Final exam QM:

Chapter 7,8,9,13,14

Section A : 50 multiple choice questions cover all chapters

Section B : 2 questions, choose 1 (Chapter 7 for both questions, and one question from chapter
8&9)(20 marks) House of quality process/steps/customer requirement/technical specification

Design for Quality and Product Excellence - Chapter 7

Importance of Design

● Better designs reduce costs and improve quality. For example, simpler designs have fewer
components, which mean fewer points of failure and less chance of assembly error.
● Many product failures and service upsets result form poor design or inadequate design processes.

Product Development

1. Idea Generation: Develop concept incorporating customer needs and expectations.

2. Preliminary Concept Development: Study new ideas for feasibility.
3. Product/Process Development: Evaluate design alternatives and determining engineering
specifications; test prototypes; develop, test, and standardize processes.
4. Full-Scale Production: Release the product to manufacturing or service delivery teams.
5. Market Introduction: Distribute to customers.
6. Market Evaluation: Market evaluation and customer feedback to initiate continuous improvements.

Concurrent Engineering

● Concurrent engineering is a process in which all major functions involved with bringing a product
to market are continuously involved with product development from conception through sales.
● Multifunctional teams, usually consisting of 4 to 20 members and including every specialty in the
company. The functions of such teams are to perform and coordinate the activities in the product
development process simultaneously, rather than sequentially.

Design for Six Sigma

● Design for Six Sigma (D F S S) represents a structured approach to product development and a
set of tools and methodologies for ensuring that goods and services will meet customer needs and
achieve performance objectives, and that the processes used to make and deliver them achieve
high levels of quality.
- Concept development
- Detailed design
- Design optimization
- Design verification
● These activities are often incorporated into a process, known as D M A D V, which stands for
define, measure, analyze, design, and verify.

Concept Development and Innovation

 ● Concept development is the process of applying scientific, engineering, and business knowledge
to produce a basic functional design that meets both customer needs and manufacturing or
service delivery requirements.
● Innovation involves the adoption of an idea, process, technology, product, or business model that
is either new or new to its proposed application.
- Innovation is built upon strong research and development (R&D) processes.

Creativity

● … is seeing things in new or novel ways.

● Creativity tools, such as brainstorming and “brainwriting,” are designed to help change the context
in which one views a problem or opportunity, thereby leading to fresh perspectives.
● TRIZ, a Russian acronym for the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving
- Developed by a Russian patent clerk who studied thousands of submissions, and observed
patterns of innovation common to the evolution of scientific and technical advances.
- He recognized that these concepts could be taught, and he developed some 200 exercises
to foster creative problem solving.

Detailed Design

● Detailed design focuses on establishing technical requirements and specifications, which

represent the transition from a designer’s concept to a producible design, while also ensuring that
it can be produced economically, efficiently, and with high quality.
● Axiomatic design is based on the premise that good design is governed by laws similar to those in
natural science.

1.Independence Axiom: good design occurs when the functional requirements of the design are
independent of one another.

2.Information Axiom: good design corresponds to minimum complexity.

Quality Function Deployment (Q F D)

● … is a planning process to guide the design, manufacturing, and marketing of goods by integrating
the voice of the customer throughout the organization.
● Through Q F D, every design, manufacturing, and control decision is made to meet the expressed
needs of customers.
● Q F D benefits companies through improved communication and teamwork between all
constituencies in the value chain, such as between marketing and design, between design and
manufacturing, and between manufacturing and quality control.

The Four Linked Houses of Quality

The House of Quality

Building the House of Quality

1. Identify customer requirements.

2. Identify technical requirements.

3. Relate the customer requirements to the technical requirements.

4. Conduct an evaluation of competing products or services.

5. Evaluate technical requirements and develop targets.

6. Determine which technical requirements to deploy in the remainder of the production/delivery

process.
Target and Tolerance Design

● Manufacturing specifications consist of nominal dimensions and tolerances.

- Nominal refers to the ideal dimension or the target value that manufacturing seeks to meet.
- Tolerance is the permissible variation, recognizing the difficulty of meeting a target
consistently.

Tolerance Design

● Tolerance design involves determining the permissible variation in a dimension.

- Narrow tolerances tend to raise manufacturing costs but they also increase the
interchangeability of parts within the plant and in the field, product performance, durability, and
appearance.
- Wide tolerances increase material utilization, machine throughput, and labor productivity, but
have a negative impact on product characteristics

Modern Perspective of Conformance to Specifications

● A Japanese engineer, Genichi Taguchi maintained that the “goal-post” definition of quality is
inherently flawed. No strict cut-off point divides good quality from poor quality, but that losses occur
whenever there is a deviation from the nominal specification.

Figure 7.11 Variation in U.S.-Made versus Japanese-Made Television Components

Reliability

● Reliability is defined as the probability that a product, piece of equipment, or system performs its
intended function for a stated period of time under specified operating conditions.
● Key elements:
- Probability
- Time
- Performance
- Operating conditions

Types of Failures

● Functional failure – failure that occurs at the start of product life due to manufacturing or material
detects
● Reliability failure – failure after some period of use
Reliability Concepts

● Inherent reliability is the predicted reliability determined by the design of the product or process.
● Achieved reliability is the actual reliability observed during use.
● Achieved reliability can be less than the inherent reliability due to the effects of the manufacturing
process and the conditions of use.

Mathematics of Reliability

● Reliability is determined by the number of failures per unit time during the duration under
consideration (called the failure rate, λ).
- For items that must be replaced when a failure occurs, the reciprocal of the failure rate
(having dimensions of time units per failure) is called the mean time to failure (M T T F).
- For repairable items, the mean time between failures (M T B F) is used.

Product Life Characteristics Curve (Figure 7.17)

● Many electronic components commonly exhibit a high, but decreasing, failure rate early in their
lives, followed by a period of a relatively constant failure rate, and ending with an increasing failure
rate.

Reliability Function

● The reliability function, R(T), characterizes the probability of survival to time T.

● Properties:

1.​R(0) = 1

2. As T becomes larger, R(T) is non-increasing

3.​R(T) = 1 − F(T), where F(T) is the cumulative probability distribution of failures

Design for Reliability

● Reliability requirements are determined during the product design phase.

● The designer may use these techniques to determine the effects of adding redundancy,
substituting different components, or reconfiguring the design.

Design Optimization

● Robust design refers to designing goods and services that are insensitive to variation in
manufacturing processes and when consumers use them.
 ● Robust design is facilitated by the design of experiments to identify optimal levels for nominal
dimensions and other tools to minimize failures, reduce defects during the manufacturing process,
facilitate assembly and disassembly (for both the manufacturer and the customer), and improve
reliability.

DFMEA

● Design failure mode and effects analysis (D F M E A) – identification of all the ways in which a
failure can occur, to estimate the effect and seriousness of the failure, and to recommend
corrective design actions.

Elements of D F M E A

● Failure modes
● Effect of the failure on the customer
● Severity, likelihood of occurrence, and detection rating
- The severity rating is based on how serious the impact would be if the potential failure were
to occur. The occurrence rating is based on the probability of the potential failure occurring.
The detection rating is based on how easily the potential failure could be detected prior to
occurrence Based on these assessments, a risk priority number (R P N) is calculated.
● Potential causes of failure
● Corrective actions or controls

Scoring Rubric for D F M E A Ratings (Figure 7.26)

Rating Severity Occurrence Detection

Hazardous or potentially Very high or almost certain

10 Cannot detect or hidden defect
life-threatening probability of occurrence

Serious impact on customer High probability of

7-9 Low chance of detection
safety or satisfaction occurrence

Major impact on customer Moderate probability

5-6 Moderate chance of detection
Satisfaction of occurrence

Minor defect or customer Low probability of

2-4 High chance of detection
inconvenience occurrence

Will almost always be able to

1 Little to no effect Unlikely to occur
detect

Fault Tree Analysis

● Fault Tree Analysis (F T A), sometimes called cause and effect tree analysis, is a method to
describe combinations of conditions or events that can lead to a failure.
● A cause and effect tree is composed of conditions or events connected by “and” gates and “or”
gates.
● An effect with an “and” gate occurs only if all of the causes below it occur; an effect with an “or”
gate occurs whenever any of the causes occur.
Cause and Effect Tree Example (Figure 7.29)

Design for Manufacturability

● D F M - the process of designing a product for efficient production at the highest level of quality.
● Example guidelines (see Table 7.1)
- Minimize number of parts
- Design for robustness
- Eliminate adjustments
- Make assembly easy and foolproof
- Use repeatable, well-understood processes
- Choose parts that can survive process operations
- Design for efficient and adequate testing
- Lay out parts for reliable process completion
- Eliminate engineering changes

Design and Environmental Responsibility

● Design for Environment (D F E) - the explicit consideration of environmental concerns during

the design of products and processes, and includes such practices as designing for recyclability
and disassembly.

Design for Excellence (D F X)

● ...an emerging concept that includes many design-related initiatives such as concurrent
engineering, design for manufacturability, design for assembly, design for environment, and other
“design for” approaches
● Principles
- Constantly thinking in terms of how one can design or manufacture products better
- Focusing on “things done right” rather than “things gone wrong”
- Defining customer expectations and going beyond them
- Optimizing desirable features or results
- Minimizing the overall cost without compromising quality

Design Verification

● Design Reviews
 - The purpose of a design review is to stimulate discussion, raise questions, and generate
new ideas and solutions to help designers anticipate problems before they occur.
● Reliability Testing
- Life testing – run devices until failure occurs
- Accelerated life testing – overstress devices to reduce time to failure
- Highly accelerated life testing - focused on discovering latent defects that would not
otherwise be found through conventional methods. For example, it might expose products to
rapid, extreme temperature changes in temperature chambers that can move products
between hot and cold zones to test thermal shock, or also extreme vibrations.
Measuring and Controlling Quality - Chapter 8

Measurement for Quality Control

● Measurement is the act of collecting data to quantify the values of product, service, process, and
other business metrics.
● Measures and indicators refer to the numerical results obtained from measurement.
- The term indicator is often used for measurements that are not a direct or exclusive measure of
performance.
● Good measures should be SMART: Simple, Measurable, Actionable, Related (to customer and
operational requirements), and Timely.

Example 8.1: Quality Measurements for a Pizza Fulfillment Process

● Percentage of calls placed on hold. If this measure is high, it may signify that the answering
system or staffing is inadequate.
● Percentage of accurate orders (as transmitted to the kitchen). This measure can indicate a lack of
attention or knowledge on the part of the order taker.
● Percentage of pizzas rejected. A high number for this measure can indicate a lack of proper
training of cooks, resulting in poor products and customer complaints.
● Average daily time to delivery. This measure might indicate a problem within the restaurant or
inadequate training of the driver. (Of course, as happened in the early days with Domino’s Pizza,
measuring delivery time could encourage drivers to drive too fast and lead to safety problems.)
● Number of errors per week in collections. Errors here can result in lost profits and higher prices.
● Daily raw materials (dough, etc.) or finished pizzas inventory. A high number might result in
spoilage and excess costs. Low inventory might result in lost orders or excessive customer waiting
time.

