Pavan Patel

pp488@njit.edu
(201) 850-0167

1.

IE 673-851
Professor Paul Ranky
NJIT Fall 2015

Discuss the importance of quality partnering and strategic alliances

Having a connection between quality partnering and strategic alliances is very
important for a business. In the end it mutually benefits any and all parties that are
involved. It begins with the three stages of how the product is made and sold, starting
from the suppliers selling materials to manufacturers who turn the materials into a viable
product sold to a customer (end users). However, only the maximum benefit is attainable
if the individual parties involved cooperate with each, that is, they follow a contemporary
relationship rather than a traditional one where each party operates independently.
Partnering is beneficial in that it can lead to continual improvements in areas such as
processes and products, relationships between customers and suppliers and customer
satisfaction.

2.

Discuss the various forms of quality partnering and strategic alliances

There are many different types of quality partnering and strategic alliances that ca
be formed. Some are, the partnering between companies such as a group of
small/medium sized companies that save money using consortium buying. Theres
relationships that involve the supplier and their customers. Other innovative partnering
includes internal partnering where within an organization management-employee, team to
team and employee to employee partnerships can be found. Theres also the partnering of
organizations with suppliers and the partnering of customers. Last but not least, theres
the unorthodox partnership of competitors, for example, some companies in the US
would partner up to come with creative innovations so that they can be one step ahead of
competitors in different parts of the world.

3.

Discuss the importance of quality culture

Before getting into the importance of quality culture, you must first know the
concept of an organizational culture. The organizational culture involves: business
environment, organizational values, cultural role models, organizational [rites, rituals,
customs], and cultural transmitters. Implementing these elements into an organization is
vital in manifesting the organizations underlying values and traditions, and also consists
of the establishment and continual improvement of quality.

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Pavan Patel
pp488@njit.edu
(201) 850-0167

4.

IE 673-851
Professor Paul Ranky
NJIT Fall 2015

Explain the difference between traditional and modern quality cultures

There are some key differences between the organizations that employ quality
cultures and traditional cultures. Those include: operating philosophy, objectives,
management approach, attitude towards customers, problem-solving approach, supplier
relationships and performance-improvement approach. For operating philosophy, the
primary focus of a traditional culture is return on investment and short term profits
whereas in a quality culture the focus is on customer satisfaction. For objectives,
traditional cultures adopt short term objectives whereas quality cultures adopt a strategic
plan of long and short term objectives. For management approach, in traditional culture
the managers are seen as bosses and give demands on what to do to their employees,
whereas in a quality culture the managers are coaches of the team and have open
communication. For attitude towards customers, traditional approach would be to worry
about themselves and not care for customers, whereas a quality culture approach would
be customer focused. For problem solving approach, in a traditional culture a lot of
assigning of blame, deflecting and pointing fingers goes on instead of finding a solution,
whereas in a quality culture the focus of a problem relies on identifying and isolating the
root cause so that it can be eliminated. For supplier relationships, traditional cultures the
suppliers are kept at arms length away in relationships that are sometimes adversarial,
whereas in quality cultures, suppliers and customers work together as partners. Last but
not least, in the performance-improvement approach, traditional cultures employ
performance-improvement techniques only when problems arise whereas in quality
cultures, theres an ongoing and continual improvement in all parts of the organization

5.

How do you understand who is a customer?

Traditionally a customer was viewed as the end user, those who interact with an
organization after they produce a product. In this perspective, the customers and suppliers
are viewed as external components. In a total quality perspective a customer can be
defined as both as a group internally and externally that exists. For example, a supplier
can supply material to a manufacturer, within the manufacturing team there is a subset of
suppliers and customers and a series of interactions that take place between them, this is
followed by the production of a product that is sold to the final customer. In this
schematic, the customer relies on the supplier to ensure quality work and produce quality
products.

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Pavan Patel
pp488@njit.edu
(201) 850-0167

6.

IE 673-851
Professor Paul Ranky
NJIT Fall 2015

Explain customer defined value, value analysis and retention.

