Answer to Question #228468 in Management for Moe

Question

Prepare a document for your line manager in which you state your view on the poor quality of products and equipment.

1. Problem statement
2. Reasoning
A.The meaning of quality and it's methods and forms
B.How to determine the right quality when buying stationery and office equipment
C.The role quality control should play in the purchasing process
3. Write a recommendation to your line manager on how to improve current practices in the supply chain section

Answer 1

report on poor quality product and services

22nd August

Name of employee

Summary

This report into the quality of product and equipment of the firm which will assess the quality of products used by the firm and the quality of equipment being used by the firm.

Introduction

This report addresses my concerns about the quality of products produced by the firm and equipment we use in the firm. My concerns arose from the steady decline in regional sales due to customers complaints on poor quality products and employees complaint on poor quality equipment .

Method

I interviewed the employees of the firm about the efficiency of the equipments used by the firm in the process of production and the equipment used in the daily activities in the firm

I also administered questionnaires to more than 20 customers consuming products produced by the firm .The questions mainly dwelled on the views of the customers about the quality of the products.

Findings

From the interviews from the employees ,many of them complained that the equipments used by the firm are of poor quality and keeping on breaking down and are not efficient.

From the feedback from the customers written on the questionnaire I was able to find out that the products produced by the firm as viewed by the customers were poor quality.

Definition of Quality 

Quality has been defined as "the totality of characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs."1 The stated and implied quality needs are the inputs used in defining project requirements from the donor and the beneficiaries. It is also defined as the “Conformance to requirements or fitness for use”2; which means that the product or services 

must meet the intended objectives of the project and have a value to the donor and beneficiaries and that the beneficiaries can use the material or service as it was originally intended. The central focus of quality management is meeting or exceeding stakeholder’s expectations and conforming to the project design and specifications. The ultimate judge for quality is the beneficiary, and represents how close the project outputs and deliverables come to meeting the beneficiaries’ requirements and expectations. How a beneficiary defines quality may be completely subjective, but there are many ways to make quality objective; by defining the individual characteristics and determine one or more metrics that can be collected to mirror the characteristic. For instance, one of the features of a quality product may be that it has a minimum amount of errors. This characteristic can be measured by counting errors and defects after the product is used. 

How to determine right quality of equipments

 All material or services have characteristics that facilitate the identification of its quality. The characteristics are part of the conditions of how the material, equipment and services are able to meet the requirements of the project and are fit for use by the beneficiaries. Quality characteristics relate to the attributes, measures and methods attached to that particular product or service. 

Functionality is the degree, by which equipment performs its intended function, this is important especially for clinical equipment, that the operation should be behave as expected. 

Performance, its how well a product or service performs the beneficiaries intended use. A water system should be designed to support extreme conditions and require little maintenance to reduce the cost to the community and increase its sustainability. 

 Reliability, it’s the ability of the service or product to perform as intended under normal 

conditions without unacceptable failures. Material used for blood testing should be able to provide the information in a consistent and dependable manner that will help identify critical diseases. The trust of the beneficiaries depend on the quality of the tests 

 Relevance, it’s the characteristic of how a product or service meets the actual needs of the beneficiaries, it should be pertinent, applicable, and appropriate to its intended use or application 

Timeliness, how the product or service is delivered in time to solve the problems when its needed and not after, this is a crucial characteristic for health and emergency relief work 

Suitability, defines the fitness of its use, it appropriateness and correctness, the agriculture equipment must be designed to operate on the soul conditions the beneficiaries will use it on. 

Completeness, the quality that the service is complete and includes all the entire scope of services. Training sessions should be complete and include all the material needed to build a desired skill or knowledge 

Consistency, services are delivered in the same way for every beneficiary. Clinical tests need to be done using the same procedure for every patient

Role of quality control 

Quality control is the use of techniques and activities that compare actual quality performance with goals and define appropriate action in response to a shortfall. It is the process that monitors specific project results to determine if they comply with relevant standards and identifies different approaches to eliminate the causes for the unsatisfactory performance. 

The goal of quality control is to improve quality and involves monitoring the project outputs to determine if they meet the quality standards or definitions based on the project stakeholder’s expectations. Quality control also includes how the project performs in its efforts to manage scope, budget and schedule 

Acceptance-The beneficiaries, the donor or other key project stakeholders accept or reject the product or service delivered. Acceptance occurs after the beneficiaries or donor has had a change to evaluate the product or service 

Rework- is the action taken to bring the rejected product or service into compliance with the requirements, quality specifications or stakeholder expectations. Rework is expensive that is why the project must make every effort to do a good job in quality planning and quality assurance to avoid the need for rework. Rework and all the costs associated with it may not refundable by the donor and the organization may end up covering those costs. 

 Adjustments-correct or take the necessary steps to prevent further quality problems or defects based on quality control measurements. Adjustments are identified to the processes that produce the outputs and the decisions that were taken that lead to the defects and errors. Changes are taken to the Change Control processes of the project.

Recomendation

When buying office equipments it should be done from the best suppliers .Performance,reliability and functionality should be considered .