A project is a highly flexible and low volume type operation. One example of a project for our company would be Project closing, which is concerned with ending project. The tasks include finishing all of the work, closing all subcontracts, paying all the bills, the turnover of the project to its owners, and reassignment of the personnel and equipment used on the project. We need to get all this together to buy cars and sell them at our company.
Today, you can imagine the difficulty of monitoring inventories of hundreds of units OR managing a large project without a computerized system. Singh Autoworld does not use Gantt charts or network diagrams in their business planning. They use logical thinking and there experience to determine what needs to get done and by when. They do however use computer software that was provided by cars.com. This software markets as well as organizes all their inventory online. I would recommend Singh Autoworld to try to implement Gantt charts or network diagrams in order to enhance their business planning.
Singh Autoworld only fits into two of the 4 dimensions of quality. It fits into quality over the life of the product, and quality of field service after the sale. As a used car dealership Singh Autoworld buys to stock and does not manufacture their own vehicles. They provide a one month guarantee on their cars and provide service to them if required within the time. Also they try to provide quality used cars. They make sure their vehicles are fully cleaned and checked up by the mechanic. Also they drive in all their cars so the drivers can tell if anything is wrong and self check. Singh Autoworld could offer a longer guarantee on their cars to draw more costomer.
Jeff Bezos Video
This video is on conversation with Jeff Bezos, who is the founder, president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Amazon.com talking about his electronic book, Kindle 2. Amazon has been around for long time and there business has been fluctuating from high to low. There electronic book picked up a really good market for them. Sales sky rocketed for the Kindle. This electronic book is a really great device to have around with you. It is very convenient and you can read your book anytime of the day at your own leisure. Sitting through traffic can get boring so why not carry a portable Kindle so you can read while you are waiting. It takes about 60 seconds to download the book. This product is really great because it holds the batteries about a week. This device has been so great that everyone wants it. They ran out of the product in 2007 and 2008 during Christmas time since it was very popular when it came out. Everyone wanted to see what the Kindle was all about so the demand was very high over the holidays. Amazon's marketing department really under estimated their product because people wanted to see what it was all about. This shows us that they need to work on their marketing department since they only sell their product in the United States. They should be open to selling the Kindle in other countries if they already don't have a product like the Kindle.
1. What will be the benefits, costs, and risks of the Six Sigma program, and how will they be tracked and reported?
3M forecasted that the Six Sigma program would bring greater returns than the $1 billion spent on research and development. The benefits of Six Sigma for 3M are increased customer satisfaction, energizing the organization, improving product quality, services, and processes. 3M will be able to benefit from use of advanced technology and electronic media. In addition, 3M will be able to benefit from increased sales revenues, as well as better educated, well-developed and stronger managers. All projects are approved by management. Each project is tracked and the savings are tracked by the financial department. The tracking systems calculate savings and reduction in defects. The team leader and manager are ultimately responsible for the project. The risks of the program are the costs, the complexity of the program, and difficulty in measuring results for service processes and transaction-based processes.
2. How should the various functional areas in the organization be included in the Six Sigma initiative, and what role should senior and middle management play in this change initiative?
Various Functional areas in the organization would be included in the six sigma initiatives with a different approach which is focusing more on quality of a product. With six sigma being included in a company it strengthens all aspects in the company. These initiatives are focused towards long term and short term competitiveness . In this initiative senior and middle managers would take the role of trainers in training their employees on the new approach six sigma approach on the job
3. What role should Six Sigma play in corporate strategy?
Six Sigma is all about business change. Corporations employ Six Sigma as a business methodology to refine their business and for the company to have greater value. It has a great concept of improving existing processes by having better customer satisfaction and savings costs. They used the "DMAIC" Improvement model which stood for define, measure, analyze, improve and control. For new product development they used the DFSS model which started off with identifying customer's requirements then translated them into product specifications
4. Deployment of Six Sigma will require the company to identify and develop a process to allocate the right human resource for the project. Implementing Six Sigma may have human resource implications which are to be kept in mind.
·Six sigma method includes stages or steps which requires the selected human resource to have multiple skills and end to end understanding—starting from the thorough business/product knowledge to the possible technical complications of the product/ process.
·Poor coordination between the resources at each stage of the method can cause the outcome of the implementation to be less effective.
·An employee or a team that implemented a project using the method may not be compatible [due to skills and talent] to be used for another project that requires totally different set of skills and knowledge.
5. Christian
How will Six Sigma affect the innovative culture at 3M, and is Six Sigma enough? Six Sigma affects the innovating culture at 3M in that it tends to block innovation, creativity, and the development of new products. The strong restrictions on errors restrain from taking risks that are required to make something new. Six Sigma is not enough. There needs to be a balance between six sigma and creativity.
LCL = 0.0175 - 3 √[(0.0175 x 0.9825)/400 ]
= 0.0175 - 3√(0.01719375 / 400)
= 0.0175 - 0.0393
= -0.0022, this is negative so LCL is 0.
(2b).
If there are 6 letters that are defective, 6/400 = 0.015. This is within the control limits. The process is still in control.
(6a).
X bar: CL = 30, UCL = 32.415, LCL = 27.585
R bar: CL = 5, UCL = 10.02, LCL = 0
(6b).
The sample mean = (38 + 35 + 27 + 30 + 33 + 32) / 6 = 195 /6 = 32.5
The sample range = 38 - 27 = 11
The mean of 32.5 is above the upper control limit of 32.415. The range of 11 is above the upper control limit of 10.02.
The process is not in control. we stop the process and look for an assignable cause.
(12a).
Cp=1.67 and Cpk=0.56
(12b).
To improve the process Cpk, we shift the mean closer to the center of the specification range or reduce the standard deviation.
