Chapter-17 Flashcards
Achieving quality production
What is quality?
Ensuring a good or service meets the needs and requirements of its consumer.
What are quality standards?
The minimum acceptable standard of production or service acceptable to consumers.
What are the benefits of developing a strong brand image based on quality?
1) Develop a strong brand image: Building a strong brand image based on quality makes it easier for a business to introduce new products. Customers associate the brand’s reputation with quality and are willing to pay a premium price.
2) Keep customers and attract new ones: A good reputation for quality leads to customer loyalty, making it easier to retain existing customers and attract new ones, ensuring long-term success.
3) Reduce costs, customer complaints, and returns: High-quality products reduce the number of complaints and returns, lowering costs and protecting the business’s reputation.
4) Charge a premium price: Consumers are willing to pay more for products they perceive as high quality, increasing profitability.
5) Encourage wholesalers and retailers to stock the product: Quality products attract wholesalers and retailers, leading to higher distribution and sales, increasing revenue and profits.
6) Lengthen product life cycles: High-quality products have longer life cycles, staying in the profitable maturity stage for longer.
What is quality control?
Checking the quality of goods through inspection.
What are the problems of quality control by inspection?
1) The work can be repetitive and boring, which may demotivate the inspectors, resulting in inefficiency.
2) If inspection only occurs at the end of the process, problems with quality at the beginning are not detected early, leading to wasted resources.
3) The use of quality inspectors may take responsibility for quality away from the workers, causing them not to prioritize maintaining quality throughout the production process.
What is quality assurance?
Quality assurance is a system of setting agreed standards for every stage of production. It ensures that quality is maintained throughout the production process, rather than just checking it at the end.
How does quality assurance prevent bad quality?
1) Quality assurance focuses on preventing poor quality by ensuring quality standards are met at every stage of production.
2) Raw materials, components, and resources are checked for required standards before entering production.
3) Quality standards are agreed upon for each production stage.
4) Products are designed to minimize quality issues using tools like computer-aided design (CAD).
5) Workers are responsible for ensuring quality throughout the production process.
What are the benefits of quality assurance for businesses?
1) It encourages teamwork, which can motivate workers.
2) It reduces the cost of wastage and faulty products.
3) Quality issues are found when they occur, not at the end of the production process, preventing wasted resources.
4) Inspection time and costs are reduced since fewer inspections are needed.
5) Businesses with a quality assurance system are more likely to earn industry quality awards like ISO 9000, which can increase customer trust and boost revenue and profits.
