Riordan's Strategic Quality Management

Riordan's Strategic Quality Management

An ongoing improvement plan can increase the quality of a product or service an organization produces. This improvement plan will allow an organization to meet or exceed standards, and establish on time delivery. To develop a successful improvement plan, an organization must have a well-designed strategic plan that is in agreement with the mission and visions of the organization. This paper will discuss how quality is linked to Riordan's strategic plan objectives, analyze the process improvement plan that the organization currently uses and give examples of the tools and techniques used to measure quality. Lastly, this paper will show who has the ultimate responsibility for quality assurance (QA), and the extent to which the organization's process improvement plan is related to Riordan's strategic plan.

Riordan's strategic plan and strategic objectives

Quality is linked to Riordan's strategic plan and strategic objectives in order to establish a detailed plan of action, which is called a strategic quality plan (Bounds and Harrison, 1996). Quality planning is the process of identifying the actions needed to achieve quality goals. Quality planning consists of identifying objectives that will support the long-term goals and then devising programs and projects for achieving those objectives. Riordan's strategic objectives are achieving world class financial performance; delighting customers and secure top 20 large accounts and grow government market by 15%; become a desired manufacturer working company; and continue to operate as a high performance team and have fun winning together. Their business processes consist of leadership, strategic planning, customer and market, human resource, and lean processes.

Process improvement plan

A process improvement plan Riordan uses is a performance scorecard. This performance scorecard consists of improvement plans. One is Six Sigma process. A primary objective of six-sigma programs is to design and improve products and processes so that product specifications are reliably produced. In a six-sigma approach, sources of process variability (represented as sigma) are identified and reduced, thereby lowering the process output's sigma. By implementing the six-sigma process, a company will not only examine the variations created in processing but also examine the process itself. There is a six-step procedure in the sigma process. The first step is to define who the customers are, what their expectations are, what the strategy is, what processes are used and the measures used for accuracy. Second, is to measure the variability with the selected tools. The third step is to analyze the measurements taken to determine where the occurrences are taking place. Forth, Riordan needs to improve the process to minimize the frequency of the variability. The next step is to control the process changes that are required to improve the process without causing long-term damage to the process. The final step is to make sure the six-sigma cycle is continuous; the process is going to need continuous monitoring to maintain a 99% satisfaction rating. With the implementation of the Six Sigma practice Riordan Manufacturing will be able to manage the variations in product output, along with having a system where they will be able to measure, analyze, and control their manufacturing process to within a defined specification. Riordan quality process is based on International Organization for Standards (ISO) and American Society for Quality (ASQ) principles. Riordan is a registered ISO 9000 company. Being ISO 9000 registered, allows Riordan to adhere to the business standards set forth by the International Organization for Standardization. Riordan team also employs certified ASQ personnel and will employ those principles to meet quality expectations. Another process improvement plan is reducing product costs. Departments involved with this plan are Vice President of Transportation, Vice President of Operations, and Director Plant Operations in Albany. Transportation will reduce carrier costs by 5%, operations will review outsourcing options for standard plastic product built in Albany plant, and director plant operations will develop a business module analyzing the use of Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) supply chain system for Albany. VMI is not a perfect solution to inventory problems (Supply Chain Resource Cooperative, 2008). S. C. Kulp, a researcher at Harvard University, recently finished a study on the relationship between VMI systems and higher profits. The researcher found that implementation does not always return better results than a traditional supplier relationship. Study shows information precision and reliability, combined with an effective sharing mechanism, were the key factors in obtaining higher supply chain profits.

Implement a successful VMI System. There are ways to implement a successful VMI system:

1. Communicate expectations of all parties. Customers and suppliers must make the effort to sit down and discuss the goals and objectives of implementing VMI. The importance of this step cannot be overstated. Both parties' hardware and software requirements must be identified, and an understanding must be reached in terms of how both companies' systems will communicate. Then a plan for implementation must be mapped, specifically identifying each party's financial and other responsibilities.

2. Customer must commit to sharing precise information. Suppliers must have visibility into the customer's internal sales and inventory information. Without accurate data, ability to quickly meet demand will be impaired.

3. Suppliers must ensure reliable transmission, receipt, and use of information. Time should be spent during the planning phase discussing information precision and reliability.

4. Sufficiently test systems before going live. As with any new system, testing will uncover any bugs or inefficiencies and can help to avoid future headaches.

5. Expect implementation to be a process not a project.

6. Plan to spend sufficient time and money to make it work. Most successful VMI systems took years to put into operation, and cost thousands of dollars for Information Technology and training. Spending (or finding) the time to create a comprehensive system can be a challenge.

QA responsibility

Quality procedures and processes are documented within the quality plan. Requirements are established, with realistic measurements and goals, and then evaluated using peer reviews and quality audits. Products are submitted to the customer wherein feedback