MBA576 Week 6 Peer Response

6

Week 6 Discussion

Andrew Head

MBA576 Operations Management

Dr. Kevin J. Loy

Park University

1

9/22/2021

Abstract

This discussion creates the overall Quality Improvement Plan and RCA plans using research and knowledge learned in the scenario

Week 6 Discussion

The issue plaguing Kibby and Strand when it comes to quality will have a profound impact on the reputation of the company. Taking a proactive approach to fixing and ensuring quality doesn’t lack in the deliverables will go a long way in being successful in the industry. Stevenson (2021) discusses TQM, total quality management, which refers to a quest for quality within an organization. The three philosophies in this approach are: continuous improvement, involvement of everyone, and customer satisfaction (Stevenson, 2021).

The overall Quality Improvement Plan includes correcting the issues of some shirts labeled with incorrect sizes and girl’s shorts having weak stitching that did not meet specifications. In order to determine how many shirts were mislabeled, Kibby and Strand is going to utilize a check sheet. This check sheet will enable us to record and organize data collected about shirts that are mislabeled.

	Defect
	Size & Label Incorrect	Daily Total
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday

This chart will be used to track which day the majority of the mislabeled are occurring and then can be tracked down into which portion of the process is producing the issue. Corrections can be made to the area when the problem is determined.

We also have the issue of stitching in the girls shorts not being up to specifications. This requires a slightly different approach to converting qualitative data to quantitative data but I believe the best way to do this is a control chart. Since control charts are used to monitor a process to see if output is random and can detect the presence of correctable causes of variation (Stevenson, 2021). The utilization of this chart will allow the sewing department to gauge where the less effective stitching occurs in the process. We know that the quality problem does exists across all products in the sewing machine and therefore we should be able to detect a correctable variation.

The previously described methods of determining a problem fall under the root cause analysis plan. Both charting implementations are designed to assist in discovering where the problem in production is occurring. These method introduced into the system should provide insight into what solution would resolve the root cause of the problem.

Determining a mislabeled size shirt can be done during inspection of the final product, as as described in Burkhart (2019). In that example, the inspector fits the shirt on to a mannequin to make sure the fit is correct. Burkhart (2019) also discussed the seam strength test, which involves stretching the seams and observing for any cracking of the stitches. A second useful tool we can implement to determine stitching quality issues is the stitches per inch check. Burkhart (2019) outlines that the more stitches per inch in a seam, the stronger and more dense that garment will be. This test, can result in a direct change to the sewing process and has the possibility of eliminating the quality issues of stitches.

Stitches Issues in Girls Shorts
Root Cause	Action	Measurement
Inadequate number of stitches per inch	Increase the number of stitches per inch while garments are in the sewing phase of production	Check the stitching quality via stitch per inch check.
Mislabeled shirts and short sizes
Root Cause	Action	Measurement
Poor organization within the sewing department. Workers are applying the incorrect label to the shirt and short size	Reorganization of the sewing department to ensure that sizing and labels are in a more efficient area to be sewn into the garment.	Visually checking the shirt for obvious misinformation. Also, checking the fitting of the shirt on a mannequin.

2

References

Burkhart, M. (2019). 3 WAYS TO MANAGE GARMENT QUALITY CONTROL. Manufacturing and QC Blog. Retrieved from https://www.intouch-quality.com/blog/3-key-areas-of-quality-control-for-garments

Stevenson, W. J. (2021). Operations management. McGraw-Hill Education.