Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to create a strategy for "Best Buy", a major consumer electronics and appliance retailer in the USA, to improve their service system to ensure that they can ...continuously gain market share. This study will examine and analyze Best Buy's store service blueprint in comparison to its competitors' service blueprints. The study will then examine Best Buy Geek Squad's service blueprint and recommend improvements that can be implemented to provide higher quality service to Best Buy's customers.Design methodology approach - A combination of design methods was used which included creating multiple service blueprints and implementing the Six Sigma DMAIC approach. A Service Quality (SERVQUAL) Survey was conducted and analyzed the data, to give an understanding of customer satisfaction with the service provided at Best Buy, compared to its major competitors. The service blueprint was analyzed and strategies were recommended to improve the present system, with the goal of providing better customer service and an improved shopping experience. With the recommendations an "improved service model" for Best Buy was created, along with fail safe mechanisms to ensure that service guarantees will be met.Findings - In the Six Sigma DMAIC Process Improvement approach, poka-yokes were implemented to improve the Best Buy service blueprint, which were identified through cause-and-effect diagrams that were created. By implementing the new service blueprint, along with the poka-yokes, Best Buy will see a significant improvement in customer satisfaction.Practical implications - Best Buy and other retail service providers should consider investing in adequate staffing of technically savvy and customer sensitive store associates and implement customer service training programs to improve their education relating specifically to the quality of service delivery to their customers.Originality value - This paper focuses on the business case for implementing Six Sigma tools to improve the service provided by retailers. This should lead to long-term profitability and improved customer service.
The quality of bearing cages is influenced by a variety of technological factors which depend on the material they are manufactured of, on the hydraulic press and on the punching-stamping die. The ...paper presents an optimized methodology introduced and developed for process quality analysis and monitoring activities involved in the stamping technology in order to manufacture roller bearing steel cages. The stamping technology presented in this case study is part of a larger industrial process of manufacturing steel window-type cages for spherical roller bearings with two rows of symmetrical rollers. This approach aims to improve a similar process quality analysis and monitoring activities which were previously developed on the basis of cause & effect analyses made upon the influence of qualitative and quantitative parameters involved in a quality and accurate stamping process.
The cause and effect analysis is very useful tool to identify the sources, to ensure comprehensive coverage, and to avoid overcounting of uncertainty components. It is shown that the parameters in ...cause and effect diagram shall be the uncertainty components for major categories, subcategories, and effect rather than quantities. A pitfall is exemplified when the parameters in the diagram are mixed with quantities and uncertainty components.
Purpose - Within the context of intellectual capital (IC) reporting, social network analysis (SNA) is applied to identify driving factors, which allows it to control the development of intellectual ...capital. Hence, the aim of the paper is to address an important weakness of established methods for IC management, i.e. their inability to cope with interdependencies between different elements.Design methodology approach - The paper describes the method of SNA and its ability to identify IC value drivers. Thereby, the relationships between different key success factors and organisational results are represented as a graph and their interactions are analysed by specific SNA indicators with the aim of identifying appropriate IC control factors. The experience with the proposed new method gained within a vocational education and training centre in Austria during the implementation of an intellectual capital report is presented to illustrate the new method.Findings - The newly introduced approach delivers new kinds of information for management control in an organisation and leads to different selection of indicators than only applying the classical sensitivity model.Practical implications - The paper introduces a new management method for practitioners. Compared to traditional methods such as strategy maps, managers are able to consider interdependencies systematic and indirect effects between factors when selecting control measures.Originality value - To the authors' knowledge it is the first time that the SNA technique has been used for selecting management control factors based on identified cause-effect relationships.
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to propose the use of probabilistic expert systems (PES), as a tool for managing complex multivariate and highly structured information. The aim of this paper ...is to verify PES' effective potentiality in quality management.Design methodology approach - In the social surveys context, the questionnaire is a well-known tool for gathering data. Statistical techniques characterised by different levels of complexity can be used to extract from the collected data differently detailed information to support decisions. The paper focuses on PES, belonging to the family of multivariate statistical models, that are presented by an application to a public administration survey.Findings - The results of an application of PES to a citizens' satisfaction survey are presented. These results will show that probabilistic expert systems are a promising tool for service improvement analysis, based on customer perceptions. The key factors that have an impact on overall satisfaction, suggesting potential improvement areas in processes are identified in detail.Practical implications - PES can integrate subject-matter knowledge and statistical information obtained from the questionnaire producing a knowledge instrument. Having this kind of knowledge helps one to make managerial decisions and plan improvement actions.Originality value - PES can be considered as an innovative and valid way to orient strategic decisions. In particular, using the information enclosed in PES and the know-how concerning the organization, the decision-maker can take decisions supported by a scientific and objective tool.
