The Assessment is to design the continuous improvement plan for a manufacturing company. Latino Engineering is a midsize company which consists of 300 employees in a place called New South Wales which is located in Australia. Dominic Latino was the founder of the Latino Engineering. The company provides services like the design, development and the production of the engineering equipment for different industries like oil & gas, utilities, construction and infrastructure industries. The company has impressed many investors who wanted to become a stakeholder or even they are ready to take over the company entirely. Dominic Latino wish is to sell the Latino Engineering only after his retirement. Dominic spent 35 years in the company and at the age of 65 he sold his company to their investors. After the takeover, some of the employees were retained but some other senior employees left the company and went for other offers. The new owner’s main aim was to maintain the name of the company. But after 12 months of the takeover, the company was unable to maintain the name and they got many issues from the client side. The issues that arose from the client side are going to be taken into account in the upcoming sections and the continuous improvement plan is to be generated for resolving the root cause of the issues. The root cause of the issue is to be identified and then the plan is to be developed to resolve the mentioned issues of the clients. The Six Sigma approach is used for drawing the continuous improvement plan for the Latino Engineering company. The Prince2 methodology is used in this assessment for making the quality control. The tools and techniques of the Prince2 methodology is to be discussed in the body of the essay. The recommendations are given to resolve the root cause of the encountered issue.
Continuous Improvement Plan is the method that is used to identify the offers for work streamlining and the reduction in waste. This is a practice that is adopted by most of the companies around the world. Many companies follow the Lean/Agile method in a formal way but other companies did not follow the method formally, they enjoys the flexibility of the continuous improvement plan. The cycle of the continuous improvement plan is represented in the Appendix 1. Identify, Plan, Execute and Review are the steps that should be followed in the continuous improvement plan (Morgan and Stewart, 2017).
Streamlining the Workflow
Continuous improvement is called as a rapid improvement technique that is used to help in workflow streamlining. This in turn saves both time consumption and money (LeanKit, 2017).
Project Cost Reduction
The project cost and overages prevention can be achieved by the Project manager only by using the forecasting software. Forecasting is the method that has the ability to improve the effectiveness of the company (LeanKit, 2017).
Flexibility
Some companies follow the Continuous improvement formally but still some other company enjoy the flexibility in it. Teams may take more time and space for their new creations or innovative thinking (LeanKit, 2017).
Prince2 methodology is based on the process for managing the project. It provides an easy and scalable method for managing all types of projects (Lianying, Jing and Xinxing, 2012).
The Prince2 method follows 7 themes to manage the project and to improve the quality management strategy. All the themes are set at the starting stage of the project and then its throughput is mentored continuously throughout the project cycle. The 7 themes are explained below (Prince2 Blog, 2017).
Business Case
Business case provides the knowledge that whether the project is able to achieve the destination.
Organization
The theme organization is related to the roles and responsibilities of the memebers in the project team.
Quality
Quality is the most important theme which should be defined at the initial stage of the project.
Plan
Planning aims on the products, time consumption, cost estimation, quality assurance and benefits of the projects.
Risk
Risk is the theme that arises in between the project cycle unexpectedly.
Change
The change theme is not to prevent the project from changes but to accept them before it gets executed.
Progress
The Progress is monitoring the project and keep tracks in every stage. This mentoring is performed by the project manager by conducting regular kick off meetings (Prince2 Blog, 2017).
The quality theme in the Prince2 method ensures the continuous improvement in the projects. This theme
makes sure whether the products has satisfied the business expectations and enable the benefits to be achieved in a subsequent way. The cost of the project and the time requirement can be decided only after fixing the quality of the product. This theme is also used to define the methods and responsibilities for the products. The quality theme is to address the continuous improvement while doing the project (Whitelaw, n.d.). The Prince2 method for quality control and assurance of the quality is represented in the Appendix 2. The continuous improvement plan for the company is represented below in the Appendix 7.
Quality is the feature or characteristics of a product, service, process or a person. In the Prince2 method, the product can be a process, service or product. Quality Management is the entire set of quality, procedure, responsibilities and standards for the company. It is important to have quality management system in every organization of its own (Greycampus.com, 2017). The quality management strategy is performed during the project initiation stage and this should be approved continuously by the Project Board. This strategy offers a means by which the formal definition is to be applied in the quality control and assurance (Simplilearn.com, 2017).
