Chapter 9 1. List and briefly explain the dimensions of product and service quality

Transcription

1 Chapter 9 1. List and briefly explain the dimensions of product and service quality Product Quality the dimensions of product quality include: 1. performance main characteristics or function of the product 2. aesthetics appearance, feel, smell, taste 3. special features extra characteristics or secondary functions 4. safety reduction or elimination of risk of injury or harm 5. reliability consistency of performance 6. durability the useful life of the product or service 7. perceived quality subjective evaluation of quality (e.g. reputation, image) 8. service after sale warrantees, maintenance, and handling of complaints Service Quality the dimensions of service quality include: 1. tangibles the physical appearance of facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication materials 2. convenience the availability and accessibility of the service 3. reliability the ability to perform a service dependably, consistently, and accurately 4. responsiveness the willingness of service providers to help customers in unusual situations and to deal with problems 5. time the speed with which service is delivered 6. assurance the knowledge exhibited by personnel who come into contact with a customer and their ability to convey trust and confidence 7. courtesy the way customers are treated by employees who come into contact with them 2. Explain the terms quality of design and quality of conformance Quality of design refers to the characteristics specified for a product or service For example, many different models of automobiles are on the market today. They differ in size, appearance, roominess, fuel economy, comfort, and materials used. These differences reflect choices made by designers that determine the quality of the car. Design decisions must take into account customer wants, production or service capabilities, safety, costs, and other similar considerations Quality of conformance refers to the degree to which goods and services conform to the specification of the designers. This is affected by factors such as characteristics of materials; the capability of equipment used; the skills and training, the monitoring process to assess conformance; and the taking of corrective action when necessary. The determination of quality does not stop once the product or service has been sold or delivered

2 3. What are some possible consequences of poor quality? It is important for management to recognize the different ways that poor quality of company s products or services can affect the organization and to take these into account in developing and maintaining a quality control and assurance program. Some major ways that poor quality affects an organization are: 1. loss of business 2. liability 3. productivity loss 4. costs A devastating consequence to the bottom line is the reaction of the consumer who receives a defective or otherwise unsatisfactory product or service Organizations must pay special attention to their liability due to damages or injuries resulting from either fault design or poor workmanship. Example a faulty steering wheel on a car could cause the driver to lose control Poor quality can adversely affect productivity during the manufacturing process if parts are defective and have to be reworked; same with poor service it must be redone. Poor quality also increases costs incurred by the organization 4. Describe the cost of quality The costs associated with quality can be classified into four categories: 1. internal failure costs a. failure costs are incurred by defective parts or products or by faulty services b. internal failures are those discovered during the production process c. these failures occur for a variety of reasons, including defective material from vendors, incorrect machine settings, fault equipment, incorrect methods, incorrect processing, and faulty or improper material handling procedures d. costs include production time, scrap and rework, investigation costs, possible equipment damage and possible employee injury 2. external failure costs a. external failures are those discovered after delivery to the customer b. External failures are defective products or poor services that go undetected by the producer. c. Resulting costs include warranty work, handling of complaints, replacements, liability/litigation, payments to customers or discounts used to offset the inferior quality, loss of customer goodwill, and opportunity costs related to lost sales 3. appraisal costs a. these costs relate to inspection, testing, and other activities intended to uncover defective products or services

3 b. they include cost of inspectors, testing, test equipment, labs, quality audits, and field testing 4. prevention costs a. these costs relate to attempts to prevent defects from occurring b. they include costs such as quality planning and administrative systems, working with vendors, training, quality control procedures, and extra attention in both the design and production phases to decrease the probability of defective workmanship Internal and External failure costs represent costs related to poor quality, whereas appraisal and prevention costs represent investments for achieving good quality. 5. Describe the evolution of quality management (page 305-6) Prior to the industrial revolution, in most cases skilled craftsmen performed all stages of production. Pride of workmanship and reputation provided the motivation to see that a job was done right. Apprenticeships cause this attitude to carry over to new workers; one person or a small group of people were responsible for an entire product. Division of labour accompanied industrial revolution; each worker was then responsible for only a small portion of each product. Pride of workmanship became less meaningful because workers could no longer identify readily with the final product. The responsibility for quality control shifted to the foremen and full-time quality inspectors; inspection was either haphazard of nonexistent Fredrick Taylor, the father of scientific management gave a new emphasis on quality including product inspection and gauging in his list of fundamental areas of manufacturing management Later, Bell telephone Laboratories introduced statistical control charts that could be used to monitor production and tables for acceptance sampling. But these statistical quality control procedures was not widely used until the second world war when the government began to require vendors to use them The Second World War caused a dramatic increase in emphasis on quality control During the 1950s, the quality movement started to evolve into quality assurance, which aims to prevent defects rather than finding them after they occur A cost of quality focus was also implemented during this time emphasizing accurate and complete identification and measurement of the costs of quality lowering product failures In the mid-1950s, total quality control was proposed, which enlarged the realm of quality efforts from its primary focus on manufacturing to include marketing, Product design, and after-sale service. A greater involvement of upper management in quality was required. During the 1960s, the concept of zero defects gained favour. This approach focused on management s role and the expectation of perfection from each employee In the 1980s, the evolution of quality management shifted to a strategic management approach. Quality and profits are closely linked. This approach places greater emphasis on customer satisfaction, and it involves all levels of

