The Impact of Taguchi Methods on Southeast Asian Manufacturing Organizations by Jolito Ortizo Padilla- my 6th Research work for 2011

 Taguchi methods are powerful quality engineering methods developed by the Japanese engineer and statistician Genichi Taguchi to improve the quality of manufactured goods. The methods were first introduced in Japan, where they have been used extensively to improve the quality of products and processes within the organizations over the past 60 years.

In the 1980s, they were introduced to the US and quickly adopted by some of the most successful American corporations, including Ford Motor Company, AT&;T Bell Laboratories, General Motors and Xerox. In the late 1980s, shortly after their debut in the US, the Taguchi method of experimental design was introduced to Europe and the UK.

However, in contrast to US and Japan, research has indicated that the use of TMs(Taguchi Method) is far from pervasive within European Industries. Although many case studies are published in the existing literature on TMs , most academics are of opinion that TMs are still largely underutilized within the Southeast  Asian manufacturing organizations.

However, there appears to be either minimal or no empirical evidence to verify this opinion, although this is not the case in Japan , the US and other European countries. To these authors' knowledge , this research study is the first attempt to understand the true impact of TMs on the Southeast Asian manufacturing organizations.

Back to basics
Dr. Genchi Taguchi describes TMs as: "the evaluation and improvement of the robustness of products, tolerance specifications, the design of engineering management processes and the evaluation of the economic loss caused by the functional variation of products". Given the importance of design of experiments within Taguchi's overall engineering strategy, he went to great lengths to develop his own standardised approach to the design of experiments in an attempt to make it easier to apply and more user friendly.

It has been speculated that as much as 80% of the Japanese quality gains which occurred after the second world war can be attributed directly to TMs. A recent survey by Fujita and Matsuo in 2005 found that from a sample of 118 Japanese manufacturing organizations, approximately 40% of those companies were applying the methodology, clearly showing that the techniques is still in common use today.

Research carried out by Jugulum and Dichter into the US manufacturing companies was primarily focused on assessing the impact of TMs through a survey questionnaire in 2001. Generating a modest 270 responses to their questionnaire, Jugulum and Dichter found that about 30% of the companies were applying the Taguchi approach to experimental design. Moreover, they found TMs most commonly used to optimise process performance, as opposed to improving a product design.

Survey conducted within Spain, Germany and Ireland have shown that TMs were being used by less than 10% of the responding companies. In 2003, Gremyr et al. discovered that the application of TMs was among the highest in Europe, but still low in comparison to Japan and US.

There are several case studies within the existing literature which document successful applications within the UK manufacturing industry. Another study carried out by Araujo et al. in 1996 showed that the application of TMs is more prevalent within the aerospace and automotive sectors.

The survey results
As part of the survey research strategy, it was decided that a survey strategy would be adopted. The strength of the survey is that it allows a large amount of data to be collected from a large population in an economical way.

Adopting the same strategy as used by Jugulum and Dichter in 2001, the survey was conducted through a two stage questionnaire process. A short primary questionnaire was designed and distributed to around 750 manufacturing organizations from the Philippines, Singapore , Malaysia,Vietnam , Hongkong and Indonesia. Many of the questions used for the primary questionnaire were web-based one created and administered by http://www.surveymonkey.com/

Total response received from the primary survey were 105. A detailed secondary questionnaire was then designed and distributed to about 20 companies. The secondary questionnaire was only sent to those companies who had indicated that they were applying TMs and were deemed to have sufficient knowledge and experience to complete the questionnaire. A total of 15 questionnaires were returned, 14 of which contained valid and complete information. This corresponds to a very good response rate of 70%.

The primary questionnaire had been designed to collect general background information about respondents. Company size was divided into four categories;less than 50 employees;50-249 employees; 250-500 employees and over 50 employees. Most of the responses came from companies with over 50 employees.

Figure 3: Distribution of respondents across the sectors
Type of manufacturing industry                                                Number of responses
Chemical and Pharmaceuticals                                                 20
Aerospace and defense                                                           16
Food and beverage                                                                 12
Electronic component manufacturers                                        10
Plastics and rubber products                                                      8
Fabricated metal product manufacturing                                     6
Automotive manufacturing                                                         8
Printing and packaging                                                               5
Electrical equipment and consumer appliances                            5
Other manufacturing sectors                                                     17

Figure 3 presents responses recieved in relation to all sectors that participated in the study.

