tqm questions and answers
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TQM Questions and Answers from Yogeesha H.C.AP/Mech, NCET
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1. Define Quality 04 marks Quality is an attribute of a product or service that fulfills or exceeds the human expectations. These expectations are based on the intended use and selling / service price. It is somewhat of an intangible based on perception. That is why quality is a relative term and each person has his or her own definition. As per ISO – 9000:2000: Quality means “The degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements”. Here, Degree – quality such as poor, good, and excellent Inherent – Permanent attribute Requirement – need based or expectation. According to the oxford dictionary for the business world, “quality is defined as the degree of excellence”. Quality means a totality of characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated and implied needs. In some references, Quality is referred to as "fitness for use", "fitness for purpose", "customer satisfaction", or "conformance to the requirements." The father of Total Quality Management, Dr. William Edward Deming defined Quality should be aimed at the needs of the customer, present and future (continuous Improvement) Quality Guru, J.M.Juran defined quality as: “Fitness for use / Purpose” Quality Guru Philip Crosby defined quality as: “Conformance to specifications” Quality guru Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa defined quality as: Most economical, useful and always satisfactory to the customer / audience. Eminent Japanese Scientist Armand V.Feigenbaum defined: Quality is the total composite of product and services characteristics of marketing, engineering, manufacturing and maintenance through which the product and service in use will meet the expectations of the customer. Quality can be quantified as follows: Q=P/E Where, Q = Quality, P = Performance and E = Expectations. If Q is greater than 1.0 then the customer has a good feeling about the product or service.
2. Define TQM. Explain six basic concepts of TQM - 10 mark Total Quality Management (TQM) is an enhancement to the traditional way of doing business. It is a proven technique to guarantee survival in world-class competition. Only by changing the actions of management will the culture and actions of an entire organization be transformed. TQM is for the most part common sense. Analyzing the three words, we have:
Total: Make up of the whole. Quality : Degree of excellence a product or service provides. Management:Act, art, or manner of handling, controlling, directing, etc.
Therefore, TQM is the art of managing the whole to achieve excellence. TQM is defined as both a philosophy and a set of guiding principles that represent the foundation of a continuously improving organization. It is the application of quantitative methods and human resources to improve all the processes within an organization and exceed customer needs now and in the future. TQM integrates fundamental management techniques, existing improvement efforts, and technical tools under a disciplined approach. Six basic concepts of TQM 1. A committed and involved management to provide long-term top-to-bottom organizational support. Agreement must participate in the quality program. A quality council must be established to develop a clear vision, set longterm goals, and direct the program. Quality goals are included in the business plan. An annual quality improvement program is established and involves input from the entire work force. Managers participate on quality improvement teams and also act as coaches to other teams. TQM is a continual activity that must be entrenched in the culture—it is not just a one-shot program. TQM must be communicated to all people. 2. An unwavering focus on the customer, both internally and externally. The key to an effective TQM program is its focus on the customer. An excellent place to start is by satisfying internal customers. We must listen to the “voice of the customer” and emphasize design quality and defect prevention. Do it right the first time and every time, for customer satisfaction is the most important consideration. 3. Effective involvement and utilization of the entire work force. TQM is an organization-wide challenge that is everyone’s responsibility. All personnel must be trained in TQM, statistical process control (SPC), and other appropriate quality improvement skills so they can effectively participate on project teams. Including internal customers and, for that matter, internal suppliers on project teams is an excellent approach. Those affected by the plan must be involved in its development and implementation. They understand the process better than anyone lese. Changing behavior is the goal.
TQM Questions and Answers from Yogeesha H.C.AP/Mech, NCET
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People must come to work not only to do their jobs, but also to think about how to improve their jobs. People must be empowered at the lowest possible level to perform processes in an optimum manner. 4. Continuous improvement of the business and production process. There must be a continual striving to improve all business and production processes. Quality improvement projects, such as on-time delivery, order entry efficiency, billing error rate, customer satisfaction, cycle time, scrap reduction, and supplier management, are good places to begin. Technical techniques such as SPC, benchmarking, quality function development, ISO 9000, and designed experiments are excellent for problem solving. 5. Treating suppliers as partners. On the average 40% of the sales dollar is purchased product or service; therefore, the supplier quality must be outstanding. A partnering relationship rather than an adversarial one must be developed. Both parties have as much to gain or lose based on the success or failure of the product or service. The focus should be on quality and life-cycle costs rather than price. Suppliers should be few in number so that true partnering can occur. 6. Establish performance measures for the processes. Performance measures such as uptime, percent nonconforming, absenteeism, and customer satisfaction should be determined for each functional area. These measures should be posted for everyone to see. Quantitative data are necessary to measure the continuous quality improvement activity.
3. Explain briefly the historical review of quality control - 06 marks The total quality movement had its roots in the time and motion studies conducted by Frederick Taylor in the 1920s. Taylor is now known as “the father of scientific management.” The most fundamental aspect of scientific management was the separation of planning and execution. Although the division of labor spawned tremendous leaps forward in productivity, it virtually eliminated the old concept of craftsmanship in which one highly skilled individual performed all the tasks required to produce a quality product. In a sense, a craftsman was CEO, production worker, and quality controller all rolled into one person. Taylor’s scientific management did away with this by making planning the job of management and production the job f labor. To keep quality from falling through the cracks, it was necessary to create a separate quality department. Such departments had shaky beginnings, and just who was responsible for quality became a clouded issue. As the volume and complexity of manufacturing grew, quality became an increasingly difficult issue. Volume and complexity together gave birth to quality engineering in the 1920s and reliability engineering in the 1950s. Quality engineering, in turn, resulted in the use of statistical methods in the control of quality, which eventually led to the concepts of control charts and statistical process control, which are now fundamental aspects of the total quality approach. Industrialization led to mass production in which it led to the concept of one product at a time to the assembly line of production. Though workmanship was affected but mass production led to more job and reduction in cost of the product and increase in quality, reduction of defects etc.
1924 – After WWI, W.A. Sherwat of Bell Telephone statistical chart for the control of various. Concept of sample tests were followed. It was a failure in the initial stages. 1946 – ASQC American Society for Quality Control, now ASQ. Frequent meetings, conferences and publications were made to public. 1950 – W.Edwards Demings his guidance and lecture to Japan engineers transformed quality concepts in the organisation. His cycle ACT-PLAN-DO-CHECK 1954 – Joseph M.Juran Concept of efficient and productive. Juran Trilogy
Quality planning – Quality Control – Quality Improvement 1960 – Quality control circles was formed. Zero defects concepts 1970 – Reactive approach to proactive approach. Shift from Japan to USA 1980 – SPC – Statistical Process Control. Concepts of parameter and tolerance. Experiments 1990 – Concepts of certification of ISO, CMM etc 2000 – six sigma concept - Six Sigma stands for Six Standard Deviations (Sigma is the Greek letter used to represent standard deviation in statistics) from mean. Six Sigma methodologies provide the techniques and tools to improve the capability and reduce the defects in any process.
