Quality Management

Question 1

What is quality control?

Answer 1

Checking output to find any faults in a production system. Traditional method used and relies on inspecting output, with inspection carried out by a person not involved in working on or making the products

Question 2

What is quality assurance?

Answer 2

Focuses on producing methods to prevent quality problems arising.
Methods: checklists or procedures that form a sort of company policy.

Question 3

Advantages of quality control

Answer 3

• can be used to guarantee that no defective item will leave the factory
• requires little staff training; therefore suits a business with unskilled or temporary staff

Question 4

Disadvantages of quality control

Answer 4

• leaving quality for the inspectors to sort out may mean poor quality is built into the profit
• QC can be trusted when 100% of output is tested but not when it is based on sampling

Question 5

What is total quality management?

Answer 5

a system of management based on the principle that every member of staff must be committed to maintaining high standards of work in every aspect of a company’s operations.

Question 6

Advantages of TQM

Answer 6

• should become deeply rooted into the company culture e.g product safety at a producer of baby car seats
• once all staff think about quality, it should show through from design to manufacture and after sales service

Question 7

Disadvantages of TQM

Answer 7

• staff sceptical of management initiatives may treat TQM as “hot air”; it lacks the clear concrete programme of QC or QA
• to get TQM into the culture of a business may be expensive as if requires extensive training among all staff

Question 8

Advantages of quality assurance

Answer 8

• makes sure the company has a quality system for every stage in the production process
• some customers like the reassurance provided by keeping records about quality checks at every stage in production; they believe they will get a higher quality service and may be willing to pay more

Question 9

Disadvantages of quality assurance

Answer 9

• QA does not promise a high quality product, only a high quality, reliable process; this process may churn out “okay” products reliably
• QA may encourage complacency; it suggests quality has been sorted, whereas rising customer requirements mean quality should keep moving ahead

Question 10

What is meant by a quality circle?

Answer 10

A group of staff who meet regularly to find quality improvements

Question 11

What is kaizen?

Answer 11

Encourages staff to put forward a stream of small ideas on how to do things better. Empowering staff to make changes to their working systems brings quality and productivity improvements

Question 12

Key aspects of kaisen

Answer 12

• cell production
• quality circles
• small but frequent changes
• regular suggestions
• quality and production improvements

Question 13

Competitive advantage from quality management

Spending money on quality management systems ensure high quality production and brings rewards:

Answer 13

• allows a price premium to be charged
• it helps the gain distribution, with retailers confident they will not need to deal with product returns and refunds
• creates brand loyalty and repeat purchase
• help build reputation