Question 6 of 7: Quality Techniques, Root-Cause Analysis, and PM Software
Nivaar worked solution (AI-drafted; not reviewed by a licensed engineer)
Notes on this paper
National Exams — December 2019 — 11-CS-4 Engineering Management. Closed book; no calculators. Any five questions constitute a complete paper; all questions are of equal value (20 marks each). Full worked answers to all seven questions are given below.
(a) Kaizen — Japanese for "continuous improvement." A philosophy of many small, incremental, employee-driven improvements to processes rather than occasional large changes; everyone, every day, looks for waste to eliminate and steps to simplify.
(b) Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) — a systematic, proactive method for identifying the ways a product or process can fail (failure modes), the effects and causes of each, and their likelihood, severity and detectability. Failures are ranked by a Risk Priority Number so that the highest-risk modes are addressed first, before they occur.
(c) Quality Function Deployment (QFD) — a structured method (the "house of quality" matrix) that translates the voice of the customer into specific engineering and design requirements, ensuring the final product reflects what customers actually value.
(ii) Purpose and Techniques of Root-Cause Analysis
The purpose of root-cause analysis (RCA) is to find and correct the underlying cause of a problem rather than merely treating its symptoms, so that the problem does not recur. Common techniques for digging deeply:
The 5 Whys — repeatedly asking "why" until the fundamental cause is reached.
Cause-and-effect (Ishikawa / fishbone) diagram — organizing possible causes into categories (people, method, machine, material, measurement, environment).
Pareto analysis — separating the vital few causes from the trivial many.
Fault-tree analysis and failure-mode analysis for systematic, logical decomposition.
Scatter/data analysis and control charts to test suspected causal relationships.
(iii) Typical Project-Management Software
Widely used programs include Microsoft Project, Primavera P6 (large engineering/construction), Jira and Asana (task and agile tracking), Trello, Monday.com, Smartsheet, and Basecamp. These provide scheduling (Gantt/CPM), resource allocation, budgeting, progress tracking and collaboration.
