project

check attach

1. Consider the formation of the earth and the creation of its structure including the solid earth, ocean and atmosphere in an essay format. The discussion should include planetary formation, the reasons and consequences of the initial molten state, and the formation and chemical evolution of the ocean and atmosphere. Use appropriate references.

2. Discuss in an essay the current views concerning the origin of life on our planet. Cover the debate on the process and possible sites where life was first formed. Consider the strengths and weaknesses behind each of the possible origins. How are the first and second laws of thermodynamics applied to the origin of life and evolutionary dynamics? Provide appropriate references.

3. Discuss the mechanisms for plate motion. Include an analysis of the issues behind each of the possible mechanisms and support for the one that seems to be most probable. Give current references regarding this problem in earth science.

4. What is the difference between freshwater lakes and oceans in terms of the formation of surface ice? Consider the sequence of events as both cool in the fall and winter. What does this tell us about the bottom temperature in lakes? What events occur in lakes during the fall and spring? Does the ocean behave the same way? The oceans are observed to only have sea ice in regions with a strong near surface halocline that isolates the deep ocean from the fresh polar or winter waters. Discuss the reasons behind this observation.

5.a) Discuss the challenges for terrestrial animals going back to live in the sea. Give some examples of organisms that have returned to the sea and the specific adaptations that have allowed this transition. Discuss the evolutionary advantages for returning to the sea. How do the bioenergetics of these organisms change?

b) Marine organisms gain fluid typically from the surrounding water if it is too fresh, yet bull sharks are found upstream in the Mississippi and Zambezi Rivers and in Lake Nicaragua. How do they cope with the osmotic change? Specifically discuss the physiology involved in this situation and its energy cost.

Sample 1: Project Proposal: Shelton Roofing

[Student names are removed]

Introduction:

Shelton Roofing re-roofs homes for already over 70 years. The company provides a range of
reliable roofing installations, re-roofing and other solutions, including roof repairs and roof
replacement for mainly the Bay area region. According to the mission statement, their goal is
to give their customers the best experiences and products available in the roofing industry.
They aim to uphold their reputation for excellence constantly. Shelton Roofing wants their
customers to be able to count on them to do quality work that’s on time, on budget, and
completed with regard to the safety of everyone involved.

Description of the project opportunity (current problems):

Currently, the customer dissatisfaction of Shelton Roofing is relatively low. Many complaints
arose because of unfinished or low performance work with many errors. For example, some
customers reported that the price they are paying for the work are much higher than the market
price. Also, customer expectations are higher than the actual work that is done. This results in
not meeting the expectations.

Data collection plan or the source of existing data:

A survey through either Qualtrics or manually will be conducted. The survey questions will
collect information such as the type of work, the final price, and the time it took to complete
the work. The survey also includes questions about the opinion of the customers. The data
should give the team an idea of how satisfied customers are with which type of work and where
need to be improvements. To analyze the data and conclude ways of improvements, a excel
document will be created.

Another option could be collecting data from sites such as Angie’s List, Yelp and similar review
site to collect data regarding customer service to analyze. Also, if possible, one of our team
members, who works at Shelton Roofing, would be to collect data on the number of houses
Shelton Roofing has had to return to in order to fix leaks or any other form of unsatisfactory
work to compare to the number of satisfied customers.

Sample 2: Analysis of Maintenance Services within Silicon Valley Multifamily
Communities (Essex Property Trust)

[Student names are removed]

Introduction:

The new age clientele of apartments in the bay area requires for services to be completed
promptly with the simplest requests such as light bulb changes and battery replacements. With
an ever-increasing amount of work orders seen in communities, maintenance personnel are
spreading very thin. Large companies are merging and cutting positions instead of adding them
in order to appeal to a strict budget.

Essex Property Trust has a company-wide online portal system that allows you to pay rent and
enter work orders electronically. Through the portal, a tenant can enter the work order details
into a comments box. If the tenant chooses to call in to place a work order through the office,
the staff puts in a work order where they log the type of problem by selecting from a drop-
down list of the issue and narrowing down from there. This helps keep track of data in terms
of how long work orders take, what breaks the most often, etc. If the residents had the same
drop down list when they select the item that is broken and check of description boxes of the
issue below each one, there can be listed instructions of what may be wrong and a quick fix or
ways to make sure the issue does not reoccur.

