Chapter 08 – Managing Quality
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Chapter 8
Managing Quality
Teaching Notes
This chapter provides depth on definition and management of quality management, while
the more technical coverage of statistical quality control issues is contained in Chapter 9 Quality
Control and Improvement. Topics included in this chapter are definitions of quality, quality
cycle, mistake-proofing or Poka-yoke, quality across the supply chain, cost of quality, the
approaches to quality advocated by Deming and Juran, the ISO 9000 approach to quality, the
Malcolm Baldrige Award, and quality implementation failures. Due to the importance of quality
management topics, good coverage is warranted.
In teaching this chapter, we start by developing a general framework for quality. We can
ask students to write a definition of quality before reading the chapter. Most students find this a
difficult exercise and the definitions they provide vary widely. The chapter provides a clear and
concise definition of quality that can be applied across industries and across time. We also cover
various approaches to quality, ISO 9000, the cost of quality, and the Baldrige approach, which
the students often find interesting.
Answers to Questions
1. Quality, defined as meeting or exceeding customer requirements, can be measured along
the four dimensions of design, conformance, the “abilities” and field service.
a. Phone service:
Design: – Number of service options and features
Chapter 08 – Managing Quality
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c. Ball-point pens:
2. Quality of design is determined before the product or service is produced. Market
research results in a concept. Engineering (in manufacturing organizations) translates the
concept into specifications and together with operations is responsible for subsequent
3. a. Product B has the higher reliability on average due to a higher MTBF (40 > 30).
b. Product B has greater maintainability due to a lower MTTR (2 < 5).
4. Student answers will also vary to this question. Students might describe a recent
5. The manufacturer’s first step in implementing a quality planning and control system
through the quality cycle is to determine quality attributes for wooden pencils. Strength
Chapter 08 – Managing Quality
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The inspection program for pencils should be based on sampling of the product during
production and at final inspection. When the results fall short of the standards, or outside
of control limits, quality is assumed to be out of control. Efforts are then made to
discover and correct the causes of poor quality.
6. Products with relatively poor quality:
– Some U.S.-manufactured economy cars
– Most frozen pizza
– Inexpensive cutlery and kitchen utensils
7. The buying firm or customer is an important part in defining quality so they are an
important factor to the supply chain in driving quality performance for an organization.
For many products and services, 50% of the offering is purchased from suppliers.
9. Any of the four dimensions of quality can affect revenue depending on what customers
Chapter 08 – Managing Quality
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McGraw-Hill Education.
improvements can be made by product simplification. Improving conformance quality
will generally decrease costs when a prevention approach and better process control is
used. There may be fewer defects, thus lower internal costs. Field service is often costly
because it may involve additional workers to provide a higher level of service, but
customers recognize the better service and may pay more for it.
10. 40,000 Training of personnel
15,000 Process planning
55,000 Total cost of prevention
20,000 Incoming materials inspection
11. Student answers will vary.
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12.
Deming
Juran
Continuous improvement
Breakthrough and continuous improvement
Constancy of purpose toward continuous
improvement and top management’s
commitment to quality and productivity
Careful management planning to solve “the vital
few” problems
Management and worker training
Careful management planning and worker
training
Remove barriers to productivity and
worker’s right to pride of workmanship
Involvement of all employees
Eliminate work standards and numerical
quotas
Institute procedure and methods to insure
quality
Encourage problem solving through
teamwork and effective two-way
communication
Involvement of all employees
Use statistical methods for quality
improvement
Control quality through statistical methods
13. ISO 9000 is considered a first step or a basic approach to quality since it provides a
quality assurance system to produce consistent quality and continuous improvement but
14. Student answers will vary. The Baldrige Award categories are (1) Leadership; (2)
15. IS0 9000 is considered a first step to quality as it focuses on the quality system within an
organization to assure the product or service they offer is what the company says it is
going to be (meets design standards). It requires the company to have procedures and
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McGraw-Hill Education.
but must have positive financial results and a strategy for long-term business success to
win the Baldrige Award.
16. Successful quality management systems require a values system aligned with quality as a
goal (rather than, for example, a singular focus on financial performance). Those values
must permeate from the top to the bottom of the organization, and be understood by all