Assignment
This lesson examined various process improvement strategies and tools to help identify and resolve operational and production problems or issues. Achieving quality and efficiency is an ongoing process of continuous improvement. In this essay apply what you have learned in the lesson by assuming that you are the consultant for a company. The company is losing market share and customers are not happy with the quality of the product you provide. Select an existing manufacturing company (not automotive) to use for this scenario. Write an essay that describes how you would recommend that this company apply process improvement tools/strategies to address operations issues and establish an environment of continuous improvement.
Deliverables: The essay for this lesson is required to be a minimum of 750 words that clearly demonstrate your understanding of the activity. Essays should have a clear introduction, thesis statement and conclusion, written in APA format (APAstyle.org). A minimum of three sources must be cited in-text and in the Reference list.
Activity Details
Read the following questions and use what you have learned about this lesson's objective to summarize your responses.
-What is the first step the selected company must take to clearly identify deficiencies?
-Describe the benefits of process improvements. How will addressing these help the company gain market share and improve overall quality?
-What are the best practices in this specific industry for process improvements related to your scenario?
-Is there a competitor who exemplifies process improvement and quality that you can benchmark? Explain what they do "best."
-What type of KPIs will you need to measure to reach the company's performance goals?
-Determine how Lean Six Sigma applies to your scenario. What impact will it have on this company's efficiency improvements, cost and waste reduction goals?
-Explain how a new lean system layout will benefit this company's production. Identify at least two other applications in operations process improvement that would benefit the company.