CPS Quality Assurance & Improvement 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following best describes the 'Voice of the Customer' (VoC) in quality management?
- Internal employee satisfaction surveys
- A method to capture customer needs, expectations, and preferences (Correct answer)
- Regulatory compliance requirements
- Supplier quality feedback
Correct answer: A method to capture customer needs, expectations, and preferences
VoC is a research technique that captures customers' stated and unstated expectations to drive product and process design decisions.
Question 2: In a FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis), the Risk Priority Number (RPN) is calculated as:
- Severity × Occurrence
- Severity × Occurrence × Detection (Correct answer)
- Probability × Impact
- Frequency × Severity × Cost
Correct answer: Severity × Occurrence × Detection
RPN = Severity × Occurrence × Detection, and is used to prioritize failure modes for corrective action.
Question 3: Which quality principle states that quality should be designed into a product or process rather than inspected in afterward?
- Continuous improvement
- Prevention over inspection (Correct answer)
- Customer focus
- Evidence-based decision making
Correct answer: Prevention over inspection
The prevention principle recognizes that identifying and eliminating defect causes early is far more cost-effective than catching defects after the fact.
Question 4: A Gauge R&R study is conducted to evaluate:
- Process throughput rates
- Measurement system variation relative to total process variation (Correct answer)
- Supplier delivery performance
- Employee training effectiveness
Correct answer: Measurement system variation relative to total process variation
Gauge R&R (Repeatability and Reproducibility) assesses how much of the observed process variation is attributable to the measurement system itself.
Question 5: The '5 Whys' technique is primarily used for:
- Ranking potential improvement opportunities
- Identifying the root cause of a problem by repeatedly asking why (Correct answer)
- Mapping process flow steps
- Prioritizing customer requirements
Correct answer: Identifying the root cause of a problem by repeatedly asking why
The 5 Whys technique drills down through symptom layers by asking 'why' repeatedly until the underlying root cause is identified.
Question 6: In statistical process control, a 'run rule' violation occurs when:
- A single point falls outside the control limits
- A non-random pattern of points suggests special cause variation (Correct answer)
- The process mean shifts by exactly one sigma
- Two consecutive points exceed the specification limit
Correct answer: A non-random pattern of points suggests special cause variation
Run rules (such as the Western Electric rules) detect non-random patterns within control limits that signal special causes not caught by the basic 3-sigma rule alone.
Question 7: ISO 9001:2015 is based on which of the following quality management principles?
- Six Sigma and Lean manufacturing
- Seven quality management principles including customer focus and leadership (Correct answer)
- Deming's 14 points exclusively
- The Malcolm Baldrige criteria
Correct answer: Seven quality management principles including customer focus and leadership
ISO 9001:2015 is built on seven quality management principles: customer focus, leadership, engagement of people, process approach, improvement, evidence-based decision making, and relationship management.
CPS Quality Assurance & Improvement 3
Which of the following best describes the 'Voice of the Customer' (VoC) in quality management?