...activity to prevent ‘extra work’ from becoming necessary. Having the perspective that quality management is an extra work, workers and managers can be reluctant in responding to quality management initiatives, which could give the manager of the quality assurance department quite a headache. In this paper, I am observing a case study to identify existing quality problems and determine all the causes that contributes to the quality problems. In the final chapter there will be short recommendations on how to deal with the quality assurance issues. I.2 Corporate Background Figure 1 Process at Hank Kolb Office The above figure represents the process/supply chain along the company where Hank Kolb works for. The company deals with the manufacturing of low-viscosity Greasex since six months ago. II. Situational Analysis In the case study, Hank Kolb found himself within a strain of obvious problems. These problems lead to a single outcome, poor quality assurance. The next needed step to be performed is categorizing those problems into groups. 1. Problems with Suppliers • Low quality supplies, this refers to the low quality plastic nozzle heads for the Greasex can. 2....
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...Case study Group C – Hank Kolb, Director of Quality Assurance Questions 1 What are the causes of the quality problems on the Greasex line? Display your answer on a fishbone diagram. Question 2 What general steps should Hank follow in setting up a continuous improvement program for the organization? What problems will he have to overcome to make it work? In order to initiate continuous improvement, Hank needed to understand the problem areas that affect the attitude toward quality in the entire organization as Mr. Morganthal has warn Hank Kolb, “lack of quality attitude in the plant”. With the assurance from Mr. Morganthal, the General Manager, he has plan to form a sterling team which comprise of staffs from each different function as members. This team will take an overview and be the devil’s advocate to point out areas that required changes. It has identify that there is a lack of senior management leadership involvement due to insufficient information from the ground. Functions such as personnel, manufacturing, design, plant maintenance, purchasing and marketing have their own area of responsibility to fulfil but doing it without any quality perspective. Changes in the leadership toward quality is requires to instil quality awareness among the staffs and workers. The program has to bring an understanding that quality does not rest on producing quality products to deliver to the customers and to the market but quality of work that provides quality result is equally...
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...GENERAL INFORMATION AND MAJOR PROBLEMS The company Hank Kolb works in is a big plant with 1200 people working in it. Greasex, which is a specialized degreasing solvent packed in a spray can, is one of the major products of this company. Hank Kolb was hired as a director of quality assurance. A problem occurred with the new filling equipment in the previous week and some of the cans were pressurized beyond the upper specification limit. If we analyze the main problems in the plant, the fundamental problem is management. There is a lack of cooperation between departments and the management seems to be insufficient to satisfy integration of these departments. There are also some serious problems in the production, design and inspection of the Greasex. Below is the list of these problems in detail: 1. The plant has a poor quality attitude. Quality department isn’t taken seriously by production people. We can understand this from the behavior of the foreman. Wayne Simmons vented the products without even consulting any inspector or employee of the quality department. 2. Operators for the filling equipment are not trained enough to run the equipment. As it is mentioned in the text, operators were transferred from a different department only two weeks ago without any experience. 3. Filling equipment was not designed for the production of Greasex. Therefore the machines are needed to be adjusted and repaired to fit the manufacturing. With respect to this requirement, twelve...
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...You are Hank Kolb and you realize that the quality problems with the Greasex line is a symptom of a larger quality management issue for the organization. You have formed a problem solving team within the organization to analyze this larger problem and make recommendations on how to improve the quality management system with in the organization. Describe how your team will analyze this problem and make recommendations for improvement. 1. Write a problem statement that identifies the improvement objectives. 2. Describe the data and information collection tools that you will use to analyze this problem. Be specific. For the data you will collect, design the data form(s) that will be used. You may also identify data that may be within the organization data bases that you will analyze. 3. Generate a data set (since you cannot actually collect the data) and show how you would use one or more analysis methods to analyze the data. 4. Establish design criteria that you will use to evaluate alternatives that your team may develop. 5. From the information in the case, as well as any other data/information that you have, make recommendations on how to improve the quality management system in the organization. Create an evaluation system that you will use to track the results of your team’s recommendations. Write a report summarizing your case analysis. The goal of this report is to demonstrate your ability to use the problem solving approach and tools taught in this course...
