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Critically analyse the eight elements of total quality management and determine which you believe are present in the case study.

Critically analyse the eight elements of total quality management and determine which you believe are present in the case study.

Understanding Business
Understanding Business
12th Edition
ISBN:9781259929434
Author:William Nickels
Publisher:William Nickels
Chapter1: Taking Risks And Making Profits Within The Dynamic Business Environment
Section: Chapter Questions
Problem 1CE
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Critically analyse the eight elements of total quality management and determine which you believe are present in the case study.

So far, Nissan has invested over £2.1 billion in the Sunderland site, taking its production capacity to 500,000 vehicles per year. Car assembly is a complex operation with many components requiring skilled assembly. Management is particularly keen to monitor the total machine hours and total labour hours that each vehicle requires. In pursuit of high output at a low average cost, car manufacturing typically uses a continuous flow production method, where sub-assemblies are brought together in a final assembly area. This is the most cost-effective and efficient method of production and the speed of the final assembly line can be adjusted to match consumer demand. If demand picks up, the production line can be accelerated, within predefined limits. At NMUK, the production flow draws on three main production shops, as well as support areas. The three main shops are: • body assembly painting final assembly One key decision with a car plant is where to locate it. For its UK factory, Nissan chose in 1984 a 300hectare former airfield near Sunderland. Sunderland's attractions included: a) Skilled labour force Manufacturing has a long tradition in the area. A decline in other local manufacturing meant that skilled labour was readily available. b) Communications Sunderland has good road and rail links to all major UK areas. This makes it relatively easy to bring in supplies from 105 separate UK component and sub-assembly suppliers, and also to distribute completed vehicles. A nearby deepwater port (Port of Tyne) gives ready access to export markets and for the import of vehicles to the UK. c) Government support The government provided financial and other incentives to manufacturers who set up in an area where employment opportunities had reduced sharply and new jobs were needed. 4/5
Transcribed Image Text:So far, Nissan has invested over £2.1 billion in the Sunderland site, taking its production capacity to 500,000 vehicles per year. Car assembly is a complex operation with many components requiring skilled assembly. Management is particularly keen to monitor the total machine hours and total labour hours that each vehicle requires. In pursuit of high output at a low average cost, car manufacturing typically uses a continuous flow production method, where sub-assemblies are brought together in a final assembly area. This is the most cost-effective and efficient method of production and the speed of the final assembly line can be adjusted to match consumer demand. If demand picks up, the production line can be accelerated, within predefined limits. At NMUK, the production flow draws on three main production shops, as well as support areas. The three main shops are: • body assembly painting final assembly One key decision with a car plant is where to locate it. For its UK factory, Nissan chose in 1984 a 300hectare former airfield near Sunderland. Sunderland's attractions included: a) Skilled labour force Manufacturing has a long tradition in the area. A decline in other local manufacturing meant that skilled labour was readily available. b) Communications Sunderland has good road and rail links to all major UK areas. This makes it relatively easy to bring in supplies from 105 separate UK component and sub-assembly suppliers, and also to distribute completed vehicles. A nearby deepwater port (Port of Tyne) gives ready access to export markets and for the import of vehicles to the UK. c) Government support The government provided financial and other incentives to manufacturers who set up in an area where employment opportunities had reduced sharply and new jobs were needed. 4/5
Nissan is famously associated with 'Kaizen' or continuous quality improvement. Nissan states: 'We will not be restricted by the existing way of doing things. We will continuously seek improvements in all our actions. Kaizen can be applied everywhere, any time, any place. It can involve the smallest change in everyday working practice as well as a major change in production technology. Typically these improvements are initiated by teams of employees sitting down together and sharing ideas for improvements. Small steady changes are maintained to make sure that they actually work. No improvement is too small. Everyone at Nissan is responsible for thinking about the current way of doing a job and finding a better way of doing things. Kaizen improvements can save: Money, time, materials, labour effort as well as improving quality, safety, job satisfaction, and productivity. Productivity levels at Nissan's plant in Sunderland, and the quality of final production there, have not happened by chance or good fortune. They stem from an all-embracing approach to a production process, designed to bring out the best in both people and machines. It continues to be conspicuously successful. It is vital to train people to work in such a hi-tech industry with such sophisticated quality systems. NMUK's training department conducts a training needs analysis to assess individual employees' needs and to organise training programmes. The department concentrates on five main