4. Explain TQM framework. List out the benefits of TQM – 10 marks
The figure shows the framework for the TQM system. It begins with the knowledge provided by gurus of quality: Shewhart, Deming, Juran, Figenbaum, Ishikawa, Crosby, and Taguchi. As the figure shows, they contributed to the development of principles and practices and/or the tools and techniques. Some of these tools and techniques are used in the product and/or service realization activity. Feedback from internal/external customers or interested parties provides information to continually improve the organization’s system, product and/or service.
TQM Questions and Answers from Yogeesha H.C.AP/Mech, NCET
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Benefits of TQM According to a survey of manufacturing firms in Georgia, the benefits of TQM are improved quality, employee participation, teamwork, working relationships, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, productivity, communication, profitability, and market share. The major benefits of TQM in terms of cost savings include:
• Elimination of non-confirmation and repetitive work • Elimination of waste costs and reject products • Elimination of repairs and reworks • Reduced warranty and customer support costs • Process efficiency leading to improved profit per product or service • Fiscal discipline through elimination of unnecessary steps and wasteful expenditure
Customer satisfaction oriented benefits :
1. Improvement in product quality 2. Improvement in product design 3. Improvement in production flow 4. Improvement in employee morale and quality consciousness 5. Improvement in product service 6. Improvement in market place acceptance
Economic improvement oriented benefits : 1. Reduction in operating costs 2. Reduction in operating losses 3. Reduction in field service costs 4. Reduction in liability exposure
For Management :- - Provides an invaluable problem-solving tool for managers and supervisors to use - Dispels negative attitudes - Management becomes more aware of problems that affect the individual’s work environment - Employees gain a sense of participation - Increases efficiency and productivity - Reduces turnover rate, tardiness, costs, errors,and scrap & rework - Improves communications within and among all departments - Develops management skills that were never taught, or are long forgotten due to lack of
application - Develops overall company awareness and company unity - Rearranges priorities which once seemed locked in place - Builds loyalty to the company - Reveals training requirements in all departments - Lessens the number of defects received from suppliers when they are encouraged to train in
quality management For Employees:
• Provides opportunity for personal growth and development (as a result of team training activities) and the opportunity to develop and present recommendations
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• Increases innovation (through a greater variety of approaches and perspectives) for solving problems, removing fear of failure
• Employees use their knowledge and skills to generate data-driven recommendations that will lead to well-informed decision making
• Encourages decision-making at the most appropriate level • Increases motivation and acceptance of new ideas • Increases job satisfaction (as a result of the opportunity to participate in and have influence
over work) • Recognizes employees for their knowledge, skills, and contribution toward improvement • Develops mutual respect among employees, management and customers • Promotes teamwork.
5. List the dimensions of quality. Explain its meaning - 8 mark
Quality has different dimensions; these dimensions are somewhat – Independence. Therefore a product can be excellent in one dimension and average or poor in another. Very few, if any, products excel in all dimensions now- a -days. In his Book - Managing quality: The strategic and competitive edge (1988), David A.Garvin has developed a list of nine dimensions of product quality: 1. Conformance: Meeting the specifications of the customer or Industry standards, workmanship. 2. Performance: Primary product functions such as clarity of voice received in Mobile phone, Radio. 3. Features: Added functions (secondary functions) to a product such as recording system in a elevision set. 4. Durability: Lifetime of the products, which include repairs. 5. Reliability: The probability of a product performing its intended duty under stated conditions without failure for a given period of time. 6. Serviceability: speed, courtesy, competence and ease of repair 7. Reputation: Customer’s perception about the product which can be understood from a market research survey. 8. Aesthetics: The external finish given to a product to attract the customer. 9. Response: Human to Human interface, such as the courtesy of the dealer
6. Define quality for the following products: a university, an exercise facility, sauce, and toothpaste.
The quality of a university can be defined as: o quality of professors – have Ph.D., helpful, knowledgeable, able to clearly explain
material, fair o ability to place students in a good position at a high salary in a timely manner o facilities are up-to-date in terms of technology (i.e. wireless classrooms) o value for the price of the education o ability to prepare students for success in the business world o variety of course offerings o efficiency and accuracy of processing paperwork, such as registration for classes o appearance of the campus o perceived prestige of the university
The quality of an exercise facility can be defined as: o variety of gym equipment o variety and availability of fitness classes o value for the price of membership o ability to help members get into shape o accurate billing o atmosphere meets member’s needs o waiting times for machines are two minutes or less
The quality of sauce can be defined as:
- good taste - the jar is filled to 28 ounces plus or minus one ounce - value for price paid - perceived quality of the product - ability to quickly answer questions at the address listed on the jar of sauce - the sauce has chunks of tomatoes - ease of opening jar - ease of preparing the sauce to eat - able to keep leftover sauce in container in refrigerator easily to last longer - length of time the sauce can still be eaten
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The quality of toothpaste can be defined as: - ability to clean teeth - good taste - perceived quality of the product - ability to keep breath fresh - ability to prevent plaque - ability to whiten teeth - ability to prevent cavities - tube of toothpaste is filled - ability to fight gingivitis - ability to fight tartar - able to quickly and accurately answer questions in a friendly manner at the toll-free number
listed on toothpaste tube - toothpaste is certified by the American Dental Association (ADA)
7. Explain the contribution of quality gurus - 08 marks
Three groups of Quality Gurus can be identified covering the period since World War II. 1. The early Americans who took the messages of quality to the Japanese. 2. The Japanese who developed new concepts in response to the Americans' messages. 3. The new Western wave of Gurus who, following Japanese industrial success, have given rise to increased quality awareness in the West. 1 The early Americans The Americans were themselves effectively responsible for making possible the miraculous turn-around of Japanese industry and for putting Japan on the road to Quality Leadership. Much of this transformation was associated with the introduction of statistical quality control into Japan by the US Army over the period 1946 to 1950 and the visits by three key American Quality Gurus in the early 1950s. These were: W Edwards Deming introduced concepts of variation to the Japanese and also a systematic approach to problem solving, which later became known as the Deming or PDCA cycle. Later in the West he concentrated on management issues and produced his famous 14 Points. He remains active today and he has attempted a summary of his 60 years experience in his System of Profound Knowledge. Joseph M Juran focused on Quality Control as an integral part of management control in his lectures to the Japanese in the early 1950s. He believes that Quality does not happen by accident, it must be planned, and that Quality Planning is part of the trilogy of planning, control and improvement. He warns that there are no shortcuts to quality. Armand V Feigenbaum is the originator of Total Quality Control. He sees quality control as a business method rather than technically, and believes that quality has become the single most important force leading to organisational success and growth. 2 The Japanese The Japanese adopted, developed and adapted the methodologies that the Americans brought in and by the late 1950s had begun to develop clearly distinctive approaches suitable for their own culture. The Japanese Gurus emphasised mass education, the use of simple tools and teamwork and had a background in an educational role. The three Japanese Quality Gurus included in this document are: Dr Kaoru Ishikawa's three main contributions to quality were the simplification and spread of technical statistical tools (the 7 tools of Quality Control) as a unified system throughout all levels of Japanese companies, his input to the company-wide Quality Movement and his input to the Quality Circle Movement. Dr Genichi Taguchi developed a methodology for minimum prototyping in product design and troubleshooting in production. Shigeo Shingo created the poka-yoke system to ensure zero-defects in production by preventive measures. The new Western wave Much of the increased awareness of the importance of quality in the West in recent years has been associated with a new wave of Gurus who have well publicised some of the quality issues, through the 1970s and 1980s. The three included in this document are: Philip Crosby is perhaps best known in relation to the concepts of Do It Right First Time and Zero Defects. He is a controversial figure, who has based his quality improvement approach on Four Absolutes of Quality Management and Fourteen Steps to Quality Improvement. Tom Peters emphasizes the importance of customers, innovation, people, leadership and systems. He has 45 prescriptions and 12 traits of a Quality Revolution. Claus Moller has developed a concept of Personal Quality on which he sees all other concepts of Quality as based. He provides 12 Golden Rules to help improve your actual performance level, and 17 Hallmarks of a quality company.
