Quality Management and business ethics

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Quality Management
An upcoming meeting with the CEO and other executives is a great opportunity for you, the new Vice President of Sales and CSD, to share your knowledge about the potentially defective wrenches being sold to many customers because you are not sure if others are aware of the issue.

These wrenches could possibly lead to serious injuries. It is still not clear if the wrong wrenches were sold intentionally or unintentionally. To complicate matters, you are uncertain about the organization's ethical guidelines as none have been communicated.

1. How would you present the (Widget) wrench sales issue to the CEO, other directors, and managers?

I will present the situation in a candid manner. I will present all the facts clearly and will follow transparency in all the actions.

2. What specific courses of action would you recommend with respect to internal actions and customer notification? (5 paragraphs)

I will recommend following TQM (Total quality management) organization must focus on quality as an integrated concept. They must improve the quality of every aspect of management whether it is labor, material or machine.

Following are the foundational elements or principles of TQM
1. People: Involvement of all in achieving customer focus is a key tenet of TQM. This is achieved through Teamwork, Voluntary Activities, Consensus Building, Training, Multi-skilling, Instilling a Sense of Pride, Employee Empowerment and Leadership development. TQM creates a happy and comfortable environment where all employees are have job satisfaction and are able to make use of their capabilities and realize their potential.

2. Continuous improvement: The PDCA cycle is an unending pursuit of excellence, which is firmly embedded in TQM. Various other methods such as 5s housekeeping, Pokayoke, Just in Time manufacturing (JIT), small group activities, statistical process control, Seven Quality Tools, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) and ISO systems have become an integral part of TQM implementation process.

3. Process: Utmost attention paid to the process, for making the product first time right. Problems encountered are analyzed, a solution is arrived at through teamwork, an action plan is developed and the implementation results are evaluated. Process is designed with customer requirement in focus. The requirements of the customer are reduced to a specification and specifications to a defined work process so as to focus attention on the customer requirements.

4. Customer: TQM's main area of focus is customer; all the activities are aimed at customer delight and not just satisfaction. In production processes for every process the customer is not only the final user but also the next process.

Applicability of Quality Management

One of the most important elements in creating a successful business is ...