Assignment 2

Agustin Quintana
IE673 - Total Quality Management

Rework Summary

Prof. Ranky Comments – 7/10 - Unfortunately some of your answers are very slim. The syllabus (see
above) is clearly asking for 200-250 words per assignment question. Obviously I value quality input, but
it should be a substantial answer (i.e. 200-250 words per question).

Agustin Quintana Document Additions – Added figures to document.

1. Discuss the importance of quality partnering and strategic alliances. How is your company doing
this?

At QMS Corp. our strategic partnerships are competitive advantage that puts us ahead of the other
material solution companies. Our goal is to help our manufacturing clients reduce scrap and have an
efficient way for recycling material. For us to do this we need to collaborate with steel mills that will
take back the materials, our clients themselves, and other companies which provide technologies for us
to do our work more efficiently. We collaborate with steel mills and scrap yards to assure we can deliver
material in an efficient manner. We have shared protocols which assure the way the material is
inspected, sorted, and delivered to maintain the highest quality. This is important because the shared
protocol was created in collaboration with our partners to assure, they work within both of our internal
company controls and cements our commitment to quality.

We collaborate with our clients themselves as part of the service we provide to help them have efficient
green material solutions. We held them develop processes and procedures for material recycling if they
don’t have any. In addition, we design collection containers and sifters to meet their sites needs. Quality
and collaboration are part of our green service. Finally, we collaborate with out side companies that
help us get better and make us more efficient. We work with PTC for our CAD software (Pro-Engineer)
and our CAD management program (Windchill). Moreover, we are starting to collaborate with Tesla and
other electric car companies to make our delivery trucks to be powered with out fossil fuels. This is part
of our continued effort of becoming a world leading green company.

2. Discuss the various forms of quality partnering and strategic alliances. Focus on the process
model.

One of QMS corps core competencies is continuous improvement via internal collaboration. At QMS
internal partnering operates mainly at 3 levels. Management to employee partnerships, team to team
partnerships, and employee to employee partnerships. QMS allows teams to form organically to
complete projects and has a pathway to submit proposals for possible improvements for any employee.
In fact, QMS promotes ideas and quality improvements to come directly from the employees completing
the jobs as they see the processes operating day to day.
 Management to Employee

Team to Team

Employee to Employee
Figure 1 – Levels of Quality Partnerships at QMS Corp. / Drawn By me

3. Discuss the importance of quality culture.

Quality is a pillar of QMS Corp. culture that is integral to our company’s business and clients. Quality is a
constant pursuit that is assured by the continuous improvement of pour processes and products. We
have a culture of investigating our quality gaps and closing them with innovative lean solutions. Our
culture is based around our green initiative of material efficiency which goes in hand with our belief in
quality. Our employees believe in what our company is trying to do and therefore, assume quality as
never-ending challenge. That is why QMS processes focus on quality and allow our employees to
improve wherever there is opportunity for improvement.

Continuous Recognition of
Quality First
Improvement Quality Results

Measuring of
Setting Quality
Process
Goals
Outputs

Figure 2 – Quality Culture Pillars at QMS Corp. / Drawn by me

4. Explain the difference between traditional and modern quality cultures.

A) Traditional
• Operating Philosophy – Main focus in on short term profits and maximizing ROI. Such
focus on short term have a negative effect in the end.
• Objectives – Short term objectives that focus on the immediate goals the company is
trying to accomplish.
• Management Approach – Traditional hierarchy system where managers direct and
employees do.
• Attitude towards Customers – Companies care about revenue and needs more than
their costumer.
• Problem Solving Approach – A main player who solves most of the issues and is a go to
expert / SME. This kind of approach puts a lot of responsibility on one person and thus
minimizing other people’s jobs.
• Supplier Relationships – Organization and suppliers are external to each other and can
sometimes have competing interest. Organizations can step away from suppliers and
can leverage business for lower process and lead times.

B) Modern
• Operating Philosophy – The costumer is at the core of the operating philosophy of
modern companies. Focus on quality and improvement to deliver a better a costumer
experience.
• Objectives – Strategic planning which sets a long-term vision with attainable short-term
achievements.
• Management Approach – Managers are leaders who develop individual contributors.
They set goals, provide feedback, and help continued development.
• Attitude towards Customers – Organizations are more focused on the costumer and
continually improve to deliver better quality products and services.
• Problem Solving Approach – Companies have processes in place to identify and isolate a
root cause. Teams come together to fix the issue, measure the efficiency of the solution,
and improve the process permanently.
• Supplier Relationships – Organizations and suppliers are partners who have mutual
benefits from collaboration. Increased quality and service benefits everybody’s
revenues.