Nearly 40% of the respondents represented the manufacturing function.Moreover, the majority of the respondents were from upper or middle management, where it is assumed they have a good overall understanding of the business and its operations. The results of the study also revealed that over 80% of the respondents conduct industrial experiements, 15% of which conduct industrial experiments frequently.

Figure 4: Reasons for performing or conducting industrial experiments
Reasons                                                                    Percentage of respondents
To solve detected problems                                        75%
To optimise process performance and                         70%
product characteristics
To learn about process or product behavior                50%
Product or process innovation                                     40%
To confirm initial assumptions                                      30%
To develop a rubost design unsensitive
variation                                                                     25%

Figure 4 presents the most common reasons for conducting industrial experiments in the Southeat Asian manufacturing organizations. The top three reasons given for industrial experiements were:
- To solve detected problems
- To optimize processes or products
- To learn about and explore the behavior of processes

The respondents were also asked to indicate the strategies of experimentation that they use when performing experiments. It was found that over 50% rely on the one factor at a time (OFAT) approach to experimentation for process optimization problems. This confirms the results of the study carried out by Antony in 2002, and is also consistent with the findings of Tanco et al in 2008 for companies in Spain.

The studies carried out by Tanco et al. and Jugulum and Dichter indicated that 50% of Spanish organizations were aware of TMs, compared to 75% of US organizations. The analysis of data indicated that there was no correlation between the use of TMs and company size , which is consistent with the findings of Tanco et al.

The results also showed that the use of TMs is higher within ISO 9001 certified companies which supports the findings of Ozgur et al. in 2002.

The respondents were asked about the common reasons for the application of Taguchi method of experiemental design. The top three common reasons for the application of Taguchi method of experimental design were:
- To improve or to optimise those existing processes
- To solve detected problems
- To learn and to understand about process or product behavior.
The secondary questionnaire was used to obtain a more detailed understanding of the application of TMs with Southeast Asian manufacturing organizations.

The number of companies involved in the detailed questionnaire was 14. It was observed that most companies carry out less than five Taguchi projects per year, with only two companies claiming conduct between six and 10 project each year.

It was interestting to compare these results with Jugulum and Dichter's 2001 study. Their findings showed that US manufacturing companies are performing more industrial designed experiments than their Southeast Asian counterparts. It was also found that most applications occur within manufacturing , followed by the applications in product development.

The author also discovered that TMs are most commonly introduced to US organizations as part of corporate quality programme or product development process, as opposed to a stand-alone technique. However, in the SEA manufacturing organizations it was observed that TMs are more commonly promoted as stand-alone tool.

Barriers to implementation of TMs
The respondents were asked to list the typical barriers that they have experienced when applying TMs. The following bariers were subsequently identified from the survey:
- Lack of a clear methodology when applying TM
- Insufficient financial resources
- Negative image of statistics within the workforce
- Insufficient human resources
- Lack of management commitment
- Organizational resistance
- Poor or inadequate training on TMs
- Lack of knowledge of engineers on the methodology
- Engineers generally have insufficient knowledge of statistics
- TMs are thought to be just to complex to apply.
- The poor standard of satistical consultancy that exist.
- Previous negative experiences in applying the methodology
- Lack of time
- Poor leadership
It was found that the lack of clear and systematic methodology to apply TMs was one of the most common barriers across the participating companies.

Interestingly, Tanco et al, in 2008 also identified this as one of the biggest barriers to the design of experiments within Spanish organizations, despite there being numerous methodologies proposed for TMs within the literature.

The findings of our study also revealed that the most respondents perceive there to be a negative image about the use of statistics within their workforce. Furthermore, over 80% of the respondents believe that engineers generally have insufficient knowledge of statistics to apply the TMs.

Another common barier to the application of TMs was "poor or inadequate training" and "insufficient time" which also appear to be key barriers within many US organization.

Conclusion
This research has shown that only a limited number of companies within the SEA manufacturing sector are currently realizing the benefits of this powerful methodology.

