THE QUALITY PLANNING PROCESS – Operations & Supply-Chain Management (OP-SCM)

The Juran Trilogy

• Conversion of goals into results (making quality happen) is done through managerial processes—sequences of activities that produce the intended results
• Managing for quality makes extensive use of three such managerial processes:

• These processes are now known as the “Juran trilogy”

What is Quality Planning

• It is a structured process for developing products that ensures that customer needs are met by the final result
• The tools and methods of quality planning are incorporated along with the technological tools for the particular product being developed and delivered

Quality Planning Problem

The quality planning process and its associated methods, tools, and techniques have been developed
because in the history of modern society, organizations have rather universally demonstrated a consistent
failure to produce the goods and services that unerringly delight their customers.

The Quality Planning Solution

Quality planning provides the process, methods, tools, and techniques for closing each of the component gaps and thereby ensuring that the final quality gap is at a minimum.

The Steps involved are:

STEP 1:

ESTABLISH THE PROJECT

• A quality planning project is the organized work needed to prepare by an organization to deliver a new or revised product
• Activities associated with establishing a quality planning project:
  • Identify which projects are required to fulfill the organization’s strategy
  • Prepare a mission statement for each project
  • Basis for establishing quality goals
  • Establish a team to carry out the project
  • Plan the project

1.1  Identification of projects

• Deciding which projects to undertake is usually the outgrowth of the strategic and business planning of an organization
• Management needs to fulfill the following key roles:
  • Setting Quality Goals
  • Nominating and Selecting Projects
  • Selecting Teams
  • Supporting Project Team
  • Monitoring Project

1.2  Prepare Mission Statement

• The mission statement is the written instruction for the team that describes the purpose of the project.
• The team mission describes:
  • Scope of the planning project
  • The goals of the project

1.3  Basis for Establishing Quality Goals

• The Technology as a basis
• The Market as a basis
• Bench marking as a basis
• History as a basis
• Quality goods are a moving target
• Project goals
• Measurement of goals

An effective quality planning project goal must have five characteristics for it to provide a team with enough information to guide the planning process.

The Goal must be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Agreed by those affected
• Realistic
• Time Specific

1.4  Establish Team

• Team involvement promotes sharing of ideas, experiences, and a sense of commitment to being a part of and helping the organization achieve its goal
• The diversity of team members brings a more complete working knowledge of the product and processes to be planned
• The diversity of team members brings a more complete working knowledge of the product and processes to be planned

1.5  Product Policies

• Companies need to have very clear policy guidance with respect to quality and product development
• Four of the most critical policies are:
  • Deficiencies in new and carryover designs
  • Intended versus Unintended use
  • Requirement of formal Quality Planning Process
  • Custody of designs and change control

STEP 2:

IDENTIFY THE CUSTOMERS

• External Customers

  • The purchaser
  • The end user/ultimate customer
  • Merchants
  • Processors
  • Suppliers
  • Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs)
  • Potential customers
  • Hidden customers

• Internal Customers

  • Identifying the internal customers requires some analysis because many of these relationships tend to be informal, resulting in a hazy perception of who the customers are and how they will be affected
  •  Effectiveness in meeting the needs of these internal customers can have a major impact on serving the external customers

Identifying the customers

A high-level flow diagram of the processes related to the product help in identifying the customers that might have been missed and refining understanding of how the customers interact with the process

STEP 3:

DISCOVER CUSTOMER NEEDS

• The third step of quality planning is to discover the needs of both internal and external customers for the product
• Discovering customer needs is a complex task
• When designing a product, there are actually two related but distinct aspects of what is being developed:
  • The technology elements: What the product’s features will actually do or how it will function
  • The human elements: The benefits customers will receive from using the product

Key activities required for effective discovery of customer needs:

• Plan to Collect Customers’ Needs
  • Customer surveys, Routine communication
  • Tracking customer complaints, Customer meetings
• Collect List of Customers’ Needs in Their Language
  • Must be stated in terms of benefits sought
• Analyze and Prioritize Customer Needs
  • Organizing, consolidating, and prioritizing the list of needs for both internal and external customers
• Translate their needs into “our” language
  • The customer’s language ,The supplier’s (“our”) language , A common language
• Establish units of measurement and sensors

Other Activities:

