Management Of Quality Flashcards
Management of quality
Quality is often defined as a standard that meets the needs/wants of the customer. If the customer is not satisfied, then there may be problems in term of control of the quality during some stage of the production process.
Quality control
Involves the retrospective checking of products at different stages of the operations system in order to ensure that they meet pre-established standards of quality. Products that do not meet these standards are usually sold as seconds, for example at factory outlets. Improvements in the quality of products and services lead to greater business competitiveness.
Quality assurance
Aims to build quality in work processes in order to avoid defects before they occur, (a proactive program). Quality assurance may involve the use of an external organisation that audits the organisation against predetermined quality standards such as ISO 9001. If an organisation meets these quality standards, it is then entitled to use the certification of the external organisation. This provides a competitive advantage for the organisation, particularly when exporting products.
Total quality management
Total quality management (TQM) is a commitment to excellence that emphasises continuous improvement in all aspects of an organisation’s operation by sharing responsibility among all the members of the organisation. Quality becomes both a commitment and the responsibility of every employee in the organisation.
3 quality management strategies
Total quality management
Quality control
Quality assurance
Identify and explain two methods of improving quality in an organisation
Two methods from the strategy of managing quality that organisations can use are quality control and quality assurance. Quality control is the method by which a company checks its products to ensure that they meet predetermined standards to check for problems and defects and ensure that each products that leaves the product that leaves the company meets the expectations of its customers. Another method of managing quality is through quality assurance. This is where an external body comes in to assess the production line against its quality standards, this external body, for example the ISO International Organisation for Standardisation would provide guidelines to the organisation for adopting specific procedures, controls, recording and documenting procedures to ensure that the product meets both the customers and their own expectations.
Describe one difference between the operations management of a manufacturing organisation and a service organisation.
One difference between the operations management of a manufacturing organisation and a service organisation is the nature of the good or service they produce. Manufacturing organisations usually produce tangible goods like chocolate bars, cars, TVs etc that a consumer can physically touch and interact with. However service organisations generally create a customised intangible service like the delivery of teaching or tutoring, where we know something has occurred, but it is not something we can physically display or hold.
Fabrika is a large manufacturer and supplier of fabric to retail organisations. The organisation has recently experienced a decrease in market share as a result of several retail orghanisations choosing overseas manufacturers over Fabrika. Operations manager Jenny Jones wants to improve the quality of her fabrics in order to remain competitive.
Identify and describe one quality management strategy and one other operations management strategy Jenny could use to improve quality.
Using a Quality Control operations strategy, Jenny could optimise the quality of her fabric through monitoring the quality of her goods during its production and delivery so as to find faults as they occur, before they reach customers. This will involve setting performance standards of quality that she may wish to achieve in the operations process. Jenny could then inspect the outputs through statistical techniques to measure whether the fabrics meet the predetermined quality standards. Jenny should then make corrective adjustments if checking revealed it is necessary.
An other operations management strategy that could be used is robotics. Robotics are highly specialised forms of technology capable of completing complex tasks. Robotics allows a degree of precision and accuracy generally unmatched by human labour. Jenny could purchase robotics that are able to produce fabrics of a much hire quality than what employees can, this will increase the quality of the product.
Select and describe two performance indicators that Jenny could use to measure the success of the quality management strategy described above.
Fabrika is a large manufacturer and supplier of fabric to retail organisations. The organisation has recently experienced a decrease in market share as a result of several retail orghanisations choosing overseas manufacturers over Fabrika. Operations manager Jenny Jones wants to improve the quality of her fabrics in order to remain competitive.
Jenny could use the indicator of number of sales. This measures how many sales a business has made in a specific time period. As the quality management strategy should increase the quality of the fabric and thus attract more customers as they want a higher quality product, the number of sales should rise. Jenny could compare the number of sales before the implementation of the strategy with the number of sales after implementation to evaluate the success of the quality control.
Ready-Made Meals is a manufacturing organisation that produces pre-packaged frozen meals. The business was established in 2010 in response to increased consumer demand for pre-packaged meals. Ready-Made Meals has not achieved the same growth as its competitors. The owner has called in a consultant, Ms North, to address this situation. Following her preliminary investigations, Ms North has identi ed the following problems:
• Customers think Ready-Made Meals’ products are inferior to those of its competitors.
• There are unacceptable levels of waste in the production process.
• Current recruitment practices are not addressing future staf ng needs.
Ms North has recommended the following:
• a renewed focus on materials management
• improvements to the management of quality
• a review of current practices in the establishment phase of the employment cycle
Outline methods that Ready-Made Meals could use to implement Ms North’s recommendations. Discuss how the use of these methods could overcome the problems identi ed by Ms North.
Recruitment is a process within the organisation which entails the attracting of potential applicants for a job, either internally or externally. In order to address Ms Norths identified problems, Ready-Made Meals Human Resource Manager may choose to branch out and recruit externally. The potential applicants would be drawn by advertisements through job agencies, online websites or through newspapers. The advertisement for the job could outline the ideal employee who would suit the job to address Ready-Made Meals future staffing needs, ensuring only the most suitable applicants are drawn to the job. Another key process in the establishment cycle is selection, where potential applicants submit their applications and are screened, interviewed, tested, and informed of the outcome. The selection process of conducting interviews may be changed in order to identify and sift through the applicants to find the most appropriate one. This would overcome the issues of staff not being suited to future needs of the LSO, but may be more time consuming for improved interview processes.
The management of quality refers to the evaluation of a products durability and effectiveness in doing what it is intended to do. To increase the quality of Ready-Made Meals, the operations manager may choose to implement the strategy of quality assurance. This would involve getting an external organisation to audit the production processes of the operations system against predetermined and established national or international standards. One example is the ISO standards. Ready-Made Meals would strive to achieve these quality standards and if met, can display the certification and be assured that their food
standards are of national or international standard. Implementing this will allow for advanced competitiveness and possibly eliminate customer opinion that Ready-Made Meals’ products are inferior to those of their competitors. This may also increase its market share, but can cost the organisation money and increased efforts in maintaining these standards.
Materials management is an operations strategy which organises and plans the use, sourcing and type of resources used in the production process. Ready-Made Meals could implement a Just-In-Time strategy to ensure there are minimised levels of waste in the production process. Just-in-time materials management is where the inputs or raw materials are delivered when the old ones are being used up or when needed. Good supplier relationships are needed for this strategy but it can also ensure that the perishable raw materials at Ready-Made Meals are not going off and producing waste and cost. Implementing these measures allow for increased business competitiveness and can result in increased profits for the LSO.