Although some companies are now applying TMs, most are failing to realize its full potential due to various barriers in the application and deployment of TMs across the business.

The true value of TMs lies in the application of TMs for designing rubostness into the design stage of products and processes. This study attempts to show the status of the application of TM within the SEA manufacturing companies.

The next stage of this research is to then carry out a semi-structured interviews with selected companies to obtain a greater insights into the many applications of TM within the SEA manufacturing sector.

A comparison on the application of TM in the SEA service sector will also be a worthy research topic over the forthcoming years.

The Security of Business IT by Jolito Ortizo Padilla



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The security of business IT systems has never been more important. Organizations are increasingly reliant on IT infrastructure such as websites and computer system to support their activities, which leaves them vulnerable to threats from hackers, viruses and disgruntled staff.

At the same time, information technology continues to evolve at an incredible rate, bringing with it new security threats and quality professionals are now facing the difficult task of protecting their organization's IT system.

Security Threats
According to antivirus software developer McAfee, cybercrime is a growing problem all over the world. The President of McAfee, Dave DeWalt says:" A lot has been done to combat cybercrime over the past decade, but criminals still have the upper hand. The chances of getting caught knocking off a convenience store are several times larger than robbing an online bank".

His argument was given more weight in December 2010, when MasterCard and Visa had their websites shut down by hackers after the companies announced they would no longer process donation payments to controversial website Wikileaks.

Smaller organizations should also be concerned about cybercrime. According to research by the Information System Audit and Control Association small-and medium- sized businesses need to do more to protect themselves from cyber attacks. Notably, its research has found that the number of employees willing to take risky actions online, such as providing a work email address when shopping over the internet or following an unknown link, has risen over the past 12 months.

While not all IT security threats have as high profile as hackers, they can be just as critical. In the last few years, cloud computing, whereby shared servers provide resources, software and data to computers, has become one of the fastest growing segments of the IT industry. Recession-hit companies are increasingly putting their faith and their data in the cloud, which has its own inherent risks.

The ISO Solution
The ISO/IEC 27000 series of information security standards provides best practice recommendations for information security management systems. Professor Edward Humphreys, the convenor of the working group responsible for the development and maintenance of ISO/IEC 27001, says the most immediate challenge for quality professionals working within IT is being aware of the risks involved.

"Cloud computing is an example of a technology in which managers are largely unaware of the risks," he says."People don't know where their data is kept, except that it's in the cloud. Physically, it could be anywhere-Philippines, America, Singapore  or Bahrain. We have have strong data protection and privacy regulations in Europe, but what if your data isn't being kept in Europe?"

More and more organizations are turning to the informations  security standard ISO/IEC 27001 to help manage their IT risks, with certification rates up by 40% in 2010. Edwards says: ISO/IEC 27001 can be used to get the whole management of IT all under one framework, so an organization isn't dealing with individual problems but one issue."

The most important thing in tackling information security is to understand the risks, explains Edward. "ISO/IEC 27000 standards are risk based; the idea being that an organization will perform a risk assessment to find out exactly what its problems are and then put the controls that are needed in place.

"If quality professionals can identify the risks involved, then their organizations will be better able to cope with problems if they occur.

Mr. Aurelio Macaraeg Jr. Mr. Sundaram Sagaran and Mr. Alfonso Ramos Jr.

Thank you very much..

From the desk of GA Business and Management Consultancy

 

Case Study:

MY WEB MY WAY

Public service organizations such as the BBC have to ensure that they serve all of their users. The BBC is supporting web accessibility through its My Web My Way website, which has been developed and is maintained through a partnership between BBC Online and AbilityNet.

As a result, the bbc.co.uk home page is now easy to navigate and more intuitive for users, whatever their access route.

The My Web My Way site caters for  those with visuals, hearing , motor , cognitive or learning impairments as well as with minor vision impairments who would not consider themselves to have a disability.

It provides advice and help to people who would benefit from making changes to their browser, keyboard and mouse settings, operating system or computer, in order that they can view BBC online and the wider web in a more accessible way.

Examples of what this means in real terms for  users include:
- Enabling people with motor impairments to read broadsheet quality news on news.bbc.co.uk without having to actually turn to broadsheet pages.
- Enabling children with motor and cognitive disabilities to access CBBC online games with "Switch" technology.
- Enabling deaf and hard of hearing people to "listen" to The Archers via transcripts on bbc.co.uk/archers.

