Quality Management Reacting Gone Wrong
Reacting to a Process Gone Wrong
Cignet Plastics Corporation is a contract plastics
die-casting house serving a wide range of clients. Over the years, Cignet has
been a favored supplier of precision die castings for a major producer of model
airplane kits. In recent days the defect rate of these parts has increased.
(Acceptance is based on a visual inspection of the parts for appearance.) After
a thorough audit of the process, Quality Assurance has concluded that there has
been no change to the process. It claims that the increase in defects must be
variation that is related to some assignable cause. The president of Cignet
Plastics does not have a clue as to what that means, and he has called you in
for an explanation.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Discuss the following questions in class or outside of class
with your fellow students:
1. What will you tell the president?
2. He wants you to change the process to reduce the number
of defects, but you know that is
the wrong approach. How do you talk him out of it?
3. What approach would you use to get the operation back to
normal?
Why is it important for managers to
o employ process thinking?
o identify at least two quality management tools that could
be used to present data and persuade the president? Why would you use these
tools to support your arguments?