8. Explain Taguchi loss function Taguchi defines quality in terms of a loss to society caused by a product failure. For instance, such a loss might be a loss of product function, time, property, a negative environmental effect, or more significantly, a financial loss.
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A product that begins to bring losses from the production stage and does so at later stages (in consumer’s hands) can be called a poorly designed product. Actions are required to improve this product’s functionality in order to be considered a good design. The various types of losses caused by such products can be summarized in the following two categories:
1. Loss incurred through negative effects on society, for example water pollution.
2. Loss caused by the variable performance of the product.
The loss to society is quantified by the Taguchi loss function. The loss function is an attempt at reconciling customer demands with specific targets that designers/manufacturers can shoot for. The loss function takes the form of the following quadratic equation:
L=D2C
where L = loss, D = (y-m), y = particular characteristic, m = nominal characteristic, and C is a constant for the process (cost of rework, for example). For example, let us consider a gun manufacturer whose guns are being produced with a misaligned extractor. It costs $10 to rectify the manufacturing error. The quality loss function says that the manufacturer will end up paying the cost for alignment times the square of standard deviation from the target alignment. For example for three standard deviations from the target it will cost ($10)*(3)^2=$90.
The quality loss function recognizes that products falling between specific limits are not all equal. The four following statements summarize Taguchi’s philosophy.
1. We cannot reduce cost without affecting quality. 2. We can improve quality without increasing cost. 3. We can reduce cost by improving quality. 4. We can reduce cost by reducing variation. When we do so, performance and quality will automatically improve.
In Taguchi’s view, quality is not defined by specific limits, but rather on whether or not it creates a financial loss to society. An example given is a defective automobile exhaust system creating air pollution.
There are many types of quality loss functions. However, in all types, the loss is determined by evaluating variation from a specific target. Taguchi’s philosophy includes three general ways to evaluate the relationship between quality and variability.
Nominal is better approach: In this approach, the closer to the target value, the better. It does not matter whether the deviation is above or below the target value. Under this approach the deviation is quadratic. The following exhibit portrays the nominal is better approach.
Smaller is better approach :The smaller is better approach is when a company desires smaller values. As the value gets larger, the loss incurred grows. The following exhibit portrays the smaller is better approach.
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Larger is better approach : Larger is better occurs when a company desires higher values of a characteristic. Two examples given are employee participation and the customer acceptance rate. Under this approach, the larger the characteristic, the smaller the quality loss function. The following exhibit portrays the larger is better approach.
Uses of Quality Loss Function (QLF) Data
1. Reduces Costs: There are three ways that managers can use QLF to reduce costs.
1. Move the average of the actual distribution closer to the target value. 2. Reduce variability. 3. Do a combination of both.
2. Setting Specific Limits: The data from the quality loss function can be used to determine where limits should be set to help minimize losses.
Sony Corporation Example: Sony uses the Taguchi model in managing the television sets it produces. The quality characteristic is the color density of the televisions. The Sony engineers set specific limits for color density at a plus or minus tolerance level. One of Sony’s plants uniformly distributed televisions that fell between the specification limits. The other plant followed a normal distribution with an average near the set target. A comparison of customer responses shows that a higher level of satisfaction was reported on televisions from the second plant. Also, the second plant’s warranty expenses were lower. This case shows the problem with focusing on a defect rate rather than a variation from the target. The first plant shipped at a zero defect rate, however, the specification limits allowed for too much variation. In the second plant, the limits were smaller and the quality was more consistent. The Taguchi model provides a good way to analyze the costs associated with variability, even within the limits.
9. Write a note on S/N ratio
The signal-to-noise concept is closely related to the robustness of a product design. Robustness has to do with a product’s ability to cope with variation and is based on the idea that quality is a function of good design. A robust design or product delivers a strong "signal". It performs its expected function and can cope with variations ("noise"), both internal and external.
Since a good manufacturing process will be faithful to a product design, robustness must be designed into a product before manufacturing begins. According to Taguchi, if a product is designed to avoid failure in the field, then factory defects will be simultaneously reduced. This is one aspect of Taguchi Methods that is often misunderstood. There is no attempt to reduce variation, which is assumed to be inevitable, but there is a definite focus on reducing the effect of variation. "Noise" in processes will exist, but the effect can be minimized by designing a strong "signal" into a product.
The dimensionless signal-to-noise ratio is used to measure controllable factors that can have such a negative effect on the performance of a design. It allows for the convenient adjustment of these factors. Provided that a process is consistent, adjustments can be conveniently made using the signal-to-noise ratio to achieve the desired target.
10. Mention ten principles suggested by Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa - 10 marks
Dr.Kaoru Ishikawa has suggested 10 principles to ensure quality products and services and eliminate unsatisfactory conditions between the customer and the supplier: 1. Both customers and the suppliers are fully responsible for the control of quality. 2. Both the customer and supplier should be independent of each other and respect each other’s independence. 3. The customer is responsible for providing the supplier with clear sufficient requirements so that supplier can
know precisely what to produce. 4. Both the customer and the supplier should enter into a non adversarial contract with respect to quality, quantity,
price, delivery method, and terms payments. 5. The supplier is responsible for providing the quality that will satisfy the customer and submitting necessary data
upon customer’s request. 6. Both the customer and the supplier should decide the method to evaluate the quality of the product or service to
the satisfaction of both parties. 7. Both the customer and the supplier should establish in the contract the method by which they can reach an
amicable settlement of any disputes that may arise. 8. Both the customer and the supplier should continually exchange information, sometimes using multifunctional
teams, in order to improve the product or service quality.
