2013
"Surround yourself with the best people
you can find, delegate authority, and don't
interfere as long as the policy you've
decided upon is being carried out."
Ronald Reagan
Brad Fink
CIT 492
4/4/2013
Quality Management
Executive Summary
A school teacher has noticed poor grades from a recent exam; she has identified some of
the reasons for this and needs to construct a Pareto chart to help her solve the problems
from the biggest to smallest.
Theresa Shotwells restaurant in Tallahassee, Florida has recorded data for eight recent
customers and wants a graph depicting these results in order for her to identify what may
be the cause of some deficiencies concerning the number of trips a waiter/waitress takes
to the kitchen per order and the time required for a customer to order a meal and the time
it takes to reach the table.
Richard Dulski is in need of help figuring out the cause root of the jams coming out for
sales not being of top grade quality, he has decided to categorize these faults using a
fishbone diagram and the 4 Ms, (Manpower, Method, Material and Machinery).
A friend whom lives in Korea has never seen a self-serve gas station, after trying to
explain to him the process over email, he still had a hard time conjuring the entire
process, to help him out, I have drawn out a flow chart as to what the process is actually
like.
4/18/2013
Quality Management
Contents
Poor Grades..........................................................................................................................3
Shotwell's Resuarant............................................................................................................5
Richard Dulski's Jam...........................................................................................................7
Self-Serve Station................................................................................................................9
Summary............................................................................................................................11
4/18/2013
Quality Management
Poor Grades
Ashley Jones, a Sophomore High School teacher has just finished grading a recent exam
and noticed a drop in the latest one. After researching and talking to her students she has
determined nine events which most likely are the cause of some of the problems which
have been identified in Table 1.
Reasons for Poor Grades
Frequency
Percent of Total
Cumulative Percent
Insufficient time to complete
Late arrival to exam
Difficulty understanding material
Insufficient preparation time
Studied wrong material
Distractions in exam room
Calculator batteries died during exam
Forgot exam was scheduled
Felt ill during exam
Total:
15
7
25
2
2
9
1
3
4
68
22%
10%
37%
3%
3%
13%
1%
4%
6%
100%
22%
32%
69%
72%
75%
88%
90%
94%
100%
Table 1 Reasons for Poor Grades
Once Ashley entered all her data in a spreadsheet, (Reasons and Frequency), the first
thing she did was sum all the values of the frequencies which is 68 deficiencies in all.
The next column to the right is the percent of total, this is done by taking the frequency
number for each reason and dividing it by the total number of the frequency, to make this
more understandable, taking the frequency value of 15 for the first reason and divide it by
68 which gives a percent total of 22%.
The next column is the cumulative percent, this is the Cumulative additions of the
(Percent of Total); Table 2 shows just how this is done.
Reason for Poor Grade
Difficulty understanding material
Insufficient time to complete
Distractions in exam room
Late arrival to exam
Felt ill during exam
Forgot exam was scheduled
Insufficient preparation time
Studied wrong material
Calculator batteries died during exam
Percent
Cumulative
Frequency of Total Calculations
Percent
25
37%
( =)
37%
15
22%
(37% + 22%)=
59%
9
13% (59% + 13%) =
72%
7
10% (72% + 10%) =
82%
4
6%
(82% + 6%) =
88%
3
4%
(88% + 4%) =
93%
2
3%
(93% + 3%) =
96%
2
3%
(96% + 3%) =
99%
1
1%
(99% + 1%) =
100%
Cumulative
Calculations
Table 2 Cumulative Percent Calculations
4/18/2013
Quality Management
Poor Grades
Looking at Table 1 and Table 2, you will notice the sequence is slightly different, to
make the process of constructing the Pareto chart easy, the data was sorted from the
largest frequency to the smallest. Figure 1 shows the end results of the Pareto chart, this
will put the data into perspective for Ashley to resolve the issues.
Frequency
Poor Grades Chart
April 15, 2013
Cumulative Percent
Frequency
25
15
7
2
1
Calculator batteries died
during exam
Studied wrong
material
Insufficient
preparation time
Felt ill during exam
Late arrival to exam
Distractions in exam
room
Insufficient time to
complete
Difficulty understanding
material
Forgot exam was
scheduled
Figure 1 Poor Grades Pareto Chart
Based on the data in Figure1, Ashley now knows she needs to reconfigure the way the
questions and material associated with them is priority one. Once that situation has been
fixed, she can move on to the second, third and so on.
4/18/2013
Quality Management
Shotwells Restaurant
Theresa Shotwell has taken notice of some deficiencies in her restaurant, in particular the
time from when a customer orders a meal and the time the food arrives at the table, along
with this the number of trips during some of the orders are exceeding other orders.
Theresa wants you to graph the eight points to help her identify the problem and help
with a solution. To help Theresa, a scatter diagram will help show where the deficiencies
may be and will plot all eight specific occurrences she has provided. Table 3 shows the
data that has been provided for the diagrams.