areas: 1. technical development 2. people development 3. understanding processes 4. computer skills and graduate training 5. trainee development Total Quality Management (TQM) is a key feature of Nissan's way of working. TQM involves making customer satisfaction a top priority. Given this goal, everything the organisation and its people do is focused on creating high quality. To achieve this, Nissan has to: • understand customer requirements consider the processes involved in providing quality, not just the end result prioritise and standardise tasks to deliver quality educate all employees to work in this way. Nissan Motor Company Ltd, usually shortened to Nissan is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-Ku, Yokohama, Japan. Nissan Motor sells its cars under the Nissan, Infiniti, Datsun and NISMO brands. With a just-in-time approach, specific vehicles and their components are produced just-in-time to meet the demand for them. Sub-assemblies move into the final assembly plant just as final assemblers are ready to work on them, components arrive just in time to be installed, and so on. In this way, the amount of cash tied up in stocks and in work-in-progress is kept to a minimum, as is the amount of space devoted to costly warehousing rather than to revenue-generating production. Nissan's just-in- time process depends not on human frailty but on machine precision. The emphasis placed on 'going for quality' means that each employee is responsible both for their own work and the standards of their co-workers. By ensuring management recognises that individuals have this control results in everyone taking the culture onboard. Nissan expects and requires its employees to become multi-skilled decision-makers. Most employees also want that for themselves. Reaching that goal involves: . . . . . training employees to develop their skills encouraging them to make decisions organising employees into participative teams developing open-channel, multi-directional communication systems placing quality at the heart of flow production flexible working practices providing the employee variety within his/her role 3/5
Transcribed Image Text:Nissan is famously associated with 'Kaizen' or continuous quality improvement. Nissan states: 'We will not be restricted by the existing way of doing things. We will continuously seek improvements in all our actions. Kaizen can be applied everywhere, any time, any place. It can involve the smallest change in everyday working practice as well as a major change in production technology. Typically these improvements are initiated by teams of employees sitting down together and sharing ideas for improvements. Small steady changes are maintained to make sure that they actually work. No improvement is too small. Everyone at Nissan is responsible for thinking about the current way of doing a job and finding a better way of doing things. Kaizen improvements can save: Money, time, materials, labour effort as well as improving quality, safety, job satisfaction, and productivity. Productivity levels at Nissan's plant in Sunderland, and the quality of final production there, have not happened by chance or good fortune. They stem from an all-embracing approach to a production process, designed to bring out the best in both people and machines. It continues to be conspicuously successful. It is vital to train people to work in such a hi-tech industry with such sophisticated quality systems. NMUK's training department conducts a training needs analysis to assess individual employees' needs and to organise training programmes. The department concentrates on five main areas: 1. technical development 2. people development 3. understanding processes 4. computer skills and graduate training 5. trainee development Total Quality Management (TQM) is a key feature of Nissan's way of working. TQM involves making customer satisfaction a top priority. Given this goal, everything the organisation and its people do is focused on creating high quality. To achieve this, Nissan has to: • understand customer requirements consider the processes involved in providing quality, not just the end result prioritise and standardise tasks to deliver quality educate all employees to work in this way. Nissan Motor Company Ltd, usually shortened to Nissan is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-Ku, Yokohama, Japan. Nissan Motor sells its cars under the Nissan, Infiniti, Datsun and NISMO brands. With a just-in-time approach, specific vehicles and their components are produced just-in-time to meet the demand for them. Sub-assemblies move into the final assembly plant just as final assemblers are ready to work on them, components arrive just in time to be installed, and so on. In this way, the amount of cash tied up in stocks and in work-in-progress is kept to a minimum, as is the amount of space devoted to costly warehousing rather than to revenue-generating production. Nissan's just-in- time process depends not on human frailty but on machine precision. The emphasis placed on 'going for quality' means that each employee is responsible both for their own work and the standards of their co-workers. By ensuring management recognises that individuals have this control results in everyone taking the culture onboard. Nissan expects and requires its employees to become multi-skilled decision-makers. Most employees also want that for themselves. Reaching that goal involves: . . . . . training employees to develop their skills encouraging them to make decisions organising employees into participative teams developing open-channel, multi-directional communication systems placing quality at the heart of flow production flexible working practices providing the employee variety within his/her role 3/5
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