4 management as well as workers in a continuing effort to increase quality (Total quality management-tqm). Six sigma is a variation of TQM which uses emphasis on statistics. 6. Select one of the quality gurus and briefly describe his major contributions to quality management (page ) Koaru Ishikawa the late Japanese expert on Quality was strongly influenced by Deming (a statistical professor famous for his list of 14 points he believed were the prescription needed to achieve quality in an organization) and Juran (viewed quality as fitness-for-sale one of the first to measure the cost of quality, and demonstrated the potential for increased profits resulting from reduction in poor quality costs). Among Ishikawa s key contributions were the development of the cause-and-effect diagram (fishbone diagram) for problem-solving and the implementation of quality circles, which involves teams of workers in quality improvement. He was the first quality expert to call attention to the internal customer the next employee in the process. 7. What is ISO 9000, and why is it important for global businesses to have ISO 9000 certification? International Organization for Standardization (ISO) The purpose of ISO is to promote worldwide standards that will improve operating efficiency and productivity, and reduce costs ISO is composed of the national standards bodies of 91 countries ISO 9000 is the work of Quality Management and Quality Assurance Committee The ISO 9000 series is a set of international standards on quality management and quality assurance. These standards are critical for companies doing business internationally, particularly in Europe. ISO is based on 8 quality management principles. (page 318 table 9-7) Customer focus, leadership, involvement, process approach, system approach to mgt, continual improvement, factual approach to decision making, mutually beneficial supplier relationship. 8. Briefly describe the criteria for Canada Awards for Excellence 1. Leadership a. Creating the culture, values, and overall direction for lasting success b. Ongoing improvement cycle of strategic direction and organizational culture 2. Planning a. Business planning, the linkage of planning to strategic direction/intent, the implementation and the measurement of performance to assess progress b. Ongoing improvement cycle of plan development and plan implementation and review

5 3. Customer Focus a. Organization s focus on the customer and the marketplace and on the achievement of customer satisfaction and loyalty b. Ongoing improvement cycle of customer, market and product knowledge and the management of customer relationships 4. People Focus a. How employees are encouraged, enabled, and involved to contribute to the achievement of the organization s goals, while reaching their full potential b. Ongoing improvement cycle of human resource management, participatory environment, continuous learning and employee satisfaction and well-being 5. Process Management a. How processes are managed to support the organization s strategic direction, with a specific focus on prevention as well as continuous improvement b. Process management applies to all activities within the organization, in particular those that are critical (key) for success. c. Process improvement priorities are derived from goals established within other sections, notably planning and customer focus d. Ongoing improvement cycle of process development, process control and process improvement 6. Supplier/Partner Focus a. Organization s external relationships with other organizations, institutions and/or alliances that are critical to it meeting its strategic objectives. b. Such working relationships may include suppliers, partnerships, distributors/dealers, joint ventures, insourcing/outsourcing, regulatory bodies and franchises c. Suppliers can be external or internal d. Ongoing improvement cycle of partnering and supplier/partner management 7. Overall Business Performance a. Outcomes from overall organizational achievements 9. Describe HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) HACCP is a quality control system, similar to ISO 9000, designed for food processors, especially meat, poultry, and fish processors Three main HACCP steps 1. hazard analysis a. identify potential hazards for each ingredient/processing step b. provide preventative measures for significant hazards 2. determine critical control points (CCP)

