Operations Management Assignment: Quality Management

Assignment Instructions:

Case Study: In 1999, NASA lost the Mars Climate Orbiter, a 338 kg robotic space probe (with a cost of $327.6 million dollars) due to a failed translation of British units into metric units in the mission software. This mistake triggered an unintentional de-orbit of the probe and its subsequent disintegration in Mars’ upper atmosphere.

Read NASA’s release “Mars Climate Orbiter Failure Board Releases Report, numerous NASA actions underway in response” (http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/news/mco991110.html)

Write a 3-page response that details the issues of the case, particularly as they relate to quality, and address the following questions:

Which quality approaches, methods and tools would you propose to mitigate each of the 8 contributing factors identified in the release?
Which considerations would you take in order to implement your proposals within the organization?

Assignment Requirements:

Double spacing in Times New Roman font.

APA 7 referencing format.

Description of case and identification/coverage of major issues.

Depth and scope of analysis.

Solutions and strategies.

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