Quality Control mainly focuses on the tools and techniques to satisfy the needs of the quality and determine the ways of eradicating the courses that do the unsatisfactory performance (Greycampus.com, 2017). Quality control review of the Prince2 method is represented in the Appendix 3.
A team that do the project cannot do the quality assurance. There should be a separate team in the organization to assure the quality of the product. But the project team have to ensure that the quality is well checked before delivery (Greycampus.com, 2017).
The issues that are found from the client side in the company after the take-over are as follows.
Therefore the root cause for the issues is that the project team does not meet the expectations of the customer. The customer expectations and the acceptance criteria is explained below. By meeting the customer expectations, Prince2 methodology achieves the quality in the project and resolves the issues.
Expectations of the Customer
The expectations of the customer should be met thoroughly so that there would be no issue form the client side. For starting the project, it is required to create a Project Brief. This project brief includes the expectations of the customer. The project brief is created in consulting with the clients. After creating the project brief, it should be reviewed by the clients to avoid if there is any deviation in the requirements or if any requirements is left.
Acceptance Criteria
Acceptance Criteria is the things that the customer accepts the project only if the following are met.
The responsibility of the project manager is to plan and control the quality of the deliverable. The quality assurance should be checked twice from outside the project. There should be separate department or team or person in an organization to make sure the quality of the product. The number of persons in the quality team depends on the size of the company. The team should be outside the project. The project team itself cannot be a quality checking team. The general responsibilities of the quality assurance is explained by the Prince2 methodology (Rad, 2017). The responsibilities are as follows
Issue Log
Prince2 methodology uses an Issue Log. This issue log is used to capture any problems that arise in quality and also the remedies for the issues is also stored, so that it can be used in the future (Whitelaw, n.d.).
Quality Log
Quality log is created during the starting stage of the project. This log checks whether the planned quality is met and the outcomes of the project. The errors that are detected and the solution for the errors are also recorded in this log. Therefore, this tool is considered as the best to monitor the progress of the project. So it is best to use quality log for all the projects to avoid the issues (Whitelaw, n.d.).
If the organization wish to make the continuous improvement plan, then it is significant for that organization to make use of the 7QC tools in an appropriate way. The 7QC tools are as follows
Graphs are used to represent the data in a picture view. Pictorial representation is used to make the end user to understand the process clearly without any confusions. There are various types of graphs based on the analysis and comparison.
Bar Graph – It is used the compare the size of the data.
Line Graph – It is used to represent the changes that are evolved in the data
Gantt Chart – It is used for planning and scheduling the project
Radar Chart – It is used for differentiating the data before and after applying changes.
Band Graph – Used for representing the data before applying changes and after applying it (Magar1 and B. Shinde2, 2014).
Check Sheets
Check Sheets is the 7 QC tool that is used to collect the data. Data that are being aggregated using the check sheet can be classified in a meaningful way. The classification makes the clear view to find the relation between the data and dispersion of the data. This is known as the stratification analysis (Magar1 and B. Shinde2, 2014).
Control Charts
Variability is found usually in all processes of the manufacturing. These variations are found in the process because of the two different causes. One is the Chance causes and another one is the Assignable Cause. The control charts can be divided into 4 types as p-chart, np-chart, c-chart and u-chart. P-charts are used when the sample size is the constant value and the np-charts are represented if the sample size is a variable. C charts and U charts are used to define the number of defects that are determined in the process (Magar1 and B. Shinde2, 2014).
Pareto Diagram
Pareto Diagram is one of the 7 QC tools which is used to arrange the items in an well organized order and this arrangement is made according to the magnitude of the items. This tool is used in the Statistical Project Control and this improves the quality that is used for finding the priority of the projects (Magar1 and B. Shinde2, 2014).
Histogram
Histogram is also known as the Frequency distribution diagram. It is the representation using bars in the graph either vertically or horizontally. X and Y axis is specified in the histogram, make sure that which elements are to be included in the x axis and that in the y axis. Draw the bars either vertically or horizontally to represent the frequency. Two arguments are taken. One is specified in the X-axis and another one is specified in the Y-axis (Magar1 and B. Shinde2, 2014).
