Chapter 40- Quality Management

Question 1

Quality assurance

Answer 1

• Today’s businesses are focused on ensuring that inspection of the product is carried out during
  the production process
• This means that problems and poor-quality products can be prevented before final production
• Such a preventative approach has been used by Japanese businesses and is known as total
  quality management (TQM) – it is now being adopted by many companies in the UK – It
  involves all employees in a business at all stages in the production
• Quality assurance is a commitment by a business to maintain quality throughout the
  organisation – the aim is to stop problems before they occur rather than finding them as they
  occur
• Quality assurance also takes into account customers’ views when planning the production
  process – for example, customers may be consulted about their views through market research
  before a product is manufactured

Question 2

TQM (total quality management)

Answer 2

• Designed to prevent errors, such as the creation of poor-quality products, from happening
• The business is organised so that the manufacturing process is investigated at every stage
• TQM places emphasis on:
  Quality chains
  Company policy, accountability and empowerment
  Monitoring
  Teamwork
  Consumer views
  Quality circles

TQM helps companies to:

• Focus clearly on the needs of customers and relationships between suppliers and customers
• Achieve quality in all aspects of business, not just product or service quality
• Critically analyse all processes to remove waste and inefficiencies
• Find improvements and develop measures of performance
• Develop effective procedures for communication and acknowledgement of work

However, there are some problems:

• There will be training and development costs of the new system
• TQM will only work if there is commitment from the entire business
• There will be a great deal of bureaucracy and documents

Question 3

Quality circles

Answer 3

• Quality circles are small groups of workers, in the same area of production who meet regularly to
  study and solve production problems – in addition, such groups are intended to motivate and involve
  on the shop floor

Question 4

Kaizen

Answer 4

• An important Japanese concept – referring to continuous improvement
• This is done through elimination of waste – such as time wasted by staff movement, waiting, -
  irregular use of machinery
• Also through the implementation of continuous improvement – e.g. plan, do, check, action cycle