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9. Both the customer and the supplier should perform business activities such as procurement, production, and inventory planning, clerical work, and systems so that an amicable and satisfactory relationship is maintained.
10. When dealing with business transactions, both the customer and supplier should always have the best interest of the end user in mind.
11. Write notes on the contribution o i) Dr Deming ii) Dr. Taguchi - 06 marks
i) Contribution of Dr. Deming No individual has had more influence on quality management than Dr. W.e. Deming. Deming exposed Japanese managers to the fundamental concepts of quality production. He first envisioned quality management as an organization-wide activity rather than a technical task for inspectors or a specialized quality assurance group. He identified quality as a management responsibility, observing that managers must create the systems and processes that generate quality. Deming made the initial insight that a firm could never inspect quality into a product. A quality product combines a good design with effective production methods. Only by meeting both these conditions could a form assure quality. Deming advocated a never-ending cycle of product design, manufacture, test and sales, followed by market surveys and then redesign and so forth. He claimed that higher quality leads to higher productivity, which in turn leads to long term competitive strength. His contributions to quality can be summarized as follows:
� His fourteen points for management � His seven deadly diseases and sins � His cycle or action plan: Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA cyle) � His chain reaction. � His system of profound knowledge � His theory of variance
The Seven Deadly Diseases proposed by Deming can be summarized as:
1. Lack of constancy of purpose to plan products and services.
2. Emphasis on short-term profits.
3. Personal review systems for managers and management by objectives.
4. Job hopping by managers.
5. Using only visible data in decision making.
6. Excessive medical costs.
7. Excessive costs of liability driven up by lawyers that work on contingency.
ii) Contribution of Dr. Taguchi
Dr. Genichi Taguchi was a Japanese engineer and statistician who defined what product specification means and how this can be translated into cost effective production. He worked in the Japanese Ministry of Public Health and Welfare, Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Ministry of Education. He also worked with the Electrical Communications Laboratory of the Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Co. to increase the productivity of the R&D activities. In the mid 1950s Taguchi was Indian Statistical Institute visiting professor, where he met Walter Shewhart. He was a Visiting Research Associate at Princeton University in 1962, the same year he received his Ph.D. from Kyushu University. He was a Professor at Tokyo's Aoyama Gakuin University and Director of the Japanese Academy of Quality. Taguchi's contributions are in robust design in the area of product development. The Taguchi Loss Function, The Taguchi Method (Design of Experiments), and other methodologies have made major contributions in the reduction of variation and greatly improved engineering quality and productivity. By consciously considering the noise factors (environmental variation during the product's usage, manufacturing variation, and component deterioration) and the cost of failure in the field, Taguchi methodologies help ensure customer satisfaction. Robust Design focuses on improving the fundamental function of the product or process, thus facilitating flexible designs and concurrent engineering. Taguchi product development includes three stages: (1) system design (the non-statistical stage for engineering, marketing, customer and other knowledge); (2) parameter stage (determining how the product should perform against defined parameters; and (3) tolerance design (finding the balance between manufacturing cost and loss).
12. Explain Deming’s 14 points - 10 marks 1. Constancy of purpose: Create constancy of purpose for continual improvement of products and service to society,
allocating resources to provide for long range needs rather than only short term profitability, with a plan to become competitive, to stay in business, and to provide jobs.
2. The new philosophy: Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age, created in Japan. We can no longer live with commonly accepted levels of delays, mistakes, defective materials and defective workmanship. Transformation of Western management style is necessary to halt the continued decline of business and industry.
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3. Cease dependence on mass inspection: Eliminate the need for mass inspection as the way of life to achieve quality by building quality into the product in the first place. Require statistical evidence of built in quality in both manufacturing and purchasing functions.
4. End lowest tender contracts: End the practice of awarding business solely on the basis of price tag. Instead require meaningful measures of quality along with price. Reduce the number of suppliers for the same item by eliminating those that do not qualify with statistical and other evidence of quality. The aim is to minimize total cost, not merely initial cost, by minimizing variation. This may be achieved by moving toward a single supplier for any one item, on a long term relationship of loyalty and trust. Purchasing managers have a new job, and must learn it.
5. Improve every process: Improve constantly and forever every process for planning, production, and service. Search continually for problems in order to improve every activity in the company, to improve quality and productivity, and thus to constantly decrease costs. Institute innovation and constant improvement of product, service, and process. It is management's job to work continually on the system (design, incoming materials, maintenance, improvement of machines, supervision, training, retraining).
6. Institute training on the job: Institute modern methods of training on the job for all, including management, to make better use of every employee. New skills are required to keep up with changes in materials, methods, product and service design, machinery, techniques, and service.
7. Institute leadership: Adopt and institute leadership aimed at helping people do a better job. The responsibility of managers and supervisors must be changed from sheer numbers to quality. Improvement of quality will automatically improve productivity. Management must ensure that immediate action is taken on reports of inherited defects, maintenance requirements, poor tools, fuzzy operational definitions, and all conditions detrimental to quality.
8. Drive out fear: Encourage effective two way communication and other means to drive out fear throughout the organization so that everybody may work effectively and more productively for the company.
9. Break down barriers: Break down barriers between departments and staff areas. People in different areas, such as Leasing, Maintenance, Administration, must work in teams to tackle problems that may be encountered with products or service.
10. Eliminate exhortations: Eliminate the use of slogans, posters and exhortations for the work force, demanding Zero Defects and new levels of productivity, without providing methods. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships; the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system, and thus lie beyond the power of the work force.
11. Eliminate arbitrary numerical targets: Eliminate work standards that prescribe quotas for the work force and numerical goals for people in management. Substitute aids and helpful leadership in order to achieve continual improvement of quality and productivity.
12. Permit pride of workmanship: Remove the barriers that rob hourly workers, and people in management, of their right to pride of workmanship. This implies, among other things, abolition of the annual merit rating (appraisal of performance) and of Management by Objective. Again, the responsibility of managers, supervisors, foremen must be changed from sheer numbers to quality.
13. Encourage education: Institute a vigorous program of education, and encourage self improvement for everyone. What an organization needs is not just good people; it needs people that are improving with education. Advances in competitive position will have their roots in knowledge.
14. Top management commitment and action: Clearly define top management's permanent commitment to ever improving quality and productivity, and their obligation to implement all of these principles. Indeed, it is not enough that top management commit themselves for life to quality and productivity. They must know what it is that they are committed to-that is, what they must do. Create a structure in top management that will push every day on the preceding 13 Points, and take action in order to accomplish the transformation. Support is not enough: action is required!
15. Explain Juran Trilogy - 10 marks Juran Quality Trilogy
Quality Planning (Determine customer needs, develop product in response
to needs). Identify who are the customers.
Determine the needs of those customers.
Translate those needs into our language.
Develop a product that can respond to those needs.
Optimise the product features so as to meet our needs and customer needs.
Quality Improvement (Assess performance, compare performance with goals, act
on differences etween performance and goals). - Develop a process which is able to produce the product.
