Lesson 8 the management of quality

Lesson 8 - The management of Quality

Explain supply chain management.

Question from last lesson

Suggested solution !Explanation should refer to the link between operations and suppliers [1 mark], so materials are delivered on time and at the right price [1 mark].

The story so far……….

Operations function Business Objectives

Does this by transforming inputs into outputs

Efficiently

To gain competitiveness

Facilities layoutIncreased productivity

Quality

• Outline the main features of quality management. • Explain why quality control is important to organisations. • In what ways can organisations offer quality assurance to

customers? • Explain what is meant by total quality management. • Outline the three approaches that make up total quality

management.

What you need to know and be able to do

Think of a product or service your have purchased recently

What were your expectations of the product or service?

The Management of Quality

Quality refers to the degree of excellence of goods and services and their fitness for a stated purpose

Large organisations use quality management to make sure that their products meet customer expectations. Three quality strategies are quality control, quality assurance and total quality management (including employee empowerment, continuous improvement and improved customer focus).

Quality control is a system of ensuring proper standards are met through checking processes (how things are done), and products and services

Quality control methods include: - Inspection of a product, usually at random, to ensure it meets the standards required - Statistical quality control by: 1. taking samples of work 2. measuring the quality in the samples 3. determining whether the results are acceptable 4. taking measures to correct this if results are unacceptable

The Six Sigma program is a method of quality control that requires no more than 3.4 defects per million units of goods produced or services delivered; i.e a perfection rate of 99.9997%

Six Sigma works by: - Identifying and removing causes of defects - helping organisations produce products and services better, faster and more cheaply

Quality assurance (QA)

Quality assurance is an organised approach to ensuring the activities of the business are geared towards producing products or services that fulfill customer expectations

QA involves both internal and external assessment of quality established by specific standards

These specified standards may be internationally recognised or developed specifically for an industry

Internationaly recognised quality standards are maintained by the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) in switzerland

To be granted certification in ISO 9001, an organisation must meet strict quality standards

The QA approach is an advance on the quality control approach because QA attempts to have in place a whole operations system that continually improves processes, and includes regular internal and external audits that in many cases eliminate the need for inspection.

Total quality management (TQM) takes a broader—and more ‘total’—view of quality compared to quality control and quality assurance. In fact, the TQM approach includes quality assurance, which in turn includes quality control as illustrated in the diagram.

Total Quality Management (TQM)

Customer focus: External customers (buyers of the final product) are an obvious focus in business. But TQM offers a further valuable insight—all employees serve a customer. Whether or not they have any contact with external customers, every employee in an organisation works right next to other customers. These are internal customers.

Employee participation: TQM sees everyone in the process as members of a big team guiding the quality process. Teamwork should be encouraged at all levels of the organisation; teams are expected to achieve better performance than individuals working alone.

TQM involves adopting an organisational-wide commitment to quality:

Continuous improvement - Involves an on-going commitment to achieving perfection

Exit Question

Suggested solution !Definition should refer to an organisation continually evaluating their procedures and implementing changes to increase efficiency or quality or to reduce faults [1 mark]. !Example should relate to continuous improvement [1 mark]. For example, a car manufacturer would always review the design and construction of their cars to improve performance and customer satisfaction and avoid waste.