Quality Cycle Time Essay

ASSIGNMENT 03 BZ440 Quality Control Directions: Unless otherwise stated, answer in complete sentences, and be sure to use correct English spelling and grammar. Sources must be cited in APA format. Your response should be a minimum of one (1) single-spaced page to a maximum of two (2) pages in length; refer to the "Assignment Format" page for specific format requirements. Discuss the significance of cycle time to quality. This is the end of Assignment 03. Example below, created new essay with your own sources!!! First, we should define cycle time which can be the total time from the beginning of production to completion of the product. It also can be defined as the time required in developing a product from a concept to delivery in the market. It is sometimes called lead time. In a broader view, some might include delivery to a customer as part of cycle time in terms of cash outlay. The cash is put out at the beginning of production and not returned until the customer pays although this is often called the cash cycle time. The important of managing cycle time is that it is costly to have products in the cycle because the company must expend funds for labor and materials that will produce no revenue until the product is sold. That cost can seriously impact any company as it strains resources to carry the process or the products before development or sale. Imagine the cost of labor and materials for an auto company such as Ford. Every car on the line represents money spent by the company either using their own capital or through increasing loans. The use of capital will limit other activities and the use of loans will cost the company interest expense which explains the value of minimizing cycle line. Companies will try to reduce cycle time without compromising quality. Cycle time not only includes processing time but also move time, wait time and inspection time. Processing time is really the only part of cycle time that can create or increase value. One critical part to keeping cycle time well managed relates to good supply chain management. If the two most costly parts of production are labor and materials, then having materials available reduces cycle time. On the other hand, having more than adequate amounts of materials on hand is costly in terms of cash outlay to hold them. That explains why JIT (just in time inventory is a huge cost saver). Safeway is a master in the use of JIT because products to stock a store are usually delivered daily and placed on the shelves daily. Inventory is minimal and turnover is optimal. Now to quality: When quality lags, costs increase because products must be reworked or disposed of. Each of those two situations seriously impact costs and also cycle time. For example, if 10% of the products coming off the production line are rejected, then the costs of those that are saleable increases by 11% over what it would have been with no rejects. Next issue in quality is that substandard products may pass inspection at a plant, but may not be acceptable to a customer. Returns from a customer are costly in more than one way because good customer relationships are very important for continuing business. Competition is not only about pricing, but about customer satisfaction. An analysis of cycle time can be applied to the process of delivery of goods to customers. Return items hugely increase costs because employees must handle them, deal with customers, issue credit memos or refunds, replacement items in inventory or dispose them. Some call this the customer cycle time. Because we live in a world where speed is very important to customers, companies are adopting a concept of total cycle time, and are looking for cost reductions in every aspect of the cycle. That might be why FedEx and UPS have such good businesses because delivery time is part of the total cycle. If you were waiting for your new Smartphone to arrive, you would not be happy with parcel post by the US Post Office. Efforts to reduce cycle time can cause reductions in quality. It is essential for companies to strike a balance between cycle and quality. Never will all products be perfect and never will the cycle be the least amount of time within the industry, but there is balance that must be managed to the satisfaction of the company as well as its customers. As an operational strategy, time based competition is focused on compressing the total processing time with a minimum decrease in quality. Waste in either time or materials is expensive. Using the ABC (activity based costing) method of accounting was developed to evaluate total costs to provide a better perspective for evaluating waste in processes, particularly in manufacturing. Even seemingly unrelated items such as plant layout can impact cycle time. The point is that cycle time and quality are companywide issues that require careful management by skilled operational people who have experience and vision to understand how changes will increase profitability of companies. And of course, that is what it is all about: increasing profits.