Quality

Question 1

What are the 8 methods of maintaining quality?

Answer 1

Quality control
Quality assurance
Continual improvement
Quality circles
Quality standards and symbols
Quality management
Mystery shoppers
Benchmarking

Question 2

What is quality control?

Answer 2

Quality control is a method of inspecting raw materials or finished goods to check they are of an acceptable standard and quality.

Question 3

What are the advantages of quality control?

Answer 3

Ensures that faulty goods are not sent to customers.

Limits the potential for a bad reputation due to faulty products.

Question 4

What are the disadvantages of quality control?

Answer 4

Can create 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 and money.

Question 5

What is quality assurance?

Answer 5

Quality assurance is a method of prevention i.e. where products are checked to see that they are of high quality at different stages in the development and production process rather than just at at the end.

Question 6

What are the advantages of quality assurance?

Answer 6

Less wastage, which decreases costs spent on discarded materials.

Easy to identify where faults in the production process lie.

Question 7

What are the disadvantages of quality assurance?

Answer 7

Can slow down production as many processes are inspected.

Can increase the costs of production e.g. paying QA managers’ wages.

Question 8

What is continual improvement?

Answer 8

Organisations should always attempt to improve quality, even if it has met its objectives.

Question 9

What are the advantages of continual improvement?

Answer 9

The business stays ahead of the competition.

The business can react easily to changing external factors.

Question 10

What are the disadvantages of continual improvement?

Answer 10

The business can have high staff-development costs.

Employees may feel under pressure to continually keep improving.

Question 11

What are quality circles?

Answer 11

A quality circle involves a group of employees meeting with a line manager to discuss problems in the production process and how to solve them.

Question 12

What are the advantages of quality circles?

Answer 12

Employees will be motivated as they get to have a say in decision-making.

Management get well-informed suggestions from the workers who actually produce the product.

Question 13

What are the disadvantages of quality circles?

Answer 13

Employees meet during paid company time, meaning production time is lost.

Employees are often trained to join a quality circle, costing the business even more time and money.

Question 14

What are quality standards and symbols?

Answer 14

A quality standard or symbol proves that a product has met an agreed industry standard.

Question 15

What are the advantages of quality standards and symbols?

Answer 15

Awards prove to customers that a product has met an agreed standard of quality.

Symbols can be used as a promotional tool to gain a competitive edge.

Customers will have confidence in purchasing the product and may repeat purchase.

Higher prices can be charged as the product is of high quality.

Question 16

What are the disadvantages of quality standards and symbols?

Answer 16

Time-consuming processes need to be completed to achieve the award.

Agreed standards need to be maintained at all times.

If any award is removed it would give the organisation a poor reputation.

Annual checks and audits by awarding bodies can disrupt production.

Question 17

What is quality management?

Answer 17

Quality management involves incorporating a variety of methods of maintaining quality rather than just one.

Question 18

What are the advantages of quality management?

Answer 18

Quality management should result in zero errors, which drastically reduce waste.

Staff are motivated, as they are constantly consulted on improving quality.

Products will be renowned for being of the highest quality, increasing customer confidence and market share.

A culture of teamwork is established, as everyone works together to improve.

Question 19

What are the disadvantages of quality management?

Answer 19

Substantial staff training, to ensure no mistakes are made, will increase costs and result in lost work time.

Requires the commitment of all staff, which could require a stricter selection process.

Processes need to be continually monitored and compared to policies and procedures, which can be time consuming.

Question 20

What are mystery shoppers?

Answer 20

People are employed, often through an agency, to purchase products, ask questions, register complaints or behave in a certain way, and then provide feedback to the business about the experiences they had.

Question 21

What are the advantages of mystery shoppers?

Answer 21

The mystery shopper is not employed by or directly connected to the business. This means no bias is shown.

Valuable feedback, which may be lost when a customer chooses simply not to buy a product, is gathered when a product is below standard or unsatisfactory.

The mystery shopper can suggest improvements that ensure a better match between the experience that the customer actually has and the one the business intends them to have.

Dissatisfied customers are likely to share their poor experiences with others, whereas the mystery shopper is not permitted to do this.

Question 22

What are the disadvantages of mystery shoppers?

Answer 22

Staff may resent a mystery shopper evaluating them, if they are aware of it, and may take the feedback personally.

The mystery shopper’s feedback may not be fully representative of the business as a whole as it provides a limited evaluation i.e. one day, one branch, one customer service assistant etc.

Allowances have to be made for human error in judgements. Mystery shopper are people who have feelings and opinions which may cloud their judgement from time to time.

Businesses need to pay mystery shoppers, often through an agency, increasing costs.

Question 23

What is benchmarking?

Answer 23

Benchmarking involves copying the quality of a finished product, and the processes used to achieve it, used by the market leader.

Question 24

What are the advantages of benchmarking?

Answer 24

If successful, the product will be as good as the best on the market.

Saves the business time developing their own approach to ensuring quality.

Question 25

What are the disadvantages of benchmarking?

Answer 25

Can be difficult to gain information about other organisation’s quality methods.

The business will only ever be ‘as good’ as the benchmark at a time. The benchmark may improve, leaving the organisation behind. The business will never be better than the benchmark, so will never be a market leader.