product quality – OM in the News

Generic Pills Can Be Hard to Swallow

The drug production system is broken. Fixing it requires putting quality first.

Generic drugs are supposed to be affordable alternatives to name-brand medications. Contrary to what the F.D.A. claims, a pill is not always a pill. In the quest for ever-cheaper generic drugs, quality has sometimes – not always! – been sacrificed both in the US and abroad, and without a transparent rating system, health consumers are kept in the dark. Furthermore, the reliance on a few foreign suppliers of active […]

By Corinne M. Karuppan, Ph.D.|2021-09-29T18:49:34+00:00October 5, 2021|Tags: process capability, product quality, quality control, shortage, six sigma, sourcing|

Made in Italy at Amazon

The pandemic has been a boon for Amazon. Worldwide.

Even in places like Italy where people prefer to shop in stores, Amazon has been able to assume a dominant role during the pandemic. When stores were forced to close, Amazon filled a genuine need for goods. As the economy reopened, the appeal of convenience triggered a sudden, but durable, consumer behavior shift. Can small merchants that depend on the “old world” image rethink their operations to survive e-commerce? Based on the […]

By Corinne M. Karuppan, Ph.D.|2020-10-06T22:19:13+00:00October 8, 2020|Tags: product quality, service quality, strategy|

Fast Fashion Turns to Fast Trash

Ghana imports large amounts of secondhand clothing from the UK and other countries, but poor quality makes much of it unsaleable. Over 50 tons a day, representing about forty percent of the items coming into Kantamanto, the main market, end up being thrown away.

Landfill sites in Ghana are overflowing with the debris. Low quality fast fashion items, cheap single use t-shirts from marathons or other special events, and unclean items have little to no value in the resale market. Vendors […]

By Lisa M. Spencer|2020-04-07T07:29:52+00:00April 10, 2020|Tags: capacity planning, ethics, product design, product quality, supply chain, sustainability|

Sizzling Airplane Food in Phoenix

Unsafe temperatures in the transport of airline food are even more reasons to dislike it.

During the summer months, the temperature on the tarmac of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is often well above 100 degrees. As food is transported from catering facilities to airplanes, it may reach unsafe temperatures. LSG Sky Chefs’ management and the union representing the catering company’s workers offer different perspectives on the issue and, in the absence of recent FDA inspections, it is difficult to determine […]

By Corinne M. Karuppan, Ph.D.|2020-01-05T20:33:37+00:00January 11, 2020|Tags: product quality, statistical process control, transportation|