The site also provides a guide to getting the most out of accessibility features that BBC New Media is incorporating into BBC Online, as part of the organization's commitment to ensure its services address the needs of disabled users.

Risks from Global Political Upheaval

New research has found that the level of political risk has risen in more countries than it has declined. This comes as no surprise to a world that is still growing accustomed to the recent changes in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.

The research measured the political risk of 211 countries and territories based on the level of risks such as currency inconvertibility and exchange transfer; strikes, riots and civil commotion. war, civil war, sovereign non-payment, political interference, supply chain disruption and legal and regulatory risk.

The findings demonstrated the negative effects of the global financial crisis on the economies of nations with traditionally low levels of risk. At the same time the continued emergence of several markets in Africa where more international trade and investment is occurring has led to a greater need for political risk insurance cover.

The annual research has seen a nearly 30% increase in the number of countries in the middle of risk rankings- the medium low to medium high categories-as these countries have become more active in the world economy and their prosperity has increased.

In addition, recent research from Coface, a global firm which specializes in trade risk management, pointed to continued tension between sovereign risks in the euro zone and the financing of growth in the emerging countries. In 2011, a key issue for country risk will be private debt monitoring and growth financing.

The Coface research, covering 156 countries (of which 28 are classified as advanced countries) found that the winners of the financial crisis are the emerging countries, which will continue their solid growth trajectory in 2011 with slight slowdown:6.2% compared to 6.7% in 2010.

Tougher US regulation for oil and gas in 2011

Despite fears of tougher regulation following the Deepwater Horizon spill, the global and gas industry is optimistic of an upturn in business in 2011, according to a recent report.

Deep Water Ahead? The Outlook for the Oil and Gas Industry in 2011 was written by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by GL Noble Denton. The report is based on a survey of almost 200 top level industry leaders including CEOs, other board level executives and policymakers.

The research reveals that price volatility has failed to dent the industry's appetite for investment in new exploration and market opportunities. Nearly one-third of the executives surveyed see South-East Asia as offering the greatest opportunities over the coming year, with that proportion rising to 58% when combined with China and the Far East.

But nearly three quarters of respondents expect regulation to become tougher in North America in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico spill. The long term impact of the Deepwater Horizon spill will also affect companies' operational strategy , especially as their safety record will become a more important factor in gaining access to global reserves.

John Wishart, president of GL Noble Denton, said: " This report forecasts an upturn in industry growth, with cautious optimism. But key players in the industry will need to find more innovative solutions to mitigate risk, while operating more efficiently and sustainably."

Your career questions answered: A letter from University of the Philippines

The Problem: I am responsible for revamping our document control system. Where should I start?

The answer:
Document control means different things to different people, depending on what they are dealing with, who their audience is and the risks associated with the use of wrong document. There are numerous systems for achieving control, but all have the same three simple elements.

1. What is it?

Every document, whatever the format, needs to be identifiable. This may be a topic or a reference, but unless you know what it is, what chance do you stand of controlling it?

2.What issue is it?

This enables you to know whether you have the right document, as well as how many versions are available and when they were created. This doesn't have to be complicated. If it's a letter or an email, then a date may be sufficient as it tells you when it was produced. If it's something more complicated, or you don't want to date it, then a simple issue or version number or letter will suffice.

3. Have I got it all?

Personally, I always number pages using the format "1of 2", etc. This way, the user knows that they have the whole document. A bit of common sense is required here, though, as no-one would expect a novel to be numbered in this way. However, if the document is to be stored or used electronically then this format can be a lifesaver.

These simple steps will ensure that keeping control of your document is easy. Document control doesn't have to be a bureaucratic nightmare.

                                                                                     
                                                                           

Communicating Across the Globe by Jolito Ortizo Padilla

Outsourcing and working with international partners has become part of every business. International and virtual project teams are more prevalent and 24-hour business requirements can mean that teams are geographically split across continents.

