BSIE Total Quality Management 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following best describes the concept of 'quality at the source' in TQM?
- Inspecting products only at the final stage before shipment
- Making each worker responsible for the quality of their own output (Correct answer)
- Hiring a dedicated quality department to inspect all work
- Outsourcing quality control to third-party auditors
Correct answer: Making each worker responsible for the quality of their own output
Quality at the source means each employee is responsible for inspecting and ensuring the quality of their own work rather than relying on downstream inspection.
Question 2: In the context of TQM, what does 'benchmarking' primarily involve?
- Setting internal performance targets based on historical data
- Comparing your processes and performance against industry best practices or competitors (Correct answer)
- Measuring the time it takes to complete each production step
- Evaluating employee performance against job descriptions
Correct answer: Comparing your processes and performance against industry best practices or competitors
Benchmarking is the practice of comparing an organization's processes, performance metrics, and practices against industry leaders or best-in-class organizations.
Question 3: Which statistical tool is used to identify which defects account for the majority of quality problems, following the 80-20 rule?
- Control chart
- Scatter diagram
- Pareto chart (Correct answer)
- Cause-and-effect diagram
Correct answer: Pareto chart
A Pareto chart ranks defects from most to least frequent, visually demonstrating that roughly 80% of problems typically stem from 20% of causes.
Question 4: What is the primary purpose of a control chart in statistical process control (SPC)?
- To document the causes of defects in a structured hierarchy
- To monitor process variation over time and detect when a process goes out of control (Correct answer)
- To measure the correlation between two process variables
- To rank defects by frequency of occurrence
Correct answer: To monitor process variation over time and detect when a process goes out of control
Control charts display process data over time with upper and lower control limits to distinguish normal variation from signals that the process is out of statistical control.
Question 5: In TQM, what is meant by 'internal customers'?
- Shareholders and investors within the company
- Employees or departments that receive the output of a preceding process within the same organization (Correct answer)
- Customers who purchase products for resale
- Members of the quality assurance department
Correct answer: Employees or departments that receive the output of a preceding process within the same organization
Internal customers are the employees or departments who receive work outputs from upstream processes within the same organization and whose needs must be satisfied.
Question 6: Which Deming principle emphasizes that quality improvement requires long-term commitment rather than short-term profit focus?
- Drive out fear
- Create constancy of purpose (Correct answer)
- Break down barriers between departments
- Eliminate management by objective
Correct answer: Create constancy of purpose
Deming's first principle, 'Create constancy of purpose,' calls for organizations to commit to long-term quality improvement rather than focusing solely on short-term financial results.
Question 7: What does process capability index Cp measure?
- The percentage of defective products produced by a process
- The ratio of specification width to actual process spread, indicating potential performance (Correct answer)
- The average number of defects per unit produced
- The time required to complete one production cycle
Correct answer: The ratio of specification width to actual process spread, indicating potential performance
Cp measures the potential capability of a process by comparing the width of the specification limits to the spread of the process (6 standard deviations), assuming the process is centered.
BSIE Total Quality Management 2
Which of the following best describes the concept of 'quality at the source' in TQM?