• Stated Needs and Real Needs
• Perceived Needs
• Cultural Needs
• Needs Traceable to Unintended Use
• Human Safety
• User Friendly
• Promptness of Service
• Customer Needs Related to Deficiencies
• Warranties
• Effect of Complaint Handling on Sales
• Keeping Customers Informed
• Quality Planning Spreadsheets:
  • Customer needs spreadsheet
  • Needs analysis spreadsheet
  • Product design spreadsheet
  • Process design spreadsheet
  • Process control spreadsheet

STEP 4:

DEVELOP THE PRODUCT

• Once the customers and their needs are fully understood, product that will meet those needs best is designed
• Most companies have some process for designing and bringing new products to market
• In this step, the focus is on the role of quality in product development and how that role combines with the technical aspects of development and design appropriate for a particular industry
• Overall, two quality objectives are there for this step:
  • Determine which product features and goals will provide the optimal benefit for the customer
  • Identify what is needed so that the designs can be delivered without deficiencies

Activities involved

• There are six major activities in this step:
  1. Group together related customer needs
  2. Determine methods for identifying product features
  3. Select high-level product features and goals
  4. Develop detailed product features and goals
  5. Optimize product features and goals
  6. Set and publish final product design’

1. Group together related customer needs
   • Based on the data developed in the preceding steps, the team can prioritize and group together those needs which relate to similar functionality
   • This activity does not require much time, but it can save a lot of time later
   • Grouping related needs together allows the planning team to “divide and conquer,” with sub-teams working on different parts of the design
2. Determine methods for identifying product features
   • Before starting to design, a team should develop a systematic plan for the methods it will use in its own design
   • Some of the options are:
     • Benchmarking
     • Basic Research
     • Market Experiments
     • Creativity
3. Select high level product features and goals
   • As with all goals, product feature goals must meet certain criteria
   • Product feature goals should be
     • Measurable
     • Optimal
     • Legitimate
     • Understandable
     • Applicable
     • Attainable
4. Develop detailed product features and goals
   • For large and highly complex products, it is necessary to divide the product into a number of components and subcomponents for detailed design
   • In order to ensure that the overall design remains integrated, consistent, and effective in meeting customer needs, these large, decentralized project require:
     • A steering or core team that provides overall direction and integration
     • Explicit charters with quantified goals for each component
     • Regular integrated design reviews for all components
     • Explicit integration of designs before completion of the product design phase
5. Optimize product features and goals
   • Once the preliminary design is complete, it must be optimized
   • Finding the optimum involves balancing the needs, whether they are multi-company needs or within-company needs
   • There are several techniques that help achieve this optimality
     • Design Review
     • Joint Planning
     • Structured Negotiation
     • Create New Options
     • Competitive Analysis
     • Saleability Analysis
     • Value Analysis
6. Set and publish final product design
   • After optimizing and testing design, the product features and goals to be included in the final design are selected
   • In this stage, the results of product development are officially transmitted to other functions through various forms of documentation
   • The team must determine the process for authorizing and publishing product features and product feature goals
   • Along with the features and goals, the team should include any procedures, specifications, flow diagrams, and other spreadsheets that relate to the final product design
   • If an organization has an existing process for authorizing product goals, it should be re-examined in light of recent experience

STEP 5:

DEVELOP THE PROCESS

• “Process development” is the set of activities for defining the specific means to be used by operating personnel for meeting product quality goals
• Some related concepts include:
  • Sub-processes: Large processes may be decomposed into these smaller units for both the development and operation of the process
  • Activities: The steps in a process or sub-process
  • Tasks: The detailed step-by-step description for execution of an activity
•  The eleven major activities involved in developing a process are
  1. Review product goals
  2. Identify operating conditions
  3. Collect known information on alternate processes
  4. Select general process design
  5. Identify process features and goals
  6. Identify detailed process features and goals
  7. Design for critical factors and human error
  8. Optimize process features and goals
  9. Establish process capability
  10. Set and publish final process features and goals
  11. Set and publish final process design