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...Hank Kolb Case What are the causes of the quality problems on the Greasex line? Display your answer on a fishbone diagram. What general steps should Hank follow in setting up a continuous improvement program for the company? What problems will he have to overcome to make it work? The first action I would suggest Hank Kolb to do is hold an entire company meeting, one meeting per shift, to clarify the current issue amongst all management and workers. I would like for everyone to be on the same page on the matter, so there won’t be any rumors or discrepancies. While having everyone from the company at a meeting area, we will do a PowerPoint presentation in regards to refreshing all employees the company’s policy, morals, motives, specifications, and goals. Highlight the issue of safety factors versus production time constraints. Yes, we do need to meet all deadlines and schedules; however, we will NOT put our customers in danger due to meeting schedules. I would schedule some cross training sessions for all employees from all departments, so everyone will be able to operate any type of machinery the company has in the process. Plus, we can rotate all the employees to prevent any injuries and boredom of their jobs, thus creating knowledgably employees on all equipment. I would sit down with all management and pressure them to preach general industry safety and specifications of the new line of merchandise. I would encourage all management take TQM classes for all processes...
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...Hank Kolb Case Operations Management Spring 2016 March 17, 2016 The Case “Hank Kolb, Director of Quality Assurance” is about a production line of an industrial product plant called “Greasex”. After becoming the director, quality assurance, Kolb finds out that the company lacks the commitment to achieve an excellent quality product. Every department had a different method to define quality in where they focus from the design of the materials to the product itself. Like a chain effect, each department has symptoms that affect the quality of the product that is being provided to their clients. One issue they have is not having a person who is control of product qualities. The management lacks policies and visible support for quality standards. There’s no one to manage that so of course employees wouldn’t think that quality control is an important factor. There is also no proper training for equipment’s to employees too. In the plant maintenance department there is an inadequate supply of spare parts and filling machine purchased for another product and adapted to. In the purchasing department, the plastic nozzle head for the Greasex can designed by a vendor are not made correctly to fit the product. The product design and packaging was designed without consideration of production process. An issue in the manufacturing production is employees thinking that beating production quota more important than the products. All these departments do have issues that affect one another...
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...Hank Kolb Case Study In the technologey sector, the Grreasex line is speccialized in manufactureing solvents packed in cans for degreassing. The comppany, like most businesses had exaperienced some trouble over the years. The Greasex line ran into problems with new filling equipment. The main problem was the presence of high pressure beyond the required upper specified limit in some second shift cans. These probhlems can be traced back to various rooot causes. These causes include personnel, and machinery techhnicalities. The newly assigned operator who was initially supppose to be at a different department, lacked formal training and was also negligent when he was absent from his position of operation during the process. In additiosn, the line supervisor, after tagging cases as ‘hold’ was negligent by abandoning his statiion to attend other tasks. The machinery used on the other hand also had problems. The machinery was not initially designed to hanndle the process involving lower viscosity of Greasex and therefore lacked a preventive mfaintenance schedule. The appropriate equipment had been poorly and haphazardly adjusted. Materials used in production such as plastic nozzzle can heads were designed on a rush orders by a vendor and, therefore, had slight burgrs on the inside rims causing fitting problems. They had to be forced on by increased pressure application at the filling head. Instead of sending the cans to rework to assurre quality, the manager just sent them...
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...Hank Kolb, Director, Quality Assurance case study examines a manufacturing industrial plant that employs 1,200 people. Hank Kolb was the newly hired director, quality assurance. Kolb was warned by the general manager, Morganthal, about the “lack of a quality attitude” in the plant, and told Kolb that he “should try and do something about this.” Hank Kolb left a very good job to accept this position because he wanted a challenge and thought this company was serious about the importance of quality (Leonard, 1993). Before examining the quality (or lack thereof) within the different layers of the manufacturing plant procedures I feel it would be beneficial to layout each employee and their main roles / steps in the communication and production process. The following is the list of employees discussed within the case study: • Hank Kolb: Director, Quality Assurance • Mark Hamler: Kolb’s immediate subordinate as the quality control manager (Hamler’s evaluation form stated “superb technical knowledge; managerial skills lacking.”) • Mac Evans: Inspector of the line for Greasex • Wayne Simmons: First-line supervisor • Morganthal: General Manager (Morganthal warned Kolb, “lack of a quality attitude” and told him “should try and do something about this.” He also expressed his concern for the plant, “We have to improve our quality, it’s costing us a lot of money, I’m sure of it, but I can’t prove it! Hank, you have my full support in this matter; you’re in charge of these quality...
