Topic : Management of Quality 1.

List and briefly explain a) The dimensions of quality

Dimensions of quality are as follow: 1. Performance which is the main characteristics of the product/service. For example everything works : fit and finish, ride, handling and acceleration. 2. Aesthetics which is the appearance, feel, smell and taste. For example exterior and interior design. 3. Special features which is the extra characteristics of the product/ service. For example convenience i.e places of gauges, safety i.e anti-skid and high tech i.e cell phone. 4. Conformance which is how well the product /service conforms to the customers expectations. For example car matches manufacturers specifications. 5. Reliability which is the consistency of performance. For example infrequent need for repairs. 6. Durability which is the useful life of the product/service. For example useful life in miles and resistance to rust. 7. Perceived quality which is indirect evaluation of quality (e.g reputation). For example being top rated. 8. Serviceability which is service after sale
b) The determinants of quality.

The degree to which a product or a service successfully satisfies its intended purpose has four primary determinants which are: 1) Design location. 2) How well the product or service conforms to the design where it involves decisions about the specific characteristics of a product or service such as size, shape and

3) Ease of use where the user instructions are important and need to be clear to avoid mistakes. 4) Service after delivery
2. Explain the terms quality of design and quality of conformance.

The quality of design refers to the intention of designers to include or exclude certain features in a product or service. Design decisions must take into account customer wants, production or service capabilities, safety and liability (both during production and after delivery), costs and other similar considerations. The quality of conformance refers to the degree to which goods and services conform to ( i.e. achieve) the intent of the designers. Skills, training, motivation of workers, monitoring process to assess conformance and taking the corrective action (e.g. through problem solving) when necessary are factors that affect the quality of conformance.
3. What are some possible consequences of poor quality?

Some possible consequences of poor quality are as follows :

4.

Loss of business Liability Reduced productivity Increased costs

Use the dimensions of quality to describe typical characteristics of these products and services a) A television set

i)

Performance : TV picture quality either HD or even Full HD must be clear.

ii) Aesthetics : TV design is thin and looks like a frame of picture.

iii) Special features : TV set can be connected to variety of devices such as a recorder, a DVD player, gaming console or computer and etc. iv) Conformance : TV set must matches the manufacturers specifications. v) Reliability : Need no repairs during the warranty or require few repairs after the warranty expired. vi) Durability : Long lifespan vii) Perceived quality : Received best product reviews and recognition by the consumer report. viii) Serviceability : Warranty and fast repair service
b) A restaurant meal (product) i) ii) iii) iv) v) vi) vii) viii) Performance : Meal is hygienic, healthy and delicious. Aesthetics : Meal looks presentable. Special features : Meal is served with additional food and complete with nutrients Conformance : Meal served meets to the customers expectations . Reliability : Meal is always served fresh Durability : Meal is always served fresh Perceived quality : Perceived recognition as best, delicious & healthy meal Serviceability : Customers feedback on the meal

c) A restaurant meal (service) i) ii) iii) Performance : Service is fast and efficient. Aesthetics : Restaurant has aesthetics, beautiful and appealing environment. Special features : Provide free internet, in house playground for children and etc

iv) v) vi) vii) viii)

Conformance : Service provided meets to the customers expectations . Reliability : Customers can trust the service provided and on time reliability Durability : Service is always good at all time Perceived quality : Perceived recognition as best restaurant and worth to try. Serviceability : Customers feedback on the service

d) Painting a house i) ii) iii) iv) v) vi) vii) viii) Performance : Quality painting finishes Aesthetics : Aesthetics of fresh paint improve the home value and the appearance of the neighbourhood Special features : Provide most repairs and restorations prior to painting Conformance : Painting provided meets to the customers expectations . Reliability : On time reliability in doing the painting work Durability : Painting is perfect and lasting finish Perceived quality : Perceived recognition as best product and combined with perfect preparation for painting. Serviceability : Customers feedback on the painting

5.