Description of the project opportunity (current problems):

A large issue is turnover time for work orders with maintenance. Tenants normally expect for
a work order to be completed within 1-2 day of it being sent in. A large portion of work orders
that are done daily are things that could have been easily prevented or fixed by the resident.
When a work order is given tenants often give permission to enter when they are not home
meaning that the maintenance personnel is often not there to show them how they can
prevent/fix the issue by themselves in the future. This large volume of small menial tasks really
clogs the work time of maintenance. For example, if the battery on your smoke alarm beeps
every few minutes it’s indicating that the battery is low and that it needs to be switched out.
This is not something necessary for maintenance to come in to complete as it is easily fixed by
the tenant.

Data collection plan or the source of existing data:

Through utilizing the management software used by Essex called Yardi, we can collect work
order data for the past five years. For each work order, we will have a record of the type of
work, lead time between receiving the order and starting time of the work, instructional
information provided to the tenants. We can use the data to identify the most common issues
in apartments homes. Yardi also has a feature that allows maintenance to check off when
damage was resident caused. This indicates that the resident does not properly know how to
care for the items in the apartment home, which again can be reinforced by providing them
instructions.

Project

Title: (

18

pt Times New Roman Bold, Upper

and

Lower Case)

Group ##: Group Members’ Names

1 INTRODUCTION

The main purpose of the introduction section is to provide background information about the organization or process you study, such as the name of the organization, the products and/or services offered by the organization, sales or market share, and competitive advantage.

Headings are Caps, Bold. Text must flow in one column spreading over the full width of the page. All text is 11 pt Times New Roman, fully justified. 1’’ margin on all sides. Leave one space below headings, sub-headings, and paragraphs. All paragraphs are single line spacing. Sections 1-

6

(from the

Introduction

to the Conclusion) should NOT exceed 1

0

pages. Appendices should NOT exceed 15 pages and may be used sparingly for raw data, references, and/or supplementary materials. Do not include a cover page in your report. There is no minimum page requirement.

Please note that this document is not only a template but also guidelines for the final report. Please read through the whole document including the grading rubric table in the appendix.

2 QUALITY PROBLEM STATEMENT

The main purpose of this section is to clearly state what quality problem(s) your group chose to study. The section should include solid evidence that the quality problem(s) exists and a brief discussion on the impacts of the quality problem. Cite references if applicable.

3 DATA DESCRIPTION

The main purpose of this section is to provide a clear summary of the data used in this report and a brief justification of the validity of the data. Details of the data, such as the type of data (primary data if your group collected the data or secondary data if the data was collected by someone else or found online), data size, time frames for your data collection process or time range of the data used for this project, how the data was generated (manually recorded, equipment, software, etc) should be explained in the corresponding subsection(s) where the data were analyzed.

4 DATA ANALYSIS

· A student who works individually should choose at least four of the following TQM tools for data analysis.

· A group of two students should choose at least five of the following TQM tools for data analysis.

· A group of three students should choose at least six of the following TQM tools for data analysis.

(1) Benchmarking, (2) QFD (House of Quality), (3) Gap Analysis and SERVQUAL, (4) Service Blueprinting, (5) Control Charts, (6) Process Capability Analysis, (7) Process Map, (8) Cause and Effect (Fishbone) Diagram, (9) Pareto Analysis, (

10

) Gauge R&R, and (11) Taguchi Method.

In each subsection, describe in details the type of data (primary data if your group collected the data or secondary data if the data was collected by someone else or found online), data size, time frames for your data collection process or time range of the data used for this project, how the data was generated (manually recorded, equipment, software, etc). Citations to secondary data, if any, including location and access details of the source data, should also be provided. Attach raw data in the Appendices. Below are the detailed requirements for the implementation of each TQM tool.

4.1 Benchmarking

Secondary headings (sub-headings) are Upper and Lower Case, Bold.

Conduct benchmarking to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the process. In your analysis, choose at least four different types of benchmarking from the following: process benchmarking, financial benchmarking, performance benchmarking, product benchmarking, strategic benchmarking, functional benchmarking. Your benchmarking analysis should have at least one paragraph for each type of benchmarking. For each type of benchmarking, explain what measure(s) is used and the current performance of both the initiator firm and the target firm in terms of the measure(s). Your analysis should also include how the process or business you study can benefit from each type of benchmarking.