- Optimise the process.
Quality Control (Develop infrastructure, identify areas of improvement and
implement projects, establish project team, provide teams
with what they need).
Prove that the process can produce the product under
operating conditions with minimal inspection.
Transfer the process to Operations
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The Quality Trilogy emphasizes the roles of quality planning, quality control, and quality
improvement. Quality planning's purpose is to provide operators with the ability to produce goods
and services that can meet customers' needs. In the quality planning stage, an organization must
determine who the customers are and what they need, develop the product or service features that
meet customers' needs, develop processes which are able to deliver those products and services, and
transfer the plans to the operating forces. If quality planning is deficient, then chronic waste occurs.
Quality control is used to prevent things from getting worse. Quality control is the inspection part of
the Quality Trilogy where operators compare actual performance with plans and resolve the
differences. Chronic waste should be considered an opportunity for quality improvement, the third
element of the Trilogy. Quality improvement encompasses improvement of fitness-for-use and error
reduction, seeks a new level of performance that is superior to any previous level, and is attained by
applying breakthrough thinking.
While up-front quality planning is what organizations should be doing, it is normal for organizations to focus their first quality efforts on quality control. In this aspect of the Quality Trilogy, activities include inspection to determine percent defective (or first pass yield) and deviations from quality standards. Activities can then focus on another part of the trilogy, quality improvement, and make it an integral part of daily work for individuals and teams. The Juran Trilogy Diagram:
The three processes of the trilogy are indicated in the diagram, which is a graph with time on the
horizontal axis and cost of poor quality on the vertical axis. The planners are responsible for the
product and process design to meet the customer needs; and the job of the operating forces is to run
the process and produce the products. . We will see that the process cannot achieve 100 percent
quality and 20 percent rework has to be carried out. Quality control prevents from the situation
getting worse and also putting off the fires such as the sporadic spike. In due course we will see that
the chronic problems have come down by the application of the quality improvement process.
The Alligator Analogy: The distinction between Quality Planning and Quality Improvement is brought out by the alligator analogy. This is a fable of a manager who is up to his waist in alligators; and each live alligator is a metaphor for chronic waste. Each completed quality improvement project results in a dead alligator and when all alligators are terminated the quality improvement is considered complete for the moment; but that doesn't happen as long as the quality planning process has not changed. A changed and improved planning process will only help complete improvement and sustain the same. 16. List Juran’s ten steps for Quality improvement
1. Build awareness of opportunities to improve.
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2. Set goals.
3. Organize to reach goals.
4. Provide training.
5. Carry out projects to solve problems.
6. Report progress.
7. Give recognition.
8. Communicate results.
9. Keep score.
10. Maintain momentum by making annual improvement part of the systems and processes
of the company.
17. Mention 14 steps of quality improvement proposed by Crossby
Step 1. Management Commitment
Step 2. Quality Improvement Teams
Step 3. Quality Measurement
Step 4. Cost of Quality Evaluation
Step 5. Quality Awareness
Step 6. Corrective Action
Step 7. Zero-Defects Planning
Step 8. Supervisory Training
Step 9. Zero Defects
Step 10. Goal Setting
Step 11. Error Cause Removal
Step 12. Recognition
Step 13. Quality Councils
Step 14. Do It All Over Again
18. Mention the differences between leaders and managers
Leaders Managers Vision oriented: the leaders are vision oriented
and think about future.
Process oriented: managers always think
about process that how the organization
works in efficient manner
Protects staff: leaders always protect their staff
and motivate them towards achievement of
organizational goals.
Protects self: Managers always protect
himself.
Approaches decisions actively: the leaders are
decision makers and do not hesitate to take
decisions in any respect.
Approaches decisions cautiously: Managers
always depends on his superiors and others
to take decisions.
Staff oriented: leaders are staff oriented. Career oriented: managers always think
about his career that how he/she moves up
or develop his/her career.
Listens actively: leaders always involve his staff in
decision making and listen every body and get the
suggestions from employees seriously.
Listens selectively: managers always listen
and involve selective staff/employees
during decision making.
Deals with conflict: leader always deal with
conflict as they are critical analyst in the positive
way.
Avoids conflict: Managers always avoids
being involved in conflicts.
Trusted: leaders always trust on his
employees/staff and vice versa.
Unclear regarding trust: he is unclear
regarding trust.
19. Mention the differences between leadership and management Leadership Management
Set overall & future direction: they set the overall
organization direction and give the vision.
Set day-day direction: Mangers sets day by
day direction to organization as per
circumstances.
Focuses on results: A leader always focuses on
output.
Focuses on processes: Managers always
focuses on processes that how to gets the
maximum output by utilization of minimum
resources through reducing in processes of
the organization.
Mostly external: leaders mostly keep the close Mostly internal: Managers always keep the
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eyes on external environment. close eyes on internal environment.
Concern=effectiveness: his concern on
effectiveness
Concern=efficiency: his concern on
efficiency
Stakeholder focused: Leaders focused on stake
holder’s interest and strive for the satisfactions of
stakeholders.
Personnel focused: Here the focus is
personal and not on the stakeholders.
Customer needs/capacities: thinks about
customers demand
Worker needs/capacities: thinks about
organization capacity for customers
demand
Embodies mission/vision: sets the mission and
vision
Embodies goals/objectives: sets the goals
and objectives to achieve the mission.
Gets more resources: gets more recourse to
accomplish the mission. They always try to look
for other opportunities.
Manages resources: a manager always
manages the resources.
Secures technologies: they protect the
technologies. Always keep their eyes open and try
to secure new technologies essential to create
competitive advantages.
Applies technologies: managers always
apply technologies available to them and
will not strive for change.
Seeks to create needed change: they always seek
to create the needed change and believe on
“Change as the environment change”.
Seek stability/Manage change:
management will try to manage the change
and prefer to maintain the stability in the
organization.
Create teams’ esp. top teams: Leadership is
always focused on creating a team especially top
performing team. Leader role is act as a coach and
convert individual working into teams.
Manage teamwork: Management focus is
to get things done from people/team and
they will try for this.
