Reference no: EM132175842

The general manager of an elevator company had a common problem: She was frustrated with the lack of cooperation between the mechanical engineers who designed new elevators, and the manufacturing engineers who determined how to produce them in the factory. The mechanical engineers would often completely design a new elevator without any consultation from the manufacturing engineers, and then expect the factory to somehow figure out how to build it. Often the new products were difficult to build, and their quality and cost suffered as a result. The designs were usually sent back to the mechanical engineers (often more than once) for engineering changes to improve their manufacturability. The general manager knew that if the two groups of engineers would simply communicate in the design process, many of these problems could be eliminated before they occurred. In light of the above, 1. Explain why people feel such strong allegiance to their functional departments. 2. Identify and explain, in detail, what principles of total quality management (TQM) are illustrated or violated in this case. 3. Suggest to the general manager ways of improving the communication between the two groups of engineers, and the quality of the designs. List the obstacles the general manger might face during the implementation of your suggestions. 4. Use the ‘Zero-defects’ approach to make the case for the absence of trade-off between failure costs, and prevention and appraisal costs.