Operations Management: Processes and Supply Chains, 12e (Krajewski)
Chapter 3 Quality and Performance
1) The investment a company makes in training employees to perform their duties and redesigning
products and processes to improve them would be categorized as prevention costs.
2) Appraisal costs are associated with preventing defects before they happen.
3) An example of an internal failure cost would be warranty cost.
4) From an ethical standpoint, it is not a requirement to consider the greater societal effects of decisions
that reduce the costs of quality.
5) Since an employee’s responsibility is to move production along, it is ethical to knowingly pass
defective services or products to internal or external customers when capacity is tight.
6) When a process fails to satisfy a customer:
A) it is quite often the customer’s fault.
B) it is considered a defect.
C) it is time to reengineer the process.
D) it is usually half the customer’s fault and half the company’s fault.
7) Which of the following would be considered a prevention cost of quality?
A) inspecting incoming raw materials
B) training workers to perform their jobs
C) issuing a recall of defective product before another customer is injured
D) performing a 24 hour burn-in on every item produced to make sure it works before it is shipped
8) Which of the following would be considered an appraisal cost of quality?
A) training workers to perform their jobs
B) purchasing better tools for workers to perform their jobs
C) repairing an item under the warranty
D) running a functional test on each item before it is boxed for shipment
9) A prime example of an internal failure cost is the:
A) labor cost associated with inspecting every item produced.
B) labor cost associated with repairing an item returned under warranty.
C) material cost of a piece of stock metal that has had too large a hole drilled in it.
D) material cost of the paint applied to the case of a finished unit.
10) A professor, dissatisfied with a product he’s purchased, bad mouths the product to his class, resulting
in decreased market share (since the students believe everything he tells them). The manufacturer suffers:
A) an internal failure cost.
B) an external failure cost.
C) a prevention cost.
D) an appraisal cost.
11) Improving quality seems to be a strategic weapon in gaining market share. However, improving
quality entails allocation of resources and effort. As greater effort is expended to stop defects before they
occur, which one of the following costs increases?
A) prevention costs
B) appraisal costs
C) internal failure costs
D) external failure costs
12) Which one of the following is a consequence of internal failures?
A) increased customer service
B) increased inventory costs
C) increased productivity
D) decreased lead time
13) Increasing the quality level by better products and processes may:
A) allow a company to raise the price of the product.
B) move a company closer to a competitive priority of price.
C) reduce prevention costs.
D) ensure that the trade-off between prevention costs and other costs of poor quality is worthwhile.
14) Which one of the following is considered to be an appraisal cost?
A) cost of quality audits
B) cost of supplier programs
C) cost of rework
D) cost of process design
15) Which one of the following statements is true?
A) Appraisal costs decrease as quality level decreases.
B) Appraisal costs increase as the variation of output increases.
C) Appraisal costs increase as the variation of output decreases.
D) Appraisal costs increase as quality level increases.
16) A cost that is incurred if some aspect of a service must be performed again is called a(n):
A) yield loss.
B) prevention cost.
C) appraisal cost.
D) rework cost.
17) When errors have been made while producing a product such that the item must be discarded, the
resultant cost is called a(n):
A) warranty.
B) scrap cost.
C) rework cost.
D) external failure cost.
18) Which one of the following is part of prevention costs?
A) the costs of quality audits
B) the costs resulting from scrap
C) the costs of improving process design and product design
D) the costs of lawsuits from injury from use of the product
19) Which one of the following is a potential consequence of external failures?
A) longer lead times
B) less rework
C) more litigation costs
D) lower product costs
20) At which of the following steps will the cost of detecting product defects be the highest?
A) customer
B) process
C) final testing
D) raw material
21) The internal failure known as ________ occurs when an item is unfit for further processing.
22) ________ is an internal cost of quality incurred when a process step must be performed again or fixed
before an item can be shipped.
23) ________ costs arise when a defect is discovered after the customer has received the product or service.
24) ________ costs are associated with preventing defects before they happen.
25) Illustrate the differences between prevention and appraisal costs using a restaurant setting as an
example.
26) What is the long-term impact of unethical business practices on product and service quality?
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3.2 Total Quality Management and Six Sigma
1) One of the principles that total quality management (TQM) stresses is customer satisfaction.
2) The notion of internal customers applies to all parts of a firm.
3) Internal customers are those that have some familial relation working at the business providing the
good or service.
4) Quality at the source refers to the effort to catch and correct any mistakes as they are being made by
those that are making them.
5) People often evaluate the quality of a service on the basis of psychological impressions.
6) The Six Sigma five-step approach contains the elements define, measure, analyze, improve, and
control.
7) Applying Six Sigma to service processes is more challenging than for manufacturing processes.
8) Because Six Sigma involves the elimination of defects, it can only be applied in manufacturing
processes.
9) The Six Sigma improvement model can be applied both to projects involving incremental
improvements to processes and to projects requiring major changes.
10) “Quality at the source” implies:
A) less expensive raw materials.
B) lower scrap.
C) higher rework costs.
D) more final-test inspectors.
11) Which one of the following statements is a key feature of both TQM and Six Sigma?
A) Quality is primarily the responsibility of all employees in the organization.
B) Quality is primarily the responsibility of the quality control department.
C) Quality is primarily the responsibility of the production department.
D) Quality is primarily the responsibility of top management.
12) A firm’s internal program in employee involvement includes which of the following considerations?
A) defining who is the customer
B) supplier management
C) product availability
D) psychological impressions
13) The TQM wheel features ________ at its center.
A) incremental improvement
B) customer satisfaction
C) employee teams
D) leadership
14) As an operations manager, which definition of quality do you have the most control over?