There are many product reviews available on the Internet. Two examples are reviews on electronics products such as DVD players and high-definition televisions. There are often both positive and negative reviews. a) Do such reviews (positive and negative) influence your purchasing decisions? Why or why not? Yes, reviews (positive and negative) do influence the purchasing decisions. This is because consumers need to get feedback based

on the dimensions of quality such as performance, aesthetics, special features, conformance, reliability, durability, perceived quality and service ability. The consumer reviews provide a meaningful decision aid to consumers planning to purchase new products because consumers would like to have a product or service worth buying. b) Why do you suppose consumers take the time and effort to write such reviews? The consumers are now more aware on their consumer rights. Hence consumers take the time and effort to write such reviews because they want to share their experience using products or services. If they are happy with the products or services, they want other consumers to share the same experience. But if they are not happy with the products or services, they want to voice out their grievance to other consumers. Besides that, they want the manufacturer or the service provider to acknowledge and take action for improvement.

c) There is often feedback button asking if you found the review helpful. Do you usually respond? Why or why not? Yes, I usually respond to the feedback button if I found the review helpful. This is because the review will help me to analyze the products or services based on other consumers experiences. The experiences may vary. Hence, I will have some basis to decide on purchasing the products or services and ensure it is worth buying and having the products or services. 6. Describe the quality-ethics connection.

Ethical behaviour plays a major role in any organization. Ethical and quality are connected between each other. For example, if there is any substandard work occurs such as defective products, substandard services, poor designs, shoddy workmanship and substandard parts and raw materials, once the organization acknowledge this and failing to correct and report it in a timely manner, it is unethical and will contribute to number of negative consequences. These include increased costs for organizations, increased accident rate among employees, inconveniences and injuries to the customers and increased the liability costs. 7. Select one of the quality gurus and briefly describe his major contributions to quality management. One of the quality gurus is Kaoru Ishikawa. His major contribution to quality management is the cause-and effect diagram (also known as a fishbone diagram) for problem and the implementation of quality circles, which involve workers in quality improvement. He was the first quality expert to call attention to the internal customer- the next person in the process, the next operation, within the organization. He was a strong proponent of the need for companies to have a shared vision in order to unite everyone in the organization in a common goal and he is widely recognized for his efforts to make quality control user friendly for workers.

8.

a) What is ISO 9000 and why is it important for global business to have ISO 9000 certification? ISO 9000 pertains to quality management. It concerns what an organization does to ensure that its products or services conform to its specification and meet customers requirements. It is important for global business to have ISO 9000 certification because it is one of

the initiatives to increase productivity, reducing unnecessary costs and ensuring quality of processes and products or services. With ISO 9000, an organization can identify the root of the problem, and therefore find a solution. By improving efficiency, profit can be maximized. b) Compare the Baldrige Award and ISO certification. If an organization were going to seek both, which one should it seek first? Why? Content Original intent ISO 9000 To facilitate international trade by providing an assurance of consistent processes. To set out auditable quality assurance requirements that will form part of the customer-supplier contract. Baldrige Award To improve the performance of organizations by facilitating knowledge transfer. To provide a framework for evaluating an organization's management system for the purposes of adjudicating awards. Conformance (to Improvement (of procedures and to methods and of overall specifications). business results). Quality Assurance Executive management specialists. team. Identification of Identification of conformance and nonstrengths and conformances, opportunities for resulting in a pass/fail improvement, and verdict. scores indicating the maturity of the management system. Design and production The entire processes, and directly- management system, associated support including leadership, activities. planning, the use of information and measurements, the development and management of people, the methods used for understanding

Original use

Focus Responsibility for system Approach to evaluation

Scope

Prevention/ improvement strategy

Corrective action to fix non-conformances and to prevent recurrence of problems. PerformanceConformance with related elements contractual requirements.

Primary mechanism driving usage

Trade-related legislation and/or market demand for registration.

customer and market requirements, and the management of key business processes. Continuous improvement using Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle. Sustained improvement of business results, including comparisons with competitors or similar organizations. Use as a tool to develop improvement plans.

Each has its niche and its specific uses. For example ISO 9000 is an excellent tool for documenting and hence understanding design and production processes, and for achieving consistent operation of these processes. Baldrige is an excellent tool for understanding the entire management system, for identifying opportunities to improve overall business results, and hence for creating an improvement plan If an organization were going to seek both, it should seek for ISO certification first. This is because ISO is an international standard on quality management and quality assurance, critical to international business. Hence, once the organization has achieved the ISO recognition, it will be easier to achieve Baldrige Award. 9) Briefly explain how a company can achieve lower production costs and increased productivity by improving the quality of its products or services. Using the term return on quality (ROQ) approach, it focuses on the economics of quality efforts. In this approach, quality improvement projects are viewed as investment. By improving the quality of products or services, it will eventually reduced the number of