Customers
Number of Trips
Time to Oder Food
1
4
2
5
3
3
4
2
5
3
6
4
7
6
8
5
Table 3 Theresas Deficiency Data
10.5
12.75
9.25
8
9.75
11
14
10.75
With the data in Table 3, it is apparent that there is a better way to portray the
information, by using the scatter diagram there answers should be relatively easy is
identify. Figure 2 shows such a diagram for the number of trips to the kitchen per
customer.
Shotwells Resaurant (Trips to Kitchen)
7
Trips to Kitchen
6
5
4
3
2
1
1
Number of Customers
Figure 2 Trips to Kitchen Scatter Diagram
4/18/2013
Quality Management
Shotwells Restaurant
Looking at the scatter diagram in Figure 2, Theresa can now determine that at the half
way mark the number of trips to the kitchen has dropped dramatically. Also, the first few
customers and especially the last few customers require more trips that may indicated
improper orders have either been taken, or the waiter/waitress have not asked if the
customers will require any special items with their meals.
To get a better idea of what is going on another scatter diagram has been constructed
showing the time when the food was ordered and the time it arrived to the table, this is
shown in Figure 4.
Shotwells Restaurant (Time To Order)
14
Time to Order Food
12
10
8
6
4
2
1
Number of Customers
Figure 4 Time to Order Food Scatter Diagram
Again, looking at the scatter diagram in Figure 4, the time a customer orders food and the
time it takes to arrive have very similar characteristics as the scatter diagram in Figure 3.
Now that Theresa knows the both are related, she will have to determine the cause and
effect, and more importantly, why are the first few customers and the last few waiting
longer for their orders and are the numerous trips to the kitchen the cause.
Perhaps this is just a case of a worker just coming on shift and getting burned out at the
end, in either case, as owner Theresa has a responsibility to get more involved with her
employees and her customers.
4/18/2013
Quality Management
Richard Dulskis Jam
There have been issues with Richards Jams being sold with more complaints than he
would desire. Richard would like to study the issue and determine the root cause of his
product coming out bad. In order for Richard to see all the possible reasons and why the
process is having difficulties, he has decided to create a fishbone diagram.
Richard has decided to categorize these faults using the 4 Ms; (Materials, Methods,
Manpower and Machinery). Using this technique he can then breakdown all the causes
associated with each of the Ms. Looking at the data in Table 4, he can quickly place
each possible deficiency with the appropriate root cause.
1. Incorrect measurement
9. Variability
2. Antiquated scales
10. Equipment in disrepair
3. Lack of clear instructions
11. Technician calculation off
4. Damaged raw material
12. Jars mislabeled
5. Operator misreads display
13. Temperature controls off
6. Inadequate cleanup
14. Incorrect weights
7. Inadequate maintenance
15. Priority miscommunication
8. Inadequate flow controls
16. Inadequate instructions
Table 4 Dulskis Jam Deficiency Causes
By simply looking at the chart Richard can see that the issues will become much more
apparent in the diagram and fixing the problems will be much easier, especially if
everyone involved in the process is aware of the areas that need attention. Richard has
categorized the issues in Table 4 and placed them into the Fishbone diagram in Figure 5.
Now that everything has been laid down in place, Richard can study and prioritize the
necessary steps to resolve the issues. For most people, they would start out fixing the
smallest or least amount of deficiencies and work up. Richard has decided to work out
the big problems first and work his way down.
Starting with the biggest section of faults, Richard decided to tackle the problems which
lay with the machinery. The best solution is to pin responsibility to one person in charge
of operating and maintaining the machines required to produce the jam, all can be
controlled through proper operating procedures with the exception of antiquated scales
which Richard has decided to upgrade to more modern scales.
The next area to concentrate on is manpower, which is mostly generated by human error.
All of this can be corrected by providing or reinforcing the standard operating procedures
to include both scheduled and unscheduled observations which will in turn produce some
4/18/2013
Quality Management
Richard Dulskis Jam
on the spot corrections. This will be Richardss responsibility as he has already assigned
a quality manager in charge of machinery.
Richard Dulskis Jam
April 16, 2013
Provisions
Mishaps
Mistakes in
Approach
Methods
Materials
Incorrect Measurement
Inadequate instructions
Lack of clear instructions
Variability
Jars Mislabeled
Incorrect weights
Damaged Raw Material
Bad Mamma Jamma
Priority miscommunication
Equipment in disrepair
Inadequate cleanup
Technician Calc. Off
Inadequate Flow Control
Antiquated scales
Operator Misread Display
Temperature Control Off
Inadequate maintenance
Human
Error
Manpower
Machinery
Mechanical
Defect
Page: 1
Figure 5 Richard Dulskis Fishbone Diagram
Now that two areas are being looked at and managed, the other two are relatively small
but just as important as any other part in the process, with the materials and methods go
hand in hand; Richard has decided to put one person in charge of both.
