Represents a Needs Assessment for Quality Improvement

¶ … represents a needs assessment for quality improvement scenario. The report will assess the need for a quality improvement process within "a manufacturing organization." The report will include a description of the problem and process as well as a flow chart of the process to be analyzed. The report will also describe the relationship of the process to the organization's overall strategic plan and will identify both the internal and external customers of the organization. The paper concludes with an estimate of the level of improvement that could be realized and the value of implementing the new quality improvement process.

The TiaPei Manufacturing Company designs, manufactures and exports small toys that are exported to the United States for sales. The organization has decided to implement a Six Sigma manufacturing quality control program so as to reap the benefits of added efficiency and quality. The company's version of the Sigma process provides it with an opportunity to increase its Return On Investment. "The Six Sigma process is a completely disciplined, data-driven approach for eliminating defects in a manufacturing process and was developed by Motorola." (The Professional, 1998)

The Six Sigma process will apply the following methods to improve quality:

Flowcharting

Analysis of cause and effect

Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA)

Pareto charting

Six Sigma as a Total Quality Control process is geared to instill a near perfection like manufacturing process. The objective is to work on a scale where one hundred percent equates a defect free product and therefore Six Sigma as a process strives to achieve a 99.99966% defect free product. The TiaPei Manufacturing Company will adopt the strategic initiative to combine quality methods and project-management techniques and therefore remove non-value-added activities from their toy design and manufacturing process as well as their export operations. The company strives to achieve a large return on investment from each of these functions.