Assignment 1

Agustin Quintana
IE673 – Total Quality Management

Rework Summary
Prof. Ranky Comments – 7/10 - Unfortunately you have not explained what your company
does (as required in the syllabus; also above). Each of those aspects, such as what your
- value proposition is,
- what your company does,
- how it satisfies customers,
- what it does to achieve that,
- what is novel about it, and
- how it makes money should be explained at least briefly.
Agustin Quintana Document Addition – QMS Introduction Session including the information
requested by professor.
Quintana Material Solutions (QMS) Company Introduction
At Quintana Material Solutions Corporation (QMS Corp.) we are a recycling driven company
which provides efficient solutions to manufacturing scrap material collection. We provide
collection strategies and services to assure the efficient collection of scrap manufacturing
materials (stainless steels, titanium, plastics, etc.). See below the different sectors of our
company:
1. Collection of Material Management – The main focus of our Company is to ease the
collection of scrap materials and then source it to different steel mills and production
companies for re-use and recycling. We will take care of collection by providing
especially designed containers which can be adapted to connect directly to CNC’s,
milling equipment, and other machinery for material collections. In addition, we will
provide schedules pickups of material and a company representative for every tool shop
and manufacturing site we service. After the material is pick up it is taken to our state of
the art sorting center which will process and divide all different materials into precisely
weighted packages. Then this will be sold and deliver to Steel production companies to
be reprocess into new manufacturing raw materials. Our focus is to provide an efficient
solution for material collections in order to make recycling of raw materials a more cost-
effective practice for all manufacturing companies.
2. Re-processing of Metal Powders – The second aspect of our business will be
reprocessing of material powders for 3D printing. 3D printing is rapidly becoming a
staple in the manufacturing communities because of its ability to manufacture complex
 geometries which are impossible with traditional machining. 3D printing has been widely
used in the Medical Device Industry as companies innovate with 3D printing to create
different porous titanium’s. Porous titanium is used in spinal implants, tibia baseplate
implants and many others due to its affinity to bone cells. Laser Sintering Manufacturing
(LRM) is a form of Additive Manufacturing that uses a laser to mend together titanium
powder in a desired geometry. My company will re-process the large amount of scrap
powder per build by sorting it and cleaning it and returning in to the medical
manufactures for re-use.
3. Recycling of Plastic Waste in to 3D Printing Material (Research and Development) – Our
company will contain a small R&D department focused in the development of using
common plastic waste (plastic bottles, containers, utensils, etc.) This is a new field that
can be a solution to the worlds plastics problem. This sector of the company is strictly
research and development until we can refine the solution to a cost effective service. We
will use 10 percent of profits to re-invest in the sector and we will apply for government
and research grants to help fund this department. This could be the future of the recycle
waste industry and we want to be the ground breakers!
QMS Corp. is committed to providing cost-effective services to convert all tool makers, medical
device manufacturers, additive manufacturers, and traditional manufactures into green,
sustainable material managers.
1. What is quality? How does your company interpret the term: 'quality'?
Quality is a dynamic state which is associated with products, services, and process which focuses
on producing superior value. QMS Corp. is a recycling driven company which provides
collection strategies and service to assure the efficient collection of scrap manufacturing
materials (stainless steels, titanium, plastics, etc.). The company views quality as not only as a
core value but also what gives the company a competitive advantage. Quality is in everything we
do from determining the process for collecting material, to developing collection containers, and
even how we train our people. Quality is involved in every aspect of the business to drive
improvements in our products and services.
2. What is TQM?
Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management system which main pillar is the ideal that
every person, processes, and environment is based on driving quality. This is how we train
people, execute process, and provide a quality product to our costumer. When TQM is being
applied around every aspect of the business it pushes the company to improve and provides a
competitive advantage.
3. How can we achieve organizational excellence with quality?
To achieve organizational excellence with quality their needs to be a cohesive company culture
of continual improvement and quality first mentality. This will lead to drive superior value in
quality, cost, and service which will lead to organizational excellence.
