40. Quality Management

Question 1

Quality control

Answer 1

The process of inspecting products to ensure that they meet the required quality standards

Question 2

Quality management

Answer 2

Concerned with controlling activities with the aim of ensuring that products and services are fit for their purpose and meet the specifications

Question 4

Quality includes:

Answer 4

• Buying process
• Product reliability
• Cost of ownership
• After-sale service

Question 5

Quality

Answer 5

A product or service is of good quality if it meets the needs & expectations of the customer

Question 6

Quality control

Answer 6

The process of inspecting products to ensure that they meet the required quality standards

Question 7

Quality control:

Answer 7

• Traditional way of managing quality
• Concerned with checking and reviewing output
• Mainly about “detecting” defective output - rather than preventing it
• Can be a very costly process

Question 8

Inspection is used in quality control when:

Answer 8

• When raw materials are received prior to entering production
• Whilst products are going through the production process
• When products are finished - takes place before products are despatched to customers

Question 9

Problems with quality inspection

Answer 9

• Costly
• Often at the end of the production process – i.e. potentially too late
• Inconsistent inspections
• Often not compatible with modern production systems
• Done by inspectors rather than workers themselves

Question 10

Quality Assurance

Answer 10

The processes that ensure production quality meets the requirements of customers

Question 11

Quality assurance:

Answer 11

• How a business can design the way a product of service is produced or delivered to minimise the chances that output will be sub-standard
• Focus of quality assurance is on the product design/development stage
• If the production process is well controlled - then quality will be “built-in“
• If the production process is reliable - there is less need to inspect production output (quality control)

Question 12

Total quality management (TQM)

Answer 12

A management philosophy committed to a focus on continuous improvements of product and services with the involvement of the entire workforce

Question 13

TQM:

Answer 13

• TQM is essentially an “attitude”
• Whole business understands need for quality and seeks to achieve it
• Everyone in workforce is concerned with quality at every stage of production process
• Quality is ensured by workers and not inspectors

Question 14

Advantages of TQM:

Answer 14

• Puts customer at heart of production process
• Motivational since workers feel more involved and are making decisions
• Less wasteful than throwing out defective finished products
• Eliminates cost of inspection

Question 15

Disadvantages of TQM:

Answer 15

• Requires strong leadership – often missing in a business
• Substantial investment in training & support – but return on investment not immediate
• May become bureaucratic
• Disruption and costs may outweigh benefits

Question 16

Kaizen:

Answer 16

• Another kind of quality assurance
• Based on concept / culture of continuous improvement
• Encourages employees to engage fully with finding ways to improve quality processes

Question 17

costs of poor quality:

Answer 17

• Lost customers (expensive to replace – and they may tell others about their bad experience)
• Cost of reworking or remaking product
• Costs of replacements or refunds
• Wasted materials
• a source of competitive disadvantage (If competitors are achieving higher quality, then a business will suffer)

Question 18

How poor quality damages competitiveness:

Answer 18

• Financial costs (e.g. compensation)
• Lost customer loyalty
• Damaged business reputation
• Need for greater controls and checks
• Competitors take advantage

Question 19

Quality chains

Answer 19

when employees form a series of links between customers and suppliers in business, both internally and externallys

Question 20

statistical process control

Answer 20

the collection of data about the performance of a particular process in a business

Question 21

Company policy, accountability and empowerment

Answer 21

TQM must start from the top with the most senior executive and spead throughout the business to every employee. People must be totally committed and take ‘pride in the job’

Question 22

Control

Answer 22

Consumer needs will only be satisfied if the business has control of the factors that affect a product’s quality