Course syllabus

Course description Quality Management IEK313

(7,5 credits)

 

Examiner: Henrik Eriksson, henrik.eriksson@chalmers.se

Course/Teaching Assistant: Daniel Gyllenhammar, daniel.gyllenhammar@chalmers.se

Version: 2020-08-27

Aim

The aim of the course is to help the students to acquire knowledge about various initiatives to improve quality and to better understand the area of Quality Management. The course also aims to help the students to develop practical skills as a mean to facilitate improvement initiatives.

Learning outcome

• Describe quality management, and its principles and the content of the principles
• Describe the reasons for organizations to improve and barriers to improvements
• Describe how successful organizations work, and being able to apply different ways to assess organizations
• Describe how and when different principles and methodologies of quality management can be used in practice
• Apply different principles and methodologies practically to improve organizations, processes and products

Content

The course provides an overview of the quality management field and practical training. The course includes lectures, seminars, exercises, and group work. Guest lecturers provide insights into how quality management initiatives are carried out in practice. Topics covered in the course:

• Key principles of quality management
• Purpose-driven organizations, customer focus, customer needs
• Process management and process improvements
• Six Sigma, lean production, agile
• Management, leadership, and motivation
• Improvements
• Quality management in practice
• Management systems, and assessment and audit
• Standards like ISO 9001 and excellence models
• Successful and high-performing organizations
• Management Innovations and trends

Organisation

The main building blocks of the course consist of lectures, seminars, group work and individual studies. Students are encouraged to explore other content related to the course online. Some activities are compulsory (see Schedule). The course webpage on Canvas is used as the main communication tool. All parts of the course are online.

 

Schedule/Overview

 

Date	Time	Topic	Tea-cher	Litera-ture
		MODULE 1 Introduction to Quality Management	HE
1 Sept	13:15-15:00	Introduction to course and quality management. Learning online. Getting to know each other. (ZOOM LIVE)	HE	1
1-3 Sept	Any	Principles of quality management (RECORDED VIDEOS)	HE	1
4 Sept	13.15-15.00	Business Excellence and Swedish Institute for Quality (SIQ). COMPULSORY GUEST LECTURE (1) (ZOOM LIVE)	MD/ HE	1,2
		MODULE 2 Improvement and Quality Management methods	HE
8-10 Sept	Any	Quality Management methods, Improvement and Six Sigma. (RECORDED VIDEOS)	MS	1 (Ch. 7)
11 Sept	13:15-15:00	Quality Management methods, Improvement and Six Sigma WORKSHOP COMPULSORY (2)	MS
		MODULE 3 Change, Motivation, Innovation, Lean, Agile	DG
		Lean, Agile, Change: Lean methodology (ZOOM LIVE) Moved to 22 Sept!	TJ	1 ,3
15 Sept	14.15-17.00	Lean, Agile, Change: Motivation (ZOOM LIVE)	IS	1 (Ch. 6)
17 Sept	13:15-15:00	Lean, Agile, Change: Agile (ZOOM LIVE)	JBS	4
15-18 Sept	Any	Lean, Agile, Change: Change Management & Improvement processes (Self study: Readings)		5, 6
18 Sept	13:15-15:00	(Lean), Agile, Change. WORKSHOP COMPULSORY (3) (ZOOM LIVE)	DG	1, 3, 4, 5, 6
		MODULE 4 Management systems, Audits & Standards	HE
22 Sept	13.15-15.00	Swedish Institute for Standards, ISO 9000 series and its applications. COMPULSORY GUEST LECTURE (4) (ZOOM LIVE)	TB & HE	7
22 Sept	15:15-16:00	Lean, Agile, Change: Lean methodology (ZOOM LIVE) (UPDATE!) (Still belonging to Module 3)	TJ	1 ,3
24 Sept	13.15-16.00	Management systems and audits. (ZOOM LIVE)	JL	7
25 Sept	13.15-15.00	Management systems and ISO 9001. WORKSHOP COMPULSORY (5) (ZOOM LIVE)	JL/HE	7
		MODULE 5 Customer Focus	ABJ
28 Sept-30 Sept	Any	Customer focus: An introduction to customer needs, customer focus: Working with customer satisfaction and customer feedback. (RECORDED VIDEOS)	ABJ	8, 9
1 Oct	13:15-16:00	Customer focus: Working with QM in the age of digitalization and servitization. WORKSHOP COMPULSORY (6) (ZOOM LIVE)	ABJ	8, 9
		MODULE 6 Summary and Home Paper
8 Oct	23.59	Planning Report for Home Paper via Canvas due
13 Oct	Any	General feedback planning report. (RECORDED VIDEO)	ABJ
13 Oct	13.15-16.00	Interactive Assessment Half class. Sign up for either 13 Oct or 15 Oct. One occasion is compulsory (ZOOM LIVE)	HE	All above
15 Oct	13.15-16.00	Interactive Assessment Half class. Sign up for either 13 Oct or 15 Oct. One occasion is compulsory (ZOOM LIVE)	HE	All above
16 Oct	23.59	Learning Log via Canvas due
20 Oct	13:15-15:00	Summary and Question. (ZOOM LIVE)	HE
23 Oct	23.59	Home paper via Canvas due

Teachers: Henrik Eriksson (HE), Andrea Birch-Jensen (ABJ), Jan Lenning (JL), Torbjörn Jakobsson (TJ), Johannes Berglind Söderqvist (JBS), Daniel Gyllenhammar (DG), Ingrid Svensson (IS).

