Quality Flashcards
What is the difference between quality assurance and quality control?
Assurance is about following policies and planning procedures
Control is more about specific control and inspection of components
Methods of quality assurance
Materials of ISO 9000 Quality Management Standard suppliers
Rigid machinery and constant maintenance schedule
QA procedures to minimise rejections from Quality checks
FEA to analyse effect of stress
Checking correct temperatures for certain methods
Embossed identification number
Key benefit of quality assurance?
Reduces waste as products are ‘right first time’
Limits quality check rejects
Examples of quality control checks
Visual aesthetic checks
Appropriate and accurate dimension checks
Tooling and alignment checks
Assembly checks
Quality checks of finished product
What is Total Quality Management and what does it entail?
Remove waste and produce products right first time.
Heavy focus on QA.
Value views of workforce, encourage participation in teams to problem solve and contribute without fear of being singled out
Procedures clearly communicated and must be well understood
High quality culture
Quality standards
ISO 9000
Advantages of CPA
Limits unnecessary waiting times
Parallel processing opportunities to maximise efficiency
Resource planning efficiency improved
Disadvantages of CPA
Difficult/impossible to represent highly complex activities
External factors may change and require management intervention
Relies on possibly in accurate estimates of activity durations
What is CPA?
Analysis of stages in a project to ensure time efficient completion of each stage in a project
Reduces process times
(Think cup of tea)
What is six sigma?
Improve output quality of a process by removing causes of defects and setting value targets
(Eg: reduce to defects to x values, reduction of costs by redesigning…)
Define, measure, analyse, improve, control
How does six sigma work?
Define the issue requiring improvement and dictates skills required
Measure extent of issue (decision points identified and focused on quality, cost and scheduling factors are considered)
Analyse where measured issues occur (how can value be added for customer benefit)
Improve by introducing rectification procedures (poka-yoke error proofing, experiments and pilot runs)
Modified procedures are controlled through QA
Short timescale with fully committed management support, provision of sufficient resources, access to detailed statistics and data
What is poka-yoke?
Method making it impossible to carry out a process incorrectly
Advantages of six sigma
Direct impact on profitability by improving quality
Increased customer satisfaction
Proactive, prevents losses from occurring rather than dealing with them when they do
Disadvantages of six sigma
Manufacturing costs can increase
Time spent dealing with large amounts of data
Too expensive for small companies to implement as need to obtain certified staff training from six sigma institutes
Can stifle creative and innovative ideas as they’re too risky
Stages of product life cycle
Introduction - low sales and small profits, large investment into product and marketing
Growth- market share grows, profitability improves
Maturity- potential customers now own one, maximum profitability, planning ahead for replacement
Decline - profits fall with reduced sales, further production not viable
Extension - iterative design process results in improved replacement products, updated features introduced
What is SCRUM?
Flexible and holistic product development strategy. Makes use of workforce teams using iterative design methods to quickly respond to issues in product design and manufacture
How does SCRUM work?
Working in multi-skilled teams to reach defined goals in ‘sprints’
Team goals are specified and regular meetings for feedback
Regularity of meetings increases efficiency of problems being solved
Adobe, Boeing and Xerox all use SCRUM
Advantages of Scrum
Time and money used effectively
Highly compatible with fast-moving projects
Facilitates adoption of customer feedback
Reviews ensure that any developments are fully tested
Disadvantages of SCRUM
Lack of definitive end date can cause problems
Success is reliant on full cooperation and commitment of team members
Can be difficult to adopt Scrum with large teams
Losing team members mid-project can be highly detrimental
What is planned obsolescence?
Designing a product so that it needs to be replaced
Short lifespan deliberately
