For the company your team has selected, identify how the 4 dimensions of quality apply to their product or service. What quality systems do they currently have in place? Recommend some new ideas they should consider. Post your answers on your team blog.
A great quality about the nature of the industry Allen Flavors is that the customer is responsible for most of the quality of design. They are the people investing the money so often they have already done the extensive industry research and design concept. This dimension of quality, the quality of design, is handled outside the company. Although Allen Flavors develops the actual drink, they are creating it based on the customer’s specific requests. The customer then tastes different samples to see which is closest to their vision. The research and development done at Allen Flavors is someone else’s original concept.
The next dimension is extremely important to the company. Most products are made-to-order based on the customer’s specific choices. The products must be made each time to meet the customer’s specifications. Allen Flavors displays a high quality of conformance.
The availability of products is based on a number of circumstances. For the most part, Allen Flavors is able to stick to it’s two week lead time. If they have trouble sourcing the raw materials on a new product, it can take longer. The reliability of a food product can be limited. This information is always clearly listed on the specification sheets. The customer is always given this information about their products. Again, with the food industry maintainability can also be a problem. If the juice in a product goes bad and the product has ‘failed’ as the book states, there is almost never a way to still utilize the material.
Field Service is different in the food and beverage industry than some other industries. If a product in another industry is sold and then needs to be replaced, that may be easier when not dealing with high volumes of perishable items. Allen Flavors will send someone to the plant to be sure that the product is being run correctly. They have been known to reimburse a customer for a bad run at a co-packer if they feel the problem is their responsibility.
At this point in time, Allen Flavor’s control systems are well managed and maintained. As mentioned, quality is very important to the company, so meeting requirements and full filling customer needs is very important to them. They are meticulous about proper testing and documentation. I would recommend that the company try to focus on quality in other department, rather than just on R&D and production. Customer care may also be a good place to focus their attention when it comes to quality. There doesn’t seem to be a good system in place.
Class Exercise for Quality Control
Reputation and quality are important for a product so that consumers will repeat buy the product and tell others (friends, family, etc) to buy the product. The better the product, the better the reputation will be and the more repeat sales and new sales you will get.If the reputation is bad, the exact opposite happens. Customers will tell others that the product is bad and not to buy it. Not only are you losing you original customer, but they are telling potentially new customers not to buy the product either. This will end in loss of money and lower profits.Quality is similar but a little different. You will still sell products if quality is not as good as your competitors but you will not be able to sell them at top price. People do buy lower quality products because they typically cost less but if you have a high quality product; your product can be sold at a higher price which will make you more a profit. Plus, back to the reputation, you reputation will grow because you have a higher quality product.
To maintain a high level of quality Allen Flavor's takes many steps to show their customers that their facility can produce high volumes of quality product. They take quality very seriously. In order to keep it's large customers, Allen Flavors must comply to a number of outside audits of the plant. This past year, Allen Flavors hired one of the most respected 3rd party auditors in the industry to inspect their plant. Because this audit was very important to the companies integrity and reputation as a manufacturing facility, the vice president of technical services and a number of staff members spent 3 months preparing for this audit. They passed with flying colors. Customers will also send their own inspectors to the facility to ensure that the plant conditions are acceptable to industry standards. As an example, Coca cola Bottling sent an inspector last year for their own records and quality documentation.
In addition to sparatic audits, Allen Flavors has a quality control department testing all raw materials and finished products coming in and out of the facility. The Quality Assurance Manager and three of his staff members must be in the plant while production is running to make sure no batch is missed. They test the acidity of the product, and correctness. When products are not passed they are put on 'QC Hold'. They are also responsible for all paperwork certifying the quality of the material. Because of this, all raw materials must be supplied with the proper documentation so they can provide the documentation to their customers as well. Industry standard documentation includes Material Safety Data Sheets, Specification sheets, Certificate of Analysis, etc. The amount of paperwork that goes along with one product is incredible. Allen Flavors is also a Kosher facility and must also maintain acceptable conditions to fullfill the requirements of the 'OU' or Orthodox Union.
Allen Flavors is very commited to their customers and the quality of the material used in production. They take pride in their production facilities and the customers are aware of it. I believe this is certainly a key aspect to Allen Flavors success and growth.
Allen Flavors seems to be pretty focused on quality. Some new ideas they may want to consider are quality checks that are easy to implement and follow up, the most commonly used and well-known quality process is the plan/do/check/act (PDCA) cycle. Other processes are a takeoff of this method, much in the way that computers today are takeoffs of the original IBM system. The PDCA cycle promotes continuous improvement and should thus be visualized as a spiral instead of a closed circle.
Another popular quality improvement process is the six-step PROFIT model in which the acronym stands for:
P = Problem definition.
R = Root cause identification and analysis.
O = Optimal solution based on root cause(s).
F = Finalize how the corrective action will be implemented.
I = Implement the plan.
T = Track the effectiveness of the implementation and verify that the desired results are met.
If the desired results are not met, the cycle is repeated. Both the PDCA and the PROFIT models can be used for problem solving as well as for continuous quality improvement. In companies that follow total quality principles, whichever model is chosen should be used consistently in every department or function in which quality improvement teams are working.
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