Qwikster and VOC

Strategic factors: Customer

Paying attention to the voice of the customer is essential to manage a successful business. Many companies have literally failed and shut down because of providing products that are not customized for the customers’ needs. A customer oriented business not only achieves better, but will also save better and run more efficiently.

As an example of a failure to accommodate customers’ needs, Netflix, a popular provider of on-demand Internet streaming media and DVD-by-mail, decided to isolate their services in 2011 to be run under two different departments. The new department was called Qwikster and was in charge of their DVD-by-mail service. Since the services were divided into essentially two branches of the company, they decided to make prices of the services higher which outraged their customers and caused Qwikster project to be terminated even before launching. It might not have ruined the company entirely, but the amount of work and resources paid in advance to start launch this new project definitely have affected the company. The quick response to the customers’ voice avoided the company a great amount of loss in case Qwikster actually launched and failed to meet expectations.

OG

People’s involvement helps the system fail in shipping and receiving

A company has had several issues with shipping and receiving of their product lately. Several of those problems include delayed processing of orders, missed delivery dates and wrong products shipped to customers. All of these issues have been created by the people in the organization failing at some aspect of their job. How did these situations occur? In some cases the system failed these people, such as the case of the incorrect product being shipped to the customer. The system had no double check to make sure the product that was picked from the warehouse to be placed in the box was correct. Other cases a lack of personnel has caused delays in the processing of orders. If one person at this company is out for the day, nothing happens in the shipping and receiving department. This organizational problem could be remedied with adding additional staff to the office at the company. The delay of the order processing then impacts the delivery date for the customers as the company only ships outgoing product two days a week. The company could use more staff and redundant systems to eliminate all of their current shipping and receiving problems.

-AL

People Problems

The factor that most commonly comes into play is the people factor within my organization.  Everyone of my coworkers comes to work to do a good job, provide our customers a good service, make some money, and then go home to their families.  The main people problem is packages not being scanned delivered when they are delivered to the customer.  All packages are tracked from the second they are received until they are delivered to the customers door step. There are several scans that take place between initial arrival and final delivery.

                This problem of missed scans rarely happens, but when it does you would think the world is coming to an end.  We as mail carriers can’t possibly be trained on how to scan a package since we already do it roughly 80-100 times a day.  There is no incentive on making sure that we scan every package other than getting yelled at by our supervisor or postmaster if we do happen to miss a scan.  Everyone understands that when you do something several hundred times a week and 52 weeks in a year, you are going to make mistakes.  At some point maybe the Postal Service will add a motivator such as a bonus if you scan all packages correctly, or maybe a shock collar if we miss a scan as a form of negative reinforcement.  I will keep you posted if the Industrial Engineers come up with any bullet proof ideas.

DB

Lack of Communication = Past Due

 

People Factors – “Communication”

        I currently am a Safety/Industrial Engineering at a company in the Dayton area. I was put in charge of various task throughout the company that deal with safety and some of these responsibilities include permits received from the government, in particular, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

        The particular permit where we ran into a problem with was our paint booth permit. In order to maintain legal operation of our booth we had to stay under certain Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s) emissions on a day to day, month to month, and yearly basis. This permit was obtained by another employee at the company that was in charge of many others tasks during our addition of a new warehouse facility. After obtaining the permit, it required us to submit a yearly review of our VOC emissions that had to be sent in to the EPA. This detail was overlooked since the employee moved to a different department in charge of new responsibilities. I did catch this mistake even though we were 6 months late in submitting the document thankfully. If the employee would have communicated better and told someone else that they had to submit this evaluation we would have not run into the issue of being late and facing potential fines from the EPA.

        It is as simple as keeping a document with a master schedule of due dates for various permits and communicating these dates and document with all affected employees. Communication solves 90% of all problems in my opinion. I am just an intern though, what do I know?

~RR

System failure from a player's prospective

In sports typically it is said that coaches use a “system” to tech there players and get the best out of there players. This is an interesting way to view coaching but through past experiences I understand how this is true. I have been fortunate to see both successful and unsuccessful systems.

As a high school wrestler I wrestled on both sides of the spectrum. When I was a freshman, sophomore, and Junior the system that was run lead my school to a city title as well as the first undefeated season in our programs history. In addition to that we had two people qualify for state in the state of Ohio, which is extremely difficult to do. Due to a variety of reasons the core of team’s head coaches were removed my senior of high school. My senior year a new head coach came and due to two major reason’s the program has gone down since then.