5. How do you understand who is a customer? How is your company doing this?

At QMS Corp. our costumers are also our strategic partners through every phase of our operation. We
identify our costumer via the service we are providing to them; yet they are our partners as their
success only increases ours. For example, the material collection we do for our costumer manufacturing
sites is our service to those companies. The better-quality service we provide the better those
manufacturers are set up for success. Yet, those manufacturers provide us with material we then sell as
scrap for recycling. So, our costumers are providing us indirectly with a good (scrap material). Thus, we
both mutually benefit from our collective success. This is why QMS mission is to partner with
manufacturers to make complete material recycling a reality for those companies and our world.
6. Explain customer defined value, value analysis and retention.

Costumer defined value is the sum of the desired value of a product by that costumer and the perceived
value of that product to the costumer. Perceived value of a product is the benefit that the costumer
thinks he or she is getting from that product. The perceived value is based on many factors such as:

• Product Quality
• The organizations brand
• Selling price
• Ease of use
• Associated products or services

Costumer Value Analysis is a process to determine what is important and most valuable to the
costumer. This process is carried out by first determining what attributes the costumer values and then
rating them in level of importance. The one can look at the company strength and see how they match
up to the ranked attributes. Final part of the analysis is to get feedback from the costumer and see if
your company’s rank matches the costumers. It is important to continually do this as what the costumer
values can change over time.

Customer retention is based on how many customers buy your product and come back for more
services. This is a key aspect for any successful company and its important to grow a business. In order
to retain customers, QMS makes it a point to develop a relationship and more importantly a
partnership. In our model, when our costumers grow, our company grows with them.

7. Discuss product innovation models for customer retention

In order to keep costumers QMS Corp. needs to provide a quality product/service, provide superior cost
value, and a continued pipeline of innovation to help our customers. To do this the company needs to
focus on continued improvement of their products, processes, and services.

An innovation model which was developed by Praveen Gupta, is focused on keeping products fresh,
attractive, and relevant to the customer. See the steps of the model described below:

• Target the opportunity – Identify customer needs and use them to guide the company’s innovation.
• Explore the idea – Conduct research and DOE experiments to ensure the proposed innovation will
have a higher chance of success in the marketplace.
• Develop Alternative – Always have an alternative strategy or innovation. Multiple prototypes or
designs that can be tested and evaluated.
• Optimized the Solution – Optimize the chosen solution for production and delivery.
• Commercialize the innovation – Develop and deploy an effective market strategy for the innovation
being launched. Never let innovation fail for lack of effective market strategy.

8. Discuss employee empowerment. How is your company doing this?

At QMS employee empowerment and engagement are at the core of our company culture. Our
company empowers employees to own their processes and feel the responsibility to improve for the
company. Our company has process owners for each process based on functional title and gives leeway
to those process owns to adapt and improve their processes. This allows for innovation to come from
the employees who are doing the work as they can make changes to the process. Or change control
process allows for any employee to submit a change and get the necessary approvals to implement and
measure the change. In addition, we partner with Gallup to conduct wellness surveys and use that data
to improve our company. This allows all our employees to know they are part of the company and have
real input on to how the company improves. Engagement is very important at QMS Corp. and we
continue to strive to make our employees feel real ownership of the impact this company is having.

9. Discuss leadership for quality. How is your company doing this?

Leadership for quality from a total quality perspective has to do with continual improvement of the
performance of people, processes, and products. Leadership of quality relies of the principle that
continual improvement will lead to better quality, value, productivity, growth, and revenue. Some key
elements of leadership quality are, costumer focus, recognition of work, team work, best practices, and
reaching peak performance.

10. How to lead for a better-quality change? How is your company doing this?

Change can be really hard and leading people through change is pivotal for organizations. This is why
change initiatives at QMS Corp. have concrete plans and require a systematic effort. Due to the difficulty
of change it is important for leadership to have confidence in the continual improvement system, even
when the company is performing well. Organization can get complacent when they reach a certain size,
and this lead it down a negative pathway. This is why at QMS we always encourage change and have laid
a foundation for employees to have the confidence to enact change in our processes, services, and
products.

11. Please don't forget the social networking assignment!

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