PROJECT QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Text: Managing for Quality and Performance Excellence, Ninth Edition, Chapters 6-13
Author: James r. Evans & William M. Lindsay.
Each question should be answered in 200 or more words.
Part I
1. The Turkumann Rug Company buys medium grade carpet in 100-ft rolls. The average number of defects per roll is 1.8. Assuming that these data follow a Poisson distribution:

a. What is the probability of finding exactly 7 defects in a carpet roll chosen at random?

b. What is the probability of finding 4 or fewer defects in a carpet roll?

2. The dimension of a machined part has a nominal specification of 11.9 cm. The process that produces that part can be controlled to have a mean value equal to this specification, but has a standard deviation of 0.05 cm. What is the probability that a part will have a dimension:
a. Exceeding 12 cm?
b. Between 11.9 and 11.95 cm?
c. Less than 11.83 cm?

3. The quality manager at Newvis Pharmaceutical Company is certifying a new process that must produce 90 percent (or better) good product before certification can be completed. A sample of 49 containers from the process line is tested, and 87 percent are found to be good. Formulate the appropriate hypothesis and test using a= 0.05 significance level. Explain your results.

4. A blueprint specification for the thickness of a refrigerator part at Refrigeria, Inc. is 0.300 ± 0.025 cm. It costs $25 to scrap a part that is outside the specifications.

a. Determine the Taguchi loss function for this situation.
b. If the process deviation from target can be reduced to 0.015 cm, what is the Taguchi loss?

5. The MTBF of an integrated circuit made by Outer Limits, Inc. is 18,000 hours. Calculate the failure rate.

6. Bestronics has a three-step process for processing customer sales. First, the cashier must look up the customer’s loyalty card on the company’s information system. Second, the cashier enters the transaction on the point-of-sale register. Third, the cashier processes the credit card through a verification system.
a. If the reliability of the information system is 0.998, the reliability of the point­of-sale register is 0.992 and the reliability of the credit card verification system is 0.978, what is the overall system reliability?

b. If the store manager wants to ensure at least a 98 percent system reliability, make a recommendation of how to do this?

7. Tonika Specialty Manufacturing Company makes a textile product for the outdoor garden decor market. The material is made in sheets and has the appearance of a thin rug. Each sheet is 36 inches wide and 100 feet long and is wound into a roll. The quality manager has requested that 100 rolls be inspected. Thirty-eight nonconformances were found.

a. Calculate the nonconformances per unit (NPU) and the throughput yield (TY).
b? If the production process consists of three steps, with step 1 having a TY of 83 percent; step 2, 90 percent; and step 3, 92 percent, what is the rolled throughput yield (R TY), and the proportion nonconforming?

8. Suppose that a refrigeration process at CoolFoods, Ltd. has a normally distributed output with a mean of 25.0 and a variance of 1.44.

a. If the specifications are 25.0 ± 3.25, compute Cp, Cpk, and Cpm· Is the process capable and centered?
b. Supposed the mean shifts to 23.0 but the variance remains unchanged. Recompute and interpret the process capability indexes.
c. If the variance can be reduced to 40 percent of its original value, how do the process capability indices change (using the original mean of25.0)?

9. Some of the key processes associated with business activities for a typical company include sales and marketing, supply chain management, managing information technology, and managing human resources. What types of Six Sigma projects might be considered in order to improve each of these activities?

10. Discuss how DMAIC might be used in your personal life. For example, how could you use it to lose weight or improve a skill such as playing a musical instrument or sports?

Part II
1. Describe examples of some approaches that your past or present organization could use to conduct a Baldrige self-assessment.

2. List and explain the seven management and planning tools. Utilize past or present organizational experience to define how each could be used in quality planning and improvement efforts.

3. What types of measurements, either formal or infonnal, do you use to manage your personal life? How might your personal measurement system be improved using the principles discussed in Chapter 12?

4. Explain how leaders can demonstrate each of the seven personal leadership characteristics discussed in Chapter 13.

5. What might the term dysfunctional corporate culture mean? What implications does it have regarding quality?

6. What might be the value of creating a crisis mentality in an organization in order to motivate the need for improvement?

Part III
Case Study:
Read the case study, “Coyote Community College,” pages 628-631 in your text. Use the categories renamed by the leadership at Coyote to develop a balanced scorecard and answer the following questions:
1. What specific types of measures should be included for each perspective of the balanced scorecard?

