We would like to invite you to participate in Management Engineering (ME) Seminar.

1. When: February 21th (Thursday), 16:00 ~ 17:30
2. Where: Building 9, 3th #9303
3. Speaker: Prof. Prabir Kumar Bandyopadhyay (Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune, India)
4. Topic: Application of Process Capability Study as a Diagnostic Tool for Process, Productivity, and Quality-in-Management Improvement
5. Research field: Operations Strategy & Management Science
* Lecture will be delivered in English.

(Abstract)
This case presents a process capability study in a light engineering firm involved in manufacturing welding equipment in India. Apparently the company was not facing any quality problem- rejections of components were low and customer complaint was also minimum. But CEO felt there was a scope to improve the Productivity. A quick study of the assembly shop indicated that assembly of components are not random, it is "pick & choose? type. To diagnose the problem, process capability study was undertaken which is not a common approach in addressing productivity improvement issues. The study was a great eye opener for the top management and opened a Pandora?s Box revealing plethora of basic shop management issues including design related issues. Most of the processes are not capable of manufacturing as per the drawing dimensions. The study result prompts to probe the following questions:

1.How the products are designed and tolerances are allocated?
2. How the design document is translated into part diagram for machining?
3. Who adjusts cutting tool adjustment in different machines and at what frequency?
4. The role of quality control in this case.
5. If the product is failing endurance test, is it a customer requirement. Is the product over designed?
6. Ethics at the shop floor including interdepartmental coordination: Cohesion vs Productivity, importance of Moral

In the seminar, I will discuss how these questions reveal the big picture issue of the Management. And I will share how I use this result in the class room while teaching Quality Engineering.