There are five areas a project manager needs to pay special attention to in this situation:
- Cultural dynamics in the team
- Helping the team work as a team
- Coordination of work
- Practical communication issues
- Stakeholder management

A project's success is often dependent on support of the stakeholders and their perception of its success. Having the team spread across a large geographical area can allow stakeholders to go directly to the local member of the team. Using these contacts wisely can bring stakeholder value but poor communication about stakeholders' needs and wishes can be alternative and damaging as a result. The project manager needs to help his team feed information back so all stakeholder views and issues can be considered in project decisions.

Stakeholders approaching local team members directly can also cause workloads to become unbalanced or changes to be made to products or plans without proper consideration for the whole team. The team needs a culture of general helpfulness towards stakeholders with a strong ethos of not undertaking any work that is not assigned to them. The use of change requests, change controls and issue management becomes increasingly important in these situations.

If the project team is working in South America, India and London to cover stakeholders' needs, the project manager will need to have a work pattern to cover very long days without too many long hours.

Central control can be delegated and distributed around the team but managing the work and the required outcomes of each step of the project is a coordination role for the project manager A core team taking responsibility for parts of the project is a common solution. The project manager in these teams must be excellent at planning and delegating work to ensure progress.

Managers must avoid using stereotypes in planning the team's work and really consider who has the best skills to do each task. There are advantages in the diversity of the team and the best available resource possibilities; the best people may have different perspectives. However, gaining this understanding is normally something the project manager does in person, which is more difficult when the team is not co-located. If possible , the project manager should fly out to meet as amny of the team members as possible, see where they live, get to know them and work out some different cultural approaches. Getting the team together where the project manager is based is more expensive, but allows team members to begin to understand their leader's approach approach too. From the start communication becomes much easier.

Team motivation can be difficult to manage at a distance and very easy to disrupt through misunderstanding. It can be difficult to gauge the morale of the group, pick up on cultural differences -for example, an agreement in one place is a contract but in another a basis for discussion-or see if determination is comprised of what we say, 38% of how we say it and the other 55% of what we can say when in the same space, such as body language and eye contact. Emails, reports and telephone conversations cannot convey the whole of the message unless very carefully worded when sending. Double checking what different cultural drivers are in play and guessing what tone a sentence was written in takes extra time that needs to be scheduled into the project.

Internet video conferencing can be arranged with most desktops or laptops. It is also possible to record meetings for those who can't make it and this cuts out the effort of minute-taking. Seeing and hearing colleagues helps our understanding and progress but careful attention must still be paid to mannerism, manners and language, especially where local expressions or colloquialism may mean the reverse of the more generally acknowledged meaning.



                                                                           
                                                                                                                       

My Intriguing Management Research for the year 2011 (January to July)



The Thousand Smile of my son Jol jr.

 

BOARD CAN BE BETTER

Boards of directors are supposed to be independent, but in fact they are often dependent on management for information. My ongoing research has shown that more cooperative approaches and new technologies can make directors increasingly effective as evaluators and advisers. Surprisingly little attention has been paid to the limited extent and compromised value of information sharing between companies' management and boards of directors.

Directors are entrusted with protecting shareholder interest, but they are often dependent on management for information on the very things they are expected to examine, assess and oversee, including management's performance.

Boards need to take more initiative in assessing their companies' performance, but are unlikely to be able to do so they can get relevant information whn they need it. This study on corporate governance has shown the board's ability to provide meaningful overviews and useful advice is determined by the quality, timeliness and credibility of the information it has; most boards have a long way to go in this area.

The study has,so far, come up with the three main considerations:
1. The pressures on management and boards to deal with information flow are likely to increase;
2. High-quality information is as vital to effective governance as it is to good performance; and
3. Technological solutions will dramatically improve the ability of boards to identify , acquire, analyze and act on the most relevant information.

Recent events have highlighted complex questions for corporate governance.  What are the minimum amounts and kinds of information that directors need to make prudent business judgments and effective decisions?If a potentially significant ethical lapse is revealed, directors may not be able to rely solely on information from management.

RECRUITMENT AGENCIES: KNOWING YOUR WORKERS

New research offers insights into workings of recruitment agencies. The world of work has changed; companies aim at being lean. Maintaining large full-time workforces is no longer possible for many firms. Companies in need of skilled specialist workers often do not have the staff in place to search for and hire people for short-term projects. Staffing firms that can provide companies with temporary workers have emerged as important players.

