Managing quality

Overview

Quality control and quality assurance, managing quality in services, how quality affects costs and competitive advantage, ISO 9001, and using customer complaints to improve.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What does it mean for a product to be fit for purpose?

   Model answer

   A product that is fit for purpose does the job customers bought it for, reliably and safely. A budget product can be fit for purpose as much as a luxury one.

2. 2

   What is quality control?

   Model answer

   Quality control is checking products at the end of production to find and remove faulty ones. Inspectors test samples or finished items against a set standard.

3. 3

   What are the drawbacks of quality control?

   Model answer

   Quality control finds faults only after the cost of making the product has been spent. Faulty items must be scrapped or reworked, which is wasteful.

4. 4

   What is quality assurance?

   Model answer

   Quality assurance is checking quality at every stage of production to prevent faults happening. Every worker is responsible for the quality of their own work.

5. 5

   Why is quality assurance often preferred to quality control?

   Model answer

   Quality assurance prevents faults rather than finding them afterwards, so less is wasted. Staff take ownership of quality, which can raise motivation.

6. 6

   What are the drawbacks of quality assurance?

   Model answer

   Quality assurance needs staff training and investment in systems, which is costly to set up. Standards may slip if staff are poorly trained.

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