2.4.4 Quality Management COPY (improved) Flashcards
Quality
- meets specifications firm set
- customer requirements = ‘fit for purpose’
How to meet quality ?
- find customer wants (MR)
- specify product does (advertising, packaging)
- specifications achieved
7 reasons quality important ?
- satisfaction
- growth opp = market share (revenue)
- waste = costs
- complaints = image & reputation
- competitive = differentiates
- premium prices = adding value
- reduce sensitivity to price
6 ways quality measured?
- recommendations/reviews
- returning customers
- exchanges/returns
- rate of stock turnover
- commission/tips
- reward schemes/loyalty cards
3 ways Service industry measuring quality
- customer satisfaction
- accurate billing
- speed of response
Manufacturing industry measuring quality
No of products with defects
Wastage
Approaches to quality management
- Quality control
- Quality assurance
- Quality circles
- TQM
- Kaizen
Quality control & 3 benefits
- traditional, inspector, finished, meet standards
- every product, sample each batch (random sample)
- meet required standards
- no defective leave
- little staff training
4 problems with quality control:
- inspector = expensive = poor quality built in
- mistakes = inevitable = wastage/cost
- employees don’t take care of work (responsibility)= not best quality
- faulty = slip through
Quality assurance & 4 benefits
- production quality = customer requirements
- throughout process
- self checking = empower
- zero defects
- customer reassurance (quality = pay more)
- quality system = each stage in production process
4 problems with quality assurance
- training
- tick boxes rather than care for customer experience
- no promise high quality
- encourage complacency (quality should be kept moving)
quality circles
- small groups of workers
- same area of production
- regularly meet = study/solve production problems
Factors influencing success of quality circle/problems:
- mutual respect = positive industrial relations
- action/implementation
- democratic leadership
TQM
Total quality management
- philosophy to quality = constant improvement
- employees involved (contribute to product/service)
- encourage intrapraneurship
Features of TQM
- employees = equal importance (motivate=buy in)
- quality from design to sales (whole organisation)
- customers internal and external (part of organisation)
- less productive as assessing quality
- need to establish quality ‘culture system’ = centre of everything
May resist TQM because…
- lose control (authority to subordinate)
- exhausting (happy with what doing)
- necessary/believe
- additional training
4 ways managers help implement TQM
- explain why necessary (communicate)
- provide training = supported
- rewards
- give it time
4 benefits of TQM
- empowers/motivates staff
- competitive advantage (always best)
- rooted in company culture
- quality from design, manufacture and after sales service
4 drawbacks of TQM
- everyone involved
- managers implement
- staff skeptical (lacks clear concrete programme)
- expensive = training
Autocratic leader
like to keep control
Kaizen & 2 advantages
LEAN
- Japanese philosophy continuous improvement
- constantly seek to improve performance
- gradual, orderly & continuous improvement
- ongoing improvement involving everyone
- easier to adapt
- team work
the philosophy;
- accepted by all
- 1 workers = 2 jobs (do it & is it the best)
- many small gradual changes = competitive adv effect
- staff = best resource (based around people and ideas)
- team working (cells and quality circle)
- empowerment (speed of decision making)
- performance targets
- improving quality (MR, design product, plan process)
BPR:
Business Process reengineering
- redesigning key aspects of business from scratch
- scrap existing systems
- rethink/ clean slate
- attract new bosses
- ultimately = job loss
use:
- change product portfolio
- buying another business (change in ownership, technological change)
Problems of implementing/limitations of Kaizen
- culture= resist change (motivation)
- training cost = change attitudes = expensive & takes time
- justifying cost = opportunity cost of investment in time & training whilst = loss of output = hard to measure benefits
- diminishing returns: impact improvement, gets less over time and staff enthusiasm decreases
- radical solutions (not right for all situations, may need drastic action to survive)
- time
4 Factors to consider/influences on which quality system:
- nature of business/product
- scale of production system
- finance & time
- management style
5 ways to gain competitive advantage through quality management
- differentiate against competitors (USP)
- point of promotion
- complaint/return = lower cost = competitive
- non-price strategy = don’t compete on price
- adds value = premium price = profit
2 key elements to kaizen
- based on people and ideas (not new tech)
2. each change = little importance (lots = cumulative effects substantial)
4 things good quality product will allow:
- repeat purchase = longer PLC
- build brand & marketing benefit spread from one brand to another
- premium price
- products easier to place (retailers stock good reputation)
7 benefits of quality circles
- financial incentive = empowered/motivation/valued
- opinions valued & respected all mix
- membership voluntary
- doing job = better idea of improve process = known issues&better practices
- cost savings
- staff morale
- adv of knowledge of operations