4.2 QFD (House of Quality)

Develop the QFD for a process or a business. The house of quality should include at least six customer requirements, at least five technical/functional requirements, and at least two competitors. Customer competitive assessment and customer importance data should be based on real data (primary or secondary data). Your analysis should lead to the conclusion of how to prioritize customer requirements and technical requirements.

Here is a

QFD template

that you can download and modify (need to sign in to your Google account to make a copy to your own Google drive). Attach your complete QFD in your report.

Figures must be of high quality and should be in color. Figure numbers and captions appear at the foot of the figures. Figures should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals, in the order in which reference is made to them in the text, e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.

Figure 1. QFD of Company ABC (11 pt Times New Roman, centred)

It is not recommended to add photographs. Photographs should only be used if essential to the clarity of the report.

4.3 Gap Analysis and SERVQUAL

Perform gap analysis based on the SERVQUAL survey. Collect first-hand data (at least 25 responses for each question). Raw data should be attached to the Appendix. Your analysis should lead to the conclusion of whether Gap 5 exists and which service quality dimension(s) needs improvement.

Create a SERVQUAL Gap Scores Table as shown below. Or

use this link

to generate a table. Table numbers and captions appear at the top of the tables. Tables should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals, in the order in which reference is made to them in the text, e.g. Table 1, Table 2, etc.

Table 1. SERVQUAL Gap Scores (11 pt Times New Roman, centered).

Average Perception	Average Expectation	Difference (Perception-Expectation)
Tangibles
Reliability
Responsiveness
Assurance
Empathy

4.4 Service Blueprinting

Depict the complete service process with customer actions, visible contact employee actions, invisible contact employee actions, and support processes. Based on the service blueprinting, identify at least four fail points (moments of truth) and design poka-yokes for each fail point.

4.5 Control Charts

Create control charts ( and R charts, p chart, or c chart) using real data (first-hand or secondary data) in order to determine process stability. Raw data should be attached to the Appendix. Your analysis should lead to the conclusion of whether a process is in control or not. Your raw data should have at least

10

samples. The control chart(s) should be created using Minitab.

4.6 Process Capability Analysis

Conduct process capability analysis in Minitab and obtain process capability ratio and/or process capability index using real data (first-hand or secondary data). Perform the normality test and include the output in the report. Raw data for process capability analysis should be included in the Appendix. Explain how lower and upper specification limits are determined. Your analysis should lead to the conclusion of whether a process is 3-sigma capable.

4.7 Process Map

Draw a process map of the current process you study and a process map of the projected process after improvement. The two process maps should be comprehensive with responsibility and time for each activity. Your analysis should include to what extent the process can be improved.

4.8 Cause and Effect (Fishbone) Diagram

Analyze and find the root cause of a quality problem by creating a cause and effect diagram. The diagram should contain at least four major causes (ribs) and each major cause should have at least four sub-causes (smaller bones) attached to it. Identify the core causes based on the diagram.

4.9 Pareto Analysis

Display the relative importance of problems in a Pareto chart using real data (first-hand or secondary data). Include raw data (at least 40 records) in the appendix. Your analysis should lead to the conclusion of how to prioritize the problems to be solved. The Pareto chart should be created using Minitab.

4.10 Gauge R&R

Conduct Gauge R&R to separate various sources of variation using real data (first-hand or secondary data). Your Gauge R&R study should have at least 10 parts, 2 operators, and 2 trials . The report should be generated using Minitab. Include raw data in the appendix. Your analysis should lead to the conclusion of which factor(s) contributes to the measurement variation.

4.11 Taguchi Method

Derive the Taguchi loss function for a process. Your analysis should include how you obtain or derive the nominal value and Taguchi constant. Your analysis should also include a cost-benefit analysis of whether or not to invest in variation reduction.

5 RECOMMENDATIONS AND FEASIBILITY ASSESSMENT

The main purpose of this section is to provide improvement action plans. List at least three action plans (suggestions) and explain why each plan is feasible and actionable, one paragraph for one suggestion. All the action plans should address the quality problem(s) stated in Section 2 (quality problem statement) and should be based on your data analysis in Section 4.

6 CONCLUSIONS (Optional)

This section is optional. This section should be an effective summary of the project you did. It should not contain any new information, but should describe the main outcomes of your project. Your conclusions should focus on what you accomplished and why it is important, you may also point at potential limitations of the work.

