Chapter 5: Total Quality Management

Answers to Discussion Questions in Textbook

1. Define quality for the following products: a university, an exercise facility, spaghetti
sauce, and toothpaste. Compare your definitions with those of others in your class.

The quality of a university can be defined as:

• quality of professors – have Ph.D., helpful, knowledgeable, able to clearly explain
material, fair
• ability to place students in a good position at a high salary in a timely manner
• facilities are up-to-date in terms of technology (i.e. wireless classrooms)
• value for the price of the education
• ability to prepare students for success in the business world
• variety of course offerings
• efficiency and accuracy of processing paperwork, such as registration for classes
• appearance of the campus
• perceived prestige of the university
The quality of an exercise facility can be defined as:
• variety of gym equipment
• variety and availability of fitness classes
• value for the price of membership
• ability to help members get into shape
• accurate billing
• atmosphere meets member’s needs
• waiting times for machines are two minutes or less
The quality of spaghetti sauce can be defined as:
• good taste
• the jar is filled to 28 ounces plus or minus one ounce
• value for price paid
• perceived quality of the product
• ability to quickly answer questions at the address listed on the jar of sauce
• the sauce has chunks of tomatoes
• ease of opening jar
• ease of preparing the sauce to eat
• able to keep leftover sauce in container in refrigerator easily to last longer
• length of time the sauce can still be eaten
The quality of toothpaste can be defined as:
• ability to clean teeth
• good taste
• perceived quality of the product
• ability to keep breath fresh
• ability to prevent plaque
 • ability to whiten teeth
• ability to prevent cavities
• tube of toothpaste is filled
• ability to fight gingivitis
• ability to fight tartar
• able to quickly and accurately answer questions in a friendly manner at the toll-
free number listed on toothpaste tube
• tube is filled with 4.2 ounces plus or minus 0.5 ounce.
• toothpaste is certified by the American Dental Association (ADA)

2. Describe the TQM philosophy and identify its major characteristics.

TQM focuses on identifying the causes of quality problems and correcting these
problems. TQM emphasizes the need to include every employee in the organization
in the quality improvement efforts. TQM emphasizes the need to define quality based
on the customer’s needs. Its major characteristics are customer focus, continuous
improvement, quality at the source, employee empowerment, understanding quality
tools, a team approach, benchmarking and managing supplier quality.

3. Explain how TQM is different from the traditional notions of quality. Also, explain
the differences between traditional organizations and those that have implemented
TQM.

Traditional notions of quality focused on inspection of products. Instead of relying

on inspection as the primary tool for quality, TQM focuses on identifying the causes
of quality problems and correcting these problems. TQM takes a broader view of the
organization than traditional views of quality. Organizations that implemented TQM
successfully were able to produce a higher quality product at a lower price, thereby
increasing market share. Traditional organizations have either failed or will fail in the
future if quality is poor.

4. Find three local companies that you believe exhibit high quality. Next find three
national or international companies that are recognized for their quality
achievements.

The selection of the local companies will depend on the location of the university
utilizing this textbook. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, a winner of the Malcolm
Baldrige National Quality Award, is known for outstanding customer service. Its
employees are trained well and are empowered to deal with quality problems on the
spot. Florida Power & Light (FPL) was the first American company to win Japan’s
Deming Prize, which is a prestigious quality award. FPL has created and used a
process for identifying and dealing with quality problems that has been benchmarked
by a number of companies. For example, FPL applied this process to the problem of
service interruptions to determine the major causes. They made changes based on the
analysis, such as moving power poles away from dangerous curves in the road to deal
with one important cause (Florida Power Light Quality Improvement (Q1) Story
 Exercise (A), Harvard Business School Case 9-689-041). Disney is well-respected
for its customer focus. Disney has theme parks in the U.S., Japan and Europe.
Disney is known for its excellent training program and attention to details.

5. Describe the four dimensions of quality. Which do you think is most important?

The four dimensions of quality are the quality of product or service design, quality of
conformance to design, ease of use and post-sales service. The quality of product or
service design is determined by the features that are included in the final design of the
product or service. The quality of conformance to design is the result of how well the
product or service meets its specifications. Ease of use is determined by the ease of
using the product or service, its reliability and its maintainability. Post-sales service
is the level of service provided after the product or service has been purchased.

The four dimensions of quality are all important in determining quality. However,
quality of design is most important since it determines the ability to meet customer
needs, which is the objective. If the quality of design does not meet customer needs,
then it will not matter if the product or service meets it design specifications, is easy
to use or is supported by good post-sale service.

6. Describe each of the four costs of quality: prevention, appraisal, internal failure, and
external failure. Next, describe how each type of cost would change (increase,
decrease or remain the same) if we designed a higher quality product that was easier
to manufacture.

