Six Sigma Project

Six Sigma Project

Product or Service Information

A corporation seeks to provide value in the economy by identifying a specific market niche. The challenges society faces are changing and evolving as generations progress with new problems emerging. The coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has wreaked havoc and rendered many lifeless. Teams of scientists joined hands to tackle the debacle and overcome it. Pfizer Inc., a pharmaceutical company, took the initiative to develop a remedy for the coronavirus, a vaccine. Do you need help with your assignment ? Reach out to us at eminencepapers.com.

The COVID-19 vaccine came as a relief to many families that were living in fear of the vulnerability experienced. Considering the world population and life expectancy is steadily increasing as the standards of living are improving. Clinical trials proved to be 95% effective, making it a priority for nations to purchase the vaccine for their citizens or an organization for its members to ensure the perpetuity of business operations (Chagla, 2021).

The necessity for change :

The methodology used in the administration of the vaccine is through intramuscular injection. Needles can be painful and discourage citizens who dread injections from showing up to be vaccinated. An alternative method of vaccination administered orally would see an increase in the number of people interested in getting vaccinated (Ledford, Cyranoski, & Van Noorden, 2020). Moreover, children are not highly susceptible to the virus, but they can be carriers of the affected aging population. A different form of administering the vaccine, such as orally, is sure to reduce the cost of manufacturing, and additional tools in vaccine administration will not be required. Also, the number of people who will turn up willingly to be vaccinated is sure to increase Pfizer’s sales.

Many other companies invested in the development of a vaccine for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which has been an enigma. The easiest type of vaccine to manufacture was the liquid vaccine that is given through injection on the left upper arm. A new mechanism will surely provide a new method of vaccine manufacture that is cheaper and affordable to third-world countries that do not possess sophisticated technical know-how.

Planning Stage

The coronavirus affected most of the elderly people who comprise the majority of the labor force. Every corporation that is highly dependent on the productivity of the vulnerable population ensures they are protected by encouraging the workforce to work from home in an attempt to reduce the risk of contracting the virus. The measures have been effective as the curve has flattened and transmission cases reduced tremendously. Online conferencing platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams have been revamped to accommodate more users to increase collaboration and productivity.

Many of the younger population have not been adversely affected by the virus. Therefore, most of them have been reluctant to acquire the vaccine, citing mistrust due to the speedy process taken in the development. Furthermore, there have been a few cases where a person was vaccinated and developed severe allergic reactions that led to death (Excler, Saville, Berkley, & Kim, 2021). Such a scenario has encouraged Pfizer to seek an alternative form of vaccine for its customers to improve reliability and maintain customer loyalty.

Developing a new form of the Covid-19 vaccine is a tedious and demanding initiative. Pharmaceutical manufacturers are dependent on government or non-profit organizations to fund the project of making a new form of the vaccine. Primarily, it begins with the research in the labs to determine the most stable state of the attenuated organisms that cause the disease and storage mechanism. This is the most critical stage of the project, followed by clinical trials that ascertain the effectiveness of the vaccine. Volunteers are usually invited at this stage to make accurate inferences on actual subjects. Work breakdown structure is preferred in this project as human lives are involved, and the procedure is done in phases for safety purposes.

Measure Stage

Diseases generally mutate to ensure their survivability. An observation of the changing structure of the virus is the initial step in determining the structural and behavioral changes of the virus. Sophisticated equipment is used in the analysis of blood samples in individuals infected by the virus and its progressiveness. Accurate conclusions on the reason for the changes observed are made, and possible remedies are determined. A team of experts brainstorm and share ideas on the possible cause and effect of the changing nature of the virus. However, it is important that the data collected is free of any bias by relying on past data. So the data obtained should be randomized and repeated severally, and then an average is performed on the collected data for accuracy and reliability (Hamilton, 2018). Data categorization in terms of allergic or unprecedented occurrences determines the success rate of the vaccine in the market. The qualitative analysis provides accurate working data that details the variations in reactions of the vaccine against the sample size.

Define Stage ( Planning)

The procedure of making and releasing a new product to the market requires thorough research to determine the viability of the project. Pfizer’s endeavor to introduce a new type of vaccine as a product would require adequate volunteers or paid individuals to perform clinical trials on the newly formed vaccine (Chagla, 2021). If there is no sample size to perform tests, then the success of the project would be impeded, for the data would not be reliable in plotting a scatter diagram showing the correlation between the data items. Additionally, the sample size may be unequally distributed on factors such as age, sex, and immune system. The data derived may not be extrapolated to fit other population samples. On successful project implementation, the product in the market is more effective as it has undergone a series of trials and testing that ensure quality products in the market.