Dashboards
● … summaries of key performance measures, typically consisting of a small set of measures (five
or six) that provide a quick summary of process performance.
● Dashboards often use graphs, charts, and other visual aids to communicate key measures and
alert workers and managers when performance is not where it should be.

Common Quality Measurements

● A unit of work is the output of a process or an individual process step.
● A nonconformance is any defect or error associated with a unit of work.
- In manufacturing we often use the term defect, and in service applications, we generally
use the term error to describe a nonconformance.
● A nonconforming unit of work is one that has one or more defects or errors.

Types of Quality Control Measures

● An attribute measurement characterizes the presence or absence of nonconformances in a unit of
work, or the number of nonconformances in a unit of work.
- Attribute measurements often are collected by visual inspection and expressed as
proportions and counts.
● Variable measurements apply to dimensional quantities such as length, weight, and time, or any
value on a continuous scale of measurement.
- Variable measurements are generally expressed with statistical measures such as
averages and standard deviations.
Quality Measurements in Service Organizations (Table 8.1)
​
Organization Quality Measure

Hospital Lab test accuracy

Insurance claim accuracy
On-time delivery of meals and medication

Bank Check-processing accuracy

Insurance Claims-processing response time

company Billing accuracy

Post office Sorting accuracy

Time of delivery
Percentage of express mail delivered on time

Ambulance Response time

Police department Incidence of crime in a precinct

Number of traffic citations

Hotel Proportion of rooms satisfactorily cleaned

Checkout time
Number of complaints received

Transportation Proportion of freight cars correctly routed

Dollar amount of damage per claim

Auto service Percentage of time work completed as promised

Number of parts out of stock

Attribute Measurements

● In manufacturing it is common to use the terms “proportion defective” and “defects per unit (D P
U),” in these formulas.
Example 8.2: In a hotel, 35 rooms were inspected and 3 rooms were found to have nonconformances. One
room had 1 nonconformance; the second had 3 nonconformances; and the third had 2 nonconformances.

Using formula (8.1), the proportion of rooms that were nonconforming is calculated as
Using formula (8.2), the number of nonconformances per room is calculated as

Defect Classification
 1. Critical defect: A critical defect is one that judgment and experience indicate will surely result in
hazardous or unsafe conditions for individuals using, maintaining, or depending on the product and
will prevent proper performance of the product.
2. Major defect: A major defect is one not critical but likely to result in failure or to materially reduce
the usability of the unit for its intended purpose.
3. Minor defect: A minor defect is one not likely to materially reduce the usability of the item for its
intended purpose, nor to have any bearing on the effective use or operation of the unit.

DPMO
● Defects per million opportunities (D P M O)

● In services, the term often used as an analogy to d p m o is errors per million opportunities
(epmo).

Example 8.5: For an airline, suppose that the average number of bags per customer is 1.6, and the airline
recorded 3 lost bags for 8000 passengers in one month. Using formula (8.4) we have

Cost of Quality Measures

● Cost of Quality (C O Q) – the cost of avoiding poor quality, or costs incurred as a result of poor
quality
● Provides a basis for identifying improvement opportunities and success of improvement programs
● C O Q translates quality problems into the “language” of upper management—the language of
money.

Quality Cost Classification

● Prevention
- Investments made to keep nonconforming products from occurring and reaching the
customer
● Appraisal
- Associated with efforts to ensure conformance to requirements, generally through
measurement and analysis of data to detect nonconformances
● Internal failure
- Costs of unsatisfactory quality found before the delivery of a product to the customer
● External failure
- Costs incurred after poor-quality products reach the customer

Measurement System Evaluation

● Observed variation in process output stems from the natural variation that occurs in the output
itself as well as the measurement system.
 ● The total observed variation in production output is the sum of the true process variation (which is
what we actually want to measure) plus variation due to measurement:

Errors in Manual Inspection

● Complexity: The number of defects caught by an inspector decreases with more parts and less
orderly arrangement.
● Defect rate: When the product defect rate is low, inspectors tend to miss more defects than when
the defect rate is higher.
● Inspection rate: The inspector’s performance degrades rapidly as the inspection rate increases.

Metrology
● …the science of measurement and is defined broadly as the collection of people, equipment,
facilities, methods, and procedures used to assure the correctness or adequacy of measurements.
● National and international trade requires weights and measures organizations that assure uniform
and accurate measures used in trade, national or regional measurement standards laboratories,
standards development organizations, and accredited and internationally recognized calibration
and testing laboratories.

Accuracy and Precision

● Accuracy is defined as the difference between the true value and the observed average of a
measurement.
- Accuracy is measured as the amount of error in a measurement in proportion to the total
size of the measurement.
● Precision is defined as the closeness of repeated measurements to each other.
- Precision relates to the variance of repeated measurements.

Accuracy Versus Precision (Figure 8.4)

(a) Not precise and not accurate

(b) More precise than (a) but not accurate

(c) More accurate than (a) but less precise

(d) More accurate than (a) or (b),and more precise than ©

Calibration
● …the process of verifying the capability and performance of an item of measuring and test
equipment compared to traceable measurement standards.
● The National Institute of Standards and Technology (N I S T) maintains national measurement
standards.
- N I S T calibrates the reference-level standards of those organizations requiring the
highest level of accuracy. These organizations calibrate their own working-level standards
and those of other metrology laboratories. These working-level standards are used to
calibrate the measuring instruments used in the field.
 ● Many organizations must ensure traceability by keeping records that their own measuring
equipment has been calibrated by laboratories or testing facilities whose measurements can be
related to appropriate standards.

Repeatability and Reproducibility Analysis

● Repeatability (equipment variation, E V) – variation in multiple measurements by an individual
using the same instrument.
● Reproducibility (appraiser variation, A V) - variation in the same measuring instrument used by
different individuals.
● A repeatability and reproducibility (R&R) study is a study of variation in a measurement system
using statistical analysis.

R&R Studies

1. Select m operators and n parts

2. Calibrate the measuring instrument
3. Randomly measure each part by each operator for r trials
4. Compute key statistics to quantify repeatability and reproducibility

R&R Evaluation
● A measurement system is adequate if R&R is low relative to the total variation, or equivalently, the
part variation is much greater than the measurement system variation.

● Under 10% error - OK

● 10-30% error - may be OK
● over 30% error - unacceptable

Process Capability Measurement

● Process capability is the ability of a process to produce output that conforms to specifications.
● A process capability study is a carefully planned study designed to yield specific information
about the performance of a process under specified operating conditions. Typical questions
include:
- Where is the process centered?
- How much variability exists in the process?
- Is the performance relative to specifications acceptable?
- What proportion of output will be expected to meet specifications?
- What factors contribute to variability?
Types of Process Capability Studies
● Process characterization study - how a process performs under actual operating conditions
● Peak performance study - how a process performs under ideal conditions
 ● Component variability study - relative contribution of different sources of variation (e.g., process
factors, measurement system)

Evaluating Process Capability

● The only information needed to conduct a process characterization study is the mean, standard
deviation, and histogram of a sample of measurements.
● If the distribution is approximately normal, then we know that 99.73 percent of the observations will
fall within three standard deviations from the mean.
● Thus, the natural variation of a process can be characterized as μ − 3σ and μ + 3σ, where μ is the
process average.
● Such a six standard deviation spread is commonly used as a measure of process variability.

Examples of Process Variation Histograms and Specifications (Figure 8.7)

Limitations of Histograms
Figure 8.9 Frequency Distribution and Histogram of Quality Measurements

Figure 8.10 Chart of Sample Means

Pre-Control
● … a simple technique for ensuring that a process that has relatively good capability remains in
control.
● Divide the tolerance range into zones by setting two pre-control lines halfway between the center
of the specification and the upper and lower specification limits.
- The center zone, called the green zone, comprises one-half of the total tolerance.
- Between the pre-control lines and the specification limits are the yellow zones.
- Outside the specification limits are the red zones.

Pre-Control Process
● At the start of a process, five consecutive parts must fall within the green zone. If not, the
production setup must be reevaluated before the full production run can be started.
● Once regular operations commence, sample one part:
- If it falls within the green zone, production continues.
- If it falls in a yellow zone, a second part is inspected. If the second part falls in the green zone,
production can continue; if not, production should stop and a special cause should be investigated.
- If any part falls in a red zone, then action should be taken.

Statistical Process Control (S P C)

● … a methodology for monitoring a process to identify special causes of variation and signal the
need to take corrective action when appropriate.
● Control chart - a run chart to which two horizontal lines, called control limits are added: the upper
control limit (U C L) and lower control limit (L C L)

Structure of a Control Chart (Figure 8.14)

Controlled Process
● No points are outside control limits.
● The number of points above and below the center line is about the same.
● The points seem to fall randomly above and below the center line.
● Most points, but not all, are near the center line, and only a few are close to the control limits.

Typical Out-of-Control Patterns

● Point outside control limits
● Sudden shift in process average
● Cycles
● Trends
● Hugging the center line
● Hugging the control limits

Shift in Process Average (Figure 8.16)

Indicators of Shifts (Figure 8.17)

Cycles (Figure 8.18)

Trend (Figure 8.18)

Hugging the Center Line (Figure 8.20)

Hugging the Control Limits (Figure 8.21)

Process Improvement and Six Sigma - Chapter 9

Breakthrough

● …the accomplishment of any improvement that takes an organization to unprecedented levels of

performance.
● Breakthrough attacks chronic losses or, in Deming’s terminology, common causes of variation.
● Process improvement methodologies and tools provide the foundation for breakthrough as well as
modern Six Sigma approaches.

Quality Profile: Iredell-Statesville Schools

● Classrooms focus on five key questions:

● Plan, Do, Study, Act (P D S A) cycle is used to identify and implement improvements.
● P D S A is also used throughout the school district in operational and support areas
1. “What do students need to know?”
2. “How will they learn it?”
3. “How will we know they have learned it?”
4. “What will we do if they have not learned it?” and
5. “What will we do if they already know it?”
● Plan, Do, Study, Act (P D S A) cycle is used to identify and implement improvements.
● P D S A is also used throughout the school district in operational and support areas

Quality Profile: Bristol Tennessee Essential Services

 ● Bristol Tennessee Essential Services (B T E S) is an electricity and fiber services utility company
that serves 33,000 customers with only 68 employees.
● B T E S has built a culture of continuous improvement, which is fully deployed throughout the
organization and is effective at identifying and rapidly improving performance. For example, the C
A P-DO process (Check, Act, Plan, Do) encourages employees and teams to rapidly improve
processes.
● With new technologies and innovations, B T E S continues to decrease outage minutes with a
strenuous goal of less than 60 minutes per customer per year.

Process Improvement Methodologies

● Redefining and analyzing the problem: Collect and organize information, analyze the data and
underlying assumptions, and reexamine the problem for new perspectives, with the goal of
achieving a workable problem definition.
● Generating ideas: “Brainstorm” to develop potential solutions.
● Evaluating and selecting ideas: Determine whether the ideas have merit and will achieve the
problem solver’s goal.
● Implementing ideas: Sell the solution and gain acceptance by those who must use them.

Evolution of the Deming Cycle

● Walter Shewhart: specification, production, and inspection for mass production.

