BSIE Total Quality Management 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following is a key characteristic of the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology's 'Analyze' phase?
- Defining project goals and customer deliverables
- Collecting baseline data on current process performance
- Identifying root causes of defects and process variation (Correct answer)
- Implementing process improvements and solutions
Correct answer: Identifying root causes of defects and process variation
The Analyze phase in DMAIC focuses on identifying and verifying the root causes of defects and process variation using statistical and analytical tools.
Question 2: In quality cost analysis, which category includes costs incurred to prevent defects from occurring in the first place?
- Internal failure costs
- External failure costs
- Appraisal costs
- Prevention costs (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Prevention costs
Prevention costs include expenditures for activities designed to prevent poor quality, such as quality planning, training, process design, and supplier evaluations.
Question 3: What is the main objective of a Quality Function Deployment (QFD) 'House of Quality'?
- To rank suppliers based on delivery performance and defect rates
- To translate customer requirements into specific engineering and design characteristics (Correct answer)
- To document the steps required to achieve ISO 9001 certification
- To assign responsibility for quality tasks to specific departments
Correct answer: To translate customer requirements into specific engineering and design characteristics
The House of Quality maps customer wants ('what') to technical design requirements ('how'), ensuring that product design directly addresses customer needs.
Question 4: An ishikawa diagram categorizes potential causes of a defect into which standard set of categories?
- Plan, Do, Check, Act
- Man, Machine, Material, Method, Measurement, Environment (Correct answer)
- Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control
- Input, Process, Output, Feedback, Control
Correct answer: Man, Machine, Material, Method, Measurement, Environment
The Ishikawa (fishbone) diagram organizes potential causes of a problem into the 6M categories: Man, Machine, Material, Method, Measurement, and Environment.
Question 5: Which quality guru introduced the concept of 'Zero Defects' as a performance standard and motivational program?
- W. Edwards Deming
- Joseph Juran
- Philip Crosby (Correct answer)
- Armand Feigenbaum
Correct answer: Philip Crosby
Philip Crosby introduced the Zero Defects concept, arguing that the only acceptable quality standard is doing work right the first time with no defects.
Question 6: What is the primary difference between Cpk and Cp process capability indices?
- Cpk measures defects per million while Cp measures defects per thousand
- Cpk accounts for process centering while Cp assumes the process is centered (Correct answer)
- Cpk applies only to attribute data while Cp applies to variable data
- Cpk uses one-sided limits while Cp uses two-sided limits
Correct answer: Cpk accounts for process centering while Cp assumes the process is centered
Cpk adjusts for the actual location of the process mean relative to specification limits, making it a more accurate measure of real process performance than Cp, which assumes perfect centering.
Question 7: In Juran's Quality Trilogy, which component focuses on establishing quality goals and the means to achieve them?
- Quality control
- Quality improvement
- Quality planning (Correct answer)
- Quality assurance
Correct answer: Quality planning
Quality planning is the first element of Juran's trilogy and involves identifying customers, determining their needs, and developing processes capable of meeting those needs.
BSIE Total Quality Management 3
Which of the following is a key characteristic of the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology's 'Analyze' phase?