Giving responsibility to specific areas in the jam making process will no doubt give the
employees a sense of empowerment and the end result should see a dramatic change,
while giving positive training and reinforcement should pull all the other employees in as
an extended family working environment.
4/18/2013
Quality Management
Self-Serve Station
While in the Army, I was stationed in Korea back in 1990, and the Korean Augmentation
to the U.S. Army (KATUSA) enabled me to become good friends with Corporal Jung
Lee. To this day we still stay in touch through social media and e-mail. He has always
dreamed of coming to the United States but knows he will never be afforded the
opportunity, so with that said; he will always hit me up on pictures where I have visited.
On one of my last trips to a Colts football game Jung noticed in one photograph there
was a huge gas station, and his thoughts were quite different than mine when looking at
the picture, to me it was just a gas station, to Jung he was wondering where all the fuel
attendants were.
After thinking back at my many times in Korea it started to make sense, I have never seen
a self-serve gas station my entire time there. Jung did not understand how we got fuel,
who we paid for the fuel, this whole scheme of maneuver was absolutely fascinating to
him, soon, more and more questions were coming to Jung, mostly how to get fuel, he
soon forgot about the absent attendants.
I first started to explain to him the whole process, but as good as his English is, there is
still a language barrier, this is when I decided to draw the process out for him and
drawing it in a flowchart seemed to be the logical thing to put him at ease.
In Figure 7, you will see the flowchart I have drawn for Jung, this seemed to work out
pretty good since he has quite asking about how to fuel a vehicle here in America.
The diagram consists of only four basic shapes, an oval box, directional arrows, process
box and a decision icon. The oval circle in the diagram will be the start point and the end
point, therefore there will only be two instances of this.
The process box is a point of action, such a remove fuel gas, or replace fuel cap, the
occurrences of the process box can be quite numerous, so to help keep a flowchart from
becoming two or more pages, some of the simple tasks that can be done in conjunction
may be place inside one of the process boxes; such as remove fuel cap and remove fuel
nozzle.
The decision icon is when a specific decision needs to be made, before the next process
or action can take place such as pay by credit or prepay with cash. Figure 6 shows the
diagram icons and what they represent.
4/18/2013
Quality Management
Self-Serve Station
Follows each step in sequence
Start / End Point
Process or Action Required
Point when a decision needs to be made
Figure 6 Icon Description for Flow Chart
Below is the fully drawn flow chart for fueling a vehicle at a self-serve gas station.
Self-Serve Fuel Station
Start
Pull car up to
service fuel
pump
Stop car, shut
off engine,
get out of
vehicle
Look at
price of
gasoline
Ppayment
method
Press
payment
method
Place fuel
nozzle into
fuel tank
Remove
vehicle fuel
cap
Press button of
desired octane
level
Credit
Payment
method
Cash
If fuel stops
pumping
Walk back to car
for fueling
process, remove
fuel cap
Continue to
pump fuel
Remove fuel
nozzle ,
replace fuel
cap
Walk into store
for prepayment
Decide if
reciept is
needed
Press yes for
reciept or no if
reciept not
needed
End
Figure 7 Self-Serve Station Flow Chart
4/18/2013
10
Quality Management
Summary
Flow charts, Pareto charts, Fishbone diagrams and scatter charts are all different with at
least one exception, and that exception is to identify a problem to make the resolution
easier to fix.
The Pareto chart is designed to show the biggest problem first to allow the manager to
prioritize their work. Correcting the biggest issue first will make tackling the smaller
issues a better transition, not only for management, but for all the new changes effect. In
any industry, not everyone will embrace changes, but getting over the biggest obstacle
will make everyone involved more comfortable in the end.
With Dulskis jam problem, the Fishbone diagram only shows the relationships between
the root causes which have a significant effect on the end product. A good manager will
know how to capitalize on the issues, and in Richards case, he empowered certain
personnel to take responsibility of specific areas to fix the problem as a whole.
Theresa Shotwell already knew the problem, but only with the scatter chart was she able
to see that the numerous trips to the kitchen per customer was in turn effecting the time
the meal arrived to the table as well. Theresa could also predict for future shifts, waiter
personnel, and the number of customers when she needs to become more involved
without showing a lack of confidence in her employees.
There are many ways to draw a flowchart and for many reasons, in my case it was to get
over a language barrier to explain to a friend overseas just how Americans get fuel for
our vehicles. I could have easily number each box with a description of what each
number represented, but I needed my friend to concentrate on the process itself instead of
jumping back to a legend to see what (3) is, this method seemed to work extremely well
for him.
Bottom line is the charts and diagrams in the previous pages are tools for managers to
identify, correct, and manage for the wanted end result, a good quality product with as
few as little deficiencies possible.
4/18/2013
11