The first major reason was the environment and mentality that was established when the new coach came in. The coach that I originally established a mentality that made wrestlers want to wrestle and give their best for the coach. Also he established a mentality that was positive for wrestling. When the new coach came in he focused on new things and established a “softer” culture, in my opinion. The coach tried to focus on strength and less on conditioning and technique. When I talked to my friends and watched them wrestle it was completely different. In the past the team may not have the best wrestlers but they were the most in shape and could compete. Once the new coach came in the team looked flat and tired because of the “system.” The second major factor was the personnel. The people in the new coaching system as well as the talent in the “system” decreased dramatically. The wrestlers that left after my sophomore year left many gaps in the roster and caused the team to lose. In addition to that the new head coach didn't have a good ability to recruit good athletes as my first coach did. This is important because it was easy to teach technique in wrestling. Both of these things cause the team and in a sense the program to go downhill.

From my playing prospective the second “system” seemed to be a failure. This happened because the wrestlers who remained had a huge lack of talent. The people that were acquired by the new head coach were not the athletes that were established and brought in by my original head coach. In addition to that trying to change the culture to a “softer” mentality didn't help the wrestlers that remained from the previous “system” and didn't seem to help the new wrestlers coming into the system. Wrestling is one sport that requires a hard nosed mentality, great instruction, and talent.  This change in environment and personnel  seems like a big reason in my personal opinion this new "system" failed. 

-MG

Ethics and Engineering

Engineers have an important role in society. The decisions that they make affect everyone that interacts with the products that they design and put out. In engineering, like most professions there is, like most professions, a code of ethics. This code of ethics provides an important set of guidelines on how engineers should act. Along with that this some companies have their own code of ethic. This code provides guidelines about what all engineers hold as important conduct in the workplace.

 The first point in the National Society of Professional Engineers code of ethics talks about the importance of safety for the customer. This is important to make sure that the engineers puts the customer’s needs first not only in the product they want but in their health and safety. Engineers have a huge affect on the outcome of products and they are the ones who could affect what goes into a product and every aspect of how it is made. The second point that is emphasized by the fundamental canons is the importance of honesty and truth in the workplace. This implemented because if the engineer is not honest about his activities it could ultimately affect the well being of society. If cuts corners when they do work the trickle affects could cause affects that could ultimately harm the company that they work for. They also shouldn’t be revealing information that they know to other companies because it gives another company a competitive advantage and could drive the other company.

Why have this code if these are things that are inherently natural to people? Engineers should have the common sense to know the values about what is right and wrong. The fact of the matter is some situations may be difficult to decide on what an engineer should do. The code allows a base that engineers can follow. This lays out what is expected of engineers in terms of conduct. It seems to me that the code is important to know. Although it seems that the code talks about general inherent human traits some people may not see certain qualities the same way as most engineers. This guideline shows what is values by engineers overall an there importance not only in the company but on the customer as well. 
-MG

Quality in Confinement: An Ethical View

     I can't imagine a place where there would be a "purpose" to limit quality; that is, aside from prisons where people go to be punished rather than living the high life.  But does that mean that the quality perspective should be entirely overlooked?  I think not...

     It's no small decision to send someone to jail, for any time at all, let alone for life.  So it should also be no small decision as to what they can/should/or have to do once there.  Many questions and responses can be posed that shake the ethical foundations of the prison and confinement process.  One such question: How high-quality of a life do they deserve? Or not deserve? They are there to be punished after all, so what do they really deserve, and how would the system be changed? 

     Quality teachings suggest looking to the customer for the answer, but using this methodology in this scenario doesn't make sense, so what then?  If quality cannot be changed then what about time or productivity?  Again quality methods don't seem to make sense, the "only" option left to consider is finding a way to reduce the costs, and this is where the ethical boundaries can begin to be pushed...

     The high costs of the current prison system almost demands that something be done, but the ethical boundaries that wrap around the system slow progress.  I propose the use of the prisoners for greater purposes than menial things like stamping out license plates or picking up trash from the side of the road.  I propose changing the system to one that allows the inmates to grow and gain abilities and purpose.  Help them find something to drive them towards good, and in that way, maybe their quality of life can be improved as well as of those around the person.  From this, able bodied people would be able to be released from prison, potentially even early, and make an impact around them.  This would potentially have a great impact on the system as a whole, but that idealism wouldn't last long, there are going to be those that fight changing to the very end, and with those people, the opposite direction could be taken.  Their quality of life could be diminished and diminished until they reach a status little more than slaves; where free labor is all the value they hold, until maybe they find it in themselves to change. Until they find that it is better for them to come to the side of good where they can then not only find fulfillment in the world around them, but to also find a way to fulfill the world around them.  The ethical boundary that makes us shy away from this, but I’ll pose the question again; what kind of quality of life do they really deserve? I believe that this scenario allows the inmates to choose their direction, and would ultimately look to joining the side of good.

SH