20. What are the characteristics of quality leaders - 10 marks There are 12 behaviors or characteristics that successful quality leaders demonstrate. 1. They give priority attention to external and internal customers and their needs. Leaders place themselves in the customers’ shoes and service their needs from that perspective. They continually evaluate the customers’ changing requirements. 2. They empower, rather than control, subordinates. Leaders have trust and confidence in the performance of their subordinates. They provide the resources, training, and work environment to help subordinates do their jobs. However, the decision to accept responsibility lies with the individual. 3. They emphasize improvement rather than maintenance. Leader use the phrase “If it isn’t perfect, improve it” rather than “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” There is always room for improvement, ever if the improvement is small. Major breakthroughs sometimes happen, but it’s the little ones that keep the continuous process improvement on a positive track. 4. They emphasize prevention. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is certainly true. It is also true that perfection can be the enemy of creativity. We can’t always wait until we have created the perfect process or product. There must be a balance between preventing problems and developing better, but no perfect, processes. 5. They encourage collaboration rather than competition. When functional areas, departments, or work groups are in competition, they may find subtle ways of working against each other or withholding information. Instead, there must be collaboration among and within units. 6. They train and coach, rather than direct and supervise. Leaders know that the development of the human resource is a necessity. As coaches, they help their subordinates learn to do a better job. 7. They learn from problems. When a problem exists, it is treated as an opportunity rather than something to be minimized or covered up. “What caused it?” and “How can we prevent it in the future?” are the questions quality leaders ask. 8. They continually try to improve communications. Leaders continually disseminate information about the TQM effort. They make it evident that TQM is not just a slogan. Communication is two way—ideas will be generated by people when leaders encourage them and act upon them. For example, on the eve of Desert Storm, General Colin Powell solicited enlisted men and women for advice on winning the war. Communication is the glue that holds a TQM organization together. 9. They continually demonstrate their commitment to quality. Leaders walk their talk—their actions, rather than their words, communicate their level of commitment. They let the quality statements be their decision-making guide. 10. They choose suppliers on the basis of quality, not price. Suppliers are encouraged to participate on project teams and become involved. Leaders know that quality begins with quality materials and the true measure is the life-cycle cost.
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11. They establish organizational systems to support the quality effort. At the senior management level a quality council is provided, and at the first-line supervisor level, work groups and project teams are organized to improve the process. 12. They encourage and recognize team effort. They encourage, provide recognition, and reward individuals and teams. Leaders know that people like to know that their contributions are appreciated and important. This action is one of the leader’s most powerful tools. 21. Explain the quality statements – 10 marks
Quality statements are part of strategic planning process and once developed, are occasionally
reviewed and updated. There are three types of quality statements:
1. Vision statement 2. Mission statement 3. Quality policy statement
The utilization of these statements varies from organization to organization. Small organization may
use only the quality policy statement
1. Vision Statement: The vision statement is a short declaration what an organization aspires to be
tomorrow. A vision statement, on the other hand, describes how the future will look if the
organization achieves its mission.
It is a short declaration of what an organization aspires to be tomorrow. It is an ideal state which may
never be achieved.
Example:
“To continuously enrich knowledge base of practioners in mobility industry and institutions in the
service of humanity” -
Successful visions are timeless, inspirational, and become deeply shared within the organization,
such as:
o IBM’s Service
o Apple’s Computing for the masses
o Disney theme park’s the happiest place on the earth, and
o Polaroid’s instant photography
2. Mission Statement: A mission statement concerns what an organization is all about. The
statement answers the questions such as: who we are, who are our customers, what do we do and
how do we do it. This statement is usually one paragraph or less in length, easy to understand, and
describes the function of the organization. It provides clear statement of purpose for employees,
customers, and suppliers. It describes the function of the organization. It provides the clear
statement of purpose for the employees, customers and suppliers.
An example of mission statement is:
-Ford Motor Company is a worldwide leader in automatic and automotive related products and
services as well as the newer industries such as aerospace, communications, and financial services.
Our mission is to improve continually our products and services to meet our customers’ needs,
allowing us to prosper as a business and to provide a reasonable return on to our shareholders, the
owners of our business.
-Facilitating world class technical education through high quality institutions, academic excellence
and innovative research and development programmes, technology forecasting and global
manpower planning, promoting industry institute interaction, inculcating entrepreneurship”
3. Quality Policy Statement: The quality policy is a guide for everyone in the organization as to how
they should provide products and services to the customers. It should be written by the CEO with
feedback from the workforce and be approved by the quality council. A quality policy is a
requirement of ISO 9000.
It is a guide for everyone in the organization as to how they provide products and services to the
customer. Written by the CEO feedback from workforce and approved by quality council.
A simple quality policy is:
Xerox is a quality company. Quality is the basic business principle for Xerox. Quality means providing our external and internal customers with innovative products and services that fully satisfy their requirements. Quality is the job of every employee. 22. Mention the quality statement with respect to an educational institution – 04 marks
We at Nagarjuna College of Engineering and Technology (NCET) are committed to making the institute a centre
of excellence in technological learning and to carrying out research, consultancy and training for fulfilling the needs and expectations of students, parents, business and society at large. We aim to do this with a high degree of social sensitivity through innovation and continual:
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• Nurturing of talent and building a learning environment, to promote creativity and leadership;
• Improvement of course curriculum through educational research and dialogue with business enterprises characterized by significance, relevance, excellence and rigour;
• Building of international linkages with business, Universities and Institutes of repute for global perspectives and standards;
• Commitment to personal and professional development of individual (staff, students and faculties) over their entire career;
• Imbibing of state-of-the-art technology and improvement of infrastructure conducive to excellence in learning;
• Reviewing of institutional processes by involvement of faculty, students and staff.
• We develop policy by working closely with practicing managers. Our views are based on the findings from our leading-edge research carried out among our membership of more than 35,000 managers drawn from all sectors and management levels right across the Globe.
• Our policy positions also draw on our practical experience of developing management training and qualifications, enabling us to promote the art and science of management with credibility to a wide range of audiences.
23. Explain the concept of quality costs. – 07 marks
A quality cost is considered to be any cost that the company would not have incurred if the quality of
the product or service were perfect.
Every time work is redone, the cost of quality increases. Obvious examples include:
• The reworking of a manufactured item.
• The retesting of an assembly.
• The rebuilding of a tool.
• The correction of a bank statement.
• The reworking of a service, such as the reprocessing of a loan operation or the replacement
of a food order in a restaurant.
In short, any cost that would not have been expended if quality were perfect contributes to the cost of quality. The Cost of Quality is a measure of what an organization is spending for its overall quality. It can be viewed as the difference between the actual cost of making and selling products and services and the cost if there were no failures of the products and services during manufacture or use.
Four types of quality costs:-
1. Prevention Costs:
These are the costs of activities aimed at preventing defects occurring during the development,
production, storage and transport of a product. They relate to quality before a single unit of product
is made. They usually represent up-front costs that should minimize overall costs by performing the
task properly and hopefully at the first attempt.
Prevention costs are all costs incurred in the process of preventing poor quality from occurring. They
include quality planning costs, such as the costs of developing and implementing a quality plan. Also
included are the costs of product and process design, from collecting customer information to
designing processes that achieve conformance to specifications. Employee training in quality
measurement is included as part of this cost, as well as the costs of maintaining records of
information and data related to quality.
Generally the most effective way to manage quality costs is to avoid having defects in the first place.
It is much less costly to prevent a problem from ever happening than it is to find and correct the
problem after it has occurred. Prevention costs support activities whose purpose is to reduce the
number of defects. Companies employ many techniques to prevent defects for example statistical
process control, quality engineering, training, and a variety of tools from total quality management
(TQM).
