Blace Jacobus

Total Quality Management

2/16/16
Assignment 1

1. What is quality
Quality is a situational measure of how a consumer perceives a companys goods.
Every situation has different consumer expectations for the select good. For a
commodity to have a good perceived quality it must meets or exceeds the consumers
expectations. An example of this would be if I were to buy an laptop. I would expect its
external housing to feel robust and sturdy. I would also expect the laptop to perform well
for an extended period of time and if these expectations were meet I would say it was of
good quality.

2. What is TQM
Total quality management is the new take on quality control. This new method
incorporates continues improvements and inspections to a company to reduce defects
and increase overall output of products. With this new take on quality defects are
thought to be preventable by using preventative inspections. The managers take the
majority of the reasonability for the defects that are made.

3. How can we achieve organization excellence with quality?

Organizations that implement the total quality to management will provide there
customers this products that meet or exceed their expectations every time. In the total
quality approach this can be done by superior product quality, cost, and/or service. If
implemented successfully consumers will select their product over competitor products.
This will drive profits up and competitors out of business.
4. What is the deming cycle?
The deming cycle is five step action plan of how to produce products that meet the
customers needs and is as follows:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

Conduct consumer research and use it in planning the product (Plan)

Produce the product (do)
Check the product to make sure it was produced in accordance with the plan (check)
Market the product (act)
Analyze how the product is received in the marketplace in terms of quality, cost, and
other criteria (analyze)

Blace Jacobus
Total Quality Management

2/16/16
Assignment 1

5. What are the common errors when starting quality initiatives

The text highlights a few key aspects to successfully implementing a quality plan. They are
to communicate the plan to all stakeholders. Make sure all shareholders have the abilities to
carry out their assignments in the plan. Set stimuli or rewards for following the plan.
Eliminate barriers that prevent the move to the new quality initiative. These are just a few of
the was to implement the plan.
6. What is the cost of poor quality
The cost of poor quality is the finical loss caused by poor quality. A company may at first
save money by cutting cost to move to lower quality processes or goods. What the
company didnt plan on is the long term finical loss of such action. By moving to lower
quality process and supplier the company will produce more scrap, return, reworks and
reduction in customer satisfaction. This move to lower quality will surely be more costly
than expected.
7. What are the quality characteristics of world-class organizations
A The American Management Association (AMA) has conducted a global survey of 15
top areas in which organizations are concerned. The top 5 are Customer service, quality
control, R&D, New technology acquisition and innovation. It is not surprising that the top
attributes to a world-class organization are the same qualities achieved by apply a of
total quality management approach.
8. Responsibly and total quality
Responsibly is accepting blame for mistakes or shortcomings that you are at fault for. In
our society it is common place to blame others then accept the consequences. In the
total quality approach proper ethical values are accept and embraced. Companies with
good ethical practices have better infrastructure and leads to being able to better provide
for their customer.
9. Discuss some models for ethical qualities decisions.
There are a few ethical models outlined in the text book. I personally try to follow the golden
rule model. This is the model based on the saying do onto others as you would have them
do to you This model has does have its shortcomings if the individual has different vales of
what is acceptable comparted to others but is a good rule of thumb. A model I do not like is
the Market-ethic model. I do not believe that any legal action to generate revenue is an
ethical choice.
10. What is the engineer mangers role in quality ethics
A mangers role in quality ethics is to set the best example for these employees. As the book
highlights it is easy understand what good ethics are but a hard thing to act on the good
ethical practices. If a manger does not set a good example and enforce good ethics the
employees working under will only be as good as there superior