Riordan has identified areas where the company needs improvement. In this paper, Team B will discuss Riordan's quality management process for improvement based on the areas for improvement and develop an implementation plan. Further, Team B will examine quality tools used for identifying and monitoring the process of variability and why the selected method is the correct method for Riordan.
Steps to Quality Management Process ImprovementThe process Team B suggests for improving is the raw materials delivery process. The customer for this process is the production manager. Processes are improved by designing better processes. The word, "better" in this context always means processes that are more desirable to deliver the customer's idea of improved quality. Quality is important to build into the process at the design phase, because afterwards it becomes too late (Deming, 1982, p. 49). The degree of quality deliverable by the process is limited by the process.
Riordan Mansion, Flagstaff
Riordan Mansion, Flagstaff
Riordan Mansion, FlagstaffExtra effort by management and employees working with a set process cannot surpass that process' limits. Thus, the research and design phase has far reaching implications for customer satisfaction.
The gold standard of materials delivery and inventory management is the just in time (JIT) process (Burrill & Ledolter, 1998, p. 232). Presently, the Riordan plants are maintaining about a week's safety stock inventory on the input side of the production process. With the present process, this is necessary to assure the production line is never at a loss of inputs. With the current system it takes about a week, from the time the inventory clerk reconciles the raw material in the plant, to the time more raw material arrives in the storage area. Since the 1980s Japanese plants have been operating at near zero inventory (Deming, 1982, p. 44). Zero inventories reduce time of capital outlays for purchases, and it...