- These steps correspond to the scientific method of hypothesizing, carrying out an
experiment, and testing the hypothesis.
● “Deming Wheel”
1. Design the product with appropriate tests.
2. Make the product and test in the production line and in the laboratory.
3. Sell the product.
4. Test the product in service and through market research.
● Japanese Implementation: Plan-Do-Check-Act, which evolved into Plan-Do-Study-Act (P D S
A), known as the Deming cycle.

Plan

1. Define the process: its start, end, and what it does.

2. Describe the process: list the key tasks performed and sequence of steps, people involved,
equipment used, environmental conditions, work methods, and materials used.
3. Describe the players: external and internal customers and suppliers, and process operators.
4. Define customer expectations: what the customer wants, when, and where, for both external and
internal customers.
5. Determine what historical data are available on process performance, or what data need to be
collected to better understand the process.
6. Describe the perceived problems associated with the process; for instance, failure to meet
customer expectations, excessive variation, long cycle times, and so on.
7. Identify the primary causes of the problems and their impacts on process performance.
8. Develop potential changes or solutions to the process, and evaluate how these changes or
solutions will address the primary causes.
 9. Select the most promising solution(s).

Do

1. Conduct a pilot study or experiment to test the impact of the potential solution(s).
2. Identify measures to understand how any changes or solutions are successful in addressing the
perceived problems.

Study

1. Examine the results of the pilot study or experiment.

2. Determine whether process performance has improved.
3. Identify further experimentation that may be necessary.

Act

1. Select the best change or solution.

2. Develop an implementation plan: what needs to be done, who should be involved, and when the
plan should be accomplished.
3. Standardize the solution, for example, by writing new standard operating procedures.
4. Establish a process to monitor and control process performance.

Creative Problem Solving

● Creativity is seeing things in new or novel ways.

● Creative Problem Solving Process
- Understanding the “Mess”– identify symptoms
- Finding Facts – gather data; operational definitions
- Identifying Specific Problems – find the root cause
- Generating Ideas – brainstorming
- Developing Solutions – evaluate ideas and proposals
- Implementing Solutions – make the solution work

Custom Improvement Methodologies

● F A D E: focus, analyze, develop, and execute.

● D R I V E—Define the problem, Recognize the cause, Identify the solution, Verify the actions, and
Evaluate the results. (Park Place Lexus)
● Some organizations embed the Deming cycle within a broader framework.

Incorporating the Deming Cycle in a Process Improvement Model

Six Sigma D M A I C Methodology

1. Define
2. Measure
3. Analyze
4. Improve
5. Control

Six Sigma

● …a business improvement approach that seeks to find and eliminate causes of defects and errors
in manufacturing and service processes by focusing on outputs that are critical to customers and a
clear financial return for the organization.
● The term six sigma is based on a statistical measure that equates to 3.4 or fewer errors or defects
per million opportunities (dpmo).

Evolution of Six Sigma

● Motorola (mid-19 80s)

- Improve product and services quality ten times by 1989, and at least one hundred fold by
1991. Achieve six-sigma capability by 19 92. With a deep sense of urgency, spread dedication
to quality to every facet of the corporation, and achieve a culture of continual improvement to
assure total customer satisfaction. There is only one ultimate goal: zero defects—in everything
we do.
● General Electric (mid-19 90s)
● Rapid growth and interests in subsequent years.
Principles of Six Sigma

1. Think in terms of key business processes and customer requirements with a clear focus on overall
strategic objectives.
2. Focus on corporate sponsors responsible for championing projects, support team activities, help to
overcome resistance to change, and obtain resources.
3. Emphasize such quantifiable measures as dpmo that can be applied to all parts of an organization:
manufacturing, engineering, administrative, software, and so on.
4. Ensure that appropriate metrics are identified early in the process and that they focus on business
results, thereby providing incentives and accountability.
5. Provide extensive training followed by project team deployment to improve profitability, reduce
non-value-added activities, and achieve cycle time reduction.
6. Create highly qualified process improvement experts (“Green Belts,” “Black Belts,” and “Master
Black Belts”) who can apply improvement tools and lead teams.
7. Set stretch objectives for improvement.

Differences Between Six Sigma and T Q M

● T Q M is based largely on worker empowerment and teams; Six Sigma is owned by business
leader champions.
● T Q M activities generally occur within a function, process, or individual workplace; Six Sigma
projects are truly cross-functional.
● T Q M training is generally limited to simple improvement tools and concepts; Six Sigma focuses
on a more rigorous and advanced set of statistical methods and D M A I C methodology.
● T Q M is focused on improvement with little financial accountability; Six Sigma requires a verifiable
return on investment and focus on the bottom line.

Theoretical Basis for Six Sigma (Figure 9.4)

Calculating the Sigma Level

A k-sigma quality level satisfies the equation:

Example 9.3: Suppose that the specification limits for some process are L S L = 0.02 and U S L = 0.10,
with the nominal specification being 0.06. Find the sigma level if the process standard deviation is 0.01.
Using Equation (9.1):

Therefore, this process operates at a 4-sigma level as long as it remains centered in the tolerance range
(on 0.06) and the process mean does not drift by more than 1.5(0.01) = 0.015.

Calculating D P M O Using Excel

● Use the Excel function to find dpmo:

= (1 − NORM.DIST(sigma level, 1.5, 1, TRUE)*1000000 (9.2)

Example 9.3: a four-sigma quality level corresponds to a dpmo value of

=(1 − NORM.DIST (4, 1.5, 1, TRUE))*1000000 = 6210

Calculating the Sigma Level for D P M O

● Use the Excel function to find the sigma level:

In Example 8.6 in Chapter 8, we calculated epmo for shipping orders as 35,256.

Using Formula (9.3):

we find that this process is operating at a sigma level of 3.31.

Tabulation of d p m o for Different Sigma Levels (Table 9.2)

Sigma
dpmo
Level

3.0 66807.2

3.5 22750.1

4.0 6209.7

4.5 1349.9
 5.0 232.6

5.5 31.7

6.0 3.4

Types of Quality Problems

● Conformance problems are defined by unsatisfactory performance by a well-specified system.

(Six Sigma)
● Efficiency problems result from unsatisfactory performance from the standpoint of stakeholders
other than customers. (Lean tools)
● Unstructured performance problems result from unsatisfactory performance by a poorly
specified system. (Creative thinking)
● Product design problems involve designing new products that better satisfy user needs—the
expectations of customers that matter most to them. (Special tools)
● Process design problems involve designing new processes or substantially revising existing
processes. (Combined approaches)

Project Management and Organization

● Projects are the vehicles that are used to organize and to implement Six Sigma.
● The Project Management Body of Knowledge (P M B O K), developed by the Project Management
Institute, defines 69 tools that every project manager should master.
● Achieving professional certification in project management can significantly assist Six Sigma
efforts.

Six Sigma Teams

● Champions: Senior-level managers who promote and lead the deployment of Six Sigma in a
significant area of the business.
● Master Black Belts: Full-time Six Sigma experts who are responsible for Six Sigma strategy,
training, mentoring, deployment, and results.
● Black Belts: Fully-trained Six Sigma experts with extensive technical training who perform much
of the technical analysis required in Six Sigma projects, usually on a full-time basis.
● Green Belts: Functional employees who are trained in introductory Six Sigma tools and
methodology and work on projects on a part-time basis, assisting Black Belts while developing
their own knowledge and expertise.
● Team Members: Individuals from various functional areas who support specific projects.

Factors in Six Sigma Project Selection

● Financial return (return on investment, R O I), as measured by costs associated with quality and
process performance, and impacts on revenues and market share
● Impacts on customers and organizational effectiveness
● Probability of success
 ● Impact on employees
● Fit to strategy and competitive advantage

Six Sigma Project Selection Matrix Example (Figure 9.5)

Common Six Sigma Tools Used in D M A I C (Table 9.3)

Define:
Project charter
Cost of quality analysis
Pareto analysis
High-level process mapping
Analyze:
Scatter diagrams
Detailed process mapping
Statistical inference
Cause-and-effect diagrams
Failure mode and effects analysis
Root cause analysis
Control:
Control charts
Standard operating procedures
Measure:
Run charts
Check sheets
Descriptive statistics
Measurement system evaluation
Process capability analysis
Benchmarking
Improve:
Design of experiments
Mistake proofing
Lean production
Deming cycle
Seven management and planning tools

Toyota A3 Report

● A tool to consolidate and visualized information for solving quality problems, similar to D M A I C.
The reports are comprised of seven sections:
1. Theme, which succinctly states the problem being addressed.
2. Background, which contains a description of all pertinent information needed to understand
the scope of the problem.
3. Current condition, which deals with developing an understanding of the process using a
value-stream map.
4. Cause analysis, which focuses on determining the cause of the problem.
5. Target condition, which specifies possible improvement ideas that could solve the problem.
6. Implementation plan, which identifies the steps that need to be accomplished in order to
achieve the improvements.
7. Follow-up, which lists activities that will need to be completed after implementation along
with the results of the implementation.

Structure of Toyota A3 Report

Define

● Describe the problem in operational terms

 ● Drill down to a specific problem statement (project scoping)
- Apply Pareto analysis
● Identify the process
- Use a S I P O C diagram
● Develop a project charter to include
- A simple project definition, the project objective, the project team and sponsor, the
customers and C T Qs on which the project focuses, existing measures and performance
benchmarks, expected benefits and financial justification, a project timeline, and the
resources needed.

Pareto Analysis

● A Pareto distribution is one in which the characteristics observed are ordered from largest
frequency to smallest.
● A Pareto diagram is a graphical description of a Pareto distribution.

Figure 9.7 Pareto Diagram of Customer Calls

Process Mapping: S I P O C Diagram

Figure 9.9 General Structure of a S I P O C Diagram

Figure 9.10 Example of a S I P O C Diagram

Measure

● Focus on understanding process performance and collecting the data necessary for analysis.
● Key data collection questions
- What questions are we trying to answer?
- What type of data will we need to answer the question?
- Where can we find the data?
- Who can provide the data?
- How can we collect the data with minimum effort and with minimum chance of error?
● Operational definitions – clarify performance measures

Y = f(X)

● Six Sigma uses the notion of a function Y = f(X) in mathematics to portray the relationship between
process performance and customer value, which is visualized in a C T Q (critical to quality) tree.
- Y is the set of C T Qs and X represents the set of critical input variables that influence Y.

Figure 9.11 Example of a C T Q tree

Check Sheets

● …special types of data collection forms in which the results may be interpreted on the form directly
without additional processing.

