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Seat No.: Enrolment
GUJARAT TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
MBA (PART TIME) SEMESTER 5 WINTER EXAMINATION 2018
Subject Code: 2841101 Date: 6/12/2018
Subject Name: Total Quality Management and World Class Manufacturing Excellence
(TQMWCME)
Time: 2:30 PM TO 5:30 PM Total Marks: 70
Instructions:
1. Attempt all questions.
2. Make suitable assumptions wherever necessary.
3. Figures to the right indicate full marks.
Q.1 Define the following terms:
Quality Control
Rapid Prototyping
Six sigma
TQM
The Taguchi Loss Function
Flexible Manufacturing Systems
Quality Policy
14
Q.2 Explain the Balridge view of Leadership and Describe Malcolm Bridge
National Quality Award.
07
Write a short note on Juran's Contribution to TQM. 07
OR
Discuss the issues in Strategic planning for WCM. 07
Q.3 Explain Deming's contribution in TQM in brief. 07
Explain the Kaizen method of continuous incremental improvements. 07
OR
Q.3 Explain the concept of World Class Manufacturing. Describe
Schonberger's framework of WCM.
07
Describe in brief the various Lean production tools.
07
Q.4
CASE STUDY:
There are close to 5000 dabbawallahs operating in Mumbai city
supplying 1,70,000 dabbas (tiffin boxes) every day. Their operations
are so complex that if even one thing goes out of place, it would lead to
chaos. A lot of people believe that the food dabbawallahs deliver is also
cooked by them. In reality, they only deliver food to the people of
Mumbai which is cooked in the homes of the people by their wives,
sisters or mothers. The tiffin box that the food is delivered in also
belongs to the customer. Dabbawallahs have a unique colour coding
system that they put on the boxes. Their ancestors started by first using
coloured threads. Then they switched to using pieces of cloth and now
dabbawallahs use oil paint and symbols. The first colour symbolizes a
'group'. A group comprises 10 to 20 people who service one station.
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Just like a cricket team there are a few substitutes in case someone falls
ill. Each group picks up about 40 tiffins from their area and delivers
them to the local railway station. There they are sorted according to
their destination. The alphabet written on the tiffin box stands for the
person who collects the tiffins from the house, and the number is for its
destination. From the Six Sigma point of view, the dabbawallahs have
to take care of two critical to quality characteristics the tiffins
must be delivered to the customer in office at the scheduled time
without any delay and secondly, the empty tiffin box must be returned
back at the customer's home without any mix up. Rarely do
dabbawallahs get complaints of someone's tiffin getting mixed up or
lost. It happens only once in a month or two when they get a complaint.
On following up on the complaint they generally find that it was stolen
by a hungry beggar. They then keep a lookout for it in the market and
on spotting it buy it back and return it to the rightful owner.
Dabbawallahs claim that they never misplace anything due to any
confusion on their part.
Dabbawallahs charge Rs 250-300 per month from a customer. That
includes picking up the tiffin from home, delivering it to the office, and
then returning the empty tiffin back home. Every station on Mumbai's
western, central, and harbor railway lines has two groups ranging
between 15 to 40 people. 'All of us are entrepreneurs who come
together to deliver as a whole We work exactly like the post office with
hub and spoke operations,' says the 63 year old Jairaj Surve, a
dabbawallah. The meals picked up from clients by 9-9.30 a.m are
brought to the closest railway station. Numbers and symbols painted on
the aluminium cases help to sort out on the basis of office, street, and
floor. Even as the dabba is picked up form a client's home and delivered
by one person, it is delivered and picked up from the workplace by
another person. It goes through 3 to 4 hands before reaching its
destination. Till 1980, it was a worker-employee relationship, whereby
there used to be a contractor who would employ 20-25 workers under
him. However, the railway strike of 1975 under Datta Samant which
lasted for 20-22 days caused huge losses for dabbawallahs. Their losses
were further compounded by the mill strike. This was the reason that
every worker was made shareholder. This way they put in more effort
and since everyone is a shareholder, there is no question of union. There
are elections for the post of the president of the trust and the person
getting majority votes becomes the president. There is a show of hands
and the person getting the most hands wins.
The American business magazine conferred the 'Six Sigma' plus rating
on dabbawallahs, meaning only one error in six million deliveries,
alongside the likes of GE and Motorola in terms of efficiency and
quality of service. The modus operandi of dabbawallahs has also been
well documented by the likes of BBC and Dutch and German film
makers.
What are the factors which have enabled the dabbawallahs to achieve
the Six Sigma distinction?
07
Why have not the dabbawallahs been able to expand their operations
outside Mumbai?
07
OR
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Q.4 Why have not the courier companies made a go at this business when
the supply chain model that the dabbawallahs are using is a lot like the
courier companies?
07
What was the problem faced by dabbawallahs and how did they
overcome?
07
Q.5
CASE STUDY:
3M Company with a reputation for excellence in quality have leveraged
this reputation by organizing separate strategic business units to market
consulting and training services. The Management Services Division of
3M has clients ranging from airlines to educational institutions. Labeled
as "masters of innovation", the company has been noted over time as a
quality manufacturer of over 50,000 products worldwide.
A central idea of 3 total quality system, called "Managing Total
Quality" is the "vision for success", the key motivating force
behind the MTQ success. Following the examples of 3M a number of
hospital clients of 3M have drafted new mission statements as the basis
for a quality management system.
The president of L.G. Health Care System is of the opinion that too
many mission statements read alike and are general in nature. For
example, a mission statement reads like "We are going to deliver highquality
health care at the lowest possible price." This type of mission
statement does not spell out anything about the hospital's mission in
the market.
The mission statement of L.G. Health Care System reads as below:
"The purpose of the L.G. Health Care Systems is to provide quality
health care and health related services. We are committed to a
comprehensive approach that effectively and efficiently meets the
needs of individuals, families and the community including those who
are most vulnerable."
Our mission which is an expression of our philosophy of Human
Ecology, demands that our practices demonstrate concern for the whole
person body, mind, emotions, spirit and relationships as
fundamental to every human encounter. We encourage the adoption of
this philosophy through services, research, charity, advocacy and
example."
In addition to L.G. Health Care Systems, St. Luke's Medical Centre and
S.C. Baptist Hospitals are other health care centres that have adopted
Total Quality Management based on the MTQ process of 3M. Each
admits that TQM is necessary in light of ever-increasing health -care
costs and steadily decreasing federal funding for Medicare and
Medicaid.
Employee involvement is a primary characteristic of TQM and the 3M
system. Because participation by all individuals ranging from the
nursing staff to administration to environmental services is strongly
encouraged, each employee is empowered to make decisions and
initiate service goals without first having to pass ideas through several
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levels of authority.
Because it is important to involve all constituents, steering committee
members are composed of hospital volunteers and employees, patients
and physicians. This broad mix of input providers ensures that all
constituents have a voice in the quality process.

Describe how the mission statement of L.G. Health Care System can be
implemented and made operational?
07

How can quality as defined in the mission statement be measured? 07
OR
Q.5 Would the L.G. Health care system's mission be appropriate for a forprofits
hospital? Explain.
07

Will mounting pressure for health care costs make it more difficult to
implement TQM? Explain.
07