Appendix A: References

Start the first appendix in a NEW page (Insert > Break > Page break). Each report should have at least five references and all references listed in the appendix should be cited in the main body of the report. The references must be listed in alphabetical order of author’s names and increasing dates of publication, with the addition of an ‘a’ or ‘b’ to the date, where necessary. In the text reference is made to writing the surname of the author, followed by the date of publication in square brackets, e.g. “it was shown by Hanke (1970a) that …”. Where more than two authors were involved, the reference in the text should be of the form: “it was shown by Jones et al. (1994).

Use APA citation format

. References should include (in the following order): Author Name(s), Initials, Date, Title of article with first letter uppercase, full Journal name/Publisher, Volume (Number), page range. The page range must be hyphenated. A 0.5” indentation must be left for each reference. Examples are given below:

1. ASQ (

20

19). Cost of Quality (COQ). Available at

https://asq.org/quality-resources/cost-of-quality

(last accessed Oct 10, 2019).

2. Camp, R. C., & Camp Robert, C. (1989). Benchmarking: the search for industry best practices that lead to superior performance. ASQS Quality Press, Milwaukee, WI.

3. Chan, L. K., & Wu, M. L. (2002). Quality function deployment: A literature review. European journal of operational research, 143(3), 463-497.

4. Foster, S. T., & Ganguly, K. K. (2007). Managing quality: Integrating the supply chain. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

5. Kackar, R. N. (1985). Off-line quality control, parameter design, and the Taguchi method. Journal of Quality Technology, 17(4), 176-188.

Appendix B: Raw Data

Include primary or secondary data such as survey responses, samples for the control charts or process capability analysis, review data for Pareto charts, etc.

Appendix C: Supplementary Materials (Optional)

Include any supplementary materials. Figures and Tables should be in the main body of the report unless they are preliminary or supplementary.

Table 2. Grading Rubric for Final Report

Absent, direct quotation, or other form of plagiarism
0

Absent, direct quotation, or other form of plagiarism
0

Category (Possible Score)	No Evidence	Does not Meet Standard	Nearly Meets Standard	Meets Standard	Exceeds Standard
Introduction (20)			Absent , direct quotation, or other form of plagiarism 0	There is no clear introduction, or the Introduction section does not include all required information. 10	Provide background information about the organization or process you study. See Section 1 for details. 20
Quality Problem Statement (20)	Unclear problem statement, insufficient evidence or lack of discussion on the impacts of quality problem(s). 10	A strong, clearly stated quality problem statement, with solid evidence that the quality problem(s) exists and a discussion on the impacts. 20
Data Description (20)	Unclear summary of the data used in this report or the justification of the validity of the data is unsound or missing. 10	A clear summary of the data used in this report and a brief justification of the validity of the data. 20
Data Analysis (180 in total) for individuals: for a group of 2: for a group of 3:	Absent, direct quotation, or other form of plagiarism 0 per tool 0 per tool 0 per tool	The tool was implemented incorrectly. 9 per tool 7.2 per tool 6 per tool	Two or more requirements are not met. 27 per tool 21.6 per tool 18 per tool	Meet all the requirements but one. 36 per tool 28.8 per tool 24 per tool	For each tool implementation, meet all the requirements specified in Section 4. 45 per tool 36 per tool 30 per tool
Suggestions and Feasibility Assessment (30)	Absent, direct quotation, or other form of plagiarism 0	List only one action plan, or each plan is either infeasible, non-actionable, not directly addressing the quality problem(s), or not based on data analysis. 6	List only two action plans, or there are two plans that are either infeasible, non-actionable, not directly addressing the quality problem(s), or not based on data analysis. 18	List at least three action plans (suggestions). Only one plan is either infeasible, non-actionable, not directly addressing the quality problem(s), or not based on data analysis. 24	List at least three action plans (suggestions) and explain why each plan is feasible and actionable. All the action plans should address the quality problem(s) and should be based on data analysis. 30
Title, Appendices, Organization, Format & Others (30)	Absent 0	Evidence of 3 or less 6	Evidence of 4 18	Evidence of 5 24	(1) Include main points from the title. (2) All citations and references are correctly formatted. (3) Punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and sentence structure are all correct. (4) Clear, consistent fonts. (5) Figures and tables presented in correct format. (6) Appendices are presented in correct format. The report was neatly finished. 30