WRITING ASSIGNMENT: APPLICATION ESSAY (MSM 6645)

TOPIC: QUALITY MANAGEMENT

This course's application essay involves identifying a problem that is amenable to analysis and possible correction using the methods of quality management (QM). The result should constitute an initial plan, or first step, in carrying out an actual QM change initiative in your organization, if feasible, or in a prior organization in which you have experience, if you must take that route. If you write on a prior organization, your case will be retrospective and hypothetical in nature.

Any feasible organizational problem to solve involves a measurable component: In concept, you would measure the relevant aspect of the process in question before planning your intervention. After implementation (which, in this course, is strictly hypothetical, albeit realistic), you would re-measure to assess the impact of your intervention. Feasible problems may involve reducing the variance of a routine process as a pathway toward increasing quality (Six Sigma in concept); streamlining a step-by-step process using value stream mapping; creating a way to capture and translate the voice of the customer for your organization; conducting a root cause analysis of a complex process; or implementing any of the Japanese QM techniques outlined in class.

Title and Executive Summary. Use the formatting on the posted sample. The executive summary is the same as an abstract, but with a managerial audience in mind. After the abstract, include the following sections (at least one paragraph per section):

Introduction (no header). Describe the organization, its mission, and its market or purpose. Select a process to improve. Define the process narrowly enough to make it manageable.

Strategic Considerations (primary section header; use secondary section headers for each of the strategic components noted here). Outline your industry's KSFs and the relevant aspects of the external environment (PEST framework). Perform a SWOT analysis.

Process Steps (primary section header). Reintroduce the process to improve. Explain the process in step-by-step fashion. Consider what triggers the process, what occurs first, what occurs next, and so forth, through the point of producing a product or service.

Process Context (primary section header). Discuss the process from the perspective of either the 7-S framework or the 6-Box framework. Start with that component of the framework that serves as the locus (location) of the selected process. Then identify other processes in each of the other components that may affect the selected process or that may be subject to its effects.