2.4.4-Quality management

• What is quality?

  Quality is about meeting the needs and expectations of customers.
• Why is quality important?

  • Customer loyalty- customers make repeat purchases and recommend the product/ service to others
  • Strong brand reputation for quality
  • Fewer returns and replacements lead to reduced costs
  • Attracting and retaining good staff
  • Higher demand
  • Potentially higher prices
• What are the quality management approaches?

  • Quality control
  • Quality assurance
  • Quality circles
  • Total quality management
• What is quality control?

  Quality control involves random checks on quality. It is often done at the end and then the faulty goods are removed.

  • It is cost effective
  • It checks quality before it reaches customer
  • However, not all of the items may be checked
  • It is disruptive to production line and workers
  • Costly to the business if the product is faulty
• What is quality assurance?

  Quality assurance involves systematic checking at regular intervals during the production process. This sets out to ensure the quality standards are consistent. Often done by team leaders and managers.

  • Identifies problems as they happen
  • Ensures consistency of quality standards
  • However, it is time consuming
  • More staff needed, so quality management budget rises
• What is quality circles?

  Quality circles involves a group of employees getting together to identify problems and to recommend improvements.

  • It increases employee motivation
  • Staff are often the best source of ideas
  • However, it could cause disagreements
  • Staff may not feel it is part of their job
• What is total quality management?

  Total quality management is a philosophy implemented across the whole business. It can include:

  • Supplier relationships
  • Training of staff
  • Right first time every time (zero defects)
  • Quality circles
  • Continuous improvements (kaizen)
• What is kaizen?

  Kaizen is implementing small changes regularly or when needed in order for a business to be successful. Kaizen may give a business competitive advantage because as costs fall, there is less waste, ensuring better quality than competitors so it will boost their sales