BMO Quality Assurance & Improvement 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A BMO branch notices that loan processing errors increase on Mondays. Which quality improvement tool would best help identify the root cause?
- Pareto chart
- Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram (Correct answer)
- Control chart
- Scatter plot
Correct answer: Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram
A fishbone diagram helps systematically explore all potential causes (people, process, environment) of a specific problem.
Question 2: In a quality management context, what does 'benchmarking' refer to?
- Setting internal targets based on last year's performance
- Comparing processes against industry best practices or top competitors (Correct answer)
- Measuring customer satisfaction scores quarterly
- Auditing branch compliance with regulatory standards
Correct answer: Comparing processes against industry best practices or top competitors
Benchmarking involves measuring an organization's processes against recognized best-in-class standards to identify improvement opportunities.
Question 3: Which metric is most useful for tracking whether a bank's mortgage approval process is consistently meeting its 5-day target?
- Net Promoter Score
- Customer effort score
- Process cycle time with control limits (Correct answer)
- Employee satisfaction index
Correct answer: Process cycle time with control limits
Process cycle time tracked on a control chart shows whether the process is stable and within acceptable limits over time.
Question 4: A quality team finds that 80% of customer complaints stem from just 3 out of 15 identified issues. Which principle does this illustrate?
- Six Sigma principle
- Pareto principle (Correct answer)
- Kaizen principle
- PDCA principle
Correct answer: Pareto principle
The Pareto principle (80/20 rule) states that roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of causes.
Question 5: What is the purpose of a 'control chart' in quality management?
- To rank defects by frequency
- To map the steps in a process
- To monitor process variation and detect unusual patterns over time (Correct answer)
- To document corrective actions taken after audits
Correct answer: To monitor process variation and detect unusual patterns over time
Control charts display process data over time with control limits to distinguish normal variation from special-cause variation.
Question 6: BMO implements a new online banking feature. Before full rollout, which quality approach involves releasing it to a small user group to gather real-world feedback?
- Quality audit
- Pilot testing (Correct answer)
- Root cause analysis
- Regression testing
Correct answer: Pilot testing
Pilot testing releases a new product or process to a limited group to identify issues before full-scale deployment.
Question 7: In continuous improvement, what does 'standardization' mean after a successful process change?
- Reverting to the previous process if complaints arise
- Documenting and locking in the improved process as the new baseline (Correct answer)
- Removing all variation from employee work styles
- Applying the same change across unrelated departments immediately
Correct answer: Documenting and locking in the improved process as the new baseline
Standardization means documenting the improved process so gains are sustained and the improvement becomes the new normal.
BMO Quality Assurance & Improvement 2
A BMO branch notices that loan processing errors increase on Mondays.
Which quality improvement tool would best help identify the root cause?