Quality management for organizational excellence assignment 2019

Assignment Brief: Quality Management for Organisational Excellence

Subject: Individual analysis of the included case study material

Submission date: 10 Jan 2020

Notes:

1.     A maximum of 3000 words. You may use tables and diagrams which will not be included in the word count.

2.     The assignment must be presented in a form that complies with the basic conventions of a report format (see Guide to Basic Study Skills).

3.     An electronic copy of your assignment has to be submitted to Turn-It-In.

Assessment:

Your work will be assessed against the following criteria:

1.Knowledge – Your work should show knowledge of the module content.

2.Understanding – Your report should demonstrate an understanding of UGB 262 QualityManagement for Organisational Excellence.

3.Insight – Your report should show an ability to analyse the ‘case study’ in the light of themodule content and your own reading.

4.Clarity – Your report should be well structured and clearly presented.

Notes:

1.     The assignment must be presented in a form that complies with the basic conventions of areport format (see Guide to Basic Study Skills).   An electronic copy must be submitted toTurnitin via ‘Canvas’.

2.     Word count – 3000 words

Assignment Guidance Notes:

Business Report Structure. 

Size 12 font, spacing 1.5, include word count at the end of the report.

Report Presentation

·       Front Sheet – Name / Student Number / Programme / Module / Date / Workshop TutorName

·       Table of Contents

·       Introduction

·       Main Body of Report – Analysis of theory and practice related to this ‘case study’

·       Conclusion and Recommendations

·       Appendix – not included in word count

General guidance and typical distribution of word count would be:

Introduction - 250 words 

Main body analysis – 2000

Conclusion and Recommendations – 750 (collective)

The criteria for grading the assignment will be:

The assignment will be graded for individuals on the basis of the specific criteria outlined in the Generic Assessment Criteria (Undergraduate) on the following page.

Note:

The “Presentation” element of the Generic Assessment Criteria (Undergraduate) will also be used (additional to the above assignment guidance notes) to assess the report structure.

Refer to the Populala Company case study (below) for this assignment:

The case study – Populala Company

Populala Company is in trouble. John Chan has purchased the century old company in Hong Kong from the founding family in 2016. The company has around 500 employees in total. More than 70% of them work in the factory in mainland China. John took up the top management position of the company as its CEO after the company acquisition, and brought with him a few trustworthy family members to join the management team of the company. The company’s main business is to manufacture and sell building construction-related equipments to industrial customers in Hong Kong and South East Asia. Now, as he reviews the 2018 results he is perplexed. After gaining control of the company, John Chan has invested heavily in state of the art equipment and consolidated operations in an effort to improve performance and reduce redundancy. He has also replaced much of the stodgy management team inherited from the previous owners, provided extensive management training for supervisors, and implemented personnel policies and operating procedures to provide appropriate controls. Yet the trend is unmistakable. Sales are down and production costs are up. Populala Company has lost money in 2018 —the first loss in the history of the company!  A number of reasons have been offered by the management team of Populala, notably: the impact of the USA-China trade war, the inexperience of the recently recruited managers in the production and sales department, and the increasingly sophisticated product demand from Populala’s customers. Moreover, there is an increase in sick leave from quite a number of middle-managers in the production and marketing departments due to high work stress. A major change is needed, in John Chan’s view.

John Chan is active in industry association work and knows that leading companies in his industry have adopted Total Quality Management. Executives from these companies speak regularly at industry forums about how their TQM programs have produced major improvements in their organizations. John is now evaluating the feasibility and desirability of implementing TQM at Populala. Nevertheless, Populala does not have cost of quality reports from its Accounting Department, and the Accounting Manager is not familiar with the cost of quality topic anyway. John is unable to tell the difference between TQM and ISO 9000 while the other senior managers all claim that they are knowledgeable in quality control and have been practising it well in Populala. Nevertheless, John feels that he needs to act quickly with outside help from some competent TQM consultants to evaluate the TQM initiative for Populala.

Assignment

As the newly appointed TQM consultant to Populala, you have been asked by the Senior Management Team to prepare a 3000 word report to explain how you would introduce a companywide quality improvement strategy. This report must also include a response to the following questions.

1. What is Quality and what are the key elements of ‘Total Quality Management’

2. List and explain the requirements for the Implementation of Total Quality Management,

3. What strategies would you use to establish a quality culture in Populala,

4. Describe how you would use ISO 9000 as an entry into TQM.

The criteria for grading the assignment will be:

Ø    First (70-100%):

Authoritative grasp of the concepts, methodology and content introduced through the module; applied all relevant theories implied by the guidance questions; all of the main features of the case drawn out and additional original insights which add to the analysis of the case; ideas reflecting depth and confidence of understanding of case issues; clear, concise presentation of ideas making good use of the conventions of a report format.

Ø    Upper Second (60-69%):

Sound level of understanding based on competent grasp of relevant concepts, methodology and content introduced through the module; applied most of the relevant theories; all of the main features drawn out; coherent, well-structured report.

Ø    Lower Second (50-59%):

Applied the main frameworks; demonstrates a coherent response to the case issues; most of the key pints correctly analysed; the underlying logic of analysis is sound and so the report.

Ø    Third (40-49%):

Applied some of the main frameworks; some of the main features of the case brought out correctly; some flaws in the structure of the report (e.g. re-open analysis in conclusions; mixing up conclusions and recommendations)

Ø    Fail (0-39%):

Some knowledge of main concepts but major omission and/or misunderstanding. Structure & nature of the report is overly descriptive. Arguments poorly supported and little or no analysis and reflection. Considerable limitations in ability to perceive the linkage between theory and practice.