Guest Teachers: Marco Santos (MS) from Jönköping University, Mats Deleryd (MD) from SIQ, Tina Bohlin (TB) from SIS.

Students are expected to read material and make themselves familiar with key concepts prior to the particular lecture and prepare for discussions of theoretical concepts and their applicability in different contexts. The lectures on zoom will not be recorded.

Literature

1. Eriksson, H. (2020). Five principles of Excellent Organizations. Förbättringsakademin, Göteborg, Sweden. (the book is available at Store/Campus Johanneberg and online)
2. SIQ (2019). The SIQ Management Model. Uploaded on Canvas
3. Liker and Meier, D. (2006), The Toyota Way fieldbook: a practical guide for implementing Toyota´s 4Ps, McGraw-Hill. page. 6-14
4. Rigby, D. K., Sutherland, J., & Takeuchi, H. (2016). Embracing agile. Harvard Business Review, 94(5), 40-50.
5. Kotter, J. P. (2007). Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Harvard Business Review, 85(1), 96–103.
6. Beer, M., & Nohria, N. (2000). Cracking the code of change. Harvard Business Review, 78(3), 133-141. 
7. ISO (2015). ISO 9001:2015, Quality Management Systems- Requirements. http://proxy.lib.chalmers.se/login?url=https://enav.sis.se/Standard/?std=STD-8016642
8. Porter, M. E., & Heppelmann, J. E. (2014). How smart, connected products are transforming competition. Harvard business review, 92(11), 64-88.
9. McKinsey Consultancy Report, “Are you really listening to what your customers are saying?”, https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/are-you-really- listening-to-what-your-customers-are-saying

Supplementary Videos. Note: Videos are complementary and voluntary

1. The Toyota Way to Excellence - Jeffrey Liker on Vimeo https://vimeo.com/44328452
2. John Seddon - Re-thinking IT keynote speech part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbNsQFd8DQw
3. How great leaders inspire action | Simon Sinek – YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4
4. Ricardo Semler: How to run a company with (almost) no rules | TED Talk https://www.ted.com/talks/ricardo_semler_how_to_run_a_company_with_almost_no_rules/transcript
5. Gary Hamel on the Future of Management – YouTube Gary Hamel on the Future of Management
6. Finn Øien Lecture - Professor Julian Birkinshaw – YouTube Finn Øien Lecture - Professor Julian Birkinshaw
7. Reinventing Organizations – YouTube Reinventing Organizations
8. Agile product ownership in a nutshell – Youtube: Agile Product Ownership in a Nutshell

 

Examination

For passing the course, the following course elements have to be accomplished:

1. Interactive Assessments (pass/ no pass)

Sign up for one of the two occasions. During the workshop of the interactive assessment each student will formulate a question/issue about Quality Management. We will then form groups and each group will provide answers to some selected questions/issues. Each group will present their answer for the other groups.

If you cannot attend on the day of the assignment or not get a pass: Write an essay, minimum 2000 words. In the essay you should write your reflections of the content of the course. The essay is submitted via Canvas or to the teaching assistant. The essay is due 23^rd of October.

2. Learning Log (pass/ no pass)

See uploaded instruction on Canvas. If you do not get a “pass” you have to redo the assignment. The learning log is submitted via Canvas.

3. Planning Report (pass/ no pass)

See document “Exam essay” for instructions.

4. Home Paper (Grading scale: no pass, 3, 4 or 5)

See document “Exam essay” for instructions.

Exam dialogue is scheduled at 17^th of November between 12.00-13.00, via Zoom.

5. Five out of six compulsory guest lectures and workshops (pass/ no pass)

For each compulsory guest lecture and workshop the attendance will be checked. You have to attend five or more occasions to get a pass.

If you have attended 4 or less than 4 compulsory guest lectures and workshops, write an essay, minimum 1500 words for each compulsory task you missed. In the essay you should write your reflections of how quality is managed in an organization where you have previously worked or have experience from.  Every kind of organization works, e.g. Non-profit, summer jobs, etc. Preferable you use some kind of model, for example, the five principles from the book to describe the organization. This task is due 16^th of October.

Course Evaluation

In order to improve the course, the course evaluation group of is to be formed with the aim of developing the goals, contents and pedagogy of the course, focusing on student learning. The process shall encourage a dialogue between teacher and students on how the education can be improved, i.e. current and future course. The course evaluation meetings with the course evaluation group and the examiner and teaching assistant will be held on 3 occasions.

Office

Division of Service Management and Logistics is located in the right wing of the Technology Management and Economics building, one level up from the entrance floor. Course staff offices are in the division corridor.