Quality and Productivity in Industry and Technology:
Little Person’s is a Chicagoland manufacturer that produces infant baby formula. The company’s product comes in various forms including concentrated liquid and ready-to-feed liquid. All of the formula meets industry nutritional standards and is fortified with iron, DHA and ARA. Little Person’s formula has the longest shelf life at room temperature of any brand of formula on the market. Little Person’s offers 3 different types of formulas including those that are cow’s milk based, lactose free, and soy based. Little Person’s offers formulas for: pre-term babies, low-birth weight, babies over 8 months and toddlers. Little Person’s also offers organic formula. All formula from Little Person’s comes in single serving as well as multiple serving containers and can be purchased at grocery stores, drug stores and on-line with no shipping fee ever. Little Person’s offers a life time money back guarantee on all of their formula. Every year Little Person’s has a contest in which 10 families can win a year’s supply of their choice of formula by entering a picture of their baby enjoying drinking Little Person’s formula. Little Person’s donates 1 million gallons of formula each year to families who can’t afford to by formula for their babies.
The process for making a batch of Little Person’s infant formula consists of the following steps:
The infant formula mixing operator must first gather all the raw materials needed from the refrigerated storeroom. The mixing operator uses a cart to transport the materials to the mixing department. In the mixing department, the correct amount of raw materials must be mixed in a refrigerated tank in the proper sequence. The mixing operator must follow specified safety instructions and sterile techniques. After mixing, a sample is obtained from the mixing tank and taken to the laboratory area. A technician in the laboratory tests the sample to ensure that all the requirements and specifications for the infant formula are met. If the requirements are not met, the mixing operator must go back to the mixing tank, add additional raw material as specified by the laboratory technician and then take a new sample to the laboratory area. If the requirements and specifications are met, the mixing tank is transported by the mixing operator to the filling department. The filling operator fills the individual bottles of infant formula following sterile techniques. The filled bottles are transported by the filling operator to the packaging department where labels are placed on the bottles. A packaging inspector inspects every bottle to ensure that the label is correct. The labeled bottles are packed in boxes and moved to the shipping department.
1) Develop a flowchart that maps out the steps in the process of making a batch of Little Person’s formula as outlined above.
Use the following symbols in your process map:
All Start/Beginning step(s) and Stop/End steps
Decisions Process steps
2) Who are the consumers in this process? Who are the internal customers in this process?
3) Identify one value added and one non value added step in the process. Explain why each step is value or non-value added.
4) Given that without customers, the infant formula manufacturer would not have business, write a brief (one or two sentence) mission statement for the company that would illustrate a commitment to satisfying their customers.
5) List 5 examples of the dimensions of quality that are present in the Little Person’s infant formula.
6) Name 2 features of Little Person’s formula that would be considered customer dissatisfiers, 3 features that would be customer satisfiers and 1feature that could be a customer exciter.