Check Sheet for Data Collection (Figure 9.12)

Defective Item Check Sheet (Figure 9.13)

Defective Location Check Sheet (Figure 9.14)

Analyze

● Analyzing a problem starts with a fundamental understanding of the process

- typically accomplished through detailed process mapping, expanding on the S I P O C
diagram that is developed in the Define phase.
● Value stream map - highlights value-added versus non-value-added activities, and include times
that activities take.
- Value stream maps are an important tool in lean thinking

Why Defects, Errors, or Excessive Variation Occur

● A lack of knowledge about how a process works, which is particularly critical if different people
perform the process. Such lack of knowledge results in inconsistency and increased variation in
outputs.
● A lack of knowledge about how a process should work, including understanding customer
expectations and the goal of the process
● A lack of control of materials and equipment used in a process
● Inadvertent errors in performing work
● Waste and complexity, which manifest themselves in many ways, such as unnecessary steps in a
process and excess inventories
● Hasty design and production of parts and assemblies; poor design specifications; inadequate
testing of incoming materials and prototypes
● Failure to understand the capability of a process to meet specifications
● Lack of training
● Poor instrument calibration and testing
● Inadequate environmental characteristics such as light, temperature, and noise

Root Cause Analysis

● Root cause -“that condition (or interrelated set of conditions) having allowed or caused a defect to
occur, which once corrected properly, permanently prevents recurrence of the defect in the same,
or subsequent, product or service generated by the process.”
● Root cause analysis is an approach using statistical, quantitative, or qualitative tools to identify
and understand the root cause.
 - “5 Why” technique - forces one to redefine a problem statement as a chain of causes and
effects to identify the source of the symptoms by asking why, ideally five times.
- Cause-and-effect diagram is a simple graphical method for presenting a chain of causes and
effects and for sorting out causes and organizing relationships between variables.
- Scatter diagram - the graphical component of regression analysis.

General Structure of Cause-and-Effect Diagram (Figure 9.17)

Cause-and-Effect Diagram for Hospital Emergency Admission Problem

Improve

● Generate ideas for removing or resolving the problem and improve the performance measures and
C T Qs.
- Brainstorming – a group problem-solving procedure for generating a large number of ideas
through combination and enhancement of existing ideas.
- Checklists to spawn new ideas.
● Evaluation and selection
- Scoring models to assess possible solutions against important criteria such as cost, time,
quality improvement potential, resources required, effects on supervisors and workers, and
barriers to implementation such as resistance to change or organizational culture.
Control

● Maintain the improvements, which includes putting tools in place to ensure that the key variables
remain within the maximum acceptable ranges under the modified process.
- establishing the new standards and procedures,
- training the workforce, and
- instituting controls to make sure that improvements do not die over time using checklists,
status reviews, or control charts.

Lean Tools

● Lean production refers to approaches that originated at the Ford Motor Company in the early 19
00s, but which were refined and modernized by the Toyota Motor Corporation later in the century.
● Lean approaches focus on the elimination of waste in all forms, including defects requiring rework,
unnecessary processing steps, unnecessary movement of materials or people, waiting time,
excess inventory, and overproduction.

Tools of Lean Production

● The 5S’s: seiri (sort), seiton (set in order), seiso (shine), seiketsu (standardize), and shitsuke
(sustain).
● Visual controls.
● Efficient layout and standardized work.
● Pull production.
● Single minute exchange of dies (S M E D).
● Total productive maintenance.
● Source inspection.
● Continuous improvement.

Lean Six Sigma

● …an integrated improvement approach to improve goods and services and operations efficiency
by reducing defects variation, and waste.
- Lean production addresses visible problems in processes, for example, inventory, material
flow, and safety.
- Six Sigma is more concerned with less visible problems, for example, variation in
performance.
Lean Six Sigma Metrics in Services

● Accuracy
● Cycle time
● Cost
● Customer satisfaction
Leadership for Performance Excellence Chapter 13

Role of Leadership in Quality and Performance Excellence

● The Juran Center for Leadership in Quality at the University of Minnesota observed:
- Despite substantial efforts, only a few U.S. organizations have reached world-class excellence.
- Even fewer companies have sustained such excellence during changes in leadership.
- Most corporate quality failures rest with leadership.
● Leadership is the first category in the Baldrige framework, signifying its importance in driving
quality and performance excellence throughout an organization.

Leadership in Deming’s 14 Points

● Point 1. Create and publish to all employees a statement of the aims and purposes of the
company or other organization. The management must demonstrate constantly their commitment
to this statement.
● Point 7. Teach and institute leadership.
● Point 12. Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship.
● Point 14. Take action to accomplish the transformation.

Quality Profile: The Studer Group

● Studer Group’s senior leadership has embedded Evidence-Based Leadership (E B L) within the
organization to provide the framework for its internal operations.
● Senior leaders have created a culture at that is values-driven, transparent, and fosters passion for
making a difference.
● The firm models the Evidence-Based Leadership service excellence it teaches and identifies its
key support mechanism as “people interacting with people.”

Quality Profile: Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital

● The Memorial Hermann Sugar Land executive team sets direction and vision in its planning by
following the ADVANCE strategies set forth by the Memorial Hermann Health System: Align with
physicians, Deliver quality care, Value employees, Achieve operational targets, Nurture growth
and innovation, Be consumer centric, and Enhance population health infrastructure.
● Their three-step “Values-Driven Leadership System” integrates strategy, mission, vision, values,
and core competencies into daily operations. Using this system, senior leaders share key
information with the workforce through multiple methods.
● The hospital ranks among the top 10 percent nationally for a number of performance metrics.

Leadership

● …the ability to positively influence people and systems under one’s authority to have a meaningful
impact and achieve important results

Six Key Leadership Competencies

● Navigator: Creates shared meaning and provides direction towards a vision, mission, goal or
end-result.
● Communicator: Effectively listens and articulates messages to provide shared meaning.
● Mentor: Provides others with a role model to guide their actions.
 ● Learner: Continuously develops personal knowledge, skills, and abilities through formal study,
experience, reflection, and recreation.
● Builder: Shapes processes and structures to allow for the achievement of goals and outcomes.
● Motivator: Influences others to take action in a desirable manner.

Personal Leadership Characteristics

1. Accountability: Taking responsibility for the organization, community, or self that the leader
serves.
2. Courage: The mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or
difficulty with a firmness of mind and will, allowing leaders to navigate into the unknown.
3. Humility: What gives excellent leaders their ability to mentor, communicate, and learn, and
understand that they are servants of those that follow.
4. Integrity: The ability to discern what is right from wrong and commit to the right path.
5. Creativity: The ability to see possibilities, horizons, and futures that don’t yet exist, enabling the
leader to help create a shared vision.
6. Perseverance: Sticking to a task or purpose, no matter how hard or troublesome.
7. Well-Being: The ability to stay healthy in both work and play, demonstrating the importance of
being ready to implement leadership competencies when needed.

Key Practices for Performance Excellence Leadership

● Set organizational vision and values and deploy them through the organization’s leadership
system, to the workforce, to key suppliers and partners, and to customers and other stakeholders
as appropriate.
● Demonstrate a commitment to organizational values through personal actions.
● Foster a sustainable organization by creating (1) an environment for organizational performance
improvement, the accomplishment of the organization’s mission and strategic objectives,
innovation, competitive or role-model performance leadership, and organizational agility; (2) an
environment for organizational and workforce learning; (3) a culture that fosters customer
engagement; and developing and enhancing leadership skills and developing future organizational
leaders.
● Promote an organizational environment that fosters, requires, and leads to legal and ethical
behavior.
● Communicate with and engage the entire workforce by encouraging frank, two-way
communication throughout the organization, communicating key decisions, and taking an active
role in reward and recognition programs to reinforce high performance and a customer and
business focus.
● Create a focus on action to accomplish the organization’s objectives, improve performance, and
attain the organization’s vision.
● Create and balance value for customers and other stakeholders in their organizational
performance expectations.
● Maintain an effective governance system that provides for accountability for management’s
actions, transparency, and protection of stakeholder and stockholder interests.
● Evaluate performance of senior leadership and use performance reviews to improve personal
leadership effectiveness.
● Actively support and strengthen key communities such as charitable organizations, education, and
others.

Strategic Leadership
 ● For a strategy to be successful, senior leaders must have extensive involvement in the planning
process, create an environment for competitive success and performance leadership, and guide
the design of the work and leadership systems that will ensure that the strategy is carried out.
● Strategic leadership is “a person’s ability to anticipate, envision, maintain flexibility, think
strategically, and work with others to initiate changes that will create a viable future for the
organization, and its competitive advantage to the organization in this way.”

Characteristics of Strategic Leadership

● Serving as both leaders and team members;

● Demonstrating the importance of integrity through actions rather than simply articulating it;
● Thinking in terms of processes rather than outcomes;
● Leveraging the collective knowledge of everyone in the organization;
● Designing work that reflects relationships rather than the organizational hierarchy;
● Anticipating environmental change rather than reacting to it;
● Viewing employees as organizational citizens rather than resources; and
● Operating with a global mindset rather than a domestic mindset.

Leadership Systems

● Leadership system – how leadership is exercised, formally and informally, throughout an

organization. These elements include how key decisions are made, communicated, and carried
out at all levels.
● The leadership system includes structures and mechanisms for decision making, selection and
development of leaders and managers, and reinforcement of values, directions, and performance
expectations.
● It builds loyalties and teamwork based upon shared values, encourages initiative and risk taking,
and subordinates organization to purpose and function.
● An effective leadership system also includes mechanisms for leaders’ self-examination and
improvement.

Stoner Business Excellence System (Figure 13.1)

Classification of Leadership Theories (Table 13.2)

Situational Leadership Theory

● Leadership styles might vary from one person to another, depending on the “readiness” of
subordinates, which is characterized by their skills and abilities to perform the work, and their
confidence, commitment, and motivation to do it.
● Four levels of follower maturity (readiness) and associated leadership styles:
1. Unable and unwilling – “directing” style
2. Unable but willing – “coaching” style
3. Able but unwilling – “supporting” style
4. Able and willing – “delegating” style

Situational Leadership Styles

 ● Directing. In this style of leadership, managers define tasks and roles, and closely supervise
work.
● Coaching. In this style, leaders set the overall approach and direction but work with subordinates
and allow them to manage the details.
● Supporting. Here, leaders allocate tasks and set direction, but the subordinate has full control
over the performance of the work.
● Delegating. In this style, subordinates can do their work with little supervision or support (minimal
task-oriented behavior).

Transactional Leadership

● Transactional leadership theory assumes that certain leaders may develop the ability to inspire
their subordinates to exert extraordinary efforts to achieve organizational goals through behaviors
that may include contingent rewards, and active and passive management by exception.

Transformational Leadership

● Transformational leadership theory suggests that leaders adopt behaviors such as: idealized
influence, individualized consideration, inspirational motivation, and intellectual stimulation, and
have a long-term perspective, focus on customers, promote a shared vision and values, work to
stimulate their organizations intellectually, invest in training, take some risks, and treat employees
as individuals.
● Transformational leadership is more aligned with organizational change required by total quality
and Baldrige-like performance excellence models.

Evolving Leadership Skills

● A position to a process
● A functional orientation to a boundary-less orientation
● A focus at the top to a focus throughout the organization
● Independent decision making to interdependent decision making
● Developing via individual competencies to developing via groups and networks
● Power resulting from position to power resulting from knowledge
● Competition to collaboration
● Logical and rational to feeling and emotional
● Staying the course strategy to emergent/flexible strategy
● Selling opinions to inquiring for buy-in

Leadership, Governance, and Societal Responsibilities

● “Good leaders give back . . . It’s up to us to use our platform to be a good citizen. Because not
only is it a nice thing to do, it’s a business imperative.”

– Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric

Corporate Social Responsibility (C S R)

● …the “responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society.”