As part of every organization, the customer is key into realizing how well valued
is the product and the success of it. Some of the values that are defined by the customers
are: product or service quality, service provided by the organization, the organizations
personnel, the organizations image, selling price of the product or service, and overall
cost of the product or service. The process in determining what a customer values and
what is important to them is called customer value analysis. There are 5 steps to this
process: determining what attributes customers value most, rating the relative importance
of attributes, assessing the organizations performance relative to the prioritized list of
attributes, asking customers to rate all attributes of your product or service against the
same attributes of a competitors product or service, and the action of repeating the
process periodically. The last thing explained in this process is customer retention, which
is not achieved by getting feedback on customer satisfaction on their products or services
solely, but its more about how the organization retains a customer after said customer has
used their products or services. This means taking action to ensure customers remain their
customers (and in some ways, a partner) by going beyond customer satisfaction and
dissipating their need to go out and buy competitor products/services or the need to get a
variety of products/services.

7.

Discuss product innovation models for customer retention

Innovation is very important for organizations to retain customers in the long
term in todays hyper-competitive global environment. There exists a model, created by
Praveen Gupta, which is keen on innovation which is also attractive and relevant for
customers:
1) Target the opportunity where the focus is relied on identifying customer needs
and uses them to innovate.
2) Explore ideas where research is done to make sure innovation will be
successful in the marketplace.
3) Develop alternatives for the innovation, prototypes, and test which one will be
effective.
4) Optimize the solution from a chosen alternative and take it to the production
and delivery level.
5) Commercialize the innovation by developing and deploying an effective
marketing program for the innovation.

8.

Discuss employee empowerment

In the total quality process, the fundamentals of good management principles are
well defined by involving and empowering employees in the decision making and
creative thinking processes. This can be achieved by the management providing open,
nonthreatening creative environment that encourages employee involvement, expecting
them to think, recognizing employee value, rewarding employees. These steps help an
organization build their employees up to a prime quality organization that enhances the

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Pavan Patel
pp488@njit.edu
(201) 850-0167

IE 673-851
Professor Paul Ranky
NJIT Fall 2015

organizations competitiveness. There can be several factors that inhibit or resists

empowerment in employees, such as resistance from employees themselves, unions and
management. The most important in establishing empowerment is by managements role
in it, meaning their commitment, leadership and facilitation of the idea. Implementing
empowerment contains four broad steps: 1) creating a supportive environment, 2)
targeting and overcoming inhibitors, 3) putting the vehicles in place (i.e. brainstorming,
nominal group techniques, quality circles, suggestion boxes, and walking and talking, 4)
assessing, adjusting and improving.
9.

Discuss leadership for quality

Leadership for quality can be viewed from the perspective of total quality. It is
based on the philosophy that an organization continually improves its people, processes
and products that will in turn improve other areas of their business such as: quality, value,
productivity, service, market share, longevity, business expansion, and return on
investment. The key elements to leadership for quality include:
1) Customer focus = organizations primary goal is to meet or exceed customer
satisfaction in a way that gives the customer lasting value.
2) Obsession with quality = every employee aggressively pursues quality in an
attempt to exceed the expectations of customers.
3) Recognizing the structure of work = work processes are analyzed to determine
structural makeup and are continually improved.
4) Freedom through control = leaders must ensure that managers and employees
take control of the work processes and methods by collaborating to
standardize them.
5) Unity of purpose = the responsibility of the leader to convey the
organizations mission so that employees understand it, believe in it, and
commit to it.
6) Looking for fault in systems = According to Deming & Juran, 85 % of failures
are caused by management controlled systems and 15% by employee
controlled systems. Leadership of quality must figure out a way to reduce the
focus on assessing blame and more on attempt to figure out what and how to
correct the problem.
7) Teamwork = a team of people working towards a common goal can
outperform a group of individuals working towards their own ends.
8) Continuing education and training = in todays ever growing business, the
most important machine is the human mind. Therefore, continued learning in
all levels is a fundamental element of total quality.
9) Emphasis on best practices and peak performance = leaders must ensure
absolute best possible performance from their personnel, processes and
products. They also must emphasize identifying and deploying best practices
so to ensure peak performance.

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Pavan Patel
pp488@njit.edu
(201) 850-0167

IE 673-851
Professor Paul Ranky
NJIT Fall 2015

10. How to lead for a better quality change?

To lead a better quality change, there is a systematic effort brought through
change initiatives by the leaders. The following is a change-implementation model that
was designed to help leader overcome some factors that inhibit organizational change:
developing a compelling change picture, communication of change picture to
stakeholders, conduct a comprehensive roadblock analysis, removal or mitigation of
roadblocks, implementing the change and monitoring and adjusting. Implementing and
facilitating this model will help initiate a change in quality developed by leaders.