Improve / Design stage:

Novel and mind-boggling ideas emerge through research and development. Investment in practical and pertinent data analysis tools that work on current trends will ensure the development of a better vaccine. Also, collaboration with other pharmaceutical companies provides a wider scope of knowledge base that can be shared for more valuable insights on how the virus is reacting with other types of vaccines (Ho, 2021). Halting or reducing the production of the previous type of vaccine is essential in distributing resources appropriately to the new production line without incurring additional overhead costs. Equal distribution of tasks across the team members with interrelated functions such as doctors and lab technicians that have similar knowledge will ensure faster data processing and analysis. Furthermore, the nature of the coronavirus is known, and so the identification of the microorganism is faster since it is already identified in its natural state. The mutation behavior is the subtle changes that need to be scrutinized.

Control Stage

Evaluation of the project’s success is through the number of recovered patients in the clinical trials conducted. The data obtained may reflect the actual turnover rate of the vaccine if it were released into the market for public consumption. Forecasting of the future expected sales can provide an estimate over a given period provided certain desired conditions are met. Customer satisfaction provides an overview of the product performance. In this case, this may include the absence of side effects that arise from vaccination.

For a proper and holistic approach to a subject matter, there needs to be adequate knowledge of the problem. Relevant information ensures an issue is tactfully handled by the stakeholders. In business operations, there comes a time when unprecedented changes may occur, and swift decisive business-impacting decisions ought to be made.

References

Chagla, Z. (2021). The BNT162b2 (BioNTech/Pfizer) vaccine had 95% efficacy against COVID-19≥ 7 days after the 2nd dose. Annals of Internal Medicine, JC15.

Excler, J. L., Saville, M., Berkley, S., & Kim, J. H. (2021). Vaccine development for emerging infectious diseases. Nature Medicine, 591-600.

Hamilton, L. (2018). Lean, Lean Six Sigma, and the clinical laboratory. Medical Laboratory Observer, 42-43.

Ho, R. J. (2021). Warp-speed Covid-19 Vaccine development: beneficiaries of maturation in biopharmaceutical technologies and public-private partnerships. Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 615-618.

Ledford, H., Cyranoski, D., & Van Noorden, R. (2020). The UK has approved a COVID vaccine-here’s what scientists now want to know. Nature, 205-206.

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DMAIC / Six-Sigma Project

In this assessment, the students are required to implement DMAIC / Six Sigma projects. Upon the completion of the projects, instructors should be able to test the students` understanding of major part of the course materials.

Learning Outcome:

1. Develop an appreciation of quality management theory, principles, and practices.
2. Use quality improvement tools and practices for continuous improvement.

DMAIC / Six-Sigma Project

     During the process of projects implementation, hypothetically for the assessment`s purposes, picture your instructor as a chief executive officer of a company at any industry of your choice.

In order to gain the CEO` approval for quality improvement project (Six Sigma) and compete for full project`s sponsorship, you are required to provide a detailed project information to convince the instructor – supposedly the (CEO) to choose and support your project.

Guidance for the project proposal:

The proposal must include the following:

1. Product or Service Information: ( 100 – 150 words) – 1 point

Select an actual Product or Service from any local/international company that you would like to improve/change, and provide the following Information:

• The product or service general information such as name, features, value to customers..ect.
• Brief history about the chosen product or service (formation, sales, previous changes).

 

2. The necessity for change : ( 100 – 150 words)- 1 point

• The reasons behind the improvement decision, present no less than two reasons why you think the change is important for the product /service (Leadership, Competitors Technological advances, Training requirements, Rules and regulations, Customer demands).

 

3. Define Stage ( Planning) : ( 200 – 300  words)- 2 points

• Define the project’s scope, goals, and objectives and its team members and sponsors ( Project charter )
• Define the current and the desired status, the project scheduling.
• Define the stakeholders affected by the project such as (employees, society, customers, stockholders, suppliers…etc)
• Identify the team you need and the members` functions that will help you throughout the project.
• What method you plan to use for defining the project (Work Breakdown Structure, Pareto Diagrams) and why?

 

4. Measure Stage: ( 100 – 150 words)- 1.5 point

• Define the new process inputs, actions and desired outputs. (Hint : Process flowchart can be used to visualize the process)
• Define measurement Systems Analysis tool, to illustrate use measurements scales such as Nominal , Ordinal , Interval , Ratio. In addition, explain the reason for use.

 

5. Analyze Stage: ( 100 – 150 words)- 1.5 point

• Discuss no less than two conditions that might hinder the project progression (process variation) using one of tools mentioned in chapter (15 – Analyze Stage).
• Describe the new value delivered to the customers upon the successful implementation of the project.

 

6. Improve / Design stage: ( 100 – 150 words)- 1.5 point

• Present no more than two condition that can be altered to make the desired change ( cost , operation, human resource).
• Discuss one to two techniques you plan to use to improve the efficiency of process such as lean tools, 5S …etc.

 

7. Control Stage: ( 100 – 150 words)- 1.5 point

• Identify two methods that the team can use to evaluate performance after the project completion.
• Document two to three learned lessons from the process ( This part could be connected to the overall project experience )

Answer :