Too Many Types Of Quality Problems

Too Many Types Of Quality Problems

1. Categorizing your problems in solution relevant ways

   • Problem types or categories help direct attention to relevant past experiences and pertinent problem solving techniques
     • To avoid such mistakes, practitioners must be able to categorize problems in solution relevant ways

2. Problem taxonomies

   • arious schemes for categorizing real world problems have been proposed in management literature, though none has met with widespread acceptance
     • Repair: To restore a malfunctioning system to its intended level of performance. •Improve: To improve a system so performance goals are achieved. •Engineer: To design a new system or solution that will satisfy pertinent goals
   • Performance systems pose challenges regarding their design and development, as well as with their ongoing operation

3. A taxonomy of quality problems

   • The distinction between performance and design problems was highlighted by recent research on quality problem solving

4. Types of quality problems

   • For each type, it identifies defining characteristics, critical problem solving tasks posed by such situations, and relevant solution strategies and techniques

5. Conformance problems

   • A conformance problem is a situation in which a highly structured system, having standardized inputs, processes and outputs, is performing unacceptably from the standpoint of product users
     • The key feature of a conformance problem is that there is a known right way of doing things. The system has worked before, but now, for some reason, it is not performing acceptably

6. Unstructured performance problems

   • An unstructured performance problem (UPP) is a situation in which a nonstandardized task, one not fully specified by procedures or requirements, is not being performed acceptably
     • If potential clients reject an ad agency’s proposals for not being creative, the agency has no sure way of coming up with offerings that will be more appealing

7. Efficiency problems

   • Cost and productivity concerns are the most common issues of this kind, hence the category’s name
     • Goal setting is a challenge with efficiency problems as it can be difficult to determine what level of performance is attainable

8. Product design problems

   • Most organizations have new product development departments, though product design work increasingly involves a broader set of participants

9. Process design problems

   • Excepting physical production activities, organizations had historically ignored their internal processes. Process inadequacies were only identified as a result of serious performance problems

10. The danger of becoming mentally trapped in old ways of doing things is matched by the risk of reinventing the wheel or devising a revolutionary new process that doesn’t work.