IE 673-851 Social Networking Discussions

Group Members: Pavan Patel, Adewuyi B. Thompson, Matthew Boghdady, Julio
Jimenez

Link 1: FDA Halts Sales Of 4 R.J. Reynolds Cigarette Brands

Pavan's Comments: Smoking causes the deaths and hospitalization of thousands of

people per year. Generally speaking, this is very bad for business as it is if a product
can cause a negative impact on your organizations outlook and reputation. The
FDAs decision to ban the certain products produced by R.J. Reynolds was a very
concise and widely accepted decision. From an internal viewpoint, the company
must take a step back and correct this error, find a way to improve and regain the
trust of their customers and the marketplace. While personally I do not condone the
selling and distributing of a harmful product, it would be of interest to see how this
company can improve their product quality so that they can pull themselves out of
such a predicament.

Thompson's Comments: The initiative to ban or halt sales of cigarettes is an

accomplishment that recognizes that cigarette smoking is harmful which leads to
cancer and death of millions of Americans which the government is holding them
accountable for. The responsibility that cigarettes are harmful to people has been
placed on the tobacco companies and the government has taken control to regulate
the problem by controlling the products and brands that the tobacco companies
release into the public. The FDA testing approach to have the tobacco companies
set their standards to show that they don't raise new safety concerns. This does not
necessarily mean it will stop all products but it will eliminate new ways for tobacco
companies to introduce products into the economy where they have been effective
in their marketing campaigns to create a buzz.

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Pavan Patel
pp488@njit.edu
(201) 850-0167

IE 673-851
Professor Paul Ranky
NJIT Fall 2015

Matthew's Comments: Cigarettes in general are extremely unhealthy, to say the

least. Regulating an unhealthy product is a very tricky task. According to the article,
regulating new cigarettes in the industry means to ensure there are no new health
risks involved. I think that the regulations are a very good idea. Although smokers
know of most, if not all, of the risks involved in smoking, new risks shouldn't be
introduced. Taking a popular product, Camel Crush Bold, off the shelf because the
manufacturer was in question and didn't cooperate with the studies is a very good
deed. There is no reason why any information should be withheld at all from the FDA
or industry. Since the FDA Tobacco regulation department gained more and more
power in 2009, I believe that there has been subtle benefits for all smokers.

Jimenez Comments: I Cigarette smokers have been consuming different products

without really knowing the full extend of the risks that they are taking. The new
article by Matthew Perrone give us an understanding how the Food and Drug
Administration has been looking to keep this under control ever since 2009. The
banning by the FDA of 4 different cigarettes by the brand R.J. Reynolds demonstrate
the growing efforts by the agency to control the changes on the making of
cigarettes unless they proof to be as safe as older cigarettes. I think that society has
come too far allowing toxic products to be market to the public. Undoubtedly,
regulating the cigarette market is a good step toward improving the health of
smokers. The FDA may not completely control the free will of people to do with their
live what they want, however, their role is vital to protect those who want to
consume a product that does not cause more harm than good.

Link 2: Air Pollution Kills 3.3 Million Worldwide, Might Double

Pavan's Comments: In this case we notice that there isnt one person or
organization to blame for the deaths and destruction caused by air pollution. It
definitely takes the joint support of all the countries around the world to reduce the
damage we are doing not only to ourselves, but also to Mother Nature and our
future generations. We would have to come up a plan to systematically attain a
quality solution that will let us reduce the current air pollution and ways to prevent
the problem from persisting. Theres no way we can reverse the damage already
done, but part of the solution is admitting there is one and what can be realistically
done.

Thompson's Comments: The rising death toll has certainly become a concern when
it comes to air pollution; it is not one person that can be held accountable for the
death of millions but a collective responsibility of the people of the world. The
information gather breaks down how pollution is killing different parts of our society
and in what form, whether it be power plant, agriculture, or just plain ambient air
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Pavan Patel
IE 673-851
pp488@njit.edu
Professor Paul Ranky
(201) 850-0167
NJIT Fall 2015
pollution. The article did its research on identifying that a problem does exist and
that it is a problem that continues to keep growing without a viable solution in
place. With agriculture having a big part in this, it will appear we will have to figure
other means of reducing pollution by coming up with solutions to bring the levels
down to at least help decrease the death toll associated with this.

