Quality for Sustainability, a Blog by Rizwan Jabbar.

  As a project manager, some situations are inevitable to face in life. These are some of the situations described as laws which could prove effective in project life. 1. Murphy's Law  "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."  This law is also called Law of Toasted Bread. By keeping this law in mind, a project manager will always keep in mind the worst case scenarios and will be prepared for them. 2. Pareto's Principle Also called the 80-20 Law as well. It means the 80% effects are result of 20% causes. Or 80% of the productivity is because of 20% of resources. This law will help to prioritize the work as per their effect on project.  3. Parkinson's Law This law was presented by Cyril Parkinson and it states that "Work expands to the time allowed for it." It helps the project manager to understand that realistic timelines are important and do not waste any more time than required at an activity. 4. Carlson's Law Interrupted work will take more ti...

  Parts per Million vs Percentage Error With the evolution of quality management processes in production industry and adaptation of lean manufacturing concept by the manufacturers, number of products with defects started to decrease with the time. Concept of 99.99% of accuracy is adopted by the developed countries. Once the concept of 0.1% of error was used by the manufacturers while defining the quality of their production. But now developed countries use the concept of parts per million to define the productivity of their process. Following figure can help to understand the difference between both concepts. In the above example, in a production out of 25,000 pieces, 50 pieces found to be defected. Now if we examine the both criteria: 1. Percentage Error If we look for percentage error, value is only 0.2% but as the denominator is 100 in this case which makes it look like an satisfactory/acceptable error in production. 2. Parts Per Million In this criteria, 50 pieces out of 25,0...

  Production and Productivity Lean manufacturing is a concept used in manufacturing industry to reduce the waste and optimizing the process and maximizing the output without any increase in input. This is a concept where maximum productivity is achieved in a production. Production: In production of some product an input is provided to a system and output is achieved. This whole system is called production. Source: Youtube.com Productivity: Productivity is about how efficiently all the available resources are used to get the maximum output.   Productivity =  Output/Input  Lean Construction and Productivity: Similar to manufacturing industry, lean concept can be applied into the construction industry. Basic concept of lean is to minimize the waste and maximize the productivity. But unlike the manufacturing process, construction industry doesn’t have controlled environment, a combination of management system to achieve the lean construction concept. Source...

  Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) TPM or total productive maintenance is an approach which is essential to achieve the near perfect (99.99% error free) production. In this approach, goal is to make employees or operators aware of the fact that instead of unscheduled maintenance it is important to regularly maintain their equipment to avoid breakdowns. To simplify TPM, one can use the concept of “Zero BAD”. 1.     1.     Zero Breakdowns 2.      Zero Accidents 3.      Zero Defects By adopting this concept one can achieve the highest quality of product (99.99% error free). TPM emphasizes the proactive approach of maintaining the equipment by the workers and thus reducing the breakdown time and enhancing efficiency. Traditional TPM Pillars: Traditional TPM pillars were developed in 1960s and it uses 5S (Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardize, Sustain) as its foundation. Source: upkeep.com

  3Cs Concept in Warehouse   Effective warehouse management includes the effective inventory management. If managed poorly it can create a lot of issues for managers and thus resulting in a delayed product delivery and decreased efficiency of overall system. Large inventories are not easy to manage but different techniques are used to control and manage the warehouse like 5S, 3Cs etc. By implementing this technique, inventory management can be done in an effective manner.   What are these 3Cs in warehouse management? These 3Cs stands for 1.      Count Free There are plenty of items coming in a large warehouse on daily basis. As a manager you don’t want to count every item but develop such system where inventory can be counted in a time saving manner. 2.      Contact Free Some of the items in inventory could be susceptible to break in a contact with each other while unloading or storing in a warehouse. Contact free ...

  One Point Lesson (OPL) in Lean Manufacturing “Quality is achieving the 99.99% error free product or service.” Definition and Purposes: One point lesson is a straightforward technique used for conveying a single point on some problem using the maximum visual representation (80%) and minimum words (20%). It focuses usually by taking two pictures of an issue and depicting them as right and wrong and thus educating people on that specific one point. It has following purposes: 1.      It conveys information within minimum time and in a simplest way. 2.      It sharpens the knowledge and skill about a specific topic. OPL Format: OPL is performed on a specific format for ease of communication and better understanding. Source: leanmanufacturing.online OPL Types: 1.       1.  Basic Knowledge It shares the basic information about an operation or process required to increase the efficiency of a system. For example, in...

  Kaizen Approach in Quality Management Quality: “To achieve the 99.99% error free product.” History: Kaizen was introduced after the World War II within the Japanese automobile company “Toyota.” Japan was first influenced by America in implementation of quality management systems for lean manufacturing process to reduce waste. Professionals like Edwards Deming first introduced the quality management concepts which were accepted by all over the world for lean manufacturing process. Decades later, America was then influenced by Japanese who worked with Toyota. Professionals like Masaaki Imai introduced the concept of “Kaizen” to the world. Definition: Kaizen is a Japanese term and is a combination of two words, “Kai” means change and “Zen” means good so the term Kaizen collectively meaning “change for good.” This term was introduced by Japanese in quality management system to achieve the continuous improvement by making changes on smallest levels of working.   Kaize...