Quality management Flashcards
What is Quality?
features of a product that allow it to satisfy customers’ needs, it may refer to some standard of excellence
What factors influence quality?
physical appearance
reliability & durability
special features
suitability
after sales service
image
reputation
What are different methods of ensuring quality?
quality control
quality assurance
TQM
What is meant by quality control?
aims to identify and correct defects in the finished product (reactive task)
What is Quality assurance?
commitment by a business to maintain quality throughout the organization: aims to prevent defects with a focus on the processes used to make the product (proactive task)
What is the aim of quality assurance?
The aim is to stop problems before they occur rather than finding them after they occur
What is quality circles?
groups of workers meeting regularly to solve problems and discuss work issues
What is total quality management?
maintaining quality is part of culture
What are the features of TQM
quality chains
company policy, accountability and empowerment
control
monitoring
teamwork
consumer views
zero defects
quality circles
What is quality chains?
when employees form a series of links between customers and suppliers in business, both internally and externally
How can Quality chains improve/give quality?
Failure to meet the requirement in any part of the quality chain creates problems, such as delay in the next stage of prduction
How can Empowerment, company policy improve/give quality?
-People must be totally committed and take ‘ a pride in the job’ –> an example of enrichment
-Lack of commitment particular at the top causes problems –> knock on affect it has on employees motivation and commitment
-in TQM everyone is accountable for their own performance –>employees may also be empowered to make decisions
How can monitoring improve/give quality?
-Statistical process control (SPC) involves collecting data relating to the performance of a process
-SPC can be used to reduce variability, which is the cause of most quality problems
-Variations in products delivery times, methods materials, people’s attitudes and staff performanceoften occur
How can teamwork improve/give quality?
Most effective way to solve problems (imporves communication, new skills, builds trust and morale, cooperation)
+greater range of skills
+employee morale
+problems across departments better dealt with
How can consumer views improve/give quality?
customer feedback platforms=enable business to constant improve
How can zero defects improve/give quality?
This aims to ensure that every product that is manufactured is free from defects
=good rep=new clients=more sales
How can quality circles improve/give quality?
encourages a continuos approach
How does using Total Quality Management help a business?
+focus clearly on needs of customers and relationships between suppliers
+critic analysis to remove waste
+develop team approach to problem solving
+continious improvement
What are the drawback to Total Quality Management?
-training costs
-only work if whole business is committed
-stress placed on process/worker not product
what are features of kaizan?
continious improvement
eliminate waste
cell production
quality circles
Competitive advantage from quality management
+product quality should be improved=help increase sales
+business costs may be cut if fault ins product identifies before the product reaches the market eg cost of failure reaching market is higher than in manufacturer
+develop usp= differentiate in quality=customer thinks its superior=set high prices
what are the negatives of improving quality?
-loss of production when intro of new systme comes into place
-expensive training
What are the advantages of Quality Control?
not wasting time
cheaper
lower training costs than Quality Assurance
Less difference in opinion on quality
What are the disadvantages of Quality Control?
-dont know when the problem occurred
May be expensive as whole batches could be discarded
inefficient if errors occur early on - waste of time and resources
What are the advantages of Quality Assurance?
-Guaranteed a perfect product at the end
-Can easily identify where the problem is
-less chance of waste products as quality is assured
What are the disadvantages of Quality Assurance?
time-consuming
expensive training costs
