages are repetitive in nature. PDCA is also called Deming circle (Morgan, Stewart, 2017, P. 304). In TQM, PDCA stand for plan, do, check and act. Plan- it deals with the analysis of what requires for improvement with absolute consideration of some areas that require some changes. Ideally, plan stage seeks to promote decision making by the management on what is required to change (Kerzner, 2013, P.45). According to TQM, the project management has a role to play in running the processes being carried out Chadha, 2017, P.40). Therefore, the management of Latino Engineering would use the plan phase to make decisions on how to improve its product quality, improve its service team and ensure that faulty engineering equipment is not used. Generally, Latino Engineering would use the plan phase to identify its current and future problems to develop a roadmap for solving them (Hibi et al, 2005. P.7). Do- the Do-phase is about implementing changes that were suggested on the plan phase (Ren. Fan, 2015, 269). Decision making is done on the plan phase, and therefore the DO-phase helps in implementing some solutions as recommended on the plan phase (Magar, Shinde, 2014, P.370). Basically, this phase is critical because it is then that decides what exactly the organization should do as far the decisions made earlier are concerned. Check-on this phase the management and supervisors would have to find out if the solutions implemented on the DO-phase are being adhered to (Magar, Shinde, 2014, P.370). Of essence again in this stage is that the management would have to analyze the processes at Latino and where they identify some weaknesses they can still plan (Charvat, 2003, P.65). Hence, the check phase can still be carried out with the plan stage. Act- this stage is about result evaluation and in this Latino Engineering would have to evaluate the performance of its Service Team, find out if there are any complaints about quality and engineering equipment (Magar, Shinde, 2014, P.370). After the evaluation, the companys management would still go back to the plan stage to make decisions to correct the mistakes identified before they cause more damage to the company. In conclusion, the case study of Latino Engineering is a project that is on the precipice of collapse unless some changes are implemented. Through the use of Pareto diagram and cause and effect diagram, it has been possible to identify some root causes, whose solutions have been provided on the implementation plan. Furthermore, the continuous improvement plan, which uses PDCA-cycle, would help the company improve its activities as soon as possible to avoid the problems outlined in the case study. References Arnheiter, E.D. and Maleyeff, J., 2005. The integration of lean management and Six Sigma.The TQM magazine,17(1), pp.5-18. Andersson, R., Eriksson, H. and Torstensson, H., 2006. Similarities and differences between TQM, six sigma and lean.The TQM magazine,18(3), pp.282-296. Bendell, T., 2006. A review and comparison of six sigma and the lean organisations.The TQM magazine,18(3), pp.255-262. Bernhardt, V., 2013.Data analysis for continuous school improvement. Routledge. Chadha, R., 2017. Value Through Continuous Improvement. FAIMA Business Management Journal, 5(1), p.40. Charvat, J., 2003.Project management methodologies: selecting, implementing, and supporting methodologies and processes for projects. John Wiley Sons. Fryer, K.J., Antony, J. and Douglas, A., 2015. Critical Success Factors of Continuous Improvement in the Public Sector: A review of literature and some key findings. Groves, D., Knopman, D., Syme, J., Kalra, N. and Mao, Z., 2017. Evaluation of the Jinan City Water Ecological Development Implementation Plan and Recommendations for Improvement. Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014.Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson. Han, M., Ahn, K.H., Ryu, J., Son, J., Park, B.K. and Kim, Y.S., 2014. Evaluation of the Development and Reduction Scheme under Implementation Plan of Total Maximum Daily Loads in the Jinwi Watershed.Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers,36(6), pp.451-459. Hibi, S., Ina, K., Kabeya, M., Inoue, H., Shirokawa, Y., Nagaoka, M., Yokoi, S., Suzuki, A., Niwa, E., Kataoka, T. and Yuasa, S., 2016. SY-2-4Quality management of cancer Kerzner, H., 2013.Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, auditing controlling. John Wiley Sons. Lam, M., O'Donnell, M. and Robertson, D., 2015. Achieving employee commitment for continuous improvement initiatives.International Journal of Operations Production Management,35(2), pp.201-215. Magar, V.M. and Shinde, V.B., 2014. Application of 7 Quality Control (7 QC) Tools for Continuous Improvement of Manufacturing Processes.International Journal of Engineering Research and General Science,2(4), pp.364-371 Meredith, J.R. and Mantel Jr, S.J., 2011.Project management: a managerial approach. John Wiley Sons. Morgan, S.D. and Stewart, A.C., 2017. Continuous Improvement of Team Assignments: Using a Web?Based Tool and the Plan?Do?Check?Act Cycle in Design and Redesign.Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education,15(3), pp.303-324. Pettersen, J., 2009. Defining lean production: some conceptual and practical issues.The TQM Journal,21(2), pp.127-142. Ren, M.M., Ling, N., Wei, X. and Fan, S.H., 2015, November. The Application of PDCA Cycle Management in Project Management. InComputer Science and Applications (CSA), 2015 International Conference on(pp. 268-272). IEEE. Sokovi?, M., Jovanovi?, J., Krivokapi?, Z. and Vujovi?, A., 2009. Basic quality tools in continuous improvement process.Journal of Mechanical Engineering,55(5), pp.1-9. Salah, S., Rahim, A. and Carretero, J.A., 2010. The integration of Six Sigma and lean management.International Journal of Lean Six Sigma,1(3), pp.249-274. Singh, J. and Singh, H., 2015. Continuous improvement philosophyliterature review and directions.Benchmarking: An International Journal,22(1), pp.75-119. Zlatunich, N. and Couture, T., 2015. 2015 gap analysis for Uganda Family Planning Costed Implementation Plan 20152020. chemotherapy using the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle method by chemotherapy team.Annals of Oncology,27(suppl_7).