Hank Colb Fundamental Problem

Problem Definition

The fundamental problem is management. Senior management lacks the policies and visible support of a quality philosophy such as following a ISO 9000 Quality System. Even though they have recently appointed Hank Kolb to oversee their quality program, which is a move in the right direction, there is still a lack of visible senior management support for quality.

The fundamental problem shows up in a number of symptoms such as putting schedule and market share above quality and safety. It also shows up as a poor attitude about quality. Quality is viewed as an add on, inspected in, and is an impedance to doing their job. Proper training is not viewed as a prerequisite to start a job which leads to unqualified people performing processes.

This fundamental problem also creates an entire host of other problems. These problems, as stated in the case study, include: lack of purchasing, design, and testing processes, inspections that are after the fact with out in-process controls or feed back loops. It also leads to a lack of product tractability, quality maintenance records of the equipment so improvement or stabilization data is not available. Designs are made on hunches - there is no decisions based on facts and data.

Statements like "even if it is a little off spec was tolerable, we need market share now" shows a poor quality attitude and the schedule is more important.

The inspector had used only a sample of testing to find the eight rejected cases but had no way of tracking where they had gone shows a lack of in-process controls and a lack of product tractability.

Last, the fact that Hank was sent down to this plant with out any real visible support and was viewed as just another director without any more authority shows a lack of senior management support for a quality philosophy. In short, management is the problem.

List of Alternative Courses of Action

1. They could do nothing and continue to focus on getting the product out the door.

2. They could do nothing and continue to focus on getting the product out the door until the demand stabilized the figure out what the best course of action would be.

3. They could perform a make/buy analysis to determine if they should off-load the production to another company.

4. They could focus on the equipment with full time maintenance staff to keep the machine up and running properly.

5. They could start collecting data on why and how the machine breaks down.

6. They can implement better design, manufacturing, and testing processes along with ensuring training is a requirement to operate any process.

7. They can start to design for manufacturing and use facts to guide there decisions.

8.