A) conformance to specifications
B) support
C) psychological impressions
D) value
15) Quality measured with reference to price is captured by the notion of:
A) conformance to specifications.
B) value.
C) fitness for use.
D) psychological impressions.
16) If a product initially fails to live up to the customer’s expectations, which dimension of quality might
salvage the sale and the company’s reputation?
A) psychological impressions
B) fitness for use
C) support
D) value
17) As he entered his broker’s office for the first time, the young associate professor was dazzled by its
tasteful accoutrements and the offer of a double tall, split shot, skinny, hazelnut latte. He knew his lottery
winnings would be safe here, thanks to his:
A) broker‘s conformance to specifications.
B) broker‘s fitness for use.
C) broker‘s support.
D) own psychological impressions.
18) The 15-year-old car didn’t dazzle students or members of the opposite sex, but it started every
morning and evening and got the professor to his destination on time, thereby scoring high on the:
A) psychological impressions scale of quality.
B) fitness for use scale of quality.
C) support scale of quality.
D) bells and whistles scale of quality.
19) One of the main challenges in developing the proper culture for TQM is to:
A) define customer for each employee.
B) suspend reward systems based on quantity.
C) institute an equitable employee recognition program.
D) get buy-in from the customer.
20) Continuous improvement is a philosophy that:
A) uses problem-solving techniques within work teams.
B) ensures there are plenty of quality inspectors to find areas for improvement.
C) waits until a big problem occurs, then systematically solves it.
D) encourages the hiring of statistical process control specialists to reduce the need for current employees
to learn statistical methods.
21) When considering the plan-do-study-act cycle for problem solving, evaluating how closely a project’s
results correspond to the initial goals set for the work is part of the ________ step.
A) plan
B) do
C) study
D) act
22) When considering the plan-do-study-act cycle for problem solving, instructing other employees in the
use of the new process occurs in the ________ step.
A) plan
B) do
C) study
D) act
23) When considering the plan-do-study-act cycle for problem solving, quantitative goals are set for
process improvement in the ________ step.
A) plan
B) do
C) study
D) act
24) Which of these elements is not part of the Deming Wheel?
A) plan
B) design
C) study
D) act
25) What is one reason that Six Sigma is more difficult to apply to service processes?
B) The work product is more difficult to see.
C) There is no way to measure process capability of a service product.
D) The National Six Sigma Society cautions against using it for services.
26) Which step of the Six Sigma DMAIC procedure monitors the process to make sure high performance
levels are maintained?
A) Define
B) Measure
C) Analyze
D) Improve
E) Control
27) Which step of the Six Sigma DMAIC procedure involves identifying data sources and preparing a
data collection plan?
A) Define
B) Measure
C) Analyze
D) Improve
E) Control
28) Consumers consider five aspects when defining quality. Which one of the following is least likely to
be one of these aspects?
A) value
B) fitness for use
C) psychological impressions
D) individual development
29) ________ is an approach to teamwork that moves responsibility for decisions farther down the
organizational chart—to the level of the employee actually doing the job.
30) ________ are small groups of supervisors and employees who meet to identify, analyze, and solve
production and quality problems.
31) Defects are caught and corrected where they were created under a(n) ________ philosophy.
32) Small groups of employees and supervisors that meet to identify, analyze, and solve process and
quality problems are known as ________.
33) The customer’s assessment of quality with reference to the price paid for the good or service is known
as ________.
34) ________ is a comprehensive and flexible system for achieving, sustaining, and maximizing business
success through intensive data analysis and process management, improvement and reengineering.
35) Full-time teachers and leaders of teams involved in Six Sigma projects are referred to as ________.
36) ________ refers to how well the product or service performs its intended purpose.
37) What are any three dimensions of quality and which one accurately describes how you assess
education?
38) Provide examples of the three main tenets of total quality management as applied to this operations
management course.
39) Why is employee empowerment important in a total quality management program?
40) What are the steps in the Six Sigma improvement model and how do they relate to the PDSA cycle?
1) Acceptance sampling is the application of statistics to determine if the quality of incoming materials
should be accepted or rejected.
2) An acceptable quality level is measured as the proportion of defective items a buyer is willing to
tolerate.
3) While acceptance sampling does determine if incoming materials should be accepted or rejected, it
does not limit the buyer’s risk of accepting bad-quality parts or rejecting good-quality parts.
4) In acceptance sampling, the proportion defective that the buyer will allow in an incoming shipment is:
A) the acceptable random sample (ARS).
B) the upper control limit (UCL).
C) the lower control limit (LCL).
D) the acceptable quality level (AQL).
5) In acceptance sampling, when the random sample passes the buyer’s incoming test (low number of
defects found), the next action taken is to:
A) accept the entire lot of incoming materials.
B) do additional testing to reduce the risk of accepting a bad-quality lot.
C) place the lot on hold and wait for additional lots from this seller to be tested to assure consistent good
quality.
D) 100% inspect the lot because some defects were found.
6) ________ is the application of statistical techniques to determine if the quality of incoming materials
should be accepted or rejected, based on the testing of a sample of parts.
7) In acceptance sampling, the ________ is the proportion defective that the buyer will allow in an
incoming shipment.
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3.4 Statistical Process Control
1) Statistical process control (SPC) is the application of statistical techniques to determine whether a
quantity of material should be accepted or rejected.
2) Common causes of variation are the purely random, unidentifiable sources of variation that are
unavoidable with the current process.
3) Assignable causes of variation include any variable-causing factors that can be identified and
eliminated.
4) On a control chart, a type I error occurs when the employee concludes that the process is in control
when it is actually out of statistical control.
5) Convicting an innocent defendant is an example of a type II error.