Matthew's Comments: Air pollution is an often-discussed topic but this article

really takes a different perspective. Farming, surprisingly, plays the largest role in
what pollutes the air the most. The study in the article finds out that countries with
large agricultural areas, have the most deaths from air pollution. Scientists around
the world took that information and translated it to what the major cause could be.
Ammonia was found to be the chemical that caused most of the air pollution deaths
which is found in fertilizer and other products used by farms. I find this information
extremely valuable, especially in today's society where people complain (especially
in politics) about air pollution and regulations of plants.

Jimenez Comments: I think that is important to mention that according to Seth

Borenstein new study the number of people kill by air pollution are alarming. It
amounts to 3.3 million people worldwide and it is expected to double by 2050. The
fact that farming is considered to be the number one factor contributing to air
pollution is not surprise to me. The audiobook "The Way We Eat" by Peter Singer
and Jim Mason goes in great details as to why agriculture causes a lot of pollution.
They both agree with Seth article in which ammoniac on fertilizer and animal waste
are a the core of the problem. More importantly is the fact that it does not need to
be this way. There are more sustainable ways that could be used on farming, but the
guess for low prices drive farmers and big corporations to cut corners. At the end,
the people that were suppose to benefit from this low price farming suffer the
consequences with the ever growing air pollution. I personally think that more
regulations should be in place to control the air pollution that affects all of us. The
future of people's lives should not be left to be determine by market or mere
chance.

Link 3: All-Electric Porsche Concept Includes Heads-Up Holograms

Pavan's Comments: Technological innovation has been exponentially improving
over the last
Decade. We have come a long way since the times when internet, computers and
cell phones were just items that werent affordable or advanced. In this article, the
concept of Electric cars manufactured by a very well-known and established car
company shows us what we can look forward to in the near future. Electric powered
cars have been taking the automotive industry by storm and as technology changes
so does the need for customer demand for companies. It is very apparent that
Porsche is trying to keep its foot in the game by developing such technology now

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Pavan Patel
IE 673-851
pp488@njit.edu
Professor Paul Ranky
(201) 850-0167
NJIT Fall 2015
because they know they will have a huge customer base once more electric cars are
running around the world. By having an early introduction to electric cars, which are
very impressively built machines, they can take control of a majority of market
share for the respective category.

Thompson's Comments: Porsche has decided to improve on their quality culture by

laying a solid foundation within their organization culture, known for their luxurious
vehicles, theyve to improve on their models in a time where it needs an answer.
And what can I say other than that I am excited that automobile makers are finally
taken the green initiative seriously and putting them into concepts that people like
me will be excited about. With concept like this it is reducing pollution in the
economy and reducing our dependency on oil. The route Porsche also decides to
take is to make this vehicle connected to the social network.

Matthew's Comments: I think that technology is really coming along well. Electric
vehicles are finally blossoming after a slow start. One fear is that electricity is going
to have the same struggle, as gas in the sense that it will soon become expensive
because of the need will increase. Porsche and high end sports cars have bought in
to the electric car business and causing the industry to become popular. All the new
technology in the Porsche model is quite impressive from the camera sensing the
driver's eyes to the digital key through an app feature. This car is going to break
new grounds and really impress the industry.

Jimenez Comments: We could clearly see on the article by Megan Crouse the extent
to which Porsche has invested into their electric cars technology. I am personally
impressed in how car manufactures has brought technologies that were once movie
concept into the general market. Holographic display, OLED lights display, apps
control functions and fast take off to mention a few are some of the things that
could be seem on the new Mission E Porsche. This luxury vehicle will certainly earn
its place in the market. However, it is important to mention that with this move
Porsche takes an important step toward a more environmentally friendly technology
on cars compare to gas and diesel fuel vehicles. This is big even though there are
rising concerns with higher cost of the electric power supply. One can expect that as
with the development of efficient electric cars, we will also see new means of
generating electric power to meet this new demand. I recently saw images of new
water floating wind electric turbines technology currently use. I guess it is saved to
say that this and Porsche new vehicle are proof of a more efficient world.

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