● Organizations must behave ethically and be sensitive of social, cultural, economic, and
environmental issues. This includes compliance with legal and ethical standards, corporate
governance, and protection of public health, safety, and environmental protection.
 ● Item 1.2 in the Leadership category of the Baldrige Criteria is focused exclusively on C S R as well
as organizational governance. The item addresses an organization’s governance system;
performance evaluation; legal, regulatory, and ethical behavior; societal well-being; and community
support.

Organizational Governance

● Governance – the system of management and controls exercised in the stewardship of an

organization.
- Approving strategic direction
- Monitoring and evaluating C E O performance
- Succession planning
- Financial auditing
- Executive compensation
- Disclosure
- Shareholder reporting

Societal Responsibilities

● Safety in product design and manufacturing

- Planning activities such as product design should anticipate adverse impacts from production,
distribution, transportation, use, and disposal of a company’s products to protect the welfare of
consumers and society.
● Security of sensitive information
● Environmental sustainability
● Community support
Building and Sustaining Quality and Performance Excellence - Chapter 14

Organizational Sustainability

● …the ability to address current needs and have the agility and management skills and structure to
prepare successfully for the future.
● Building and sustaining performance excellence requires
- effective leadership,
- a commitment to change
- the adoption of sound practices and implementation strategies, and
- continual organizational learning.

Quality Profile: Montgomery County Public Schools

● M C P S comprehensive reform efforts are guided by the district’s strategic plan, Our Call to
Action: Pursuit of Excellence (O C A).
● Senior leaders engage in extensive outreach with partners, customers, and the community to
solicit shared concerns and expectations that are codified in the O C A.
● M C P S “reverse engineered” the education process by starting with the goal of college and
career readiness, and then identifying the knowledge and skills needed for students to reach that
target.
● Graduation rates and parent satisfaction are far above national comparative averages.

Quality Profile: Kindred Nursing and Rehabilitation

● Kindred Nursing and Rehabilitation – Mountain Valley, a 68-bed skilled nursing center in Kellogg,
Idaho.
● Their Service Excellence Program measures the level of service provided to all of its customers.
The program consists of eight elements for success: pride, compassion, fun, teamwork, integrity,
respect, professionalism, and responsibility.
● Kindred – Mountain Valley increases its workforce capability and capacity through online
scheduling, cross-training, ongoing education, and career advancement.
● Kindred – Mountain Valley has achieved a five-star quality rating—the highest possible—from the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Organizational Culture and Change

● Culture is an organization’s value system and its collection of guiding principles.

● Culture is an important factor for sustainability and long-term success of any organization.
● Culture is driven by leadership.
● Cultural values are often seen in the mission and vision statements.
● Culture is a powerful influence on behavior because it is shared widely and because it operates
without being talked about, and indeed, often without being thought of.
Culture of Quality

● A culture of quality can be described simply as one in which every employee embraces the
organization’ s quality vision, values, and goals as a way of life.
● Ensure that all employees
- know their product or deliverable,
- know their customer,
- know their customer’ s quality expectations, and
- have a metric to measure quality

Changing Organizational Culture

● Strategic change is broad in scope and stems from strategic objectives, which are generally
externally focused and relate to significant customer, market, product/service, or technological
opportunities and challenges.
● Process change is narrow in scope and deals with the operations of an organization. An
accumulation of continuously improving process changes can lead to a positive and sustainable
culture change.

Strategic versus Process Change (Table 14.1)

Managing Change
● Ask the tough questions:
- Why is the change necessary?
- What will it do to my organization (department, job)?
- What problems will I encounter?
- What’s in it for me?
● Change process (American Express):
1. ​Scope the Change: Why are we doing this?
2. Create a Vision: What will the change look like?
3. Drive Commitment: What needs to happen to make the change work?
4. Accelerate the Transition: How are we going to manage the effort on an ongoing basis?
5. ​Sustain Momentum: What have we learned and how can we leverage it?

Performance Excellence Culture

 ● A premium is placed on excellence in performance—obtaining desired behaviors and results. That
is, there is a clear focus on results that support the organization’s mission, vision, and strategic
objectives.
● Organizations acknowledge that their success is contingent upon the successful performance of
their employees. People are the most important driver of performance.
● Strategic outcomes drive the work.
● Management is strongly committed to creating conditions and consequences that support and
sustain strong performance. Finally, leadership is vital to success.

Key Behaviors

● To foster a positive quality culture, organizations must

- create and maintain an awareness of quality by disseminating results throughout the
organization
- provide evidence of management leadership, such as serving on a quality council, providing
resources, or championing quality projects
- encourage self-development and empowerment through the design of jobs, use of
empowered teams, and personal commitment to quality
- provide opportunities for employee participation to inspire action, such as improvement
teams, product design reviews, or Six Sigma training
- provide recognition and rewards, including public acknowledgment for good performance as
well as tangible benefits

Role of the Workforce

● Senior leadership must provide the vision.

● Middle managers provide the leadership by which the vision of senior management is translated
into the operations of the organization, and act as role models for first-level managers and
employees.
● The workforce delivers quality and, for a performance excellence strategy to succeed, must be
granted not only empowerment, but ownership.

Barriers to Change

● Lack of what Deming called “constancy of purpose.”

● Lack of a holistic systems perspective.
● Lack of alignment and integration with the organizational system.
- Alignment refers to consistency of plans, processes, information, resource decisions,
actions, results, and analyses to support key organization-wide goals.
- Integration refers to the harmonization of plans, processes, information, resource decisions,
actions, results, and analyses to support key organization-wide goals.

Strategies for Quality and Performance Excellence

 ● I S O 9000
● Six Sigma
● Baldrige
● Integration of two or more of these.
● A successful strategy needs to fit within the existing organization culture and capabilities.

Quality Engines

● Baldrige Award recipients have unique “quality engines” that drive their culture and organizational
processes.

Table 14.2 Some Examples of Quality Engines

Best Practices

● …those that are recognized by the business community (and often verified through some type of
research) to lead to successful performance.
● Research suggests that trying to implement all the best practices of world-class organizations may
not be a good strategy. In fact, implementing the wrong practices can actually hurt the
organization.

Building on Best Practices

● “Universal” best practices

- Cycle time analysis
- Process value analysis
- Process simplification
- Strategic planning
- Formal supplier certification programs
● Beyond these five, best practices depend on an organization’s current level of performance. That
is, organizations must build their capability slowly and methodically.

Principles for Effective Implementation

● Committed leadership from top management.

● Integration with existing initiatives, business strategy, and performance measurement.
 ● Process thinking.
● Disciplined customer and market intelligence gathering.
● A bottom-line orientation.
● Leadership in the trenches.
● Training.
● Continuous reinforcement and rewards.

Journey Toward Performance Excellence

● Quality life cycle

1. Adoption: The implementation stage of a new quality initiative.
2. Regeneration: When a new quality initiative is used in conjunction with an existing one to
generate new energy and impact
3. Energizing: When an existing quality initiative is refocused and given new resources
4. Maturation: When quality is strategically aligned and deployed across the organization
5. Limitation or stagnation: When quality has not been strategically driven or aligned
6. Decline: When a quality management system (Q M S) has had a limited impact, initiatives
are failing, and the Q M S is awaiting termination

Baldrige Roadmap to Performance Excellence (Figure 14.2)

Organizational Learning

● Sustainability requires continual learning.

● Learning organizations have become skilled in creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge and
in modifying the behavior of their employees and other contributors to their enterprises.
● Learning organizations have to become good at performing five main activities
- systematic problem solving,
- experimentation with new approaches, learning from their own experiences and history,
- learning from the experiences and best practices of others, and
- transferring knowledge quickly and efficiently throughout the organization

Self Assessment: Basic Elements

 ● Management involvement and leadership
● Product and process design
● Product control
● Customer and supplier communications
● Quality improvement
● Employee participation
● Education and training
● Quality information

Are We Making Progress?

● The Baldrige Program provides two simple instruments called Are We Making Progress? (one for
employees and one for leaders).
● They provide a way of capturing the voice of the employee and the perspective of leadership to
develop baseline measurements of an organization’s progress using the Baldrige criteria.

Importance of Follow-Up of Self-Assessment Results

● Many organizations derive little benefit from conducting self-assessment and achieve few of the
process improvements suggested by self-study.
● Reasons:
- Managers do not sense a problem
- Managers react negatively or by denial
- Managers don’t know what to do with the information

Leveraging Self-Assessment Findings

● Prepare to be humbled
- Many managers have trouble believing that the performance levels of the organization are as
low as they appear.
● Talk through the findings
- Discussing the issues, concerns, and ideas can generate greater shared perspective among
executives and improve consensus.
● Recognize institutional influences
- Discussion about the environmental motivators of the project can sensitize managers to these
outside influences.
● Grind out the follow-up

Challenges in Small Organizations and Nonprofits

● Lack of understanding and knowledge of what needs to be done and how to do it.
● Lack of resources needed to establish and maintain more formal quality systems.
● Lack of market clout, which may impact a small firm’s ability to get suppliers involved in quality
efforts.
 ● Not recognizing the importance of human resource management strategies in quality.
● Lack of professional management expertise and the short-term focus.
● Lower technical knowledge and expertise.
● The informal nature of communication and lack of structured information systems.

A View Toward the Future

•[Quality] has become one of the twentieth century’s most important management ideas. It has exorcised
the traditional business and graduate management school notion that a company’s success means making
products and offering services quicker and cheaper, selling them hard and providing a product service net
to try to catch those that don’t work well. It has replaced this notion with the business principle that making
products better is the best way to make them quicker and cheaper and that what is done to make quality
better anywhere in an organization makes it better everywhere in the organization.

– A.V. Feigenbaum and Donald S. Feigenbaum

MGM4144 Final

Table of Contents
Section B (MCQ)

Question 1: Model of system of quality

Question 2: Pareto, Flow Chart

Question 3: Decision Making

Question 4: Level poor quality

Question 5: organization structure (muti-department)

Question 6: 5S in quality program

Question 7: Teamwork in quality management

Question 8: knowledge of people

Question 9: Six Sigma

Question 10: ISO chp 2 & 10 in textbook

Section C (T/F)

Question 1: continuos improvement

Question 2: strategic leadership

Question 3: culture

Question 4: process changes

Question 5: six sigma

Question 6/ 8/9: measurement of performance

Question 7: Performance itself

Question 10: knowledge management system

Section A (ESSAY)

1. Explain five (5) quality human resource management approaches that can help to achieve
organizational excellence?

2. What are the important activities in designing a quality programme? Discuss your answer on the
Input (supplier relationship management), Process (process management) and Output (customer
relationship management) perspectives.

3. What are the common and different features and approaches between manufacturing and service
organizations in terms of the quality management principles.
 4. An organization should achieve high levels of performance to be recognized as an excellent
organization. Explain the elements or criteria that are usually being used to evaluate for the
organizational excellence award. (Please refer to one (1) particular award that you are familiar of

5. Explain at least two (2) approaches of quality management strategy that would lead to company’s
profitability.

6. Every organization need to identify their customer and supplier to have a direct transaction that will
determine the organizational performance. Explain TWO (2) approach of customer relationship
management and TWO (2) approach of supplier relationship management for the organization to
achieve the quality

7. Explain the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) concept in continuous improvement perspective in

designing an effective quality management for a particular organization.

