OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT: QUALITY ASSURANCE IB BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT SL CONTENT

Approaches to Quality There have been two major approaches to quality: Quality Control Quality Assurance

QUALITY CONTROL Resources are put into the inspection of finished goods to “weed out” any defective items, so that customers only receive items of the required quality. Assumptions There is an expectation of some defects and their eventual elimination allows the employees to be sloppy in their attitude towards their work. It can be expensive in that final inspection only deals with the symptoms rather than the causes of the defects: the faulty unit will be either discarded or totally reworked.

QUALITY ASSURANCE The emphasis is on building quality into the process from the start, prevention is better than (expensive) cure. Deming, suggested that quality was needed in four areas:  production process design.  production process implementation.  product design  product. ** The task is to “build quality in”.

QUALITY ASSURANCE Assumptions The approach relies on employees being willing to take responsibility for the quality of their own output through a system of self-checking. Workers must be sure of the quality of the inputs they use and thus have the right to reject materials produced by earlier stations along the production line. In the early stages of its introduction, the approach can be expensive, but it leads to long term savings.

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM) TQM takes as its starting point that every employee of the firm has a contribution to the satisfaction of the end customer, and thus to the success of the business; furthermore, they have a duty to ensure the quality of the final product.

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM) Examples – Everyone is responsible for quality: Receptionists They could be the first point of contact that any visitor to the firm has; a smiling face and a cheery hello can make a big difference. Delivery Drivers A badly driven truck can offend other road users who might remember the company name and develop a bad impression of the firm overall.

TQM & Quality Assurance To encourage all groups to participate in a quality assurance environment, employees are asked to consider not only:  External Customers: the buyers of the business end product.  Internal Customers: people within the firm who need goods or services from each other.

TQM & the role of Employees TQM requires each employee to consider the needs of their customer (internal or external) and to see if any improvements, however small, are possible in the way they supply down the chain. They are encouraged to undertake self- checking to ensure that Deming’s concept of building quality into production at every stage is fulfilled.