Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Assignment 6

1.      Explain why continual quality improvement is important?
Ans) Any organization to stay in race with its opponents it needs continual quality improvement. As the time goes customer choices and needs also changes, to satisfy the customers improvement is very important. For example take the fastest car in the world, if the company doesn’t improve every year its opponent will release a car that is faster than that. So just being number one is not just enough but also continual improvement to stay number one. What is best today may not be the best tomorrow if there is no improvement to stay ahead of all its opponents.

2.      What is management’s role in continual quality improvement?
Ans) Managers possess an authority to make decisions as they are the higher ranking officials in an organization. It’s the responsibility of the higher officials to make continual improvement to keep the company in par with its rivals. By management playing the necessary role of leadership at its best the organization ca definitely improve. Some of the best thing a leader can teach their workers is:
a)      To give the workers specific improvements goals which are decided by the quality council.
b)      Giving the workers the motivation need both mentally and physically.  
c)      Setting a quality council for every single department in the organization and work on it.
d)      Improving the rewards for the workers depending on their work.
e)      Good leader periodically checks whether there are any faults in the system.

3.      Discuss the Kaizen approach?
Ans) Kaizen is the name given by the Japanese to the concept of continual improvement, here Kai means change and Zen means good. The main things that are focused in this approach are people, product and process. Hence kaizen approach main motto is continual improvement of quality of the product to satisfy the people, in this approach good is never good enough as it must keep improving to satisfy the customers. Kaizen value system is a system in which all things at all levels are at continual improvement for ever. The figure below shoes the structure of this system.


4.      How would you describe a lean system?
Ans) Lean system was first developed as a concept for manufacturing hence it is also called Lean Manufacturing. The world lean is used here as by using this system we can produce better products and services using very few sources compared to other systems. This concept is borrowed from the Just-In-Time Toyota Production System (TPS) which was first developed at an automobile company Toyota by a quality officer Taiichi Ohno. Lean systems main motto is to get the right things to the right place in right time by reducing the waste and using every resource possible and keep on improving the work flow. Some of the important ways to reduce waste is:
a)      Overproduction waste: This waste is usually caused due extra production of an product or giving extra services than needed.
b)      Inventory waste: As this is a manufacturing system inventory is the raw materials, to waste inventory here is to stack up more raw materials in the ware houses than needed.
c)      Defects waste: This waste is caused due to defects in products which cause extra labor and services to the customers.
d)      Transportation cost: This is caused when a product is being processed and the machinery is not in line the transportation needed to take the product from machinery to another. For example a product is processing and the machinery is not in line to take the product from one part of the factory to another part is definitely a waste.

5.      What is lean six-sigma and how would you apply it to a quality management system?
Ans) Six-sigma was a big innovation which changed the way we see the quality improvement. The aim of lean six-sigma is to reduce defects to 3.4 times a million to improve the processing quality which leads to improve success and profitability. The benefits from using this system are:
a)      Cost reduction
b)      Productivity improvement
c)      Market-share growth
d)      Customer retention
e)      Culture change
f)       Product/service improvement
The main protocol of the six-sigma system is a six-step concept for continual improvement. The six steps are:
i)                 Identifying what are the products that are wanted by the customers.
ii)                To prioritize according to their criticality
iii)               Determine if the classified characteristics are controlled by part and/or process
iv)               Maximum allowable tolerance for each classified characteristics
v)                Calculate the process variation carefully of the classified characteristics
vi)               Make the changes according to the six-sigma it might be change in product or service
There are five main steps to apply lean six sigma to quality management system is:
a)      Identify the problem
b)      Decide how to exploit the problem
c)      Subordinate and synchronize it
d)      Elevate the performance
e)      If the output is not good go back to step 1

6.      Define benchmarking?
Ans) Benchmark was first developed in 1980’s but came into limelight in 1990’s. In 80’s none of the fortune 500 companies were using bench marking, where in 90’s almost all of the fortune 500 were using it. Benchmarking is a process where an organization compares its working both internally and externally with the company’s best-in-class inside or outside its industry. This will help the company to close its gap between the best companies in its class. In this process both the organizations should have a good relationship to share data for mutual benefits. Benchmark concentrates on the critical changes that need to be made in the processing unit for improved output. Usually benchmarking takes place between both companies which are not from same industry hence they won’t hesitate in sharing the data between each other. This is beneficial for both small and large industries. 

7.      How can you apply benchmarking data?
Ans) The data which we have after benchmarking is finished will be both qualitative and quantitative information. Quantitative information is used to analyze the future progress so it can be used for further improvement objectives for future. The qualitative analysis is used to look into how the people are being trained, personal policies etc. this gives us the insight of how the benchmarking is going on. The quantitative information is the information that is needed but there is more value in the qualitative information. As this gives us the information how the system is creating an environment to be best-in-class and to sustain it. Never take this information easily, the better you study about this information and discuss in the staff meetings the better results you get.

