8. Management of Quality Flashcards
Definitions
Quality?
Quality refers to the degree of excellence in a product/service and its ability to satisfy client needs and wants. Organisations with quality products and service have a competitive advantage. The management of quality has become a central concern for most managers.
• In general use, the term quality can refer to a wide range of characteristics of a product including: Reliability Durability smart design features consistency speed of delivery after-sales or back-up services Pleasing appearance or other areas of taste or aesthetics.
- Factors that determine a product’s quality include:
- Durability.
- Maintainability.
- Dependability.
- Performance.
Definitions
Quality Management?
Quality management programs aim to: Minimise waste and defect rates in production, thereby maximising operational efficiency and productivity. Obtain consistently high standards of product and service at every stage of production, Achieve set quality standards or benchmarks.
The management of quality in a large organisation takes one of three forms:?
• The management of quality in a large organisation takes one of three forms:
■ Quality control
■ Quality assurance (QA)
■ Total quality management (TQM).
The three are related and there is overlap in the management activities used in their implementation.
All three involve both external and internal elements.
Customers and suppliers are key external elements in quality approaches.
Internal elements that are important in the three approaches include: employees, operations processes, facilities, machinery and equipment.
- Quality Control??
Quality control is best described as a process or strategy for monitoring the quality of a good or service during its production or delivery. The aim of quality control is to take early corrective action if it is necessary. It involves the use of a series of physical checks at different stages of the production process to ensure that products and services meet designed standards and errors are eliminated post production.
- Reactive and aims to detect defects and halt production if needed
- Manufacturers have used processes to check the quality of mass-produced goods. This is normally done by taking random samples from the production line and inspecting for defects— summed up in the expression ‘check and reject’.
- Quality Control
• There are four steps in quality control:?
1 The establishment of quality benchmarks or standards to be achieved
Establish performance standards or specifications: These are the quality objectives of an operations process.
2 Carry out inspections of product performance
Inspect output for performance: Here statistical techniques such as sampling and analysis are used. Customer assessments provide useful information in some industries.
3 Compare results of inspections with standards
Compare actual performance with established standards Analysis is undertaken to determine reasons for gaps between the two.
4 Correct processes in order to preventing defects from recurring
Take corrective action if necessary Problems could exist in any part of the operations system. Action would involve either making changes to improve performance or adjusting performance standards where they have been unrealistic.
- Quality Assurance?
Quality Assurance refers to the certified achievement (independent assessment) of a level of quality in the production of a good or service. It is a proactive process –it aims to build quality into work processes, thereby preventing errors from occurring. This may involve the use of a certification body which audits against national or internal standards.
• The QA approach is an advance on the quality control approach because QA attempts to have in place a whole operations system that continually improves processes, and includes regular internal and external audits that in many cases eliminate the need for inspection.
- Quality Assurance
Aspects?
• Aspects: Customer satisfaction Production process Training of staff Documentation of processes Controls Corrective action Auditing of processes
- Quality Assurance
Industry Standards?
• Organisations have to meet specified standards set down for their industry. The current series of standards is known as ISO 9001.
The current standard is divided into five parts: 1 quality management system 2 management responsibility 3 resource management 4 product realisation 5 measurement, analysis and improvement The standard is based on a number of positive management principles including: Customer focus Leadership Involvement of people Continuous improvement Factual approach to decision making Mutually beneficial supplier relationship
• Business organisations obtain certification (endorsement) from a quality assurance authority. SAI Global is the leading certification body in Australia.
- Total Quality Control
Total Quality Control takes a holistic approach to quality management where all members of an organisation participate in ongoing improvement of organisational culture and production processes. TQM is a management philosophy that promotes continuous improvement in the quality of all the processes, goods and services of an organisation. The approach emphasises continuous improvement rather than checking for defects in production.
- Total quality management (TQM) takes a broader—and more ‘total’—view of quality compared to quality control and quality assurance.
- At the same time, TQM relies heavily on statistical analysis
Core concepts: Customer focus. Defect prevention. Universal responsibility. Continuous process improvement.
- Total Quality Control
There are three central principles in the total quality approach?
Continuous improvement
• The principle of continuous improvement expects all employees at all levels of an organisation to seek ways to improve work performance—their own, their team’s and the performance of the whole organisation.
• Continuous improvement often involves benchmarking and identifying best practice in a particular production process or area of work. Benchmarking compares the outcomes of a process with similar work in the past or in other situations
Customer focus
• In the total quality approach, quality is based on the expectations of the customer. Quality is in the mind of the customer. External customers (buyers of the final product) are an obvious focus in business.
• In any production process, problems with quality can be prevented at the earliest stage if internal customers are treated well. Work passed on to the next stage of the process should improve that next stage. It should never make the work of the internal customer more difficult.
Employee participation and teamwork.
• Employees are a key part of the total quality approach. The broad participation of employees in decision making encourages everyone to take responsibility for quality.
• The aim of each employee is to eliminate errors in operations by ‘doing right the first time’ (zero defects), therefore delivering quality to other employees in the process. TQM sees everyone in the process as members of a big team guiding the quality process.
• Organisations that take a quality approach often increase staff participation by forming quality circles. Quality circles are teams (usually between four and 10 people) that meet regularly to discuss production and quality improvements and to find solutions to workplace problems.
- Total Quality Control
Developments in TQM?
Six Sigma?
Much of its content (or central principles) has now been internalised by the management and staff of large Australian organisations.
• In the current business climate, when simple cost-cutting is often seen as the only way to productivity, the principles of TQM (continuous improvement, customer focus, employee empowerment) provide a broader, more balanced and more sustainable way forward in business.
Six Sigma takes its name from a statistical measure of process variation (i.e. number of defects). Six Sigma uses statistical tools to identify the vital few factors affecting the quality of processes and hence the bottom line.
• It applies a flexible four- or five-phase methodology
- DMAIC stands for the following.
- Define project goals and deliverables to customers
- Measure the current performance of the process
- Analyse and identify the basic cause(s) of defects, the critical-to-quality (CTQ) element(s).
- Improve the process with the aim of eliminating defects.
- Control the performance of the process, focusing on the vital few factors.