2. How would they be measured?

“Coyote Community College,”
Coyote Community College (a fictitious entity) is a comprehensive, two-year public college that serves and strengthens the greater Albuquerque, New Mexico, community by providing postsecondary education and learning opportunities to all who want to identify and develop their abilities and interests. Since 1968, Coyote’s programs and services have been providing accessible, affordable, high-quality higher education opportunities in a learning environment that encourages challenging, innovative teaching methods and delivery systems that enhance student learning. Coyote is a commuter college with a main campus in downtown Albuquerque and two branch campuses: one located in Bernalillo, 20 miles north of Albuquerque, and the other in Armijo, south· cast of downtown Albuquerque. The campus in Albu­querque accounts for 44 percent of Coyote’s enrollment, the Bernalillo campus accounts for 25 percent, and the Armijo campus accounts for 31 percent.
Coyote’s innovative, community-centered educa­tional programs are designed to meet a variety of aca­demic, career, and personal educational goals. Program offerings fall into one of three general areas: (I)
General Education, University Transfer Education, and Developmental Education; (2) Workforce Develop­ment, Certificate Programs, and Continuing Education; and (3) Community Education and Outreach. The majority of these programs lead to the award of diplomas, degrees, or certificates. Coyote also provides high-quality student support services and resources in collaboration with community agencies to enable students to formulate their goals and pursue them real­istically. These services include academic and occupa­tional counseling, job and educational placement services, assistance in obtaining financial aid, and special needs programs.
Programs and offerings in the area of General Education, University Transfer Education, and Devel­opmental Education enable students to achieve aca­demic and personal goals, enter the job market, or, in some cases, to successfully transfer to four-year colleges and universities. Coyote offers Associate of Arts (AA) degrees in liberal arts, business administration, educa­tion, hotel and restaurant management, computer science, pre-engineering, and biological sciences. AA degrees are intended for students transferring to four­
rear colleges and universities such that no remedial :coursework is required upon transfer. Occupational, programs in technical, vocational, and paraprofessional 1clds lead to an Associate of Science (AS} degree or a certificate. Occupational programs also provide retrain­ing and upgrading of skills in these fields so that stu· dents are qualified to meet current needs of the labor market. AS degrees are generally not intended for transfer to four-year institutions. Students who do transfer with AS degrees are required to take additional remedial courses as required by each specific degree program. Students may select from 30 occupational programs, including computer technology, computer applications, day care management, nursing, retailing, computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM), graphic design technology, biotechnol­ogy, heating-ventilating-air conditioning (HV AC), hydrological technology, and contract administration.
In the area of Developmental Education, Coyote offers General Education Development (GED} prepara­tion courses, courses in English as a Second Language (ESL), and strong remedial courses in math, reading, and writing. Sixty percent of all Coyote students enrolled in traditional college courses enrolI in at least one remedial course, and 15 percent enroll in an ESL course.
In the area of Workforce Development, Certificate Programs, and Continuing Education, Coyote provides custom-designed, on-site training courses and services that meet the needs of local businesses. In partnership with several local employers, Coyote offers contract training for computer networking technicians, water management specialists, office managers, contract administrators, and prison guards. Coyote also offers intensive ESL and remedial English and math courses under contract. In addition, Coyote offers a wide vari­ety of short-term certification courses, such as Network Administrator, Network Engineer, Advanced Office Automation, Systems Engineer, Quality Auditor, Pur­chasing Manager, and Certified Nursing Assistant, to the general public and by contract. Continuing Education programs address those students who wish to improve professional skills, acquire new skills, or expand their fields of knowledge and general interest.
In the area of Community Education and Out­reach, Coyote provides programs and community services that offer multicultural, recreational, and community development activities to meet the needs
of lifelong learners. These activities, which include a Women in Transition program, the Coyote Cultural Center, an Elder Learning Center, and a day care center, also encourage the use of community college facilities and services by all citizens of the community for educational and cultural purposes.
Students at Coyote are divided among (1) those enrolled in traditional college credit degree curricula, (2) those enrolled in noncredit contract training and in short-term certificate courses, and (3) those involved in the community outreach programs. Because of demands placed on their resources and time by employers, family, and others, students tend to pursue the education intermittently, and approximately 75 percent of students attend part-time.
Coyote employs 280 fulltime faculty, 830 adjunct (par-time) faculty, 40 administrators, and 150 support staff. The faculty are members of the National Educa­tion Association union. Fifty percent of full-time fac­ulty hold a master’s degree, 40 percent hold doctoral degrees, and 10 percent hold bachelor’s degrees. Adjunct faculty, many of whom are working in the field in which they teach, hold at least a bachelor’s degree. Seventy-five percent of the administrators hold a master’s degree or higher.
Although Coyote’s primary stakeholders are its students, key stakeholders also include college faculty and staff, four-year colleges and universities to which Coyote’s students transfer, local employers, the New Mexico State Board of Community College’s, Coyote’s Board of Governors (BOG}, and the surrounding com­munity at large, including local taxpayers. The require­ments of the primary stakeholders are shown in Figure 12.14.
Coyote’s oversight body is the BOG. The members of Coyote’s BOG are elected by voters in seven geo­graphical districts within the two-county region the college serves. Funding for programs and for most con­struction and equipment comes from a property tax levy in the two-county region and annual appropria­tions by the New Mexico legislature. Coyote’s BOG approves spending over $50,000, intergovernmental agreements, bond spending, building improvements, and construction. The BOG also provides continuous evaluation and assessment of Coyote’s policies, proce­dures, and practices to ensure that the college is fulfill­ing its mission and achieving its purposes. In addition, Coyote has a private nonprofit foundation for private contributions, which arc increasing every year.

