Case Scenario:
You are a project manager of two projects for a facial care product development firm, ZJZ Cosmetics. ZJZ Cosmetics creates products for other firms to brand and market; they do not sell the products they create to the final customer, only business-to-business. You are in the research and development department and your research specialty is on improving the manufacturing process by investigating new product components. One of the projects you are managing is a "pure" research project. You are looking at five different compounds trying to determine which will be the most reliable and cost-effective base for a new make-up base.
Your other project is for one of your new clients, a pharmaceuticals firm. Your client will be using one of your existing products as the base for some medications that will be used to treat skin problems. This is an existing product for your client and one of the major revenue generators. The client moved to you as a supplier because of quality control problems with one of the former suppliers. The former supplier would deliver wrong product, expired product, product close to expiration, mislabeled product. It got to the point with the former supplier that the returns and waste were greater than the volume of proper, usable product.
You have been identified as the project manager for the project to implement quality control processes that will be used for the manufacture, monitoring, and distribution of this product. You are not sure if the research processes are considered part of the scope. Your new client will be auditing your quality processes and controls in 4 months, so everything must be ready by then.
This is a significant project for your company. This new client is the largest client for ZJZ Cosmetics, and if successful, this provides an entrance into a whole new market. Quality has always been addressed for existing products, but never at the level of rigor and discipline required for a pharmaceutical product regulated by multiple governments. Historically, ZJZ has been a flat organization, and all the department managers have been responsible for quality; there has been no quality department. It is not clear if a quality department will be created or not; that is part of the project's scope. This quality initiative dubbed Growth Through Quality (with the tagline of Excellent Product + Quality Processes = Future Growth) has been communicated to the entire company by the CEO. You know you have senior management's support.
You just met with your boss, Sharon, the vice president of research and development. Sharon emphasized that your project will be responsibility for
- Defining the goals and scope of the quality initiative.
- Defining organizational structure, roles, and responsibilities relative to quality controls.
- Developing the quality policies, processes, procedures, and the associated controls.
- Communicating, training, and implementing the new procedures.
- Defining and implementing the quality measurement program.
Question:
Work on the initiative is moving along well. Your team has documented the current labeling, storage, and shipping business processes and analyzed them for improvements related to quality and quality controls. They focused on where mistakes could be made. They looked at mistakes that happened within the last 6 months and unfortunately found many examples related just to this product. The following are examples of the mistakes that were found:
- wrong labels being put on products
- errors on the labels (e.g., spelling mistakes and incorrect expiration dates)
- errors in storing the finished product until it was needed for shipping (putting it in the wrong refrigerator, putting it in the wrong warehouse, inaccurate records regarding product locations)
- shipping mistakes (e.g., shipping incorrect amounts, shipping to incorrect locations, shipping product too close to expiration, mistakes on the shipping labels so quantities did not match, and spelling mistakes on the shipping labels)
You now need to determine the priorities for the team and identify a pilot. You have 2 months until your new customer comes aboard.
Part 1:
Based on your knowledge of the case study and the client's expectations, define the priorities for the team. What are the three processes that should be worked on first? Be as specific and detailed as possible. Document your priorities in a Word document and support your rationale.
Part 2:
Create a process map (using whatever mapping method you prefer) for the future processes/procedures for those priorities. Be sure to identify key steps, decision points, data points, and areas responsible. Identify the processes/procedures that will be piloted over the next month. Present your map and supporting documentation as a PowerPoint presentation.