substandard work or services. By doing that, it will lower the production costs (input) related such as appraisal costs, prevention costs, internal failure costs and external failure costs. Productivity is equivalent to output (products / services) divided by input (costs). If the input is low, then it will increase the productivity. Hence, this explains that ROQ is very important to achieve lower production costs and increased productivity. 10) What are the key elements of the TQM approach? What is the driving force behind TQM? The key elements of the TQM approach are as follows: a) Continuous improvement b) Competitive benchmarking c) Employee empowerment d) Team approach e) Decisions based on facts rather than opinions f) Knowledge of tools g) Champion h) Quality at the source i) Suppliers The driving force behind TQM is that to involve everyone in an organization in a continual effort to improve quality and achieve customer satisfaction 11) Briefly describe each of the seven quality tools. The seven quality tools are as follows: 1) Flowcharts is a visual representation of a process. It helps investigators identifying possible points in a process where problems occur. 2) Check sheets is a tool used for problem identification. It provides a format that enables users to record and organize data in a way that facilitates collection and analysis

3) Histograms is a tool in getting sense of the distribution of observed values. 4) Pareto analysis is a technique for focusing attention on the most important problem areas. It classify the cases according to degree of importance and focus on resolving the most important, leaving the less important 5) Scatter diagram is useful in deciding if there is a correlation between the values of two variables. A correlation may point to a cause of a problem. 6) Control charts is a tool used to monitor a process to see if the process output is random. It can help detect the presence of correctable causes the variation. 7) Cause and effect diagram is a structured approach to the search for the possible cause(s) of a problem. It is also known as a fishbone diagram. This tool helps to organize problem solving efforts by identifying categories of factors that might be causing problem. 12) Briefly define or explain each of these methods: a) Brainstorming Is a technique in which a group of people share thoughts and ideas on problems in a relaxed atmosphere that encourages unrestrained collective thinking. The goal is to generate a free flow of ideas on identifying problems and finding causes, solutions and ways to implement solutions. b) Benchmarking Is the process of measuring an organizations performance on a key customer requirement against the best in the industry or against the best in any industry. Its purpose is to establish a standard against which performance is judged and to identify a model for learning how to improve.

c) Run charts Run charts are used to track the values of a variable over a time. This can aid in identifying trends or other patterns that may be occurring. 13) Explain each of these methods: a) The plan-do-study-act cycle Plan-do-study-act cycle (PDSA) is a conceptual basis for problem solving. The steps are as follows: 1) Plan begin by studying the current process. Document that process. Then collect data on the process of problem. Next, analyze the data and develop a plan for improvement. Specify measures for evaluating the plan. 2) Do implement the plan on a small scale if possible. Document any changes made during this phase. Collect data systemically for evaluation 3) Study evaluate the data collection during the do phase. Check how closely the results match the original goals of the plan phase. 4) Act if the results are successful, standardize the new method and communicate the new method to all people associated with the process. Implement training for the new method. If the results are unsuccessful, revise the plan and repeat the process or cease this project. b) The 5W2H approach It is about asking questions on the current process that can lead to important insights about why the current process isnt working as well as it could, as well as potential ways to improve it. 14) List the steps of problem solving.

Steps of problem solving are as follow: a) Define the problem and establish an improvement goal. b) Define measures and collect data c) Analyze the problem d) Generate potential solutions e) Choose a solution f) Implement the solution g) Monitor the solution to see if it accomplishes the goal 15) Select four tools and describe how they could be used in problem solving. Four tools that can be used in problem solving are as follows: a) Pareto chart identify cases and classify according to degree of importance b) Cause and effect diagram identify categories of factors that might be causing problems c) Control chart indicate when a problem occurred and give insight into what caused the problem d) Flow chart identify possible points in a process where problems occur 16) List the steps of process improvement. Steps of process improvement are as follow : a) Select a process b) Study document c) Seek ways to improve it d) Design any improved process e) Implement the improved process f) Evaluate g) Document 17) Select four tools and describe how they could be used for process improvement.

a) Pareto chart identify cases and classify according to degree of importance. b) Check sheet enables users to record and organize data in a way that facilitate collection and analysis. c) Control chart indicate when a problem occurred and give insight into what caused the problem. d) Flow chart identify possible points in a process where problems occur.