Scatter Plot
The relation between the variables should be determined for analysing any type of problem. The relation may exist or it may not exist between the variables of the process. If it exists, then it may be either positive or negative. It may be simple or complex. A best tool to study the relation between the variables is the scatter plot. The points that are scattered in the graph indicates whether the relation is strong or weak (Magar1 and B. Shinde2, 2014).
Cause and Effect Diagram
The cause and effect diagram is one of the 7 QC tool that is used to express the relationship between the outcomes or the impacts and its possible reasons. This diagram is also known as Ishikawa Diagram. It is one of the effective tools in 7 QC tools that is used to generate the ideas systematically about the major causes of the problem and to represent those causes in an uniform structured form. Here the methods, materials, methods and people are considered in the cause and effective diagram. The main elements in the manufacturing industry, it is considered as the elements in the cause and effective diagram. After considering the main groups or element of the process, then it is very important to brainstorm to determine the causes and subsidiary causes that are possible in the groups that are identified (Magar1 and B. Shinde2, 2014).
The effective tools called 7 QC tools are utilized as a “graphical method” for solving the problem. These are the tools used for management in each and every process that is taken place between the Design phase and the Delivery phase. The approach that is proposed by J.G. Pimblott says that the Pareto diagram and cause & effect diagram are similar and these diagrams are essential for the identification and the analysis purpose. The current approach includes that the data acquisition consists of 3 tools Check Sheet, Histogram and the Control chart. The Analysis process consists of other 4 tools. The diagram of the use of 7 QC tools that is used in the identification and analysis process is represented in the Appendix 4 and then the current approach is represented.
In applying the quality control tools successfully, the implementation of the quality management is the benefit. A quality management system of an organization depends upon the integrity of all the resources that are used for the production and support of a certain organization. Continuous improvement plan is considered as a fifth principle of Quality Management System. This consists of four activities as a cycle. The four different activities are Plan, Do, check and Assure. This is called as PDCA cycle. The cycle is represented in the Appendix 6. The PDCA cycle is taken as the internal part in managing the process and it is designed for the use of dynamic model. If one complete cycle is implemented, then it indicates the complete step of improvement into one step. This cycle can be used for coordinating the efforts of continuous improvement plan. This strategy is used for achieving the improvements in different aspects like security, morale, cost, business objects that are critical and the delivery. If one PDCA cycle gets completed then automatically second cycle starts to begin (Sokovi? et al., 2009). The four steps involved in the PDCA cycle is represented as follows
Plan
Performing analysis on what are the things need to be improved should be taken into account. Decisions should be made on what are to be modified (Sokovi? et al., 2009).
Do
Implementing the changes that are planned in the previous step is called the Do process (Sokovi? et al., 2009).
Check
Controlling and measuring the processes after implementing the planned changes and this is done according to the policies, mission and requirements of the products (Sokovi? et al., 2009).
Act
Reacting to the implemented changes or starting the PDCA cycle again from the beginning (Sokovi? et al., 2009).
Conclusion
This aim of this assessment is to make an analysis on the manufacturing company named as Latino Engineering which is located in New South Wales in the country of Australia. The Company has been handed over to the investors after the retirement of the founder. The issues arose from the client side after one year of the take-over. The root cause that is responsible for the issues that arose in the Latino Engineering is found and then the methodology called Prince2 is discussed to find and solve the root cause of the issue. The themes that are involved in the Prince2 methodology is being discussed. Then the main theme that is responsible for the issues known as Quality is discussed in elaborate. This theme helps in the quality assurance which helps in the continuous improvement plan. The recommendations to resolve the root cause is being discussed in the assessment. The 7 Quality Control tools which are used in the field of manufacturing traditionally is explained in detail. According to the 7QC tools, some of the diagrams are drawn and represented in Appendices. The two different approaches of the 7 QC tools are discussed in detail. The company would have come across some idea about the issues that are involved in the delivery of the product. Prince2 method is an effective method for developing the continuous improvement plan for the Latino Engineering Company. If this project management strategy is followed by the company, then it may not be difficult for them for finding the issues of the process. The PDCA cycle that is used in the Application of 7 QC tools is discussed. The steps involved in the PDCA cycle is explained in the PDCA cycle section. Thus the continuous improvement plan is designed for the Latino Engineering company by using their issues and target to be achieved.
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