Section B (MCQ)
Question 1: Model of system of quality
PDCA, developed by Shewhart, stands for which of the following?
Select one:
a. Plan-Do-Check-Act
b. Plan-Develop-Check-Accept
c. Problem-Develop Solution-Check-Act
d. Problem-Do-Continue-Act
e. Prepare-Develop-Create-Assess

Which stage of the PDSA cycle consists of studying the current situation, understanding customer
expectations, gathering data, and testing theories of causes?
a. Act
b. Do
c. Plan
d. Study
In which of the following stages of the PDSA cycle, the plan is implemented on a trial basis, such as in a
laboratory, pilot production process, or with a small group of customers, to evaluate a proposed solution
and provide objective data?
a. Study
b. Do
c. Check
d. Act

Which of the following stages of the PDSA cycle determines whether the trial plan is working correctly by
evaluating the results, recording the learning, and determining whether any further issues or opportunities
need be addressed?
a. Study
b. Do
c. Plan
d. Act

In which of the following stages of the PDSA cycle, the improvements become standardized and the final
plan is implemented as a "current best practice" and communicated throughout the organization?
a. Study
b. Do
c. Plan
d. Act

In which of the following stages of the FADE approach, a team selects the problem to be addressed and
defines it, characterizing the current state of the process, why change is needed, what the desired result
should be, and the benefits of achieving the result?
a. Analyze
b. Develop
c. Focus
d. Execute

In which of the following stages of the FADE approach, the team works to describe the process in detail,
determine what data and information are needed, and develop a list of root causes for the problem?
a. Execute
b. Focus
c. Develop
d. Analyze

Which of the following stages of the FADE approach focuses on creating a solution and implementation
plan along with documentation to explain and justify recommendations to management who must allocate
the resources?
a. Focus
b. Analyze
c. Execute
d. Develop
In which of the following stages of the FADE approach, the solution is implemented and a monitoring plan
is established?
a. Analyze
b. Develop
c. Focus
d. Execute

Question 2: Pareto, Flow Chart

With respect to Pareto analysis, a Pareto _____ is one in which the characteristics observed are ordered
from largest frequency to smallest.
A]quincunx
B]histogram
C]charter
D]distribution

A _____ defines the project, its objectives, and deliverables, and represents a contract between the project
team and the sponsor.
A]project charter
B]project diagram
C]SIPOC diagram
D]CTQ tree

______ are the graphical components of regression analysis.

A]Histograms
B]Run charts
C]Pareto diagrams
D]Scatter diagrams

Toyota created a unique tool, called the _____, to succinctly consolidate and visualize information for
identifying and solving quality problems.
a. Pareto diagram
b. run chart
c. histogram
d. A3 report

One useful quality control tool to help identify the most important issue among a mess of symptoms is
_____.
a. quincunx
b. Pareto analysis
c. run chart
d. histogram
Data such as production volume, cost, and customer satisfaction indexes are often plotted on a _____,
which displays the data over time.
a. check sheet
b. control chart
c. run chart
d. SIPOC diagram

A(n) _____ is a design tool that enables management to study and analyze processes prior to
implementation in order to improve quality and operational performance.
a. Likert's scale
b. flowchart
c. quality manual
d. affinity diagram

Arnold Palmer Hospital uses which of the following quality management techniques?
A) Pareto charts
B) flowcharts
C) benchmarking
D) just-in-time
E) The hospital uses all of the above techniques.

The process improvement technique that sorts the vital few from the trivial many is:
A) Taguchi analysis.
B) Pareto analysis.
C) benchmarking.
D) Deming analysis.
E) Yamaguchi analysis.

A production manager at a pottery factory has noticed that about 70 percent of defects result from
impurities in raw materials, 15 percent result from human error, 10 percent from machine malfunctions, and
5 percent from a variety of other causes. This manager is most likely using:
A) a Pareto chart.
B) a scatter diagram.
C) a quality loss function.
D) a cause-and-effect diagram.
E) a flowchart.

Pareto charts are used to:

Select one:
a. identify inspection points in a process.
b. outline production schedules.
c. organize errors, problems, or defects.
d. show material flow.
e. show the range of values of a measurement and the frequency with which each value occurs.
Question 3: Decision Making

Question 4: Level poor quality

According to the Kano Model, the basic requirements that customers expect in a product and which are
generally not stated by customers but assumed as given, fall into the category of _____.
a. dissatisfiers
b. exciters
c. satisfiers
d. delighters

According to the Kano Model, new or innovative features that customers do not expect or even anticipate,
fall under the category of _____.
a. delighters
b. dissatisfiers
c. continuous improvements
d. satisfiers

According to the gap model, the term "_____" refers to the needs and requirements of a customer.
a. actual quality
b. delighters
c. expected quality
d. exciters

According to the gap model, the term "_____" refers to the outcome of the production process and what is
delivered to the customer.
a. expected quality
b. delighter
c. satisfier
d. actual quality

The ASQ Quality Glossary defines customer _____ as "the result of delivering a
product or service that meets customer requirements."
a. engagement
b. enrichment
c. satisfaction
d. loyalty

Which of the following categories of quality problems is characterized by unsatisfactory performance that
causes customer dissatisfaction, such as high levels of defects, service failures, or customer complaints?
a. Unstructured performance problems
b. Conformance problems
c. Product design problems
d. Efficiency problems

Which of the following categories of problems is characterized by unsatisfactory performance that causes
dissatisfaction from the standpoint of noncustomer stakeholders, such as managers of financial or supply
chain functions?
a. Product design problems
b. Efficiency problems
c. Unstructured performance problems
d. Conformance problems

Which of the following categories of problems is characterized by unsatisfactory performance by processes

that are not well-specified or understood?
a. Unstructured performance problems
b. Efficiency problems
c. Conformance problems
d. Product design problems

Balancing quality costs against expected revenue gains has become known as:
a. quality function deployment.
b. return on quality.
c. house of quality.
d. quality trilogy.

Question 5: organization structure (muti-department)

Which of the following types of teams in an organization is usually cross-functional?
a. Project team
b. Self-managed team
c. Natural work team
d. Quality circle

The organizations that emphasize more on the behavior of the employees rather than the processes and
procedures involved are aiming to:
a. improve the efficiency and timing of their service.
b. improve the reliability of their service.
c. provide a friendly and personable environment to their customers.
d. minimize variations in their service standards.
Which of the following survey instruments is most likely to be effective in generating a significant amount of
qualitative information from the customers?
a. Mail surveys
b. Online surveys
c. Focus groups
d. Telephone interviews

Question 6: 5S in quality program

With respect to 5S, which of the following Japanese terms refer to ensuring that each item in a workplace
is in its proper place or identified as unnecessary and removed?
a. Seiton
b. Seiketsu
c. Seiri
d. Seiso

With respect to 5S, which of the following Japanese terms refer to arranging materials and equipment so
that they are easy to find and use?
a. Seiri
b. Seiso
c. Seiton
d. Shitsuke

With respect to 5S, which of the following Japanese terms refer to formalizing procedures and practices to
create consistency and ensure that all steps are performed correctly?
a. Seiketsu
b. Seiri
c. Shitsuke
d. Seiton

Question 7: Teamwork in quality management

_____ is the function performed in organizations that facilitates the most effective use of people to achieve
organizational and individual goals.
a. Marketing management
b. Product management
c. Workforce management
d. Brand management
Which of the following activities is a part of workforce management?
a. Procuring the resources to carry out the production process
b. Identifying new markets for a product
c. Developing a long-term strategy for the organization
d. Assisting in design of work systems

An organization that has a strategic orientation to human resource management will:

a. focus on short-term immediate needs rather than future needs.
b. rely on proven approaches in designing and implementing policies and procedures.
c. adapt to changing business needs through innovative programs and systems.
d. focus on responding to stated needs of the organization rather than predicting unstated needs.

According to Kay Kendall and Glenn Bodison, which of the following "conditions of collaboration" refers to
believing in the inherent worth of another person?
a. Purpose
b. Values
c. Trust
d. Respect

Which of the following "conditions of collaboration," proposed by Kendall and Bodison, creates a
congruency between what the organization stands for and the personal beliefs of the individual?
a. Respect
b. Trust
c. Communication
d. Aligned values

The term "workforce engagement" refers to:

a. the ability of an organization to accomplish its work processes through the knowledge, skills, abilities,
and competencies of its workforce.
b. the extent of workforce commitment, both emotional and intellectual, to accomplishing the work,
mission, and vision of the organization.
c. the art of creating conditions that allow the workforce to complete their work at their own peak level of
efficiency.
d. the ability of an organization to ensure sufficient staffing levels to accomplish its work processes and
successfully deliver products and services to customers.

The term "employee involvement" refers to:

a. the art of creating conditions that allow all employees to complete their work, at their own peak level of
efficiency.
b. an organization's ability to ensure sufficient staffing levels to accomplish its work processes in order to
meet seasonal and varying demands.
c. how employees are organized in formal and informal units, such as departments and teams, within an
organization.
d. any activity by which employees participate in work-related decisions and improvement activities with
the objective of improving their motivation.

According to Herzberg's Two-Factor theory, which of the following factors is an example of a maintenance
factor?
a. Recognition
b. Advancement
c. Safe working environment
d. Achievement

According to Herzberg's Two-Factor theory, which of the following factors is an example of a motivational
factor?
a. Nature of work
b. Adequate pay
c. Safe working environment
d. Reasonable level of job security

_____ refers to how employees are organized in formal and informal units, such as departments and
teams.
a. Workforce engagement
b. Work design
c. Workforce capacity
d. Job design

According to Hackman and Oldham's work design model, "experienced meaningfulness" is a psychological
state that refers to the need of workers to:
a. be accountable for the quality and quantity of work produced.
b. know how their work is evaluated and the results of evaluation.
c. obtain information about the accuracy of their performance on a timely basis.
d. have the feeling that their work is a significant contribution to the organization and the society.

According to Hackman and Oldham work design model, Which of the following core job characteristics is
most likely to have an impact on employee's experienced responsibility?
a. Autonomy
b. Task identity
c. Skill variety
d. Task significance

Stella works as a customer service executive at a firm that manufactures computer systems. She was
motivated to perform her job effectively, as she was aware that her job of helping customers to resolve
technical issues had a direct impact on the performance of the organization. Which of the following job
characteristics, as identified by Hackman and Oldham in their work design model, is motivating Stella in
the above scenario?
a. Task significance
b. Autonomy
c. Skill variety
d. Task identity

According to Hackman and Oldham work design model, _____ is the degree to which a worker can
perceive a task, as a whole, identifiable piece of work from start to finish.
a. task significance
b. skill variety
c. task identity
d. autonomy
According to Hackman and Oldham work design model, "skill variety" is a core job characteristic that refers
to:
a. the degree to which the job gives the participants the feeling that they have a substantial impact on the
organization or the world.
b. the degree to which the job requires the worker to use a variety of talents.
c. the degree to which the task permits freedom, independence, and personal control to be exercised over
the work.
d. the degree to which the worker can perceive the task as a whole, identifiable piece of work from start to
finish.

