Management essays

Each of the following ten questions is worth 10 points. The grades will be based on the contents and clarity of the essays.

1. Write a short essay (1 page or less) about the strategy of Total Quality Management, its history, strengths and weaknesses. You are expected to research the topic and write a clear, well-organized essay. You are not to exceed a page. Reproducing the material presented in the textbook will receive a maximum of 3 points. 2. Write a short essay (1 page or less) about the ISO 9000 series of standards. You are expected to research the topic and write a clear, well-organized essay. Reproducing the

material presented in the textbook will receive a maximum of 3 points. 3. Write a short essay (1 page or less) about Quality Assurance. You are expected to research the topic and write a clear, well-organized essay. Reproducing the material presented in the textbook will receive a maximum of 3 points.

4. Write a short critical essay (1 page or less) on the contributions of W.E. Deming, J.M. Juran and A.V. Feigenbaum to the discipline of quality control and improvement. You may use the material in the text. However your essay must be a clear and concise summary that captures the highlights of their contributions.

5. One of the tools used in the Improve step of DMAIC is the Shewhart Cycle or the PDCA (PDSA) cycle. Write a short description (1 page or less) of the four steps in the PDCA cycle, using an example context to describe the steps.

6. Write a short essay (1 page or less) explaining the salient aspects of the six-sigma program. Include a discussion of the organization of personnel in a six-sigma framework. 7. Write a short essay (1 page or less) explaining the salient aspects of lean systems philosophy of management. You are expected to provide a critical and insightful overview

of the philosophy.

8. A major grocery store has realized that staffing its checkout counters with human staff is increasing wait-times for customers, and adding personnel costs for the store. Therefore, it wants to consider improving the quality of its service, while cutting personnel costs, through two enhancements: (1) RFID-tag the items in the store. (2) Install RFID readers at the checkout counters for automated billing. Write a sample project charter for the above project. The charter must be no more than two pages long,

9. Write a short essay (1 page or less) about the role quality control played in the success of

the Japanese manufacturing industry in the 1950s and the 1960s. You are encouraged to supplement the discussion in the text with material from outside the text. 10. Write a short essay (1 page or less) about the DMAIC, using one of the examples discussed