5.4 Quality Assurance

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5.4 Quality Assurance

• Chapter 33

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What is a quality product?

• A good or service that meets customers
  expectations and is fit for purpose.
• Quality is relative
• Products dont have to be expensive to be of good
  quality. (shampoo)
• Products may have to perform perfectly to be
  considered good quality (airplanes)
• What other products can you think of?

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Quality Standards

• The expectations of customers expressed in terms
  of the minimum acceptable production or service
  standards.
• What is YOUR quality standard for PIZZA?
• What is YOUR quality standard for CLOTHING?
• What is YOUR quality standard for PENCILS?

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Advantages of producing a quality product

• Easier to create customer loyalty
• Saves on costs associated with customer
  complaints (replacement compensation)
• Defective products and loss of customer goodwill
• Longer life cycles
• Less advertising as the quality image is
  reinforced by the performance of its products
• A higher price premium price may be charged
  which can add to profits

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Quality Control

• Quality control is based upon inspecting the
  product or a sampling of products.
• Traditional approach to achieving quality
• Based upon inspection and checking
• Production
• MP3 player is inspected and checked at the end of
  the production line to see if the battery will
  charge.
• Service
• A on-line support person will have customer phone
  calls monitored or recorded.

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Quality Control Techniques

• 1. Prevention Most effectiveQuality should be
  designed into the product.
• 2. Inspection Traditionally the most important
  phase
• Costly and the need for inspection can be
  reduced by zero-defect manufacturing.
• 3. Correction and Improvement Improves future
  quality effectiveNot just fixing faulty
  products, but fixing the what caused the problem
  in the first place. This will improve future
  quality.

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Inspecting

• Emphasis is placed on checking for quality at the
  end of the production line.
• Products can be inspected periodically during
  production.
• PROBLEMS
• Expensive
• Qualified people need to be used
• Product may be destroyed
• May need to sample instead which means all
  products arent checked for quality

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Inspecting

• Issues with inspecting
• Quality-control inspectors check the work others
• Looking for problems creates negative culture
  for workers
• Inspectors are successful when they find
  problems which causes issues for workers
• Inspecting is tedious work and inspectors may
  become demotivated
• If checking is done at points in the production
  process, it can be hard to locate where the
  quality error occurred.
• Workers will not see quality as their
  responsibility but that of the quality control
  inspectors

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Quality Assurance- A departure from Quality
Inspecting

• Puts emphasis on prevention of poor quality by
  design during manufacturing rather than
  inspecting after it is produced
• Stress that workers Get it right the first time
  so errors are unlikely to happen
• Establish the quality standard for each stage of
  the production process
• Check components, materials, services when they
  are delivered NOT at the end of production or
  time of use

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Quality Assurance

• Quality Assurance is considered in all areas
• Product design
• Will product meet consumer expectations
• Quality of inputs (suppliers and bought-in
  products)
• Suppliers will have to accept strict quality
  standards
• Production quality
• Workers ensure quality production occurs
• Customer service
• Continued customer satisfaction during and after
  sales

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Advantages of Quality Assurance

• EVERYONE is responsible for quality (a type of
  job enrichment)
• Self-checking increases motivation
• Quality problems can be traced to origin
• Reduces expensive final inspections, corrections,
  and faulty products

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ISO 9000

• International Standards Organization
• ISO actually means equal in Greek
• ISO is an internationally recognized certificate
  that acknowledges the existence of a quality
  procedure that meets certain conditions.

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ISO 9000

• In order to be accredited, you must
• Staff training on quality and appraisal methods
• Methods in place to check suppliers quality
• Quality standards in ALL areas of your business
• Procedures for dealing with defective products
  and quality failures
• After-sales service
• ISO companies are internally audited AND
  externally audited.
• Can be expensive
• Doesnt guarantee a quality product

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QS 9000

• US counter-part to ISO 9000
• Established by US automobile manufacturers in
  1994 and adopted for use by the heavy truck
  manufacturing industry.
• It was replaced with ISO/TS 16949 because of the
  international nature of car manufacturers and
  suppliers.

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Total Quality Management (TQM)

• An approach to quality that involves all
  employees in the quality process.
• It aims to reduce waste and cost of rejected
  low-quality products.
• LEAN PRODUCTION Producing goods and services
  with the minimum of wasted resources while
  maintaining high quality.

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TQM is a PHILOSPHY

• All employees are responsible for quality from
  the assembly worker to the delivery driver.
• All employees are empowered to check and verify
  quality.
• Provides high level of job enrichment.
• Encourages staff to get it right the first time
• Achievement of zero defects is a goal
• If quality is improved, than costs fall and
  demand for products rise
• REQUIRES commitment from management to give
  employees flexibility to make quality decisions

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TQM

• Internal customers people within the
  organization who depend upon quality work
  completed by others.
• Zero Defects The aim of achieving perfect
  products EVERY time.

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Kaizen

• Japanese term meaning continuous improvement
• Employees may know more about factory
  improvements than managers.
• A series of small improvements can be more
  beneficial that one-off improvements.

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Implementing Kaizen

• Management must recognize experience of workers
• Team working from the workers team meetings to
  identify problems and discuss improvement
  strategies
• Employee empowerment to make changes
• All staff is involved

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Limitations of Kaizen

• Some changes are not small and cannot be
  introduced gradually
• Resistance from senior management
• Staff training and lost output due to meetings
• Improvements tend to be made early later changes
  tend to be less significant

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Benchmarking

• Comparing the performance including quality
  of a business with performance standards
  throughout the industry
• How do I compare with others?

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Stages of Benchmarking

• 1. Identify what areas are to be benchmarked
  (ask and survey customers)
• 2. Measure these areas (quality records,
  delivery records, customer complaints)
• 3. Identify firms in the industry that are the
  best
• 4. Use comparative data to find your weaknesses
• 5. Set standards for improvement
• 6. Change your processes to achieve your
  standards
• 7. Re-measurement Check to see if you are
  reaching your new higher standards.

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Quality Summary

• Quality is not an OPTION
• Quality is an issue for ALL firms
• Satisfying customers with quality
  products/services has clear marketing advantages
• Involving staff can motivate the workforce

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