Lesson 6 - Quality Management

Question 1

Quality

Answer 1

refers to the ability of a product/service to consistently meet/exceed customer requirements/expectations

Question 2

Dimensions: Product Quality

Answer 2

Performance, Aesthetics, Special features,
Conformance (to design specifications), Reliability, Durability, Perceived Quality
(reputation), Serviceability (repairs), Consistency

Question 3

Dimensions: Service Quality

Answer 3

Convenience (availability), Reliability, Responsiveness
(deal with unusual situations &customer problems), Time, Assurance (trustful, personnel), Courtesy (how customers are treated), Tangibles (physical appearance of
facilities), Consistency, Expectations. Service often assessed with tool called
SERVQUAL, which focuses on the italic written dimensions

Question 4

Determinants of Quality

Answer 4

Design, Product Conformance, Ease of use, Service after delivery Quality of Design: intention of designers to inc/exclude features in product/service
Quality of Conformance: Degree to which goods conform the intent of designers

Question 5

side fact

Answer 5

The evolution of quality took a shift from quality assurance (finding & correcting defective
products before they reached the market) to strategic approach (preventing mistakes from
occurring: already design quality into products)

Question 6

Benefits of Good Quality

Answer 6

enhanced reputation, ability to command premium prices, increased
market share, greater customer loyalty, lower liability costs, fewer problems, fewer
complaints, higher profits/productivity

Question 7

Consequences of Poor Quality

Answer 7

Loss of business or market share, potential liability due to
injuries or damages, loss of productivity

Question 8

Cost of fixing a product - Appraisal Costs

Answer 8

related to measuring, evaluating & auditing/ inspection

Question 9

Cost of fixing a product - Prevention Costs

Answer 9

related to reducing potential for quality problems (training,planning)

Question 10

Cost of fixing a product - Internal Failure Costs

Answer 10

elated to defects before delivered to customer (scrap,.)

Question 11

Cost of fixing a product - External Failure Costs

Answer 11

related to delivering substandard goods (returns, liabilities)

Question 12

Awards to generate improvement in quality - Baldridge

Answer 12

Annual award by US government to recognize quality achievements: evaluates organization-wide excellence: leadership, strategy, customers,
knowledge management, workforce, operations and results

Question 13

Awards to generate improvement in quality - European Quality

Answer 13

Europe’s prestigious award for organizational excellence

Question 14

Awards to generate improvement in quality

Answer 14

Deming Price in honor of W. Edwards Deming recognizing quality efforts

Question 15

Awards to generate improvement in quality - ISO

Answer 15

Certifications from International Organization for Standardization:
- ISO 9000 (quality management): what firm does to ensure products are
conform to customer requirements/ set of international standards, customer and process focused, continuous improvement required
- ISO 14000: what firm does to minimize harmful effect on environment
- ISO 24700: refers to standards to quality of equipment that contains reused components

Question 16

Total Quality Management

Answer 16

philosophy that involves everyone in an organization in a continual effort to improve quality and achieve customer satisfaction

Question 17

Fail-Safing

Answer 17

incorporating design elements that prevent incorrect procedures
Find out what customers want, design a product & process accordingly, try to prevent mistakes, keep track of results and never stop improving (Japanese term: Kaizen)

Question 18

The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle

Answer 18

-Plan: Analyze process and develop plan for improvement
- Do: Implement plan (if possible on small-scale)
- Study: Evaluate data collection during implementation phas
- Act: If successful: standardize new method, otherwise revise plan

Question 19

Six Sigma Methodology

Answer 19

having no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. But
generally just a program designed to reduce occurrence of defects, achieve lower costs and
increase customer satisfaction, reduce variation

Question 20

Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC)

Answer 20

• Define context and objectives for improvement
• Measure baseline performance & capability of process
• Analyze: Use data to understand cause-and-effect relationships of the process
• Improve: Develop modification that lead to validated improvement
• Control: establish plans to ensure improvements are sustained

Question 21

Problem Solving Tools:
Flowcharts

Answer 21

visual representation of process: identify possible points where problems
could occur

Question 22

Problem Solving Tools:
Check sheets

Answer 22

tool for recording & organizing data to identify a problem

Question 23

Problem Solving Tools:
Histograms

Answer 23

getting a sense of the distribution of observed values

Question 24

Problem Solving Tools:
Pareto Analysis

Answer 24

focus attention on most important problem areas. 80/20 rule: 80% of
problems come from 20% of items: classify cases according to importance

