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Operations Management

Total quality management

  • 3 things to know
  • AS Unit 2

Overview

Total quality management, quality chain and concept of the internal customer.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Explain the concept of the internal customer.

Key term

Why is zero defects a target rather than a promise?

Process

Name the main stages of a benchmarking exercise.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is total quality management?

    Model answer

    Total quality management is an approach in which quality is the responsibility of every employee in every department, with the aim of satisfying the customer completely and improving continuously.

  2. 2

    Why is total quality management described as covering the whole organisation?

    Model answer

    It applies to every function, including accounts, purchasing and despatch, not only to the production line, because a fault anywhere eventually reaches the customer.

  3. 3

    What is a quality chain?

    Model answer

    A quality chain is the idea that every person in a business has an internal customer, the next person to receive their work, and must satisfy them to the same standard as the final customer.

  4. 4

    Explain the concept of the internal customer.

    Model answer

    The internal customer is the colleague or department that receives your work next, and treating them as a customer means faults are corrected at each stage rather than passed on.

  5. 5

    What is meant by zero defects?

    Model answer

    Zero defects is the target of producing every item right first time, treating any level of faulty output as unacceptable rather than as a tolerable allowance.

  6. 6

    Why is zero defects a target rather than a promise?

    Model answer

    It is used to change attitudes, by removing the assumption that a certain percentage of faults is normal, even though in practice no process is perfect.

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