Maintaining Quality Assurance In Growing Businesses
Specification:
5.3 Maintaining Quality Assurance in Growing Businesses • identifying quality problems • methods of maintaining consistent quality |
Candidates should be aware of the possible
quality issues that growing businesses face eg consistency and the cost of maintaining quality (outsourcing, inspection costs). Candidates should be aware of the methods of maintaining consistent quality, including concepts such as Total Quality Management (TQM). |
Quality
quality_1.docx | |
File Size: | 578 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Learning Objectives:
- To understand the quality issues growing businesses face (D-E)
- To understand the different methods that can be used to maintain consistent quality (D-E)
- To analyse the impact of poor quality on a business (B-C)
- To understand the quality issues growing businesses face (D-E)
- To understand the different methods that can be used to maintain consistent quality (D-E)
- To analyse the impact of poor quality on a business (B-C)
Starter Activity: Why is quality so important?
Quality involves meeting customer requirements.
Measuring Quality:
Costs of measuring quality:
Costs of poor quality:
- Customers - they could complete surveys, have special phone lines set up or encourage customers to suggest improvements
- Mystery Visitors - businesses may hire mystery visitors to use the product in secret to test the service
- Staff - can be asked to check to quality or products during or at the end of the production process (quality control/quality assurance)
Costs of measuring quality:
- cost of inspection and checking (and checking outsourcing)
- cost of training staff to check quality
Costs of poor quality:
- cost of recalling faulty products
- cost of replacing goods
- cost of waste
- cost of goods produced that no one wants
- cost of potential legal action
Quality Assurance:
- A medium to long-term process; cannot be implemented quickly
- Focus on processes – how things are made or delivered
- Achieved by improving production processes
- Targeted at the whole organisation
- Emphasises the customer
- Quality is built into the product
Quality Control
- Can be implemented at short-notice
- Focus on outputs – work-in-progress and finished goods
- Achieved by sampling & checking (inspection)
- Targeted at production activities
- Emphasises required standards
- Defect products are inspected out
Total Quality Management involves all employees in the process or preventing mistakes in order to achieve zero defects.
- Prevention
Prevention is better than cure. In the long run, it is cheaper to stop products defects than trying to find them
- Zero defects
The ultimate aim is no (zero) defects - or exceptionally low defect levels if a product or service is complicated
- Getting things right first time
Better not to produce at all than produce something defective
- Quality involves everyone
Quality is not just the concern of the production or operations department - it involves everyone, including marketing, finance and human resources
- Continuous improvement/Kaizen
Businesses should always be looking for ways to improve processes to help quality
- Employee involvement
Those involved in production and operations have a vital role to play in spotting improvement opportunities for quality and in identifying quality problems
- Prevention
Prevention is better than cure. In the long run, it is cheaper to stop products defects than trying to find them
- Zero defects
The ultimate aim is no (zero) defects - or exceptionally low defect levels if a product or service is complicated
- Getting things right first time
Better not to produce at all than produce something defective
- Quality involves everyone
Quality is not just the concern of the production or operations department - it involves everyone, including marketing, finance and human resources
- Continuous improvement/Kaizen
Businesses should always be looking for ways to improve processes to help quality
- Employee involvement
Those involved in production and operations have a vital role to play in spotting improvement opportunities for quality and in identifying quality problems
Why does good quality matter?
- Customer retention
- Saves money
- Can charge higherprices