Quality Standards - Waste, TQM, Benchmarking, Quality Control, Quality Circles Flashcards
whats quality
- appearance
- design of the product
- reliability of the product
- ensuring the product is properly checked during production
- ensuring its fit for purpose and is safe to use = will last an efficient amount of time and will be reliable
- ensuring that the quality satisfies legislation/standards i.e car crash safety tests passed for cars or food fit for consumption or kids toys
importance of quality
consumers now expect quality as a standard and not an optional extra
- brings bad publicity for the business
- lead to a loss of goodwill
- bad business reputation
- loss of sales
customers now more likely to complain and publisce their bad experience and complaints
quality assurance
concerned with the way in which a business sets out its procedures to assure its consumers that the products produced are of the right quality
systems should be in place to ensure that quality is appropriate
at every stage of the production process - quality checks are for the repsonsiblity of every worker
builds quality into every stage of production and into how the product is made
quality control
process in which a business reviews the quality of all the factors involved in the process of production
a set of activities for ensuring quality in products - focusing on identifying and correcting defects in whats produced THE FINISHED PRODUCT and BEFORE ITS RELEASED
cost of inspection
- installing procedures to improve quality
- time taken to check and inspect
- employing people to inspect or requring employees to use part of their time to inspect instead of producing
X - can not be economically worthwhile to check its all exactly the same
- however may be crucial to check something is all the same to make sure everything all fits
= depends on product and its function to how much you need to check
cost of poor quality products
- wasted materials
- cost of repairing
- production losses to rectify faults
- damage to reputation of the businesses + loss of sales
quality definition
achieving a minimum standard for a product or service or process to meet customer needs
about comparing a product to a aprticular standard - meets standard set by customers
quality control advantages
- left to specialists
- good for dealing with common problems
- removes defective products
quality control disadvantages
- looking for negatives - workers feel the pressure and can still be stuff wrong regardless
- no incentives for workers to check quality > all done by others
- not every product is checked
- reacts to it not pro-active and doing something about it
quality assurance advantages
- workers taking more care
- reduced costs and waste
- increased motivation with responsibility
- workers best placed to do the job
quality assurance disadvantages
- initial cost to implement this > training
- not all products need this
- increased demand and responsibility for workers - lots of trust but too much?
- workers may be against this
benefits of good quality
- premium price can be charged
- strong brand image
- customer needs are met
- can differentiate themselves from rivals
wastage rates
used to measure EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT, BUSINESS PERFORMANCE
number of rejects produced
________________________ X 100
total number of products produced
what causes wastage rates
poor quality materials/inputs
machinary failure
employee error/bad attitude
how to reduce wastage
- training and motivation
- better quality inputs - supply chain quality assurance
- new technology - better equipment, computer controlled monitoring of production
total quality management TQM
managerial approach that focuses on quality and aims to improve effectiveness of the business - QA extension
- aims to prevent errors and poor quality products
- all areas of buisness takes account for quality
- departments are seen as customers of each other
- production process is assesed at every stage to reduce errors
culture of quality is created
preventing not inspecting for mistakes
quality circles
small groups of workers from the same departments meet to discuss production problems
quality chains
employees form a series of links between suppliers, the business and the customer
focus on customer service is created
TQM advantages
- helps a business to achieve business objectives
- keeps stakeholders happy
- focus on customer needs, relationship with suppliers and customers
- reduces wastages and costs
- develops effective communication
- identifies ways to improve perfomance and quality
- improve quality in all departments
TQM disadvantages
- training and development costs
- only works if everyone is committed
- costs created with paper work etc.
- take a long time to implement - staff feeling bored and reduced motivation
TQM features
- use of teamwork - motivation, engagement, greater skill variety
- if things go right the first time round then higher quality and low costs
- production processes are monitored and controlled
- identifying ways to improve and ensure a consistent approach
benchmarking
achieved by ocmparing a business with that of a competitor (usually market leader)
in order to improve its own practices and setting standards for the preformance of the business
concerned with the identification of the ‘best practice’ - done by comapring the products produced and how they’re produced with others in the same industry
how to benchmark effectively
- decide which products are to be benchmarked
- be aware of existing processes in the business
- conduct an analysis of those operating
- mae a comparison and identify gaos for improvement
- take action to improve where necessary and make sure its ongoing
types of benchmarking
external ; most common where comparisons in performance are made between one business and another
internal ; usually between one department and another
competitive ; comparison made with the best competitor
functional ; comparisons made between businesses with similar processes -design or collect their data
strategic ; concerned with the overall strategies that a business uses
issues with benchmarking
- limited access to sensitive material (trade secrets)
- difficult to find which business offers best practice
- difficult for a business to implement those improvements to reduce gaps between itself and the best business competitors