The recruitment agencies are effectively the employers of the workers;the best way to increase their profits and maintain their relationships with client firms is by establishing long term realtionships with the workers they place. That way, they are much more likely to make solid placements that will gain them a reputation for providing their clients with the best possible workers.

The research analysis revealed that firms can change higher prices and obtain higher margins when they place workers with whom they have longer relationships. The only difference between workers was the length of their relationship with the agency. In long-term relationships the firm acquires a great deal of information about the workers it places, which is invaluable in deciding how well each worker would suit a given company's needs. This translates into higher pay for the workers , encouraging them to stay with the agency;it also translated into higher profit margins for the firm.

These findings provide important insights as to how firms can increase their profits through the accumulation of private information about workers. This approach is very different from the current concentration by some recruting firms on cultivating relationships with the clients, for whom they find workers, rather than the worker themselves.

EMPLOYEES' VIEW ON TALENT MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME

New research examines the issue of talent management from the employee perspective. This will help organizations understand how best to focus talent investment and resources.

The main findings from the study:
- The vast majority of respondents said talent management programmes made them feel more engaged at work.
- The main reasons for wanting to be a participant in the programmes: the belief that the development activities offered help to people in the future , and also the hope that the programme would help individuals progress up the economy at a faster pace.
- Respondent were uncertain about the main objectives of programmes:half believed they were to help them perform better in their current job; the other half thought they were more about preparing them for a future role.
- Senior managers saw the benefits of the programme as increasing their networks; developing new skills ; and learning from a challenging experience.

Leadership support and sponsorship of talent initiatives were found to be strong across all the participating organizations. However, internally;support across divisions and between line managers was inconsistent, which could compromise the effectiveness of programmes. Organizations need to actively support peer groups present on the talent programmes. These people are often the highest performing employees across the business. They should be encouraged to meet and network beyond the programme. This will help organizations get the most out of these groups, harnessing their energy and creativity.

                                                               

Dealing with challenges more creatively by Jolito Ortizo Padilla

The complexity of supply chains can present frequent problems, and the impact of these can be serious if they remain unresolved. We can significantly help our career progression by developing range of approaches to problem solving and honing them through practice.

First, we need to consider the words we use. "Problems" are things such as the car not starting when we are late for work. They arose negative emotions -anxiety, fear, trepidation, and pessimism. Problems at work must be viewed as "challenges". These carry more positive responses such as excitement, can do, will do, optimism and openness.

Second, when confronting a challenge be aware of your own assumptions. Must there be a complex resolution for a complicated problem? Does the challenge require an immediate fix or can we find time for more comprehensive resolution?

Be specific. Challenges arise in all shapes and sizes, so define exactly what it is. The more specific we can, the more focused our approach. A supplier failure due to specific machine breakdown is less so as it immediately focuses our attention on the most critical element requiring attention.

Perhaps the challenges is a complex set of circumstances. In this case we need to approach by breaking it down into its constituent elements. By doing this we will be able to better define the resources and timescales required to tackle each part.

The ' five whys' is a powerful approach. Simply asking "why?" five times invariably gets to the root cause. For example: Why was there a supplier problem? The "XYZ"machine broke down. Why did it break down? It hadn't been maintained . Continue to ask and get answer until you reach a root cause.

Brainstorming has a few but effective rules. Wherever possible include everyone involved or affected by the challenge. Define the challenge, then ask them to propose a resolution. It is essential all ideas (however odd they may seem) are recorded, unchallenged and that interruptions are minimized. When this process is exhausted , group the similar ideas together and work together on evaluating each proposal, then prioritize action.

Individuals and teams can use the next approach when confronting specific challenges. Wherever you are addressing the particular problem, consciously stop and step back from it. Think about the objective-what's the "end game"? What do you really want to achieve? Organize your thoughts -how well does your current direction reconcile with where you want to end up? Is there a better way of doing it? What additional internal and external resources do you need to help support you? Proceed -having found some space now get on with it but always keep in mind the outcome you want to achieve and how great it will be when you completed it.

The ability to resolve challenges is essential for your career. Enjoy it and learn from experience as I enjoy what I have experienced before.