Abstract:

Soft skills are essential traits that companies consider for employment, including problem-solving, teamwork, and communication expertise. This paper explains how students practice these soft skills during class and analyze problems using quality control tools [1]. The students primarily identify issues in their jobs or broader national problems that impact their lives. Working in teams of two, they choose a problem to analyze, agree on objectives and scope, and then propose the quality control tools they plan to use to analyze or solve it. During project development, other classmates can propose additional aspects to study related to the problems. To conduct a thorough analysis, students must research and analyze a vast amount of information related to the topics at hand. They are required to periodically present their progress to the class and, if proposing solutions, estimate the cost-benefit of these solutions. This paper provides examples of the problems analyzed in class and a detailed analysis using the same methodology, of the strategies, programs, projects, and results aimed at achieving energy independence in Mexico next year, as promised by the current Federal Administration. Specifically, the Government promised that Mexico would not be importing gasoline and diesel in the year 2024. The analysis includes the impact of the mechanisms used by the Mexican government in the year 2022 to achieve the lowest inflation rate for gasoline and diesel compared to all OECD countries [2]. The results of using various quality control tools such as the Ishikawa Diagram, Scatter Diagram, Pareto Diagram, the Quality Function Deployment, the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis, and others to analyze the progress and recommend corrections in reaching Mexico's energy independence are reported in this paper.

References:
[1] R. Gutierrez, R. de la Vara, Control estadístico de la calidad y seis sigma. Cd. de Mexico/Mexico: McGraw-Hill/Interamerican, 2013.
[2] Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Consumer Prices, OECD, 26 July, 2023. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/newsroom/consumer-prices-oecd-updated-3-november-2022.htm

Keywords:

Soft skills, problem-solving, teamwork, quality control.