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Prevention costs include activities relating to quality circles and statistical process control. Quality
circles consist of small groups of employees that meet on a regular basis to discuss ways to improve
quality. Both management and workers are included in these circles.
Statistical process control is a technique that is used to detect whether a process is in or out of
control. An out of control process results in defective units and may be caused by a miscalibrated
machine or some other factor. In statistical process control, workers use charts to monitor the
quality of units that pass through their workstations. With these charts, workers can quickly spot
processes that are out of control and that are creating defects. Problems can be immediately
corrected and further defects prevented rather than waiting for an inspector to catch the defect
later.
Some companies provide technical support to their suppliers as a way of preventing defects.
Particularly in just in time (JIT) systems, such support to suppliers is vital. In a JIT system, parts are
delivered from suppliers just in time and in just the correct quantity to fill customer orders. There are
no stockpiles of parts. If a defective part is received from a supplier, the part cannot be used and the
order for the ultimate customer cannot be filled in time. Hence every part received from suppliers
must be free from defects. Consequently, companies that use just in time (JIT) often require that
their supplier use sophisticated quality control programs such as statistical process control and that
their suppliers certify that they will deliver parts and materials that are free of defects.
The costs incurred to keep failure and appraisal costs to a minimum. For example product design or
Poke Yoke costs are prevention costs.
Prevention costs are one of the four elements of cost of quality. When implement and tracking a cost
of quality system within a company, management typically focuses on internal and external failure
costs. Management studies the costs due to defects and not the cost to prevent the defects. Costs of
prevention focus on the actions taken to prevent the creation of defects. Companies that pursue
operation excellence track these costs and purposely allocate money to this element. These
companies spend more on prevention methods than the other quality cost elements. Here are
examples of these costs:
The costs of all activities specifically designed to prevent poor quality in products or services.
Examples are the costs of:
• New product review
• Quality planning
• Supplier capability surveys
• Process capability evaluations
• Quality improvement team meetings
• Quality improvement projects
• Quality education and training
2. APPRAISAL COSTS:
Appraisal costs are incurred in the process of uncovering defects. They include the cost of quality
inspections, product testing, and performing audits to make sure that quality standards are being
met. Also included in this category are the costs of worker time spent measuring quality and the cost
of equipment used for quality appraisal.
These are the costs of inspecting and testing to ensure that the products, parts and raw materials
conform to quality requirements. These are generally the easiest type of quality costs to measure
and include:
Any defective parts and products should be caught as early as possible in the production process.
Appraisal costs, which are sometimes called inspection costs, are incurred to identify defective
products before the products are shipped to customers. Unfortunately performing appraisal
activates doesn't keep defects from happening again and most managers realize now that
maintaining an army of inspectors is a costly and ineffective approach to quality control.
Employees are increasingly being asked to be responsible for their own quality control. This approach
along with designing products to be easy to manufacture properly, allows quality to be built into
products rather than relying on inspections to get the defects out.
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Appraisal Costs are quality cost that determes the quality of a product. These costs are normally
associated with inspection. This includes inspection on receipt, inspection at the source, or by
surveillance:
The costs associated with measuring, evaluating or auditing products or services to assure
conformance to quality standards and performance requirements.
These include the costs of:
• Incoming and source inspection/test of purchased material
• In-process and final inspection/test
• Product, process or service audits
• Calibration of measuring and test equipment
• Associated supplies and materials
Examples include
-Incomi ng inspection and test:
-In-process inspection and test:
-In-process evaluation of conformance to requirements.
-Final inspection and test:
-Evaluation of conformance to requirements for product acceptance.
-Document review
-Examination of paperwork to be sent to customer.
-Balancing
-Examination of various accounts to assure internal consistency.
-Product quality audits
-Performing quality audits on in-process or finished products.
-Maintaining accuracy of test equipment:
-Keeping measuring instruments and equipment in calibration.
-Inspection and test materials and services
-Materials and supplies in inspection and test work (e.g., x-ray film) and services (e.g., electric
power) where significant.
-Evaluation of stock inventory
-Testing products in field storage or in stock to evaluate degradation.
FAILURE COSTS The costs resulting from products or services not conforming to requirements or customer/user
needs. Failure costs are divided into internal and external failure categories.
3. INTERNAL FAILURE COSTS:
Internal failure costs are associated with discovering poor product quality before the product
reaches the customer site. One type of internal failure cost is rework, which is the cost of correcting
the defective item. Sometimes the item is so defective that it cannot be corrected and must be
thrown away. This is called scrap, and its costs include all the material, labor, and machine cost spent
in producing the defective product. Other types of internal failure costs include the cost of machine
downtime due to failures in the process and the costs of discounting defective items for salvage
value.
Failure costs are incurred when a product fails to conform to its design specifications. Failure costs
can be either internal or external. Internal failure costs result from identification of defects before
they are shipped to customers. These costs include scrap, rejected products, reworking of defective
units, and downtime caused by quality problem. The more effective a company's appraisal activities
the greater the chance of catching defects internally and the greater the level of internal failure
costs. This is the price that is paid to avoid incurring external failure costs, which can be devastating.
The costs of deficiencies discovered before delivery. We associate deficiencies or nonconformities
with the failure to meet explicit requirements or implicit needs of external or internal customers.
Internal failure costs come from deficiencies discovered before delivery. These include all the costs
associated with the failure (nonconformities) to meet the needs of your external and internal
customers. This failure cost is one of the 4 key components of
Examples of Internal Failure Costs :
� Scrap: The labor, material, and (usually) overhead that created the defective product. The item
cannot be economically repaired. The titles are numerous—scrap, spoilage, defectives, etc.
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� Rework: The cost to correct the defective material or errors in service products. Lost or missing
information: The cost to
retrieve this expected information.
� Failure analysis: The cost analyzing nonconforming goods or services to determine the root
causes.
� Supplier scrap and rework: Scrap and rework costs due to nonconforming product received from
suppliers. This includes the costs to the buyer of resolving the supplier quality problems.
� 100% sorting inspection: The cost of completing 100% inspection to sort defective units from
good units. Retest: The cost to retest products after rework or other revision.
� Changing processes: The cost of modifying the manufacturing or service processes to correct the
deficiencies.
� Redesign of hardware: The cost to change designs of hardware to correct the issues.
� Redesign of software: The internal cost to changing software designs.
� Scrapping of obsolete product: The cost of disposing scrap.
� Scrap in support operations: Costs from defective items in indirect operations.
� Rework in internal support operations: Costs from correcting defective items in indirect
operations.
� Downgrading: The cost difference between the normal selling price and the reduced price due to
quality reasons.
� Variability of product characteristics: Rework losses that occur with conforming product
(e.g.,overfill of packages due to variability of filling and measuring equipment).
� Unplanned downtime of equipment: Loss of capacity of equipment due to failures.
� Inventory shrinkage: Loss costs due to the difference between actual and recorded inventory
quantity.