Prevention costs are the costs associated with preventing poor quality, such as
training, designing a quality product that is easy to manufacture and planning costs.
Appraisal costs are the costs of determining the level of quality and finding defects.
These costs include inspections, product testing and quality audits. Internal failure
costs are the costs associated with finding and dealing with quality problems
discovered before the product or service reaches the customer. Some examples of
internal failure costs are rework, scrap and machine downtime due to quality
problems. External failure costs are the costs of poor quality discovered by the
customer. Some examples of external failure costs are product returns, lawsuits and
repairs.

If we designed a higher quality product that was easier to manufacture, then both
internal and external failure costs would decrease since we would produce less
defective product. Appraisal costs would probably decrease since we may be able to
reduce inspections and quality audits. Prevention costs would increase since we
expended effort to design a better quality product.

7. Think again about the four costs of quality. Describe how each would change if we
hired more inspectors without changing other aspects of quality.
 If we hired more inspectors without changing other aspects of quality, then we would
still produce the same number of defects. However, we would find more, but not
necessarily all, of these defects before they reach the customer. Therefore, internal
failure costs will increase, while external failure costs will decrease. Appraisal costs
would increase since we are now paying for more inspectors. Prevention costs would
remain the same since we did not change other aspects of quality.

8. Explain the meaning of the Plan-do-study-act cycle. Why is it described as a cycle?

The Plan-do-study-act cycle is a procedure for continuous improvement. First, a plan

is developed after we have documented procedures, collected data and identified
problems. Next, the plan is implemented. We then study the results of our
implementation. Finally, we act based on the results. It is described as a cycle since
it is an ongoing process or series of steps that is repeated.

9. Describe the use of quality function deployment (QFD). Can you find examples in
which the voice of the customer was not translated properly into technical
requirements?

QFD is a tool for matching customer requirements to technical requirements. This

tool incorporates the customer requirements, the relative importance of the customer
requirements, the technical requirements (how we can meet customer requirements),
the strength and type of relationships between the customer and technical
requirements, the relationships or trade-offs between the different technical
requirements and the ratings of the ability of competitors and our company to meet
customer requirements into one diagram in order to evaluate all this information in an
integrated manner.

In the airline industry, low prices and direct, non-stop flights are two important
customer requirements. Most airlines have focused on developing a hub-and-spoke
system in order to improve efficiencies. A hub-and-spoke system is one in which
many flights stop at a hub city, such as Atlanta, before continuing on to the final
destinations, or the spokes. This limits the ability of the customers to find a direct,
non-stop flight to their destination, thus increasing travel time.

10. Describe the seven tools of quality control. Are some more important than others?
Would you use these tools separately or together? Give some examples of tools that
could be used together.

The seven tools of quality control are the cause-an-effect diagram, flowchart,
checklist, control chart, scatter diagram, Pareto chart and histogram. The cause-and-
effect diagram, or fishbone diagram, shows all possible causes of one quality problem
or defect type (effect), where the causes are separated into categories (or bones) on
the diagram. It is used as a brainstorming tool to determine which causes to
investigate. The flowchart documents the flow of the materials or customer through
the steps of the process. The checklist lists the type of defects, along with a tally of
 the frequency of each type. Control charts show plots of samples of a product or
service characteristic taken from the process over time. The control chart helps us
determine whether the process is in control, which means that only random variation
exists. Scatter diagrams are plots on an x-y axis used to determine the relationship
between two variables. Pareto charts show the frequency and cumulative percentages
of defect types arranged from most frequent to least frequent defect types. This chart
demonstrates which defect types cause the majority of the quality problems or
complaints. A histogram shows the frequency of each quality problem.

The Pareto chart and cause-and-effect diagram can be effectively used in

combination. First, the Pareto chart is used to identify the problem(s) that cause the
highest number of actual defects or complaints. Next, a common problem becomes
the effect on the cause-and-effect diagram. This diagram then helps us identify
causes to investigate in order to solve the problem.

11. What is the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award? Why is this award
important, and what companies have received it in the past?

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) is an award that was
created by U.S. Congress in 1987 to promote quality and improve the trade deficit.
The award is important because it provides an effective framework for improving
quality. Many companies have used the MBNQA framework to improve quality,
without an intention of applying for the award. Some of the companies that have
received it are Motorola, AT&T, Xerox, Federal Express and Ritz-Carlton.

12. What are ISO 9000 standards? Who were they set by and why? Can you describe
other certifications based on the ISO 9000 certification?

ISO 9000 is a set of standards and a certification program for companies based on a
documentation of the quality processes. The standards were set by the International
Organization for Standardization to set a standard for companies doing business.
ISO 14000 is a set of standards that focuses on environmental concerns. QS 9000 is a
set of standards based on ISO 9000 that is geared to the automobile industry.

13. Who are the three “gurus” of quality control? Name at least one contribution made
by each of them.

The three gurus are Deming, Juran and Crosby. Deming helped management
understand that most quality problems are caused by the processes and systems, not
the workers. Deming motivated the usage of statistical quality control tools for
differentiating between common and special causes of variation. Juran contributed to
the quality movement by creating a focus on the definition and costs of quality.
Crosby’s contribution is a result of his argument that quality is free, which is based on
that idea that many costs of quality are hard to quantify.