Coyote is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCACS), and 12 individual programs are certified or accredited by other appropriate organizations. Coyote was reviewed by the NCACS in 1998 and is scheduled for another review in 2008. Coyote is also responsive to a variety of federal, state, and local regula­tions, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations, federal and state financial aid regulations, and affirmative action guide­lines. Coyote complies with the Americans with Disabil­ities Act (ADA). Coyote is also proud of its partnerships with the colleges and universities to which the majority of its credit students transfer. Faculty members from these universities serve on Coyote’s Curriculum Advisory Teams. In addition, articulation agreements with all four-year institutions in the region are in place for all of Coyote’s university transfer programs (AA degrees), as well as for more than 50 percent of the occupational degree programs.
A key differentiator of online programs offered by out-of-state colleges is convenience. Students can attend online courses any time of the day or night to accommodate their busy and sometimes changing schedules. Coyote is responding to this need by devel­oping both online and video-based programs. In addi­tion, Coyote’s key differentiator is that it focuses on preparing graduates to be successful in the local com­munity. Input of local employers in the planning pro­cess, new program design, and student internships enables Coyote’s graduates to find desirable jobs in the local community more easily and to succeed at those jobs. Coyote’s growing, individualized, technology-based delivery of educational programs with related support services (individualized program design and certification), which is targeted to employed adult students with needs for specific skill develop­ment, is another important competitive advantage. Planning is focused on providing learning excellence through use of state-of-the-art learning technologies to expand the off-campus student population while retaining the current levels of on-campus students.
The principal factors that determine competitive success include accessibility, flexibility in scheduling, affordability, ability to offer high value at a low cost, the effectiveness of the curriculum, the time to com­plete programs, and the range of programs offered. Dr. Gayle Brooks, who previously served as Deputy Provost at McMoto Industrial University, was selected as Coyote’s president in 1992, with a mandate to reverse a six-year-long trend of declining enrollment and diminishing student success. In the last eight years, Coyote has shown steady increases in enrollment and in student success as judged by student employment rates and c acceptance rates by four-year colleges and universities. The foundation of this turnaround was the establishment of a common mission, Vision, and values. These provide continuing direction for the college and drive specific goals to stretch Coyote’s capabilities. In 1994, under the direction of Dr. Brooks, Coyote developed and adopted LEARN, a three-point philosophy of education, These points are;
• learning Excellence: All aspects of the education process are learner-centered, and the needs of the learner are paramount. Recognition of the diversity of learning styles and rates of learning is fundamental. Technology is used as a tool to facilitate learning.
• Assessment: Assessment of learning is ongoing for both learners and learning facilitators. Technology is a tool to facilitate the assessment of processes associated with learning.
• Recognizing Needs: It is imperative to identify and respond to the needs of all of Coyote’s stakeholders. Needs vary by stakeholder, as shown in Figure 12.14.
As a result of implementing LEARN, Coyote recently identified the following three key technology. based strategies designed to improve student learning and meet learner requirements. Each of these strategies is currently at different levels of implementation within the college:
l. Incorporation of technology into the traditional classroom. ln order to enhance student learning, instructors are being encouraged to incorporate multimedia into traditional delivery techniques.
2. Technology mediation allowing individual paced learning. Computer-based instruction allows learners to begin precisely at their current level of knowledge and progress through structured materials at their own pace. Monthly start dates of sequenced courses allow students to proceed to the next course when ready, with no delays or potential loss of learning due to waiting. 3. Distance learning delivery methods. tele classes}· of technologies allow Coyote to meet learner needs. An interactive video system (tele classes) ties the three campuses together to decrease the need for students to drive from one campus to another. This system also allows Coyote to offer some traditionally low enrollment courses that meet specific student needs, including upper level foreign language and math classes. Online courses offered via the Internet and video-based courses (tele courses) offered via cable television and video cassette checkout will meet the needs of students with difficult schedules and geographic constraints.
The leadership at Coyote wants to develop a balanced scorecard. To customize it for the educational environment, they renamed the categories as
l. Funder/Financial Perspective
2. Student/Participant Perspective
3. Internal Process Perspective
4. Innovation and Resource Perspective
Based on the description of this college and its environment, what specific types of measures should they include in each of these perspectives of the balanced scorecard? How would there be measured?