Question 25

Problem Solving Tools: Scatter Diagram

Answer 25

deciding if there is correlation between values of two variables, which may point to a cause of a problem

Question 26

Problem Solving Tools: Control Chart

Answer 26

monitor process and see if output is random

Question 27

Problem Solving Tools: Cause-and-Effect diagram

Answer 27

structured approach to search for possible causes of problem

Question 28

Problem Solving Tools: Run Chart

Answer 28

track values of a variable over time

Question 29

Problem Solving Tools: Brainstorming

Answer 29

group of people shares thoughts and ideas on problems

Question 30

Problem Solving Tools: Quality Circles

Answer 30

group of workers who meet to discuss product improvement ways

Question 31

Problem Solving Tools: Benchmarking

Answer 31

Measure organization’s performance against best of industry

Question 32

Quality control

Answer 32

process that evaluates output relative to a standard and takes corrective actions when output doesn’t meet standards

Question 33

Acceptance sampling

Answer 33

Quality assurance that relies on inspection (appraisal activity that compares good to a standard, can be before, during, after production) of lots of previously produced items.

Question 34

On-Site vs Off-Site/lab inspection

Answer 34

quicker decisions and avoidance of introduction of other factors like transportation damage, but less specialized equipment/favorable test environment

Question 35

Statistical Process Control

Answer 35

Quality control efforts that occur during production

Question 36

Random Variations (chance)

Answer 36

natural process variations in process output, differs from process to process

Question 37

Assignable Variation (non-random)

Answer 37

a variation whose cause can be defined and eliminated Sample statistics can be used to judge the randomness of variations (mostly used: normal)

Question 38

Central Limit Theorem

Answer 38

as sample size increases, distribution of sample averages approach normal distribution (QM)

Question 39

Control Chart

Answer 39

time-ordered plot of sample statistics (mean), which have upper/lower limits (control limits) that define range of acceptable variation Often +-2 or 3 (99.7% of values) Standard deviations

Question 40

Type 1 error

Answer 40

concluding that non-randomness is present when only randomness is present

Question 41

Type 2 error

Answer 41

concluding non-random variations are not present, when they are

Question 42

Mean Charts

Answer 42

based on normal distribution, control limits: mean+z*SD or use average sample range as measure of variability when SD is not available

Question 43

Range Charts

Answer 43

used to monitor process dispersion, limits: D*Range where D is taken from R-Chart (--> Mean charts sensitive to changes in mean and range charts sensitive to changes in dispersion)

Question 44

Attributes

Answer 44

data that is counted (number of defects in a sample)

Question 45

p-Chart

Answer 45

fraction of defects in a sample, useful when data consists of two categories of items (good/bad, pass/fail), if data consists of multiple samples with same n (observations) Binomial distribution forms basis, limits are p+-z*SD where p is avg proportion and SD=sqrt(p(1-p)/n)

Question 46

c-Chart

Answer 46

when only number of occurrences per unit can be counted, non-occurrences can’t be counted (scratches per item, crimes per year) Poisson distribution forms basis (normal approximation can be used), control limits are c+z*SD where SD=sqrt(c) and c: mean number of defects per unit

Question 47

Process Capability

Answer 47

inherent process output variability relative to variation allowed by specifications Capability analysis is performed when process is in control and it is capable if variation is within acceptable rage from specifications

Question 48

Specifications

Answer 48

range of acceptable values established by engineering design or customer req

Question 49

Control limits

Answer 49

tatistical limits that reflect the extent to which statistics vary due to chance

Question 50

Process Variability

Answer 50

natural variability in a process (measured as process SD) Control limits based on sampling variability & sampling variab. is function of process variab., but no relation with specifications, so process could be in control and still generate unacceptable output

Question 51

Capability Index

Answer 51

used to assess ability of process to meet specifications, Standard is at least 1.33 Often not very good when mean is not centered in the range

Question 52

Taguchi

Answer 52

Taguchi: reducing variation in a process will result in lowering the cost of poor quality Traditionally no cost if within specifications Limitations of indexes: if process instable, normally distributed: meaningless; if process not centered, only Cpk