2.4.4 Quality Management

• Quality - the ability of a good or service to meet customer expectation.
• Ways of improving quality:

  • training and motivating employees
  • understanding employee expectations
  • using technology
  • quality control / assurance
• Reasons for quality improvement:

  • reduces costs as less waste
  • enhances the businesses reputation
  • can act as USP
  • builds loyalty
  • can charge higher prices
• Reasons against improving quality:

  • employees reluctant to adapt to change
  • requires finance
  • relies on good relationships with suppliers
  • must be maintained
• Quality control - quality is checked at the end of the production process by inspectors.
• Advantages of Quality Control:

  • cheaper and quicker as fewer employees inspect
  • stops faulty products reaching customers
  • inspector takes responsibility
  • inspectors are trained and qualified
• Kaizen - a practice which emphasises on making small improvements in all business processes as it tries to achieve a culture of continuous improvement.
• Quality assurance - a system where the product is checked at each stage of the production process.
• Quality circles - small groups of workers who meet regularly to discuss and resolve problems in production.
• Quality management - the process of a business maintaining a level of of excellence in a good or service by paying attention to each stage of the process.
• Total quality management (TQM) - a right first time approach ensuring that each stage of production, products are checked for quality to eliminate defects.