TQX: USING EXPERT SYSTEMS TO IMPROVE TRAINING IN TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 19, 1992 219 TQX: USING EXPERT SYSTEMS TO IMPROVE TRAINING IN TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT Richard G. Platt, The University of West Florida Walter J. Wheatley, The University of West Florida INTRODUCTION Challenges to improve productivity and quality are two battles American industry constantly faces. Management deals every day with the frequent perception that American products are lower in quality or that the American worker is less productive than foreign competitors. One weapon; in this battle for quality and productivity is new, or improved, applications for technology. Another weapon is the application of the TQM principles. This paper proposes a new tool to assist with improving productivity and quality. The new tool results from a marriage between an existing information systems technology, expert systems and TQM principles: TQX, an expert trainer for total quality management. TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT According to the Deming TQM philosophy there are a number of issues which must be addressed in order to reestablish American competitiveness in world industry. His approach is not just statistical methodology, but a management philosophy which may be applied to manufacturing, as well as service organizations. Deming summarized the TQM philosophy in a series of fourteen essential factors and sever deadly mistakes that enable management to train and to empower their employees to become more productive by producing only top quality goods and services. The guidelines provide structure for an environment promoting improvements in productivity and quality. However, it is in the application and interpretation of these guidelines where the experiential knowledge of TQM experts is needed. Us in: an expert system for training TQM allows the propagation of the knowledge of managers experienced in. the application of TQM principles as well as shortening reinforcing the learning process for managers s just beginning to with TQM philosophy. TQX An expert has a large set of perceptual patterns and an indexing scheme that allows the rapid solution of problem. An expert system captures this knowledge about a specific domain rather than the of few domain-independent techniques. Managerial problems, in this case TQM implementation, represent a class of problems that are characterized as unstructured and of an organizational as opposed to an individual level. This organizational level of problem solving means that an expert system for these problems is more complex than an expert system for an individual (Dhar 1987) Expert systems also aid in problem solving where all the relevant knowledge cannot be entered into the system. In these situations, Al techniques still assist the problem solving process (Luconi, Malone, and Scott Morton 1986). An expert system is an excellent way to deliver high quality, timely, and relevant training. An expert system uses known expertise to solve a problem provide information based on selection rules, or train an individual in a task that requires special knowledge (O’Connell 1990). TQX the proposed expert system for training and consulting in Total Quality Management (TQM) principles. Its knowledge base would be derived from the expertise of practitioners and academics with expertise in the implementation of TQM. Once the knowledge base is created the expert system can be used to assist in training other managers, and future managers, in the principles implementation of TQM. A manager wishing to learn about TQM would first have training in the basic principles of TQM i.e. Deming's 5 14 points and seven deadly diseases. The new TQM trainee could then use TQX to assist in examining the application of the TQM philosophy in different case settings. Each case would presents different challenges and opportunities for applying TQM principles as well as avoidance of the dreaded deadly diseases. The TQX system not only guides the TQM student through the process but it can also explain why certain actions are taken example, a student in a P/OM or Business Policy class studys the basic philosophies of TQM. However, when faced with implementing these policies in & real world situation, the student doesn’t possess the required level of knowledge. The TQX system takes the student through the process of implementing the TQM principles. At each step in the process, The student can query TQX and ask why the step is required TQX responds with the reasons behind the decisions by which it arrived at its current recom mendation. TQX would provide a method for giving students of TQM access to the expertise of those more experienced in the application of the TQM principles and philosophy. Table of Contents Volume 19, 1992 The Pedagogical Utility of a Management Simulation Game in a Business Policy Course Modeling Economic Environments in Business Simulations: Some Comparisons and Recommendations Experiential Learning and TQM Principles: Teaching Behavioral Science in a Business School The Use of Poster Presentations as a Final Project in the Business Policy Course The Device Business: A Management Simulation for Strategy Formulation The Advantages of Experiential learning in the Auditing curriculum A Framework for the Identification of Moderated and Mediated Performance consequences of Pedagogical Alternatives Simulating Qualitative Research Relating to Values and Lifestyle Segmentation A New Market Demand Model for Business Simulators Interactive Optimization Using the Method of Relative Improvement Preferences: Methodology and Empirical Evaluation The Service Trainer Simulation Benefits of Internet Computer Networks for ABSEL Members How Should We Measure Experiential Learning? An Assessment of Simulation Usage in Management Accounting Courses The Influence of Myers-Briggs Type and Group Dynamics on Simulation Performance