Assessment task
This assessment must be completed by students individually. The assessment is designed for students to apply fundamental quality management tools and techniques to solve a real-world quality-related problem or challenge for an existing organisation.
You are required to write a 1000-word short business report that describes ‘why’, ‘what’ and ‘how’ an existing business or organisation will implement the use of two (2) Quality Management tools or techniques. The tools or techniques you select must address a quality problem or challenge within the organisation such as customer dissatisfaction, product or service quality issues, shipment delays, long waiting times within the business or organisation.
a) You must select an organisation:
1. Such as a Business, Government, or Not-for-profit organisation of your own choice such as Subway Restaurants Australia, Coles Supermarkets, CommBank Australia, and Telstra. You must ensure that you have sufficient publicly available information or personal insight and knowledge about the organisation to identify a key quality problem or challenge within the organisation.
2. Or an organisation that you have been employed at and know well. You must have information or personal insight and knowledge about the organisation to identify a key quality problem or challenge within the organisation. Do not include confidential information in your report.
b) You must select two of the following tools in Goetsch and Davis (2021) – Chapter 15 – Overview of Total Quality Tools:
1. Cause and effect diagram
2. Check sheet
3. Control chart
4. Design of experiments
5. Five-S
6. Failure mode and effect analysis
7. Flowchart
8. Histogram
9. Pareto chart
10. Run Chart
11. Scatter diagram
12. Stratification 13. Survey
c) Your report must:
1. Describe ‘why’ your suggested quality-related problem or challenge is important to the selected organisation.
2. Describe ‘what’ the two (2) quality management tools and techniques are and how they address the problem or challenge. The best reports will discuss how the two (2) tools of choice complement each other. For example, quantitative tools such as Pareto chart and Control charts provide actual data, whereas qualitative tools such as the Cause and effect diagram and Flow charts illustrate relationships and process information.
3. Describe ‘how’ you want to implement the use of the selected quality tools and techniques within the organisation.
You can make a few assumptions about the information you use to describe the organisation. Do not use up a lot of words doing this and try to keep it realistic. Always remember that the purpose of the report is to demonstrate what you know about quality management and its practical application.
Assessment marking criteria
Your report will be assessed according to the following criteria.
Your report must demonstrate:
1. Clear identification of the quality-related issue in the selected organisation and discussion of two (2) quality management tools, and their relevance to the identified quality issues. 30%
2. Clear discussion about the implementation of two (2) quality management tools. 25%
3. Clear flow of thought throughout the report with a convincing executive summary; clear and succinct purpose described in the introduction; relevant structure and content within the body of the report; and a clear and succinct conclusion. 15%
4. Critical review skills and integration of relevant literature. A minimum of five (5) academic and professional references must be used 10%
5. Appropriate in-text referencing and reference list. Adherence to CQUniversity APA Reference Style. Correct paraphrasing. 10%
6. Clarity of expression, grammar, and spelling. Appropriate format within the word limit: 1000 words (±10%). 10%
Guidance on the content of the generic report chapters
Title page
Submit your report with a title page sheet containing:
• Your suggested assessment title. Your title should include the name of the organisation and the quality-related problem being addressed.
• The unit number and name
• Assessment number and name.
• Your name and student number.
Executive summary
The executive summary is intended for the busy executive needing an overview of the short report. The executive summary is expected to contain summary statements key/important elements of the report such as the focus of the report, findings, discussion, conclusion and in some cases recommendations. Table of contents
The table of contents is used to show the reader where parts of the report can be found.
Introduction
The introduction provides the purpose and scope of the report.
Conclusion
The important conclusions should be stated in this section.
References
Your report must include in-text referencing and a correctly cited list of references ordered alphabetically by surname of the first author, following the APA referencing style.
Note that references are usually not cited in the executive summary, introduction, and conclusion. These are only used in the main body of the text.
Appendices
Here you include material that is important to the report, but too comprehensive to include in the discussion of the report. This is where you want to insert your detailed tool and technique application.
References
Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. (2021). Quality Management for Organizational Excellence: Introduction to Total Quality (Ninth International ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: Pearson.
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