Purpose This paper endeavors to critically examine the tradeoffs among project objectives and their underlying assumptions. Designmethodologyapproach Effectcauseeffect ECE methodology of theory of ...constraints TOC has been applied to examine the assumptions behind successfully managing business projects. Findings The essence of discussion in this paper leads towards the realization that a possibility exists for time, cost and quality objectives to be pursued collectively in a project management environment. Research limitationsimplications This paper evaluates to what extent tradeoffs among project objectives actually exist and explores the possibility of their coexistence in a project management environment. This realization can significantly impact the project tradeoff models in existing literature. Originalityvalue Time, cost and quality have been recognized to be important objectives to successfully complete a project and several studies have acknowledged the necessity to address their tradeoffs. However, most of these studies have taken the tradeoffs for granted without critically examining the assumptions behind such tradeoffs. The present paper fills that gap by applying ECE approach of TOC to examine project management tradeoff assumptions. Therein lies the value of the current paper.
The Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) model has been applied for the risk assessment of corn curl manufacturing. A tentative approach of FMEA application to the snacks industry was attempted in ...an effort to exclude the presence of GMOs in the final product. This is of crucial importance both from the ethics and the legislation (Regulations EC 1829/2003; EC 1830/2003; Directive EC 18/2001) point of view. The Preliminary Hazard Analysis and the Fault Tree Analysis were used to analyze and predict the occurring failure modes in a food chain system (corn curls processing plant), based on the functions, characteristics, and/or interactions of the ingredients or the processes, upon which the system depends. Critical Control points have been identified and implemented in the cause and effect diagram (also known as Ishikawa, tree diagram, and the fishbone diagram). Finally, Pareto diagrams were employed towards the optimization of GMOs detection potential of FMEA.
This industrially-oriented research paper reports a reengineered manufacturing process design so as to assure appropriate hardness in the axle-hubs of modern motor-cars. The
systems design
approach ...and
Cause-and Effect analysis
tool have been applied to ensure appropriate hardness as per quality standards for the axle-hubs of the vehicle. The experimental work involved use of forging press, heat-treatment furnace, a sealed quench furnace (SQF), and a high-precision microhardness testing machine. The product (axle hub) was modeled to solve the problem of lower hardness in the axle hub. The material-processing system was then analyzed to make corrective recommendations for reengineering of heat-treatment process parameters; which were then implemented to develop a new (improved) manufacturing design to meet quality requirements for the front-axle hub of the car.
Recognizing watershed problems and investigating the causes which arose them is the most fundamental step in watershed management plans, which results in identifying key management responses in each ...watershed. Therefore, it is necessary to thoroughly analyze the problems and determine management strategies before developing operational plans to solve them. The aim of this study was to analyze the environmental problems of the Gorganrood Basin to determine the main managerial responses. Identifying and analyzing the main environmental problems resulted in developing management responses for the region. To prioritize different components of the DPSIR, a Likert questionnaire filled with expert opinions and the Friedman test were used. The results indicated that four driving forces, namely climate change, population growth, management structure, and rules have caused 25 pressures on the Gorganrood Basin resources. The most important pressures were part-thinking organizations, incorrect agricultural expansion and excessive exploitation of water resources. These pressures, in turn, have caused 10 disturbed states, the most important of which are water resources depletion, flooding and soil erosion. These situations have 13 adverse impacts, the most important of which are flood damages, reduced downstream water rights and reduced public confidence in the government agencies. To improve the situation, 28 management responses were presented, of which the most important are integrated watershed management, land use planning and proper organizational structure. The overall result is that cause and effect analysis using the DPSIR framework provides an appropriate conceptual infrastructure, which is a prerequisite for developing the Basin's operational management plan. Therefore, it is suggested that executive organizations identify suitable responses by using this approach before developing operational plans for each watershed.
Eliminating US hospital medical errors Kumar, Sameer; Steinebach, Marc
International journal of health care quality assurance,
01/2008, Letnik:
21, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Purpose - Healthcare costs in the USA have continued to rise steadily since the 1980s. Medical errors are one of the major causes of deaths and injuries of thousands of patients every year, ...contributing to soaring healthcare costs. The purpose of this study is to examine what has been done to deal with the medical-error problem in the last two decades and present a closed-loop mistake-proof operation system for surgery processes that would likely eliminate preventable medical errors.Design methodology approach - The design method used is a combination of creating a service blueprint, implementing the six sigma DMAIC cycle, developing cause-and-effect diagrams as well as devising poka-yokes in order to develop a robust surgery operation process for a typical US hospital.Findings - In the improve phase of the six sigma DMAIC cycle, a number of poka-yoke techniques are introduced to prevent typical medical errors (identified through cause-and-effect diagrams) that may occur in surgery operation processes in US hospitals. It is the authors' assertion that implementing the new service blueprint along with the poka-yokes, will likely result in the current medical error rate to significantly improve to the six-sigma level. Additionally, designing as many redundancies as possible in the delivery of care will help reduce medical errors.Practical implications - Primary healthcare providers should strongly consider investing in adequate doctor and nurse staffing, and improving their education related to the quality of service delivery to minimize clinical errors. This will lead to an increase in higher fixed costs, especially in the shorter time frame.Originality value - This paper focuses additional attention needed to make a sound technical and business case for implementing six sigma tools to eliminate medical errors that will enable hospital managers to increase their hospital's profitability in the long run and also ensure patient safety.
