There are a number of resources for both industry professionals and consumers that analyze and publish quality metrics.

There are a number of resources for both industry professionals and consumers that analyze and publish quality metrics. Examples include: Hospital Compare – published through Medicare.gov, J.D. Power – well known for its car reviews, and Quality Magazine and Quality Digest are two resources used by OM professionals.

Locate and post a link to a quality review resource that is used in your industry (select one that is different from what has already been posted by your peers).

What information do these resources provide about how they collect and analyze data, and develop reports and (if applicable) rankings?

Which metrics are most frequently used in assessing quality failures and the impact these failures have on costs?

How can this resource be used by OM professionals to support quality improvement initiatives?

OR

Option 2

Quality failures have impacts that go beyond costs. Quality failures can erode an organization’s competitive advantage.

Locate and post a news story from the last six months published in The Wall Street Journal or other reputable source about an internal or external quality failure.

Briefly summarize the issue including what went wrong and whether it was a performance quality or conformance quality issue.

What was the impact on costs to the organization and/or its customers?

How did the organization address the issue?  What steps did they take to either  the problem or provide a resolution to customers?  Were these reasonable and fair? Explain.

What steps could have been taken to reduce or prevent this failure?