8.      What is a JIT system?
Ans) Just-In-Time system is nothing but getting your materials delivered at the right time when you need them. This system is used to eliminate all the resources that are going for waste in the manufacturing by producing extra products than needed and wasting the resources and even the suppliers should also eliminate the waste by making use of every resources. This can be done by suppliers not producing the materials until the manufacturers need it, by doing this there is no need for an inventory this saves a lot of money and this money can invested in the development of the company in return.

9.      What are the benefits of JIT/lean?
Ans) The benefits of JIT/lean goes around four critical topics they are: inventory and work in process, cycle time, continual improvement and elimination of waste. There are four important concepts in this discussion they are:
Inventory and Work-in-Process: Not using inventory is practically not possible but the inventory can be reduced by producing exactly the amount of products needed. Products should not be kept for long in the warehouses this reduces the inventory cost.
Cycle Time: This is the time when the materials are supplied to the manufacturer before the production takes place and the time after the manufacturing is completed the good when sent to the goods storage. As the production time reduces product manufacturing cost also decreases.
Continual Improvement: Good continual improvement helps in eliminating waste by improving the methods of manufacture. This continual improvement helps in reducing cost by using the waste in any form needed.
Elimination of waste: By eliminating waste in the above three sections production cost definitely decreases. Some of the important forms of wastes needed to be eliminated are:
a)      Waste arising from overproducing
b)      Waste arising from waiting
c)      Waste arising from transport
d)      Waste arising from processing itself
e)      Waste arising from unnecessary stock on hand
f)       Waste arising from unnecessary motion
g)      Waste arising from producing defective goods

10.   Discuss the automation system ideas for JIT/lean?
Ans) Many companies have done the costly mistake of thinking that automation will change the face of the company. In 1980’s many of the North American companies have invested billions of dollars in automation and went through a very bad crisis. Cadillac was one of the first to set up the automated assembly set up and had many problems with it where the company went to a stage where it had to be closed. Humans need is important too as we need humans to control the machines and the humans replaced machines should be made efficient to work better than the humans.



                                                        SOCIAL NETWORKING
KT Platform Tactile Monitor lets players get a real feel for the music:
KT platform tactile monitor is a player made by Porter & Davies company that helps us get real feel for the music. About 3 years ago this company helped the drummers feel the low end thunder by kicking the very tool they sat on. Now the company has taken it to another lever with this tactile monitor which sends sounds through kinetic transfer which you can literally feel in your bones. Rather than just hearing the music through ear this device gives a physically feel through bone conduction. This device released at the end of the January and is highly priced at $2,250 which is pretty expensive.

Drone Debate:
The Unmanned Aircraft is the new upcoming technology all around the world. The new upcoming improvements in the drones are drone sensors. These sensors usually include accelerometer, gyroscope, image sensors etc.
We need regulation of drones because FAA is concerned regarding the safety and security. As there is a possibility for the drones of colliding with other objects and humans. Some drones don’t need the FAA permit but they need some rules and regulations. All the drones that are used by commercial or business purpose are subjected to FAA. Contrary to what is being speculated as to the rules which are being applied to consumer drones ‘SHALL NOT APPLY’. Today's Drones are not fit for taking care of the see and maintain a strategic distance from rule yet. Despite the fact that it could be conceivable as Intel has given a heads-up to this utilizing "Genuine SENSE" innovation. All the organizations need protected and dependable flying as the obligation begins up with the controller then to the producer lastly to the clients.


Solar Plane Pioneers Lay Out Round-the-World Flight Plan

Ever since the beginning of an unnatural weather change and ascend in the measure of contamination; specialists, researchers and preservationists have dealt with creating eco-accommodating method of transportation. The utilization of coal and petrol as fuel makes a lot of contamination furthermore influences the soundness of the individuals. The impacts of these a dangerous atmospheric devastation and contamination can be felt harder as the days go by directing us the need for such high number of individual vehicles. Presently the late headway in transportation area is the development of sun powered plane. This sun oriented plane tackles immaculate vitality from the sun and uses this to power the plane. It has been named as Solar Impulse which is a bigger model of the to start with, which flew a couple of years prior. The task organizers and pilots have chosen to fly this over the globe with stops at different spots. This could be the world's first plane ever to circumnavigate the globe utilizing just the force of the sun and to drive with its four propellers. The plane has stand out seat in it to drive it, so that the delays will give the pilots an opportunity to swap puts and draw in with the neighborhood groups along the way. If this works out well this will lead to many inventions which can run on solar energy and save our natural resources for our future generations. 