According to Hackman and Oldham work design model, a job is said to have high _____ if it permits
workers freedom, independence, and authority to exercise personal control over the work.
a. autonomy
b. task identity
c. task significance
d. skill variety

Ergo Industries, which manufactures automotive parts, had taken various measures to improve the quality
of the products. The product-line managers at the company had the authority to stop production if they
found the components to be defective without the approval of the senior management in the company and
take measures to resolve the issue. This authority motivated the managers to perform their jobs better.
According to Hackman and Oldham work design model, which of the following core job characteristics is
influencing the performance of managers in the above scenario?
a. Skill variety
b. Autonomy
c. Task identity
d. Task significance

Nathan, a sales manager at a consumer electronics company, motivated his sales executives by providing
them regular inputs on their performance and also on what is expected of them from the company. The
team had also developed a system through which the sales persons could analyze their performance
based on customers' comments. According to Hackman and Oldham work design model, which of the
following core job characteristics is motivating the employees to perform better in the above scenario?
a. Autonomy
b. Task identity
c. Task significance
d. Feedback from the job

_____ is an approach to work design that improves a worker's job by including several tasks rather than
one single, low-level task.
a. Job enrichment
b. Job rotation
c. Job enlargement
d. Skill variety

Which of the following is true of the job enlargement approach to work design?
a. It results in lower production costs and reduces fragmentation of jobs.
b. It allows workers to learn several tasks by rotating them from one to another.
c. It leads to lower product quality.
d. It leads to lower worker satisfaction.

A food manufacturing company motivates its employees to perform well by giving them more
responsibilities and authority to make decisions. The company believes that giving more authority to
employees makes them more dedicated and committed to their work. Which of the following terms best
describes this approach to job design?
a. Job enlargement
b. Task identity
c. Job rotation
d. Job enrichment

Teams that are organized to perform entire jobs, rather than specialized, assembly line-type work are
known as _____ teams.
a. management
b. natural work
c. virtual
d. quality

Which of the following types of teams in an organization is usually cross-functional?

a. Project team
b. Self-managed team
c. Natural work team
d. Quality circle

In a team's life cycle, the stage of _____ takes place when the issues of the previous stage have been
worked out, and team members agree on roles, ground rules, and acceptable behavior when doing the
work of the team.
a. performing
b. norming
c. storming
d. forming

Which of the following stages of a team's life cycle takes place when team members disagree on team
roles and challenge the way that the team will function?
a. Storming
b. Norming
c. Performing
d. Adjourning

Which of the following practices will lead to effective recognition and rewarding of employees?
a. Tying rewards to immeasurable performance so that employees provide more attention to quality rather
than quantity
b. Giving individual rewards rather than team rewards because team rewards can ignore the contributions
of individual employees to the team
c. Rewarding behavior, not just results
d. Rewarding employees only through cash rewards as money is the most important and effective
motivating factor for most employees

The process of subjectively evaluating the quality of an employee's work is known as _____.
a. employee involvement
b. empowerment
c. workforce engagement
d. performance appraisal

Which of the following is a process measure that helps to assess workforce effectiveness?
a. Employee turnover
b. Job satisfaction
c. Number of suggestions made by the employees
d. Perceptions of teamwork and management effectiveness

Organizations can assess worker satisfaction by:

a. measuring the improvements in team selection and planning processes.
b. analyzing data related to time taken by the management team to respond to employee suggestions, and
the number of suggestions implemented.
c. assessing the employee understanding of problem-solving approaches and the frequency of use of
quality improvement tools by the employees.
d. conducting a formal survey that includes questions regarding quality of worklife, teamwork, opportunities
and training provided, and leadership.

Kenneth who works as a process associate in a company is unable to achieve a worklife balance. His
personal problems are affecting his job performance. Even though he spends most of his time in office, he
is not able to perform his job effectively. According to the "engagement index" developed by Gallup,
Kenneth will fall into the category of _____.
a. actively engaged employees
b. not engaged employees
c. engaged employees
d. actively disengaged employees

The term workforce capability refers to an organization's ability to:

a. ensure sufficient staffing levels to accomplish its work processes and successfully deliver products and
services to customers.
b. create conditions that can motivate all employees to accomplish their work at their own peak level of
efficiency.
c. accomplish its work processes through the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of its people.
d. create job satisfaction among employees by engaging them in their work and making them a part of the
"fabric" of the organization

_____ refers to an organization's ability to ensure sufficient staffing levels to accomplish its work processes
and successfully deliver products and services to customers, including the ability to meet seasonal and
varying demands.
a. Workforce engagement
b. Workforce capacity
c. Employee involvement
d. Workforce capability

Question 8: knowledge of people

Question 9: Six Sigma

What is the Six Sigma quality level when the process standard deviation is 1ó and the tolerance range is
10 ó?
A]5
B]3
C]9
D]11

In the context of a Six Sigma team, who among the following is typically a senior-level manager who owns
the Six Sigma project and is responsible for its completion and results?
A]A black belt
B]A champion
C]A green belt
D]A team member

In the context of Six Sigma teams, who among the following are fully trained Six Sigma experts with
extensive technical training who perform much of the technical analysis required in Six Sigma projects,
usually on a full-time basis?
A]Black belts
B]Champions
C]Green belts
D]Team members

In a bottom-up approach to Six Sigma projects, _____ choose the projects that are well-suited to the
capabilities of teams.
A]champions
B]team members
C]green belts
D]black belts
Which of the following is the most widely-known process improvement methodology used in Six Sigma?
a. Quincunx
b. FADE
c. DMAIC
d. TRIZ

Successful green belts are often promoted to _____.

a. champions
b. team members
c. black belts
d. master black belts

In a bottom-up approach to Six Sigma projects, _____ choose the projects that are well-suited to the
capabilities of teams.
a. black belts
b. team members
c. green belts
d. champions

Which of the following is a major drawback of the bottom-up approach to Six Sigma projects?
a. The projects are too broad in scope to be completed in a timely manner.
b. The projects are not well suited to the capabilities of the teams as they are chosen by top management
who may not be aware of the capabilities of the teams.
c. The top managers underestimate the cost and overestimate the capabilities of the team or teams to
which the project is assigned.
d. The projects receive little support and low recognition from the top management.

Which of the following statements regarding "Six Sigma" is TRUE?

Select one:
a. The term has two distinct meanings-one is statistical; the other is a comprehensive quality system.
b. Six Sigma means that about 94 percent of a firm's output is free of defects.
c. The Six Sigma program was developed by Toyota in the 1970s.
d. The Six Sigma program is for manufacturing firms and is not applicable to services.
e. Six Sigma certification is granted by the International Standards Organization (ISO).

A Six Sigma program has how many defects per million?

Select one:
a. 3.4
b. 34
c. 1000
d. 6 times the standard deviation
e. 2700

Which of the following activities of the design for six sigma (DFSS) focuses on creating and building a
product idea and determining its functionality based upon customer requirements, technological
capabilities, and economic realities?
a. Detailed design
b. Design verification
c. Concept development
d. Design optimization

Which of the following activities of the design for six sigma (DFSS) focuses on developing specific
requirements and design parameters such as specifications and tolerances to ensure that the product
fulfills the functional requirements of the concept?
a. Concept development
b. Design verification
c. Design optimization
d. Detailed design

Which of the following activities of the design for six sigma (DFSS) seeks to refine designs to identify and
eliminate potential failures, achieve high reliability, and ensure that it can be easily manufactured,
assembled, or delivered in an environmentally-responsible manner?
a. Detailed design
b. Design optimization
c. Concept development
d. Design verification

Which of the following activities of the design for six sigma (DFSS) ensures that the quality level and
reliability requirements of the product are achieved?
a. Design verification
b. Design optimization
c. Detailed design
d. Concept development

Which of the following activities involved in the DMADV process involves prototype development, testing,
and implementation planning for production?
a. Define
b. Measure
c. Design
d. Verify

Question 10: ISO chp 2 & 10 in textbook

The ISO 9000 family standards focus on developing, documenting, and implementing procedures to
ensure consistency of operations and performances in production and service delivery processes, with the
aim of continual improvement, and supported by fundamental principles of total quality. The organizations
certified under the ISO 9000 standards have quality equal to their peers, and these standards are
recognized throughout the world. ISO 9000 has three principal benefits:
1. It provides discipline.

- The requirement for audits forces an organization to review its quality system on a routine basis. If
it fails to maintain the quality system, the audit should recognize this and call for correctiveaction.
 2. It contains the basics of a good quality system.

- The standard includes basic requirements for any sound quality system, such as understanding
customer requirements, ensuring the ability to meet them, ensuring people resources capable of
doing work that affects quality, ensuring physical resources and support services are needed to
meet product requirements and ensuring that problems are identified and corrected.

3. It offers a marketing program.

- ISO-certified organizations can use their status to differentiate themselves in the eyes of the
customers.

To become ISO 9000 certified, organizations must:

Select one:
a. document quality procedures.
b. have an onsite assessment.
c. have an ongoing series of audits of their products or service.
d. All of these
e. None of these

Strong Cement is a cement-manufacturing company headquartered in the United States. As part of its
organizational policy, the management establishes, plans, and implements measurement, monitoring, and
improvement activities; monitors information about customer satisfaction as a performance metric; and
acquires and analyzes data to determine improvement effectiveness. The management is following the
guidelines of _____.
ISO 9000:2000

Topline Inc. is a leading supplier of food products to retailers across the United States. As part of its quality
management principle, it focuses on product and service conformity for guaranteeing equity in the
marketplace and concentrates on fixing quality system problems and product and service nonconformities,
with the key requirement being customer focus. The guidelines for the quality management system
followed by Topline are as per the framework of _____.
ISO 9000:2000

Process management activities are: included in the Baldrige and the ISO 9000:2000 standards.

Section C (T/F)
Question 1: continuos improvement
1. The design aspect of process management focuses on continually seeking to achieve higher
levels of performance, such as reduced variation, higher yields, fewer defects and errors, and
smaller cycle times. （F）
2. a Kaizen blitz is an improvement initiative that is gradual and continuous and is performed on a
part time basis（F）
 3. breakthrough improvement refers to discontinuous change, as opposed to the gradual, continuous
improvement philosophy of kaizen （T）
4. Benchmarking encourages employees to continuously innovate. （T）

Question 2: strategic leadership

1. The workforce management system proposed by Frederick Taylor failed to improve productivity in
organizations（F）
2. The Taylor philosophy established an adversarial relationship between labor and management. （T
）
3. Management teams are specially empowered work teams whose members gather to solve a
specific problem and then disband. （F）
4. Teams organized to perform entire jobs, rather than specialized, assembly line-type work are
referred to as quality circles. （F）

Question 3: culture
1. Creating a culture for high performance begins with senior leadership's commitment to the
workforce. （T）
2. Employees who participate in team activities feel more empowered and receive better training in
both job-related and problem solving skills. （T）
3. Employee involvement (EI) refers to any activity by which employees participate in work-related
decisions and improvement activities, with the objectives of tapping the creative energies of all
employees and improving their motivation. （T）
4. employees who participate in team activities feel more empowered and receive better training in
both r（T）
5. the Kaizen philosophy requires a significant cultural change from all employees in the organization
including the top management （T）
6. the effectiveness of the field intelligence method of gathering customer information depends upon
a culture that encourages open communication with superiors （T）
7.
Question 4: process changes
1. Processes must be measurable and repeatable in order to apply the techniques of process
management. （T）
2. support processes generally require a higher level of attention than do value-creation processes（F
）
3. support processes generally add value directly to a product or service （F）
4. the impact of other process on a particular process must be considered while designing the
process as processes rarely operate in isolation（T）

Question 5: six sigma

Six Sigma is not a substitute for continuous improvement. （T）

Question 6/ 8/9: measurement of performance

 1. accelerated life testing involves over stressing components to reduce the time of failure and find
weaknesses （T）

2. indentifying potentional defects and errors and stopping a process before the occur is the best
approach to avoid mistakes in a process（F）
3. process control is the responsibility of those who directly accomplish the work（T）
4. control is the activity of ensuring conformance to the requirements and taking corrections at ion
when necessary to correct problems nd maintain stable performance（T）
5. control is manufacturing starts with purchasing and reciving processes. （T）
6. according to the Kano made, 'satisfiers' are the basic requirements that customers expect in a
product or service which are generally not stated by customers but assumed as a given （F）
7.