1. Review product goals
   • Lack of participation between product and process development teams leads to reduction of the number of alternative designs
   • Cultural resistance shown by product design team to proposals by the process design team to make changes to the product design
   • Review of product quality goals ensures that they are understood by those most affected by the process design
2. Identify operating conditions
   • User’s Understanding of the Process
   • How the Process Will be Used
   • The Environments of Use
3. Collect known information on alternate processes
   • Process Anatomy
     • The Autonomous Department
     • The Assembly Tree
     • The Procession
   • Process Quality Management
   • Measuring the Process
     • Deficiency rates
     • Cycle Time
     • Unit Cost
     • Output Rate
4. Select general process design
   • Most effective process redesigns are a combination of the tried and true existing processes with some significant quantum changes in some parts of the process
   • Testing Selected Processes-
     • Pilot test
     • Modular test
     • Simulation
     • Dry run
     • Acceptance test
     • Comparisons and benchmarks
5. Identify process features and goals
   • A “process feature” is any property, attribute, and so on that is needed to create the goods or deliver the service and achieve the product feature goals that will satisfy a customer need
   • “What mechanisms do we need to create or deliver those characteristics (and meet quality goals) over and over again without deficiencies?”
6. Identify detailed process features and goals
7.  Design for critical factors and human error
   • Technique Errors
   • Lack of Instant Feedback
   • Human Inattention Errors
   • Principles of Errorproofing
   • Elimination
   • Replacement
   • Facilitation
   • Detection
   • Mitigation
8. Optimize process features and goals
9. Establish process capability
   • Before a process begins operation, it must be demonstrated to be capable of meeting its quality goals
   • Any planning project must measure the capability of its process with respect to the key quality goals
10. Set and publish final process features and goals
    • This is the stage where the results of process development are officially transmitted to other functions through various forms of documentation
    • These include the specifications for the product features and product feature goals as well as the spreadsheets and other supporting documents. All this is supplemented by instructions, both oral and written
11. Set and publish final process design
    • After making the last revision to the process design spreadsheet, it should be checked once more to verify the following:
    • That each product feature has one or more process features with strong or very strong relation. This will ensure the effective delivery of the product feature without significant defects. Each product feature goal will be met if each process goal is met.
    • That each process feature is important to the delivery of one or more product features. Process features with no strong relationship to other product features are unnecessary and should be discarded.

STEP 6:

DEVELOP THE CONTROL AND TRANSFER TO OPERATIONS

• Planners develop controls for the processes, arrange to transfer the entire product plan to operational forces, and validate the implementation of the transfer
• There are seven major activities in this step.
  1. Identify controls needed
  2. Design feedback loop
  3. Optimize self-control and self-inspection
  4. Establish audit
  5. Demonstrate process capability and controllability
  6. Plan for transfer to operations
  7. Implement plan and validate transfer

1. Identify controls needed
   • Process control consists of three basic activities:
     • Evaluate the actual performance of the process
     • Compare actual performance with the goals
     • Take action on the difference
2. Design feedback loop
   • Once the control subjects are selected, remainder of the feedback loop is designed by:
     • Setting the standards for control—i.e., the levels at which the process is out of control and the tools, such as control charts, that will be used to make the determination
     • Deciding what action is needed when those standards are not met, e.g., troubleshooting.
     • Designating who will take those actions
3. Optimize self-control and self-inspection
   • Operations, self-control takes place when workers know what they are supposed to do.
   • Goals and targets are clearly spelled out and visible
   • Output of the workers is measured, and they receive immediate feedback on their performance
   • Workers have the ability and the means to regulate the outcomes of the process
   • They need a capable process along with the tools, training, and authority to regulate it
4. Establish audit
   • A separate audit plan should be developed for validating the transfer of the plan
   • The audit plan for the transfer should include the following:
     • Goals to meet
     • How meeting the goals will be measured
     • The time phasing for goals, measurement, and analysis
     • Who will audit
     • What reports will be generated
     • Who will have responsibility for corrective action for failure to meet specific goals
5. Demonstrate process capability and controllability
   • Process capability must be addressed during the design of the process
   • Process capability and controllability must be verified during implementation
6. Plan for transfer to operations
   • An information package is prepared consisting of certain standardized essentials: goals to be met, facilities to be used, procedures to be followed, instructions, cautions, etc.
   • The package is accompanied by a formal document of transfer of responsibility
7. Implement plan and validate transfer
   • The final activity of the quality planning process is to implement the plan and validate that the transfer has occurred
   • A lot of time and effort is spent in making the product plan, and validating that it all works is well worth the effort

Have a good day planning quality… 🙂

An article by:-

Chetan Kumar

Rohit Kumar

Chitranshu Singh Katiyar