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Assignment 5

1.      What is Quality Function Deployment?
Ans) While designing or production of a product we inculcate Quality Function Deployment method as this makes the model more customer based for customer satisfaction. This method was first invented in 1980’s but it was originated in the west but still had a spotty history. There are few drawbacks but still few companies use the model of QFD and still are working successfully. But in some cases QFD is a big failure, so if using a QFD it should be tailored carefully by monitoring the problem carefully and implementing it. A Japanese expert Dr. Yoji Akao developed 3 main methods to follow in this model:
·        Voice of the customer (VOC) –To listen to what the customer is expecting.
·        Identifying what satisfies VOC.
·        Production of the goods as to satisfy the VOC.


2.      Explain the WHAT’s in a QFD matix?
Ans)  Gathering customer needs input: To satisfy the customers the manufacturers must keep in mind their main motto which is to satisfy the customers. To satisfy customer first thing we need to know is what satisfies them, hence needs of the customers should be gathered.
Refining the customer need inputs: After gathering information about the needs of the customers it should be implemented in the new product. But the needs should be prioritized accordingly, like which are the most critical need and act accordingly.
Affinity diagram: This is used to find different and better approaches in encouraging creative thinking. In any company the vital element is continual improvement and that can be achieved by using this.
Using the tree diagram: Tree diagram is nothing but refined version of affinity diagram. In this, needs of the customers is focused till nuts and bolts of the product but this is not used for designing. This diagram is used to list the items used for HOQ.
Customer importance:  By considering each customer needs the improvements should be made appropriately. By rating the needs of the customers from 1 to 5 the most critical improvements must be made.

3.      Explain the HOW’s in a QFD matrix?
Ans) Technical requirements room of the HOQ states HOW the needs of the customers should be satisfied. This is also referred as voice of the company. This doesn’t focus on the design of the system instead focuses on the features and the characteristics.  Specifications of the product are measured some time in weights, speed etc., several times just yes or no. They use affinity diagram or tree diagram to sort and rank the requirements according to the customer needs.



4.      Explain 1 or 3 or 9 interrelation values in a QFD matrix?
Ans) This matrix is used find the relation between WHAT’s and HOW’s of a matrix. In a situation where HOW’s and WHAT’s intersect they are categorized on their importance. They are measured from scale of 1-5 or from 1-9. For example they might set the rating as follows:
9 (strongest relationship)
3 (medium relationship)
1 (weak relationship)
Just finding the interrelation is not enough, how strong is the relation also matter. Few times symbols are also used instead of numbers for rating. But number system is considered over symbols as it is more precise.

5.      Explain how you calculate the technical priorities in the design target matrix?
Ans) To calculate the technical priorities, the team just multiples interrelationship ratings from the interrelation matrices, times the customer need’s overall weighing value in the planning matrix; and then sums the columns. A total of four multiplications must be done and then summed. Then % of total priority is calculated by using a mathematical expression:
% of total priority = Technical Requirement Priority / individual technical priority values)* 100
The figure below shows a model of Target matrixes..



6.      Define statistical process control?
Ans) Statistical process control is used in all the industries as it is common for all workplaces. Any work that is carried out in a work place for the organization is called process. Any type of process can be affected and there are Five M’s who operate the process, they are manpower, environment, instructions or method followed, materials used and measurements taken. If all the above processes are flawless then the system will be in statistical process control.

7.      Explain control chart for variables, with a simple mathematical example?
Ans) There are several control charts but according to the need particular chart is selected. First we need to select a chart that is suitable for this for developing our control chart. 
For example:
A large hotel in a resort area has a housekeeping staff that cleans and prepares all of the hotel's guestrooms daily.  In an effort to improve service through reducing variation in the time required to clean and prepare a room, a series of measurements is taken of the times to service rooms in one section of the hotel.  Cleaning times for five rooms selected each day for 25 consecutive days appear below:

Day
Room 1
Room 2
Room 3
Room 4
Room 5
Average
Range
St. Dev
1
15.6
14.3
17.7
14.3
15.0
15.4
3.4
1.41
2
15.0
14.8
16.8
16.9
17.4
16.2
2.6
1.19
3
16.4
15.1
15.7
17.3
16.6
16.2
2.2
0.85
4
14.2
14.8
17.3
15.0
16.4
15.5
3.1
1.27
5
16.4
16.3
17.6
17.9
14.9
16.6
3.0
1.19
6
14.9
17.2
17.2
15.3
14.1
15.7
3.1
1.40
7
17.9
17.9
14.7
17.0
14.5
16.4
3.4
1.69
8
14.0
17.7
16.9
14.0
14.9
15.5
3.7
1.71
9
17.6
16.5
15.3
14.5
15.1
15.8
3.1
1.24
10
14.6
14.0
14.7
16.9
14.2
14.9
2.9
1.16
11
14.6
15.5
15.9
14.8
14.2
15.0
1.7
0.69
12
15.3
15.3
15.9
15.0
17.8
15.9
2.8
1.13
13
17.4
14.9
17.7
16.6
14.7
16.3
3.0
1.39
14
15.3
16.9
17.9
17.2
17.5
17.0
2.6
1.00
15
14.8
15.1
16.6
16.3
14.5
15.5
2.1
0.93
16
16.1
14.6
17.5
16.9
17.7
16.6
3.1
1.26
17
14.2
14.7
15.3
15.7
14.3
14.8
1.5
0.65
18
14.6
17.2
16.0
16.7
16.3
16.2
2.6
0.98
19
15.9
16.5
16.1
15.0
17.8
16.3
2.8
1.02
20
16.2
14.8
14.8
15.0
15.3
15.2
1.4
0.58
21
16.3
15.3
14.0
17.4
14.5
15.5
3.4
1.37
22
15.0
17.6
14.5
17.5
17.8
16.5
3.3
1.59
23
16.4
15.9
16.7
15.7
16.9
16.3
1.2
0.51
24
16.6
15.1
14.1
17.4
17.8
16.2
3.7
1.56
25
17.0
17.5
17.4
16.2
17.9
      17.2
1.7
0.64
















X






15.94
2.70
1.14
8.      Explain control chart for attributes, with a simple mathematical example?
Ans)  Attribute data is used to count the data but not measure the data. As the X and R charts are used for measuring variable data, in this p chats are used. The data plotted on P chart is the number of defective pieces in n number of items, but it is counted in fractions or percentage. And there is one more chart called c chart for attributes but this is used for counting number of defects in a product.
The chart below shows the example of c charts:




9.      Explain how we can use control charts for continual quality improvement?
Ans) The control charts are used for alerting us during important causes during the process and helps in correcting it. To find if the improved data is working or not the process should be carried out in control. This is because we don’t know if the improved data is working out accordingly or not as it has some special causes.  After the data is improved the parameters on the chart should also be updated accordingly if not the original data will be displayed. If there is any problem it should be rectified immediately otherwise the whole system will be restarted.

10.   Explain the way control charts could be used for quality improvements?

Ans) The way control diagrams could be utilized for quality upgrades is that once they are amassed and the framework is in authentic control, the diagraming does not stop. Cutting straight to the chase, at accurately that point can the layout experience its name, control outline. Having done the starting work of making cutoff points and centerlines, plotting beginning information, and executing any extraordinary reasons that were discovered, we have landed toward the beginning stage. Information must be determinedly amassed from the method in the same way they were for the beginning blueprint. The control outline is the factual gadget that empowers SPC on the shop floor or the work place.





Social Networking

World’s largest satellite constellation to provide global internet access
This article discusses about a satellite that is set to provide global internet access. The main aim of the satellite is to provide affordable internet access to everyone, as half of the world’s population has no access to internet. There are many other projects that are aiming for providing global internet access as google plans on floating balloons in remote areas to provide internet. Whereas Facebook and Quarkson plan on using drones. OneWeb’s idea is very different from all these as they plan on launching 648 micro satellites into the orbit which is funded by Virgin and Qualcomm. These satellites will provide 2G, 3G,4G and LTE according to the users need. And virgin will also be the funder for satellite launcher. This is a really helpful project and we are waiting for it. This will change the face of the world as everyone in remote areas can also develop as everything can be learnt on internet.


Garmin may begin offering radar systems for bikes

This article discusses about the radar systems on bike which are offered Garmin. Garmin bought this radar system from iKubu ltd and is offering it as backtracker for bicycles. This backtracker system uses two pods one placed beneath the seat and one near the handles. The module beneath the seat uses 24 GHZ radar antenna to scan for vehicles, when there is an object approaching from behind it notifies the module on the handle bar using the Bluetooth. When an car is closing in from behind the LED lights on the handle bars keep increasing. As Garmin bought iKubu the most of the workers will also work for Garmin from now. This is a very useful module as this is a simple device and is affordable for everyone.

CompuLab aims to put a Mint in your pocket


This article discusses about putting a computer in your pocket which is developed by CompuLab.  CompuLab is an Israel’s maker of small fan less computers has revealed a tiny computer, MintBox Mini.  Fan less min comes with  quad-core processor, solid state  storage and will be available in second quarter of 2015 for US$295. In this mini size the company was able to fit an AMD A4 6400T processor, 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of SSD. This has three USB ports and two are 3.0 USB, Gigabit Ethernet, WIFI, Micro SD reader and two HDMI ports. This alos comes with a five year warranty.