Question 7: Performance itself

1. when decisions about the safety, life, and maintainability of products are dominated by customers
requirements rather than be engineering considerations, poor designs that fail in the market are
often the results（F）
2. the methodology of axiomatic design is based on the premise that good design is governed by
laws similar to those in natural science（T）
3. the axiomatic design method of product development tends to increase design time （F）
4. the principles of axiomatic design help designers better apply tools such as TRIZ and quality
function deployment（T）
5. product designs with numerous parts decrease the incidence of part mix-ups missing parts, and
test failures. （F）
6. in the contact of the gaps model, a customer will be satisfied when the expected quality of a
product is higher than the actual quality （F）
7. customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction takes place during moments of truth（T）
8. dissatisfied individual and business customers often tend to complain to the organization about the
problems（F）
9.

Question 10: knowledge management system

Section A (ESSAY)

1. Explain five (5) quality human resource management approaches that can help to achieve
organizational excellence?

a. Customer Focus Orientation

Customer Focus Orientation is all about acknowledgement of the needs and wishes of the customer and
work accordingly. Customer needs and wants keep changing day by day. Keeping up with the pace and
anticipating to fulfill their requirements is very important for the organization success or the company will
face great loss. For Example, People used to have desktops in the 90's, but now it has been displaced by
laptops, tabs, smart-phones. Now people have become more technology focused, they are always looking
forward for more fast, new things.

b. Effective Communication
Effective communication can gain customer satisfaction and customer satisfaction can bring profit for the
company. The practice of sharing information and imparting knowledge inside organization yields
defect-free products and service towards customers. Therefore, it is necessary to ensures employees’
clear understanding about the TQM programme, and is also useful to overcome barriers to changes
leading towards the quality improvement.

c. Congruent Objectives
Congruent objective means common goal of the organizational members to increase productivity with
effectiveness and maximize the utilization of the resources. All employees in the organization will work
together to achieve the interdependent goal of the company. In this perspective, the company has to
ensure that they are providing enough training and education to the employees to understand the entire
process of the organization. At the same, the industry has to ensure customer gratifications.

d. Staff selection and deployment

Staff selection and employee deployment is a very important process of the organization to regulate the
company smoothly. Screening for ‘rightsizing’ and ‘ability-job-fit’ technique involves analyzing a unit’s or
department’s personnel needs to be based on its long-term quality objectives and the overall company
needs.
 2. What are the important activities in designing a quality programme? Discuss your answer
on the Input (supplier relationship management), Process (process management) and
Output (customer relationship management) perspectives.

a. Input (Supplier Relationship Management)

- Supplier selection and evaluation: Assessing and selecting suppliers based on their capability
to deliver products and services that meet organizational requirements.
- Supplier agreement management: Establishing agreements that clearly outline expectations,
responsibilities, and performance measures between the organization and its suppliers.
- Supplier performance monitoring: Monitoring supplier performance regularly to ensure that they
are meeting expectations and taking corrective action as needed.

b. Process (Process Management)

- Process design: Defining the processes and procedures that are critical to delivering quality
products and services to customers.
- Process improvement: Continuously reviewing and improving processes to eliminate waste,
reduce variability, and increase efficiency.
- Process control: Implementing systems and procedures to monitor and control processes to
ensure they are performing as intended.

c. Output (Customer Relationship Management)

- Customer feedback: Gathering customer feedback to understand their needs, preferences, and
expectations.
- Customer complaint management: Developing a system to manage customer complaints and
resolve them in a timely and effective manner.
- Customer satisfaction measurement: Measuring customer satisfaction regularly to understand
how well the organization is meeting customer needs and expectations.

By effectively managing the inputs, processes, and outputs of a quality program, organizations can ensure
that they are delivering high-quality products and services that meet customer expectations and drive
business success
 3. What are the common and different features and approaches between manufacturing and
service organizations in terms of the quality management principles.

Manufacturing and service organizations both aim to deliver high-quality products and services to their
customers. However, there are some differences and commonalities in terms of their approach to quality
management.

a. Common Features
- Customer Focus: Both manufacturing and service organizations aim to understand and meet the
needs and expectations of their customers.

- Continuous Improvement: Both types of organizations continuously seek ways to improve the
quality of their products and services.

- Employee Involvement: Both organizations rely on the engagement and commitment of their
employees to deliver quality products and services.

b. Differences
- Products vs. Services: Manufacturing organizations produce tangible products, while service
organizations produce intangible services. This difference affects the nature of quality
management in each type of organization.

- Process vs. People: Manufacturing organizations focus on controlling processes to produce

consistent and high-quality products, while service organizations focus on delivering quality
through the skills, knowledge, and attitudes of their employees.

- Inspection vs. Customer Feedback: Manufacturing organizations often use inspection to assess
product quality, while service organizations rely on customer feedback to gauge service quality.
For example, service quality can only be assessed against customers’ subjective, nebulous
expectations, and past experiences while the product quality can be the depth of cut should be
0.125 inch.

In conclusion, while both manufacturing and service organizations face similar quality management
challenges, the nature of their products and services affects the specific approaches they take to quality
management. Nevertheless, both can benefit from a focus on customer needs, continuous improvement,
and employee involvement

4. An organization should achieve high levels of performance to be recognized as an

excellent organization. Explain the elements or criteria that are usually being used to
evaluate for the organizational excellence award. (Please refer to one (1) particular award
that you are familiar of
One well-known organizational excellence award is the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
(MBNQA) in the United States. The MBNQA evaluates organizations based on the following criteria:
a. Leadership: The ability of the organization's leadership to create a vision and direction, align the
organization's systems and processes, and empower employees to achieve results.

b. Strategic Planning: The organization's ability to create a comprehensive and dynamic strategic
plan that aligns with its mission, vision, and values.

c. Customer Focus: The ability of the organization to understand, anticipate, and respond to
customer needs and expectations.

d. Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management: The ability of the organization to collect,
analyze, and use data to improve performance, make informed decisions, and share knowledge.

e. Workforce Focus: The ability of the organization to create a positive work environment, develop
and engage its workforce, and leverage their skills and knowledge to achieve results.

f. Operations Focus: The ability of the organization to design, implement, and manage efficient and
effective operations that deliver quality products and services.

g. Results: The ability of the organization to achieve meaningful and measurable results, such as
customer satisfaction, financial performance, and workforce engagement.

The MBNQA evaluates organizations against these criteria using a rigorous, multi-step process that
includes a self-assessment, site visit, and panel review. Organizations that receive the MBNQA are
recognized as models of organizational excellence and best practices.

5. Explain at least two (2) approaches of quality management strategy that would lead to
company’s profitability.
a. Customer-Focused Approach

A customer-focused approach to quality management focuses on understanding, anticipating, and meeting

customer needs and expectations. This can lead to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and repeat
business, which in turn can drive profitability. Companies can use customer feedback, surveys, and other
tools to understand customer needs and then design their products and services to meet those needs.

b. Continuous Improvement Approach

A continuous improvement approach focuses on using data and process analysis to identify and eliminate
waste and inefficiencies in the company's operations. This can lead to reduced costs, increased efficiency,
and improved quality, all of which can drive profitability. Companies can use Lean, Six Sigma, or other
continuous improvement methodologies to identify and eliminate waste and improve processes.

Both of these approaches require a commitment from senior leadership and all employees to a
culture of continuous improvement, customer focus, and a drive for quality. By embedding these principles
into their operations, companies can create a foundation for long-term profitability and success
6. Every organization need to identify their customer and supplier to have a direct transaction
that will determine the organizational performance. Explain TWO (2) approach of customer
relationship management and TWO (2) approach of supplier relationship management for
the organization to achieve the quality

a. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Approaches:

- Data-Driven Approach: This approach uses data and analytics to understand customer behavior,
preferences, and needs. Companies can use customer data to segment their market, personalize
their interactions with customers, and design products and services that meet their needs.

- Customer-Centric Approach: This approach prioritizes the customer experience and puts the
customer at the center of all decision-making. Companies can use this approach to create a
customer-focused culture, design products and services that meet customer needs, and provide
high-quality customer support.

b. Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) Approaches:

- Collaborative Approach: This approach emphasizes collaboration and communication between
the organization and its suppliers. Companies can use this approach to build strong, mutually
beneficial relationships with suppliers, improve quality and delivery, and reduce costs.

- Performance-Based Approach: This approach focuses on measuring and managing supplier

performance, using data and metrics to evaluate supplier performance and identify areas for
improvement. Companies can use this approach to ensure that their suppliers are meeting quality
standards, delivering products on time, and providing value for money.

Both CRM and SRM approaches require a commitment from senior leadership and all employees
to a culture of customer and supplier focus. By embedding these principles into their operations,
companies can create a foundation for long-term success and quality performance.
 7. Explain the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) concept in continuous improvement perspective in
designing an effective quality management for a particular organization.

The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) concept is a continuous improvement tool used to test and implement
changes in an organizational process. It is a four-step process that helps organizations make small,
incremental changes to their processes in order to continuously improve quality and efficiency.

The steps of the PDSA cycle are:

1. Plan
In this step, the organization identifies the problem or opportunity for improvement and outlines a plan for
testing the change. This might involve conducting research, developing a hypothesis, and identifying the
necessary resources and support.

2. Do
In this step, the organization implements the change on a small scale, collecting data and observing the
results. This helps the organization understand the impact of the change and identify any unexpected
consequences.

3. Study
In this step, the organization analyzes the data collected during the "Do" phase to determine the success
of the change. This might involve comparing the results to the expected outcomes and identifying areas for
improvement.

4. Act
In this step, the organization decides whether to continue with the change or modify it based on the results
of the "Study" phase. If the change was successful, the organization should implement it more widely. If
the change was not successful, the organization should modify the approach and repeat the PDSA cycle.

By continuously repeating the PDSA cycle, organizations can continuously improve their
processes, reduce waste, and increase efficiency. This approach can be particularly effective for quality
management because it allows organizations to make small, incremental changes that are less risky and
easier to implement