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...Case Report Hank Kolb, Director of Quality Assurance Group 17 Navid Razavi Frederike Schmidt Introduction The Case “Hank Kolb, Director of Quality Assurance” is about a production line of an industrial product plant, called “Greasex”. The text deals with several manufacturing problems, within the production of spraying cans for the high-technology sector, of “Greasex”, which arise from the contradiction of interests between the quality and manufacturing department, due to time pressure in the production. First of all, the spray cans of “Greasex” have a quality issue. Due to the high pressure in the cans, there is an accidental risk for customers which could lead to a fatal image loss of the company. There are several causes mentioned by the director of quality assurance. The untrained operator for the filling equipment and the time pressure of the manufacturing personnel leads to mistakes and inaccuracies during the production. Furthermore, there is no regular maintenance of the filling equipment, which is also very old and not designed for the production line “Greasex”. This leads to high non-standard downtimes of the production process and causes the time pressure of the manufacturing personnel. Because of the time pressure coming from the production-planning department, there is an inadequate supply of nozzle heads, an important part of the cans. Due to the unbalanced amount of this parts, the company is giving rush orders to the suppliers, which ends in a lack...
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...I find the smell of fresh fabric one of the most intoxicating and wonderful smells in the world. It's almost as euphoric as the smell of cookies and cream ice cream, but can't hold a candle to the the smell of a brand new book (which, by the way, is my favorite scent in the world). To be completely honest, I don't know what makes me love the scent of crisply ironed cotton or satin. But if I could guess, I would infer that it comes from the association to fabric stores and memories of walking into one. When I was younger, and still now, it was a mix of the vibrant colors, the possibilities behind each, and aroma given off. I can't honestly say that my love of sewing is a love that "has been there for as long as I can remember." In fact, I can date the start of my love affair with sewing to the fall of 2007, when I was in second grade. My art teacher was known for teaching children how to sew instead of painting, and second grade was the rite of passage. Second grade was the year each of her students took up the skill of sewing, for better or for worse. The very first thing I put under the machine's pedal was a piece of lined paper, and we sewed on its lines to practice. And from then, I had become enamored with the machine's way of creating and her precise skill. In third grade, I signed up for my school's sewing club, just so I can spend more time sewing outside of art class. My teacher's art classroom was one of my favorite places. Her room was one like any crafter's should...
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...Cognitive Style Cognitive style is used to describe the way individuals come to a decision to accomplish the work based on their thoughts draw from their observation. On a given class of situation, an individual will choose their preferred way of gathering, processing and evaluating information (Hayes & Allinson 1998). The style is a better predictor of “job behaviour than intelligence” (Sadler-Smith & Badger 1998, p. 248), as it is not measurable in term of aptitude of handling. Learning Style Learning styles are several ways or methods that help individuals to learn and gain knowledge. Unlike personal style, it is often expressed in the way individuals select one particular mode of learning over another, e.g. I simply don't like training but I greatly prefer coaching (Sadler-Smith 1996). There are several studies on how individuals can identify their best learning style. In Kolb's (1984) experiential learning model, there are four different styles of learning identified – “accommodative, divergent, assimilative and convergent” (Mullins 2007, p. 191). “Individuals may have a preference for one of the key stages and therein lies their learning style” (Mullins 2007, p. 190). Seen this way, managers' learning styles can be assessed based on their approach to acquire and apply knowledge through practice. In a recursive learning cycle, individual can spot and strengthen their “weaker preferences” by adapting...