6 a. for every ingredient with one or more significant hazard(s), if there will not be a subsequent step that would eliminate the hazard, then this step is a CCP 3. establish a HACCP Plan a. for each CCP/significant hazard, determine the control/preventative measure, the critical limits, the monitoring procedure, the corrective action and records, and the verification procedures 10. What are the key elements of the TQM approach? Total quality management refers to quest for quality in an organization; it is a philosophy that involves everyone in an organization in continual effort to improve quality and achieve customer satisfaction Continual effort that involves everyone to achieve a higher quality and customer satisfaction There are three key elements 1. a never-ending push to improve, which is referred to as continuous improvement 2. the involvement of every one in the organization 3. goal of customer satisfaction, which means meeting or exceeding customer expectations 11. Briefly describe each of the seven basic quality tools 1. process flow diagram- diagram of the steps in a process a. a visual representation of a process b. can help investigators in identifying possible points in a process where problems occur 2. check sheets- a tally of problems or other events by category- a tool for organizing and collecting data. a. provides a format that enables users to record and organize data in a way that facilitates collection and analysis b. check sheets are designed on the basis of what the users are attempting to learn by collecting data there are many different formats and types 3. histogram- shows empirical frequency distribution a. is a graph of the frequency distribution of observed values b. one can see if the distribution is symmetrical, what he range of values is, and If there are any unusual values 4. Pareto chart- arranges categories from highest to lowest frequency of occurence a. Is a technique for focusing attention on the most important problem b. The Pareto concept is that a relatively few factors generally account for a large percentage of the total problems

7 c. The idea is to classify the factors according to degree of importance and focus on resolving the most important, leaving the less important 5. scatter diagram- a graph that show the degree and direction of relationship between 2 variables a. is a plot of pairs of observations of two variables, and can show the correlation between two variables b. a correlation may point to a cause of a problem (positive and negative correlations) 6. control chart- a line plot of time-ordered values if a sample statistic e.g. sample mean with limits a. a time-ordered plot of values of a simple statistic with limits, can be used to monitor a process to see if the process output is stable with random variation b. it can help detect the presence of correctable causes of variation 7. cause-and-effect diagram (fishbone diagram because of its shape)- a. offers a structure approach to the search for possible causes of a problem b. the approach was developed to aid workers overwhelmed by the number of possible sources of problems when problem solving c. this tool helps to organize problem-solving efforts by identifying categories of factors that might be causing problems 12. briefly define or explain each of these tools: a. brainstorming i. technique in which a group of people share thoughts and ideas on problems in a relaxed atmosphere that encourages unrestrained collective thinking ii. goal is to generate a free flow of ideas on identifying problems, and finding causes, solutions, and ways to implement solutions iii. criticism is absent, no single member is allowed to dominate sessions and all ideas are welcome b. Benchmarking i. Is an approach that can inject new energy into improvement efforts ii. Is the process of measuring performance against the best in the industry iii. Its purpose is to establish a standard against which performance is judged, and to identify a model for learning how to improve iv. Once a benchmark has been identified, the goal is to meet or exceed that standard through improvements in appropriate processes c. run chart

8 i. is a time plot that can be used to track the values of a variable over time ii. 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 i. Also referred to as the Shewhart cycle or the Deming Wheel ii. Is the conceptual basis for problem-solving activities iii. It is a framework for problem solving and improvement activities iv. there are four basic steps 1. Plan begin studying the current problem, document the problem, then collect data. 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 systematically for evaluation 3. Study evaluate the data collected 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 solution and communicate it to all people associated with the problem. Implement training for the new solution. If the results are unsuccessful, revise the plan and repeat the cycle or cease the project. b. the 5W2H approach i. a method of asking questions about a process/problem that include 1. What 2. Why 3. Where where is the defect in the object? 4. When when did the defect occur? 5. Who 6. How and 7. How much 14. list the steps of problem solving Problem solving is one of the basic procedures of TQM In order to be successful, problem solving efforts should follow a standard approach: these are steps to be taken 1. Define the problem and establish an improvement goal 2. Collect data solution must be based on facts a. Use check sheet, histogram, scatter diagram, run chart and control chart 3. Analyze the problem

9 a. Use Pareto Chart and cause-and effect diagram 4. Generate potential solutions a. Brainstorming, interviewing, surveying 5. choose a solution a. Identify criteria for a solution and apply it to potential solutions choose the best one 6. implement the solution a. keep every one informed 7. monitor the solution to see if it accomplishes the goal a. if not modify the solution or return to step 1 b. use control chart or run chart 15. list the steps of process improvement Process improvement is a systematic approach to improving critical processes another version of the plan-do-study-act cycle Typical goals of process improvement include increasing customer satisfaction, achieving higher quality, reducing waste, reducing cost, increasing productivity, and speeding up the process Steps are: (page 329 table 9-10 & figure 9-2) 1. select a process 2. study/document 3. seek ways to improve it 4. design an improved process 5. implement the improved process 6. evaluate 7. document 8. start from step 1 again. A) Process mapping: Collect info about the process; create a flow diagram that accurately depicts the process B) Analyze the process a. Is the flow logical, are any steps missing, are there any duplicates b. Is the step necessary, could it be eliminated, does the step add value, does waste occur at this step, could the time be shortened, could the cost n this step be reduced, could two or more steps be combined C) Redesign process using the results of the analysis. Improvements etc.