CHAPTER 15 CRITICAL THINKING ASSIGNMENT
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CHAPTER 15 CRITICAL THINKING ASSIGNMENT
The core concept of Total Quality Management is the effective management supported by fact. Many organizations do not follow these concepts and management is known to make intuitive and judgmental decisions without the use of facts, based on their knowledge or experience. The concept of TQM is based on the fact that every decision made to solve a problem is based on data and analysis. Data points and their analysis will impact many problems and they are not complete till they are fully analyzed. However, collection of data is an onerous task. This is where the importance of total quality tools comes in to play. TQTs help in making sure that the best decisions. This in turn leads to best solutions for problems (Goetsch & Davis, 2014).
It also results in enhancing productivity and the quality of a company’s products and services. The tools help a wide range of employees in organizations – from engineers and technologists to people on the production floor or managers and office staff. Every organization would be practically using some of these tools in their daily operations. Tools help in framing thoughts and ideas on paper and they lead to better decision making. This paper will discuss some TQTs and their features and apply two concepts in the critical thinking exercise. It is important to understand that unlike JIT (Just in Time) which are systems per se, tools are basically a form of drawing or chart that depicts data in a certain form to enhance understanding and come to a decision.
Without the use of tools, voluminous data can be very difficult to organize and analyze. Let us now look at some of these tools and write purpose statements as defined in Critical Thinking Activities. A Flowchart is a chart that helps in understanding processes and enables users to suggest improvements. Pareto Charts is very helpful in separating different data in to important and trivial. It is based on the insight that majority of problems in the world are caused by a minority of causes. This is also most commonly known as the 80-20 principle. Cause and Effect Diagrams are designed to identify certain problems and define their causes. This is also called the Ishikawa fishbone analysis. They help to segregate causes from symptoms.
The purpose of Histograms is to understand the frequency of occurrence of an event. In simple terms it links attributes to variable data like time. Stratification is based on making groups of data in to different categories. Data could relate to names of people, type of machine used and so on. This technique helps in grouping parameters and gaining insights. Run Charts measure the data in terms of an output of a process over a period of time. It helps in tracking performance. Time is usually depicted on the X-axis. A Control Chart on the other hand helps in understanding variation within data.
Scatter Diagrams help in determining correlation between different variables. This could be a relation between variables like fuel used and speed or mileage. A scatter chart helps in understanding the rate of change in a variable based on changes in the other. A Check Sheet is used to collect relevant set of data over time. This enables users to collate the data analyze it over time. A check sheet helps in keeping control of a process and ensures that key steps are not missed out. Surveys are tools that can be tailored to one’s requirement and used on internal or external audiences. They are an important tool to gauge information from customers, employees or suppliers about different aspects of a company’s operations. Surveys can be constrained in terms of the simplicity and type of questions designed and the analysis of questions. Any ambiguity in a survey will lead to wrong analyses and decision making.
Bibliography
Goetsch, D. L. and Davis, S., 2014. Quality Management for Organizational Excellence: Introduction to Total Quality. Pearson.
