Ch 6: Quality Management and International Standards

Question 1

What is quality?

Answer 1

The ability of a product/service to meet customer needs.

Question 2

What are the ways in which quality improves profitability?

Answer 2

Sales Gains via:
Improved response
Flexible Pricing
Improved Reputation

Reduced Costs Via:
Increased Productivity
Lower rework/scrap costs
Lower warranty costs

Question 3

Describe the flow of activities that are necessary to achieve TQM?

Answer 3

Organizational Practices

-Leadership, Mission statement, staff support
Yields: What is important and what is to be accomplished

Quality Principles

-Customer focus, Continuous Improvement, Benchmarking, JIT, Tools of TQM

Yields: How to do what is important and to be accomplished

Employee Fulfilment:

-Empowerment, Org. commitment
Yields: employee attitudes that can accomplish what is important

Customer Satisfaction:

Winning orders, repeat customer.
Yields: An effective organization with competitive advantage

Question 4

Why is quality important?

Answer 4

1. Company Reputation: A company’s reputation for quality affects customer and supplier relationships
2. Product Liability: Companies are liable for the products they put on the market
3. Global Implications: have to meet global standards in quality, design and price

Question 5

Cost of Quality

Answer 5

The Cost of doing things wrong– that is, the cost of nonconformance.

Question 6

What are the 3 costs of conformance?

Answer 6

Prevention Costs: Costs in reducing the potential for defective parts/services. E.g. Training, qi programs)

Appraisal Costs: Costs in evaluating products, processes, parts and services (eg testing labs, inspectors)

Internal Failure: Costs due to production of defective parts/services before delivery to customers (rework/scrap, downtime)

External Costs: Costs that occur after deliver of defective parts/services (returned goods)

Question 7

Ethics in quality management

Answer 7

• companies ought to ensure that all quality and safety standards are followed, so that no harm is caused to the end customer. Else they will be held responsible and liable for litigation and other losses.

Such as company boycots, loss of investor/lowered investor confidence etc.

Question 8

Who are the four leaders in the QM Field?

Answer 8

W. Edwards Deming: Management should take responsibility for quality production. 14 points for quality

Joseph M. Juran: Taught Japanese to improve quality- top management support important

Armand Feigenbaum: 40 steps to quality improvement processes. Quality not a set of tools but total field that integrated the processes of company

Philip B. Crosby: Cost of poor quality understated. Coined term” zero defects”, stating that “There is absolutely no reason for having errors/defects in any product or service.

Question 9

International Quality Standards

Answer 9

ISO 9000
ISO 14000

Question 10

ISO 9000

Answer 10

Set of standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization.

Made by 91 member nations

Question 11

What is the focus of ISO 9000?

Answer 11

Establish QM procedures through leadership, detailed documentation, work instructions, and recordkeeping.

Question 12

What is the process to become ISO 9000 certified?

Answer 12

9–18-month process involving documenting quality procedures, on-site assessment, ongoing series of audits of products/services.

Question 13

ISO 14000

Answer 13

A series of environmental management standards established by ISO.

Question 14

5 core elements of ISO 14000

Answer 14

Environmental Management

Auditing

Performance Evaluation

Labeling

Life cycle assessment

Question 15

What is Total Quality Management?

Answer 15

Management of an entire organization so that it excels in all aspects of products and services that are important to the customer.

Question 16

Demings 14 points

Answer 16

1. Create Consistency of purpose
2. Lead to promote change
3. Build quality into the product; stop depending on inspections to catch problems
4. Build long-term relationships based on performance instead of awarding business on the basis of price.
5. Continuously improve product, quality, and service
6. Start Training
7. Emphasize leadership
8. Drive out fear
9. Break down barriers between departments
10. stop haranguing workers
11. Support, help, and improve
12. Remove barriers to pride in work
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement
14. Put everybody in the company to work on the transformation

Question 17

Seven concepts for effective TQM program

Answer 17

1. Continuous improvement
2. Six Sigma
3. Employee Empowerment
4. Benchmarking
5. Just-in-time
6. Taguchi Concepts
7. Knowledge of TQM Tools

Question 18

Continuous Improvement

Answer 18

Every aspect can be improved; perfection is the goal, never achieved but always sought.

Plan-Do-Check-Act: Walter Shewart- circular model as his version of CI.

Question 19

Six Sigma

Answer 19

A program to save time, improve quality, and lower costs

In a statistical sense, it describes a process, product, or service with an extremely high capability (99.9997%)

Implementing Six Sigma-

Requires Commitment
leaders make pla, communicate buy-in and firm objectives, and set the example

Management-directed, team-based, expert-led approach.

Question 20

Employee Empowerment

Answer 20

• Involving employees in every step of the production process

-Quality circle: group of employees who meet regu;early to solve work-related problems

Question 21

Benchmarking

Answer 21

• Selecting a demonstrated standard of performance that represents the very best performance for process/activity

1. Determine what to benchmark
2. Form a benchmark team
3. Identify benchmarking partners
4. Collect and analyse benchmarking info
5. Take action to match/exceed the benchmark

Internal Benchmarking: Done when companies are large enough to have many divisions or business units.