Quality control (A level BS)
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Contents |
Total Quality Management
TQM is a set of management practices throughout the organization, geared to ensure the organization consistently meets or exceeds customer requirements. TQM places strong focus on process measurement and controls as means of continuous improvement. It’s also a management method relying on the cooperation of all members of an organisation.
Companies who have used the TQM method include Ford, Motorola and Toyota.
Total = Quality involves everyone and all activities in the company.
Quality = Conformance to Requirements (Meeting Customer Requirements).
Management = Quality can and must be managed.
TQM = A process for managing quality; it must be a continuous way of life; a philosophy of perpetual improvement in everything we do.
TQM is the foundation for activities which include;
- Meeting and exceeding Customer Requirements ~ Customers want to get their money's worth from a product or service they purchase
- Reducing Development Cycle Times
- Just In Time/Demand Flow Manufacturing
- Improvement Teams
- Reducing Product and Service Costs
- Improving Administrative Systems Training
Empower Workers
One area of satisfying the internal supplier is by empowering the workers. This means to allow them to make decisions on things that they can control. This not only takes the burden off the supervisor, but it also motivates the employees to do better work. Workers are often a source of continuous improvements. They can provide suggestions on how to improve a process and eliminate waste or unnecessary work.
SELF CHECKING Vs. INSPECTION Companies inspect the finished products and if there are any faults found, remove them. The logic of this is that if all the products with defects can be found then the customer will receive only perfect products. The result is quality is improved. This quality control system relies on inspection of the products. The main problem with quality control is that there is an assumption that all products will have defects. This means that the employees in the production department will not be motivated to work so hard as they know that the quality control department will pick up their mistakes.
SELF CHECKING…
- Self checking relies more on prevention rather than inspection, so employees get it right first time round.
- The main point of this method is that employees check their own work, which is why its called self checking!
- Employees will also have the ability to reject work whoever did it.
- Under this approach, employees are respnsible for their own work.
- So quality work is seen as part of their job.
BS5750…
BS5750 is a quality award available in the UK
A similar award is available in Europe and is called the IS09000
This award is available to businesses who regularly check their quality levels and that action is taken if quality levels drop
To gain a BS5750:
- Set quality targets
- Examine production process to ensure things are achieved
- Measure the results and take action if they are different to the targets
THE VALUE OF A BS5750…
- Businesses who have gained the BS5750 can use it in their marketing
- This could be a way for them to have a USP and win customers from their competitors
- Quite a few leading manufacturers will use suppliers with a
BS5750
- If a company sets out to gain a BS5750 then they will develop a set of procedures and set quality targets. This will lead to less wastage and a greater focus on the customers’ requirements.
- This will then lead to higher revenues, lower costs and more profits.
Quality and Operations Management
Key terms
- A quality product is ‘fit for purpose’. This means it meets customer requirements.
- A quality control process aims to identify any faults or errors in the product or service through inspection.
- Quality assurance seeks to guarantee all stages in the production process to ensure high quality final products and staidfied customers.
Quality and Operations Management
- An important aspect is making sure that the goods and services produced are of a suitable quality.
- The products need to meet the specification of the firm and the needs of customers.
- Quality products don’t always have to be expensive. They just simply have to meet specifications of target customers. For example a 75p light bulb maybe a quality product. This can also work the other way round, expensive products like houses or clothing can be poor quality products.
Quality control system.
- In order to develop good quality products a firm needs to identify what their target customers want.
- Traditional ways of checking good quality products is to put resources into inspecting if their products have faults or errors.
- This will allow the consumer to only receive perfect products. This is known a quality control system.
Disadvantages of the Q.C.S
- In recent years certain managers question if quality control is effective, because it assumes that the will be faults in certain products in production.
- The quality control system in a sense also gives the impression that it is acceptable for the production department to make mistakes.
Quality assurance approach
- This system puts more emphasis on preventing mistakes.
- If products can be designed in a way which there will be no errors or faults at the end of production, there is no need to invest resources in removing products with errors or faults.
- This saves resources and stresses the need for employees to get it right because there is no quality control system.
- Another part of this new system (quality control system) is self-checking, this gives the employees the right to reject any work of an unacceptable standard, whoever produced it.
- The quality control system ensures that companies produce good quality work. An example of a company using this system would be general motors, employees who work there are told “don’t accept errors, don’t build errors and don’t pass them along”.
Josh Muirhead-Smith And Omario Tarquini
Benchmarking
Benchmarking is the process of comparing performance with other firms, identifying comparatively high performance firms, and learning what it is they do that allows them to achieve that high level of performance. It is especially useful for those firms which eager to learn and improve but unafraid to seek outside help. Typically firms will use benchmarking to assess areas such as:
• Reliability of their products
- Their ability to send out the correct bills(invoices)
- Their ability to deliver items on time
- The time it takes to produce a product
Process of benchmarking:
Plan
What is the firm want?
How to collect data?
How improvement can be measured?
What kind of resources does the firm need?
Who is responsible for the project?
↓
Collect
Identifying ‘best practice’ in other businesses.
Agreeing the exchange of information with other businesses.
↓
Analyse
Comparing the ‘best practice’ with the existing processes, systems and procedures in the business.
↓
Adapt
Implement the new methods into its circumstances?
Evaluating how successful the changes have been.
Benefits of Benchmarking
- It is a systematic way of assessing where you are and where you are going
- Concrete measurements and results are often good tools for getting funding and support
- You will have a better sense of how well (or how poorly) you are doing
- Develop a better understanding of customers and competitors
- Have fewer complaints and more satisfied customers
- Reduce waste and improve quality
In order to ensure successful of benchmarking:
- Ensure every employee is committed and involved in the system (from senior management to shop-floor employees)
- Sufficient time and finance is available for the gathering of data and the implementation of new procedures.
- Ensure other businesses would not disclose information and make sure appropriate ‘best practice’ are used by the systems and procedures.
Links
Superfactory's links on benchmarking
Contributors
Josh Muirhead-Smith And Omario Tarquini