� Non-value-added activities: Cost due to redundant operations, sorting inspections, and other
non-value added activities. A value-added activity increases the usefulness of a product to the
customer; a non-value-added activity does not.
4. EXTERNAL FAILURE COSTS:
External failure costs are associated with quality problems that occur at the customer site. These
costs can be particularly damaging because customer faith and loyalty can be difficult to regain. They
include everything from customer complaints, product returns, and repairs, to warranty claims,
recalls, and even litigation costs resulting from product liability issues. A final component of this cost
is lost sales and lost customers. For example, manufacturers of lunch meats and hot dogs whose
products have been recalled due to bacterial contamination have had to struggle to regain consumer
con?dence. Other examples include auto manufacturers whose products have been recalled due to
major malfunctions such as problematic braking systems and airlines that have experienced a crash
with many fatalities. External failure can sometimes put a company out of business almost overnight.
Failure costs occurring after delivery or shipment of the product -- and during or after furnishing of a
service -- to the customer.
When a defective product is delivered to customer, external failure cost is the result. External failure
costs include warranty, repairs and replacements, product recalls, liability arising from legal actions
against a company, and lost sales arising from a reputation for poor quality. Such costs can decimate
profits.
In the past, some managers have taken the attitude, "Let's go ahead and ship everything to
customers, and we'll take care of any problems under the warranty." This attitude generally results in
high external failure costs, customer ill will, and declining market share and profits.
External failure costs usually give rise to another intangible cost. These intangible costs are hidden
costs that involve the company's image. They can be three or four times greater than tangible costs.
Missing a deadline or other quality problems can be intangible costs of quality.
External Failure Costs come from costs associated with defects that are found after the customer
receives the product or service. These costs included lost opportunities for sales revenue. Lost sales
revenue costs would disappear if there were no deficiencies.
External Costs Classifications
� Warranty charges: The costs involved in replacing or making repairs to products that are still
within the warranty period.
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� Complaint adjustment: The costs of investigation and adjustment of justified complaints from
the defective product or installation.
� Returned material: The dollars associated with the receipt and replacement of defective product
received from the field.
� Allowances: The costs of concessions made to customers due to substandard products accepted
by the customer. Customer chose to use the product as is.
� Penalties due to poor quality: This can apply to goods or services delivered late or too early.
� Rework on support operations: Correcting errors on billing and other external processes.
� Revenue losses in support operations: An example is the failure to collect receivables from some
customers.
� Lost Opportunities for sales revenue: Profit margin on current revenue lost due to customers
who switch for reasons of quality. This includes canceled contracts due to poor quality.
� Also includes lost of new customers: The costs incurred to determine the degree of conformance
to quality requirements.
24. Define strategic planning. Explain briefly seven steps towards strategic planning – 07 marks It sets the long term direction of the organization in which it wants to proceed in future. It can be defined "as the process of deciding on objectives of the organization, on changes on this objective, on the resource used to obtain these objectives and on the policies that are to govern the acquisition use and disposition of these resources". The process starts with the principles that quality and customer satisfaction are the center of an
organization’s future. It brings together all the key stakeholders. The strategic planning can be
performed by any organization. It can be highly effective, allowing the organizations to do the right
thing at the right time, every time.
There are seven standard steps to strategic Quality Planning:
1. Discover customer needs
2. Customer positioning
3. Predict the future
4. Gap analysis
5. Closing the gap
6. Alignment
7. Implementation
1. Customer Needs: The first step is to discover the future needs of the customers. Who will they be?
Will your customer base change? What will they want? How will they want? How will the
organization meet and exceed expectations?
2. Customer Positioning: Next, the planners determine where organization wants to be in relation to
the customers. Do they want to retain, reduce, or expand the customer base? Product or services
with poor quality performance should be targeted for breakthrough or eliminated. The organization
needs to concentrate its efforts on areas of excellence.
3. Predict the future: Next planners must look into their crystal balls to predict the future conditions
that will affect their product or service. Demographics, economics forecasts, and technical
assessments or projections are tools that help predict the future.
4. Gap Analysis : This step requires the planner to identify the gaps between the current state and
the future state of the organization. An analysis of the core values and concepts is an excellent
technique for pinpointing gaps.
5. Closing the Gap: The plan can now be developed to close the gap by establishing goals and
responsibilities. All stakeholders should be included in the development of the plan.
6. Alignment: As the plan is developed, it must be aligned with the mission, vision, and core values
and concepts of the organization. Without this alignment, the plan will have little chance of success.
7. Implementation: This last step is frequently the most difficult. Resources must be allocated to
collecting data, designing changes, and overcoming resistance to change. Also part of this step is the
monitoring activity to ensure that progress is being made. The planning group should meet at least
once a year to assess progress and take any corrective action.
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25. Explain W-V model of continuous improvement – 10 marks 26. Discuss the seven steps of reactive improvement
27. Write short notes on i) 7 QC tools ii) PDCA cycle - 10 marks
i) 7 QC Tools
Seven QC tools are fundamental instruments to improve the quality of the product. They are used to analyze the production process, identify the major problems, control fluctuations of product quality, and provide solutions to avoid future defects. Statistical literacy is necessary to effectively use the seven QC tools. These tools use statistical techniques and knowledge to accumulate data and analyze them.
Seven QC tools are utilized to organize the collected data in a way that is easy to understand and analyze. Moreover, from using the seven QC tools, any specific problems in a process are identified.
7QC tools always include :
• Check Sheet is used to easily collect data. Decision-making and actions are taken from the data.
• Pareto Chart is used to define problems, to set their priority, to illustrate the problems detected, and determine their frequency in the process.
• Cause-and-Effect Diagram (Fishbone Diagram) is used to figure out any possible causes of a problem. After the major causes are known, we can solve the problem accurately.
• Histogram shows a bar chart of accumulated data and provides the easiest way to evaluate the distribution of data.
• Scatter Diagram is a graphical tool that plots many data points and shows a pattern of correlation between two variables.
• Flow Chart shows the process step by step and can sometimes identify an unnecessary procedure.
• Control Chart provides control limits which are generally three standard deviations above and below average, whether or not our process is in control.
ii) PDCA Cycle
Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) also known as the PDCA Cycle, or Deming Cycle
A popular tool for doing just this is the Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle. This is often referred to as the Deming Cycle or the Deming Wheel after its proponent, W Edwards Deming. It is also sometimes called the Shewhart Cycle.
Deming is best known as a pioneer of the quality management approach and for introducing statistical process control techniques for manufacturing to the Japanese, who used them with great success. He believed that a key source of production quality lay in having clearly defined, repeatable processes. And so the PDCA Cycle as an approach to change and problem solving is very much at the heart of Deming's quality-driven philosophy.
The four phases in the Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle involve:
Plan: Identifying and analyzing the problem.
Do: Developing and testing a potential solution.
Check: Measuring how effective the test solution was, and analyzing whether it could be improved in any way.
Act: Implementing the improved solution fully.