What were the early indications that the system was not working as planned, and

Question

What were the early indications that the system was not working as planned, and why were they ignored? Why weren't improvement efforts more effective

CASES Masterson Ad Agency2 Masterson Ad Agency (MAA) had been in business for including the quality manager, and the union president. System upgrades were made on a routine basis. How- ever, this valued customer, Megaproducts Inc., had about 10 years. It had a strong regional reputation, missed a scheduled launch date for a new, potentially and counted divisions of five Fortune 500 firms important mega-product because of miscommunications among its clients. Michael Newberg, co-founder and with MAA's project team and faulty ad copy, which had president, had built the firm on a foundation of client to be revised after being sent to the printer. These pro- focus response , adherence to a quality system, and rapid blems could have been prevented if MAA's protocols had been followed and required quality checks had been One of their largest customers, a Fortune 500 con prmed. sumer products company, required compliance to jointly developed protocols and a mature quality management system, but not to registration under ISO. A documen- ted system was in place, and Newberg chaired an active steering committee. Members were department heads, Time was a factor because noncompliant product had been reaching the customer despite MAA's assur- ances that protocols were being followed. Much of the documentation had been written by the quality man ager and edited by the president. Review by managers

Explanation / Answer

Ans) The early indication that the system was not working as planned was the deadline missed deadline of product launch for Megaproduct Inc.'s imporatnt product due to miscommunication between ad agency (MAA) project team. The failure to revise the ad copy further fueled the prospects of delivery shoddy work to the cleint leading to rejection. All this pointed in the direction of non-compliance to protocols and quality checks. These significant factors were being ignored on account of paucity of time and lack of coherence between teams. With on going threats of the cliengt to cancel all orders, MAA re-designed the quality control mechanism to make it comprehensive and all-inclusive. However, these improvements failed to mark their presence felt because:

1. Managers failed to perform the additional task of quality reviewer with due diligence.

2. Training was imparted to lower level employees only, leaving supervisors out of ambit; though supervisors were the real change bringers.

3. Inter-departmental functions were not performed well.

4. Audit reports on quality were compromised by directors.

5. Poor integration of proposed solutions in day to day flow of work.

6.Sytem workflow faltered because new relationships and interdependencied encountered old system barriers.

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