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...Developing Criminological Skills 40205/01 “People learn in different ways” Different people have different style of learning, David a. Kolb explored into the development of different learning styles. Kolb created his famous learning style model “Experiential Learning Theory” (Kolb 1984) based on four elements: concrete experience, observation and reflection, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation. Concrete experience and abstract conceptualization are ways of how we think and transform experiences through the emotional responses. The concrete experience type emotionally converts the experiences through experiencing the feeling and concrete during the process. Whereas, abstract conceptualization type through planning, analyzing and thinking. Active experimentation and observation and reflection are methods of how we approach to the tasks and how we do. Active experimentation type, approach to tasks by actively doing the actual experiments. While observation and reflection approach to experiences by watching others throughout the tasks, and reflect on the situation. Based on the four elements, Kolb defined four distinct definitions of learning styles: diverging, assimilating, converging and accommodating (Kolb 1984). Diverging type has the elements of concrete experience and observation and reflection. Diverging type of people performs better in situations where creation of ideas needed, and collecting information. They look at things...
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...UNIT 13 http://www.colbournecollege.com/files/MAN_100_LESSON_1-7.pdf MAN 100 Personal and Professional Development WEEK 1- 7 LECTURE NOTES Learning Outcome: Understand how self-managed learning can enhance lifelong development Learning Objectives: WEEK ONE Self-managed learning: self-initiation of learning processes; clear goal setting, eg aims and requirements, personal orientation achievement goals, dates for achievement, self-reflection WEEK TWO Learning styles: personal preferences; activist; pragmatist; theorist; reflector, eg reflexive modernisation theory; Kolb‘s learning cycle WEEK THREE Approaches: learning through research; learning from others, eg mentoring/coaching, seminars, conferences, secondments, interviews, use of the internet, social networks, use of bulletin boards, news groups WEEK FOUR Effective learning: skills of personal assessment; planning, organisation and evaluation WEEK FIVE & WEEK SIX Lifelong learning: self-directed learning; continuing professional development; linking higher education with industry, further education, Recognition of Prior Learning, Apprenticeships, Credit Accumulation and Transfer Schemes WEEK SEVEN Assessment of learning: improved ability range with personal learning; evidence of improved levels of skill; feedback from others; learning achievements and disappointments Self-managed learning: Self-initiation of learning processes 2 What is Self Managed Learning? Self Managed Learning (SML) is about individuals...
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... According to Kolb (2005) “ Experiential learning theory (ELT) draws on the work of prominent twentieth century scholars who gave experience a central role in their theories of human learning and development-notably John Dewey, Kurt Lewin, Jean Piaget, William James, Carl Jung, Paulo Freire, Carl Rogers, and others-to develop a holistic model of the experiential learning process and a multi-linear model of adult development. The theory, described in detail in Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development (Kolb 1984), is built on six propositions that are shared by these scholars.” 1. Learning is best conceived as a process, not in terms of outcomes. 2. All learning is relearning. Learning is best facilitated by a process that draws out the students' beliefs and ideas about a topic so that they can be examined, tested, and integrated with new, more refined ideas. 3. Learning requires the resolution of conflicts between dialectically opposed modes of adaptation to the world, i.e. reflection and action - and feeling and thinking. 4. Learning is a holistic process of adaptation to the world, not just cognition but also feeling, perceiving, and behaving. 5. Learning results from synergetic transactions between the person and the environment. 6. Learning is the process of creating knowledge. (see constructivism) Using the learning cycle proposed by Kurt Lewin and the philosophy of John Dewey, David Kolb developed the experiential...
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...Based on the descriptions in the text, where do you see yourself on the Kolb Inventory? Why? A learning model that is more complex than the VARK Inventory is the widely used and referenced Kolb Inventory of Learning Styles. While the VARK Inventory investigates how learners prefer to use their senses in learning, the Kolb Inventory focuses on abilities we need to develop in order to learn. This inventory, developed in the 1980s by David Kolb, is based on a four-stage cycle of learning (see Figure 4.1). According to Kolb, effective learners need four kinds of abilities: Concrete experience abilities, which allow them to be receptive to others and open to other people’s feelings and specific experiences. An example of this type of ability is learning from and empathizing with others. Reflective observation abilities, which help learners to reflect on their experiences from many perspectives. An example of this type of ability is remaining impartial while considering a situation from a number of different points of view. Abstract conceptualization abilities, which help learners to integrate observations into logically sound theories. An example of this type of ability is analyzing ideas intellectually and systematically. Active experimentation abilities, which enable learners to make decisions, solve problems, and test what they have learned in new situations. An example of this type of ability is being ready to move quickly from thinking to action...
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