3.4.4- Making operational decisions to improve performance: improving quality

Question 1

What are the benefits of improving quality?

Answer 1

• Makes it easy to keep existing customers and attract new customers
  Can improve the reputation of the business
  Can function as a USP for product

Question 2

What are the drawbacks of improving quality?

Answer 2

• Theres a limit of how much quality can be improved
• Can be costly

Question 3

What is quality control?

Answer 3

• Checking goods as they’re made or when they arrive to see if anything is wrong with them, done by trained quality inspectors.
• Assumes errors are unavoidable
• Detects errors and puts them right
• Inspectors check other peoples work and are responsible for quality.

Question 4

What is quality assurance?

Answer 4

• Introducing measures into the production process to try to ensure things dont go wrong in the fist place. Assumes you can prevent errors, rather than eliminating faulty goods once they’re made
• Assumes errors are avoidable
• Prevents errors and aims to get it right the first time
• Employees check their own work, and are responsible for passing on good quality wok to the next stage or production.

Question 5

How can quality assurance be motivating?

Answer 5

• It empowers employees to self-check the quality of their work can be highly motivating
• Training is important for QA, workers are trained, which can lead to experienced employees being retrained
• Workers must be motivated and committed to quality for quality assurance schemes to work.

Question 6

What is total quality management?

Answer 6

• Where the whole workforce is committed to quality improvements. Every department focuses on ways to improve overall quality
• In TQM, employees has to satisfy customers and co-workers

Question 7

What are the advantages of TQM?

Answer 7

• All employees are involved with improving quality, can help them bond as a team.
• Boosts companies reputation for high quality.
• TQM usually leads to fewer faulty produces, creating less waste

Question 8

What are the disadvantages of TQM?

Answer 8

• It can take a long time to introduce it, may not see immediate improvements
• TQM can demotivate staff, can seem like a lot of effort to think about quality
• TQM is usually expensive, have to invest in training