Effective Leadership Behavior in the Desert Storm Arena: An Application of the Vroom-Yetton-Jago Model Installing and Consolidating Work-Team Values: The Effects of a Multicultural Outdoors Experiential Program Key Determinants and Decision performance in a Business Simulations and Experiential Learning environment Multi-Cultural Experiential Learning: A Computer Simulation in Indonesia Attitudes Toward and Emotions Related to Women as Managers: A Replication and Beyond Scenario Approach to Simulating Consumer Expenditures: A Cross-Cultural Analysis Insights into Ethical Decision making Activities and Organizational Performance: A Management Simulation Analysis of College Students and Managers Evaluating a Business Simulation Program for Joint Venture Negotiation and Management Teaching Business Interviewing Strategies with an Experiential Approach Cooperative Learning Across the Business Curriculum Modeling Total Quality Elements into a Strategy-Oriented Simulation Teaching Business Decision making using a Simulator Extending the Educational Utility of a Simulated Competition within the Confines of an Established Undergraduate Marketing Curriculum Expert Systems Versus Traditional Methods for Teaching Accounting Issues Confidence Extremes Diminish Quality Performance in a Total Enterprise Simulation Can Ethics Be Taught? A Simulation Tests a Traditional Ethics Pedagogy Through The Looking Glass, Inc.: Organizational Climate Research as Experiential Pedagogy The use of Cluster Analysis for Business Game Performance Analysis Power and Ethnicity: An Experiential Learning Exercise (How to Sensitize Students to Diversity) Directed Development of Critical and Creative Thinking Skills for Case Analysis Implementing Total Quality Management in a Computerized Business Simulation Product Quality in Business Simulations Use of Simulation for Ethics Education in Management Satisfying the University's Customers through Total Quality Management Instruction: A Case Study Personality Characteristics and Group Performance in Total Enterprise Simulations Concepts of Interval Estimation and Quality Control Charts via Computer Simulated Sampling An Examination of the Effect of Team Cohesion, Player Attitude, and Performance Expectations on Simulation Performance Results The Effectiveness of Inventory Management and Production Scheduling Training in a Total Quality Management Environment Peer Group Indicators of the External Validity of Business Games: A five-year Longitudinal Study Political Strategies and Personal Actions Does Practice make Perfect? Observations on Simulation Trial The Use of A Non-Business Computer Simulation to Teach Marketing Management BankPro Commercial Bank Simulation The Production Game Pursuing Excellence: Work Strengths, Assets and relevant Values (An Exercise) Test of a Short Outward Bound Experience for College Students What is it that we want Student To Learn? Using Two TQM Philosophies when Playing Blackjack The Lagged Effects of Decision Variables on Financial Performance Measures Used in Two business Simulations The Development of an Experiential Exercise for Career Planning and Effective Job search Performance Measuring Quality in Management of Business Pedagogy Exploring Quality and Productivity Improvement: Using and Experiential Process Toward a Generalized Architecture for Intelligent Reactive Management Systems The Quality Game TQX: Using Expert Systems to Improve Training in Total Quality Management A Simulation of the Effect of the Medicaid Payment Lag on the Financial Position of Community Pharmacies The Use of a Board of Directors to Evaluate and Validate Decisions in a Competitive Graduate Management Simulation Course The Impact of Academic Dishonesty on Business Simulations and Experiential Learning Activities Picture Project: An Experience of Icebreaking and/or Decision-Making An Effective Role-playing Exercise for Teaching Requisite TQM Supervisory Attitudes/Behavior Computerized Management Simulations and Some Correlates of Students' Satisfaction The Timing and Stability of Reactions to Market Structure in a Single Player Simulation Environment A Graphics Application Extension for a Simulated Decision Support System Environment Aspects of a Group Project Utilizing Actual Business data and a Computerized Accounting System The Role of Universities' Extended Learning Department in Assisting Organizations Implement Total Quality Management A three-dimensional Learning Experience to Develop Total Quality Management Skills Estimating Quality Costs by Computer Simulation Applications and Examples of Quality Control Software Assessing Business Pedagogy A Demonstration of an Experiential Process for Exploring Quality and Productivity Improvement Processes An Action-Ethics Dilemma: A Demonstration Org Sim Jr.: A 2-3 Hour Version of the 2-Day Blanchard/Murrell Organization Simulation Building Buildings: An Experiential Exercise in Organizational Structure, Communication, Leadership and Group Dynamics Expert Systems for Organization Design: A Demonstration A Demonstration of Product Quality in a Business Simulation: Version 2 of CEO Two Revolutions, Total Quality Leadership, and the Baldy: The Story of Milliken Total Quality after the Award - The Xerox Story Building a Competitive Advantage through Customer Satisfaction and Reengineering Human Resource Planning: Managing the Only Renewable Resource for a Competitive Advantage Using Simulations to Teach International Issues: An analysis of the Multinational Management Game's Learning Environment Quality Function Deployment: A Tutorial Care and Nurturing of Teams Making a Good Thing Better: Adding TQM to Participative management Empowering Organizations to Redesign and Transform Themselves - Eastman Chemical Using Simulations in Field Management Development of an International Life Insurance Company Reinforcing the TQ Environment via Simulation Transforming a Business College into a Total Quality College