4. What is the Deming cycle? How is your company doing this?
The Deming cycle is based on the principle that all processes within a business is planned, done
or executed, checked, and improved (acted). Plan is the design or review of a business process
which is geared towards improving results. Doing or implementing the plan is the “do” phase of
the Deming Cycle. The most important phase for our company is the “check” phase where we
measure our processes and analyze data from actual performance. This leads into the “act” phase
which allows us to analyze the company’s performance and adapt to improve our process. After,
this step the cycle restarts and it leads our companies down a path of continuous improvements.
In addition, it helps us generate an innovative culture as it allows for new ideas to be put in place
with ability to change them as we learn from their performance.
5. What are the most common errors when starting quality initiatives?
The most common error when implementing quality initiatives is leadership/management not
listening to employees carrying out the processes. When upward communication does not work
sometimes quality initiatives can miss the root cause of a problem or not lead to improvement. In
addition, during the measuring phase of a quality initiative it is key for upward communication to
assure the data represent what is actually happening. When a company does not have or does not
promote upward communication a lot can be missed when implementing quality initiatives.
Another common error is during the deployment process of a quality initiatives. This includes
poor planning to execute the initiative and make sure all stakeholders are aware. A big miss for
companies in the training aspect of a new quality initiatives. If the people carrying out the
processes being improved are not properly trained, then the initiative will not achieve its full
potential. Investment in up front training is key for quality initiatives to be successfully
implemented.
6. Explain the cost of poor quality . How is your company doing this?
Poor quality affects every aspect of a company thus compounding in terms of cost. Poor quality
can lead to poor processes, which result in defective product, and an overall bad costumer
experience. There is direct cost for having to recall a product or having to reimburse a costumer
for a faulty product or service. In addition, there is indirect cost which is losing a client to bad
quality products, gaining a bad reputation, and even any injuries regarding poor quality practices
in a manufacturing environment.
QMS Corp. assure quality is at the forefront of every process, product, and service it provides. It
uses a design control process with a quality check at every milestone of the project with controls
where designs are frozen and controlled. Also, we have inspection protocols for our products and
work instructions for all manufacturing operations. In addition, we have strict training module
for all employees that assure all contributors are properly trained. Finally, we conduct post
market surveillance and costumer surveys on all our products to assure our customers are
experiencing a quality service through out the life of the product.
7. What are the quality characteristics of world-class organizations?
A world class organization always begins from its cultures and mission. A company culture is
important for many reasons, but the main one is that every employee has pride in the work that
they do and are striving towards one mission. That culture is where a company based in quality
and continuous improvement can foster. As it takes great people in order for a company to be
world class.
In addition, a world class organization uses that strong culture as a completive advantage which
thrives in every aspect of the business. For example, these areas are:
• Quality Assurance
• Research and Development
• Operations
• Costumer Service
• Regulatory Compliance
• Innovation
• Legal Aspects
• Business Processes / Sourcing
• Complaint Handling
8. Responsibility and total quality . How is your company doing this?
At QMS Corp. the responsibility of quality is everybody’s as it’s a staple of our company
mission. Every employee is responsible for the quality of their work as well as the quality of
those around them. QMS’s TQM process puts in place reviews by all stake holders of work
which affects processes and products. In addition, QMS empowers every employee to speak up
when they detect quality gaps with in the company or in our products. In addition, we have a 24-
hour complaint reporting rule for all possible complaints herd from a company sales rep,
engineer, or any QMS employee. This allows our post market surveillance team to quickly react
to any possible quality issues with in our facilities and our costumer’s facility. To conclude,
quality is not a procedural demand at QMS, but an ethical pillar of all its employees, processes,
and products.
9. Discuss some models for ethical quality decisions. How is your company doing this?
The model we use at QMS is the Full Disclosure Model for ethical decisions. In this model the
criterion is based on one question, could the company explain its decisions and actions to the
satisfaction of our stakeholders and costumers. If the answer is yes, then there is not a breach of
the ethical line when making a decision. This assures that the values and mission passed down
from our founders/stakeholders are being upheld.
