Module 7 Overview

The concept of quality and total quality management (TQM) are crucial to the success of an organization, regardless of its size or the markets it serves. In today's competitive market environment, continual improvements in product and service quality are becoming almost necessary conditions for an organization to survive and grow.

While the definition of quality is often very ambiguous as it depends on the view of the customers, it is generally agreed that there are specific dimensions of quality that products and services must be designed to meet in order to satisfy customer expectations.

Quality Management and Control

There are several definitions and interpretations of quality including conformance to specifications, ideal combination of attributes that are best suited for intended use, value for the price paid, customer and service support, expected reliability and the ability to meet physiological needs. In an increasingly global competitive environment, quality has gained increasing prominence because organizations are starting to realize the high costs of poor quality.

Generally, there are four types of quality costs: 

1. Prevention costs
2. Appraisal costs
3. Internal failure costs
4. External failure costs

The first two costs are incurred typically when an organization is trying to improve the quality of the products and services it delivers to its customers. Failure costs are incurred when the product fails to meet specifications or use. External failure costs are costs of failures that occur at the customer site or during customer use. These can be very damaging to the organization's reputation and can be expensive to fix, especially if the product is under warranty.

Today most companies consider continual quality improvement a key strategic goal and invest heavily in prevention and appraisal costs with detecting and correcting defects during product design and testing, process monitoring, as well as line and batch inspection.

The main elements of quality are product reliability and product or service consistency. Reliability is defined as the probability that the product will function as expected and within specifications. Consistency is defined as the repeatability of the product performance between use and between identical products produced by the same organization. These quality elements are computed as the product of the quality elements of the individual components that go into making the finished product.

The assignments in this module will let you research a company in the manufacturing or service sector. You will describe the quality challenges that the company used to face and how its quality improved over the years. You will then complete the second major assignment-RA 2-of this course.

You will create and present a case study based on the information gathered for your literature review developed for RA 1. Your case study should demonstrate the impact of information technology (IT) on business process reengineering (BPR) processes and illustrate the relationship between the two in international operations.

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Assignment 2: Required Assignment 2-BPR Case Study (Module 7)

For this assignment, you will create and present a case study based on the information gathered for your literature review developed for RA 1. You may also include any other resources that you consider relevant. Your case study should demonstrate the impact of information technology (IT) on business process reengineering (BPR) processes and illustrate the relationship between the two in international operations. Write a 10-11-page report that addresses the items listed under the Directions section.

Background: 

A business process includes activities and tasks that cross functional or organizational boundaries. BPR is a structured approach to analyzing and improving fundamental activities such as manufacturing, marketing, communications, and other major elements.

It is expected from the redesign of the business processes to foster sustained improvements in quality, cost, service, lead time, flexibility, and innovation. BPR delivers radical and incremental business improvements through the identification and removal of waste and inefficiency. IT is the most important factor to enable newly redesigned processes; however, BPR does not refer to automating poor processes. 

Directions: 

1. Revisit the literature you synthesized in RA 1, taking into account the feedback received from your  instructor. Identify at least five other relevant articles that will help you develop your BPR recommendations.
2. Identify a company with international operations for which you will be developing your case study and the business process(es) in need of improvement. 
3. Your case study should provide the context for BPR by discussing all of the following aspects of the business: 

1. Facilities, location(s), and capacity (including corporate headquarters, satellite facilities, warehouses, etc.)
2. Business strategy
3. Types of products or services offered
4. Target markets
5. Supply chain characteristics
6. Analyze the business      process(es) that need improvement. Refer to the following:

1. The place in the value chain  and the importance to the organizational performance
2. Current operations and  performance
3. Human resources
4. Current technology as it is related to the addressed business processes
5. Identify and evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of at least two options for improving business performance through BPR and associated technology needs.
6. Recommend a technology for improving business performance based on your case analysis. Consider the human resource implications of your solution. Justify your recommendation.

Write a 10-12-page paper in Word format. Use at least five scholarly articles in addition to those used in RA 1 to complete your research. Your writing should be clear, concise, and organized; demonstrate ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of resources; and display accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Apply APA standards to citation of sources.