PARTIV
Read the case study, “Distinguished Ad Agency,” pages 693-694 in your text. Answer the
Following questions:
I. What mistakes did Novedad and the Steering Committee make in the initial development of the protocols and documentation and the early implementation stage?
2. What were the early indications that the system was not working as planned, and why were they ignored? Why weren’t improvement efforts more effective?
3. Now that Novedad and the Steering Committee have received their “wake-up” call, what steps should be taken to revise and implement an improved, workable quality management system?

“Distinguished Ad Agency,”
Distinguished Ad Agency (DAA} had been in business for about 10 years. It had a strong regional reputation, and counted divisions of five Fortune 500 firms among its clients. Manuel Novedad, cofounder and president, had built the firm on a foundation of client focus, adherence to a quality system, and rapid response.
One of their largest customers, a Fortune 500 con­sumer products company, required compliance to jointly developed protocols and a mature quality management system, but not to registration under ISO. A documented system was in place, and Novedad chaired an active steering committee. Members were depart­ment heads, including the quality manager, and the union president. System upgrades were made on a routine basis. However, this valued customer, Mega­products, Incorporated, had missed a scheduled launch date for a new, potentially important mega-product because of miscommunications with DAA’s project team and faulty ad copy, which had to be revised after being sent to the printer. These problems could have been prevented if DAA’s protocols had been fol­lowed and required quality checks had been performed.
Time was a factor because noncompliant product had been reaching the customer despite DAA’s assurances that protocols were being followed. Much of the documenta­tion had been written by the quality manager and edited by the president. Review by managers and supervisors, who were asked to implement applicable elements in their departments, was minimal. Consequently, many of the procedures and instructions did not reflect work reali­ties. They depicted an ideal and were ultimately challenged as supervisors and process operators tried to implement tl1em. But, since the clock was ticking and Mega products was threatening to cancel orders, implementation pro­ceeded with promises of a complete quality management system revision once improvements were in place.
Making the quality system operable was chaotic. Managers, not wanting to appear unsure of their changed responsibilities and authority, clung to the status quo. Training-when done-focused on lower level employees, which left supervisors without a good understanding of new requirements. They were caught saying one thing but doing another. Interfaces between departments and individuals, although described in an organizational chart and statements of authority and responsibility, were not truly functional. System work· flow faltered because new relationships and interdepen­dencies encountered old departmental barriers. Audit reports and corrective actions languished because the president periodically overrode the quality manager’s authority, fearing delivery promises might be compro­mised. However, early implementation steps were handled died well. Gaps and shortfalls were identified, and proposed solutions recommended. But, because of lime, it was assumed that acceptance and adoption would be automatic. Steering committee members rationalized that everyone knew what needed to be done because solution finding had been such a frevent effort. However, like many improvement projects, concluding steps were inadequately thought through and poorly managed. Proposed solutions were not completely integrated into daily activities