Other models for ethical quality decisions include categorical imperative model and the doctrine
mean model. The Categorical Imperative model is better well known as the Black and White
model. In this model, there is no middle ground or gray area between choices or situations. This
is not a very practical model as in the real world nothing is black and whither; there is always
shades of grey! Finally, the doctrine mean model is one that assumes there is always middle
ground or middle solution between to extremes. Although in many situations this is true, there is
a massive assumption that the average situation is always ethical. Because this is not always true,
the mead model is not a practical model for QMS Corp.
10. What is the engineering manager’s role in quality ethics?
An engineer managers role has various aspects, yet up holding quality ethics is the first priority.
As an engineering manager you are not directly involved in the technical work, yet you are there
to make decisions and direct the engineering team in a certain pathway. This means that as
engineering manager you have to lead by your actions, when the team reports an issue that will
impact a project; cutting corners can never be the choice the manager makes. If a manger is often
making decision based on business metrics and not quality, it will propagate to all other team
members. Engineering managers need to be the drivers of a quality first culture and they need the
backing of the Senior Leadership.
The engineering managers keep the balance between business metrics (scope, price, lead times,
etc.) and the quality of the products. In addition, they are process owners for the processes their
teams are responsible for. This is an integral part of quality and the engineer manager needs to
make sure that all the output from their groups are complaint to all procedures. Finally, an
engineering manager is also a mentor to the engineers within his group. This is a very important
role as you need to provide opportunities for young engineers to develop and grow. This is whys
its is key that the mentee have a quality first attitude and that opportunities for quality training
are given to engineers within the team. Quality is not just a procedure but a way of thinking that
needs to be developed as you gain experience in the field.
11. Sustainable Green focus. Please go on the web, Google YouTube, and then in the field
at the top type in 'Paul Ranky' (this is a search field and you'll find it easily). It will show
you over 120+ links to short video clips I put up on YouTube. The goal of this part of the
assignment is for you to findany 6 short clips on Paul Ranky, YouTube that deal with
marine life, (i.e. diving) and use those clips to convince your virtual board of directors and
shareholders, that your company MUST NOT POLLUTE the world, in ANY ways, ANY
time... it MUST BE SUSTAINABLE AND GREEN; not just sustainable... but green too...
these video clips show pristine marine eco-systems that must not be destroyed by greed,
incompetence, or human error... To document this, please write a specific statement about
how you will prevent any toxic waste or pollution to be generated and released into any
eco-system (land, sea, river, or air) in about 150 words. Please make sure you reference the
6 videos you have chosen from 'Paul Ranky', YouTube by putting in their individual
filenames, and/or with hyperlinks to YouTube if you have a web-page at this stage already
for your assignment.
See below 6 short clips of marine life from Paul Ranky YouTube Library.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U544Mo-us18
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1Pdaf9cys8
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqmAbeUYoTI
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LequyTSSxVM
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdN3QvyJhg0
 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzuuPZ4hYt0
These short clips depict the complexity of a marine ecosystem and how delicate they can be. The
word we live in is an amazing place, that as humans we have responsibility to maintain.
Ecosystems can adapt to weather patterns, animal migrations, and other natural factors. Yet, it
cannot survive the pollutions created by human’s consumption and changing infrastructure.
QMS Corp. is based on the ideal that human innovation can co-exist with a sustainable
environment. That why our company’s mission is to maximize the use of the worlds resources to
limit is impact on the environment. We will give Manufacturing companies, tool makers, and 3D
printing companies a cost-efficient service which will incentivize green material management.
12. Please don't forget the social networking assignment.
See the links below.
Article 1 - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ie-673---total-quality-
management23/p0FDnjZxzc4%5B1-25%5D
Article 2 - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ie-673---total-quality-
management23/umCqLO8sMj4
Article 3 - https://groups.google.com/forum/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer#!topic/ie-
673---total-quality-management23/Vxfz_zZJ3kQ%5B1-25%5D