quality

Question 1

importance of quality to organisations

Answer 1

• Poor quality goods can result in customers returning their purchases this will mean a loss in sales
• Extremely low quality can result in products not meeting safety standard which can lead to bad PR
• High quality goods can result in good reputation
• Being associated with quality production can attract high
  quality staff
• The highest quality goods can be sold for premium prices

Question 2

comparing quality assurance to quality control features

Answer 2

• Quality assurance is where products are checked at certain points/every stage in the production process instead of just at the end, whereas quality control methods products are checked at the start/end of the production process.
• All team members are responsible for QA whereas, Testing team is responsible for QC.
• QA does not involve executing the program, whereas, QC always involves executing the program.

Question 3

quality control

Answer 3

Products are checked at the start/end of the production process to ensure faulty good do not reach customers

Question 4

quality control

advantages

Answer 4

• Ensures that faulty goods are not sent to customers
• Limits the potential for a bad reputation due to faulty products

Question 5

quality control

disadvantages

Answer 5

• Creates a lot of waste as the quality of the goods are not checked until they are made and have to be thrown away if they do not meet quality standards
• Products have to be reworked from scratch costing the business time an money

Question 6

quality assurance

Answer 6

Quality assurance is where products are checked to see that they are high quality and checked at certain points/every stage in the production process instead of just at the end

Question 7

quality assurance

advantages

Answer 7

• Less wastage which decreases costs spent on discarded materials
• Picks up problems as soon as possible

Question 8

quality assurance

disadvantages

Answer 8

• Can slow down production as many processes are inspected
• Can increase the costs of production eg paying quality assurance managers wages

Question 9

benchmarking

Answer 9

• Benchmarking – using ‘best’ methods identified through best practice in industry – technique used by some businesses to help them discover the ‘best’ methods of production available and adopt them
• Organisations from the same business sector can compare their performance to market leaders in the same field

Question 10

benchmarking

advantages

Answer 10

• Identifies best practice in the market which will improve performance if these methods are adopted by the organisation
• Can provide a goal for employees which will increase motivation
• Can make the organisation more competitive in the market

Question 11

benchmarking

disadvantages

Answer 11

• May be difficult to gather required information from competitors
• it can be time consuming to study techniques used by other companies
• internal factors such as lack of finance may prevent the adoption of competitors practices
• The company/product will only be as good as the benchmark set

Question 12

quality circles

Answer 12

• Small groups of workers, (including managers and grass roots workers) in the same area of production, meet regularly to study and solve production problems and to discuss the best methods and where improvements can be made
• Allows the actual workers doing the job to make the suggestion and allows them the opportunity to directly improve the work they are doing
• Quality circles offer more responsibility to the production worker. They are more part of the decision-making process, which is called empowerment as they allow employees to become more involved in decision-making

Question 13

mystery shoppers

Answer 13

• Some organisations, often in retail will employ mystery shoppers to visit their store to make a purchase
• Feedback is then given to the organisation on how the shopper found their experience and the service that they received
• Staff in the organisation will not normally know in advance of the mystery shopper

Question 14

BSI kitemark

Answer 14

• Businesses who achieve and maintain standards can carry the BSI Kitemark
• This tells customers it has been tested to destruction to ensure it meets certain safety standards
• Shows a product conforms to standards used in certain products

Question 15

advantages of gaining approval from BMI

Answer 15

• A specific standard can then be met for all the organisations products
• Levels of quality can be guaranteed to customers
• The kitemark symbol can be used as a marketing tool
• Can allow for a higher price to be charged

Question 16

disadvantages of gaining BMI approval

Answer 16

• Is an expensive process to go through
• Is time consuming to go through initially
• Rigorous checks and paperwork must be kept

Question 17

use of trade logos

Answer 17

• Eggs, carry a Red Lion Quality Mark to identify that they have been produced to an agreed standard. Others include the woolmark logo to ensure quality
• Scottish Meat Quality Standards have quality assurance stickers that are displayed on meat products that have been produced to a certain industry standard
• ISO 9000 - ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 148 countries, on the basis of one member per country, with a Central one in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system
• Investors in People (IIP) – a government standard for employee consultation and training that establishes a procedure for ‘relating training to your business plan’