Total Quality Management (TQM)

Suggested Questions With Answers

- May 2017 -

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 Employee Involvement Topic

Define and Explain Questions:

Employee involvement
The basis for involving employees increases the likelihood of a good
decision1 a better plan, or a more effective improvement by bring more
minds to bear on the situation: not just any minds, but the minds of the
people who are closest to the work in quest. It also promotes ownership
of decisions by involving the people who will have to implement them.
Empowerment means not just involving people but involving them in
ways that give them a real voice.

Define the term empowerment being sure to distinguish between

involvement and empowerment.
Employee involvement and empowerment are closely related concepts,
but they are not the same. In a total quality setting, employees are both
involved and empowered. Employee involvement is a way of engaging
employees at all levels in the thinking processes of an organization. It's
the recognition that many decisions made in an organization can be
made better by soliciting the input of those who may be affected by the
decision. It's an understanding that people at all levels of an
organization possess unique talents, skills, and creativity that can be of
significant value if allowed to be expressed. Empowerment, stated
simply, is employee involvement that matters. It's the difference
between just having input and having input that is heard, seriously
considered, and followed up on whether it is accepted or not.

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What are the advantages and disadvantages of employee
involvement in decision making?

Advantages of Employee Involvement:

Involving employees can result in a more accurate picture of what the
problem really is and a more comprehensive list of potential solutions.
It can help managers do a better job of evaluating alternatives and
selecting the best one to implement Perhaps the most important
advantages are gained after the decision is made. Employees who
participate in the decision making process are more likely to understand
and accept the decision and have a personal stake in making sure the
alternative selected succeeds.

Disadvantages and Potential Problems with Employee Involvement:

Involving employees in decision making can lead to legal problems.
The major potential problem is that it takes time, and managers do not
always have time. Other potential problems are that it takes employees
away from their jobs and that it can result in conflict among team
members. Next to time, the most significant potential problem is that
employee involvement can lead to democratic compromises that do not
necessarily represent the best decision. In addition, disharmony can
result when a decision maker rejects the advice of the group.

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 Benchmarking Topic

TRUE OR FALSE: Place T or F in the space provided to the left of

the statement.
_____1. Benchmarking supports total quality by providing the best
means for rapid, significant process improvement.
_____2. To achieve best in class, an organization must surpass the
performance of the benchmark process
_____3. Benchmarking is considered to be a one-shot process.
_____4. The first member of a benchmarking team should be a process
owner.
_____5. Qualitative information is effectively the stake driven into the
ground as the point from which future progress is measured.

MULTIPLE CHOICE: Circle the letter before the correct answer

in each of the following questions.
1. Which of the following behaviors best describe the concept of
benchmarking?
A. Unethical
B. Illegal
C. Industrial espionage
D. None of the above

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2. One of the three phases of benchmarking is:
A. Conclusion
B. Postexecution
C. Reporting
D. None of the above
3. Several benchmarking consideration require management’s
approval before the process can start: commitment to change;
funding; personnel; disclosure; and .
A. Oversee
B. Dictate
C. Involvement
D. Supervise
4. The following is a beneficial source for benchmarking efforts:
A. Nonprofit associations
B. Cooperative affiliation
C. For profit organizations
D. All of the above
5. Which information from the benchmarking process may have
more value?
A. Qualitative
B. Quantitative
C. Numerical
D. Estimated

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Test Key
True/False
1. T
2. T
3. F
4. T
5. F

Multiple Choice
1. D
2. B
3. C
4. D
5. A

Define and Explain Questions:

1. Define benchmarking.
Benchmarking is the process of comparing and measuring an
organization's operations or its internal processes against those of a
best-in-class performer from inside or outside its industry.
Benchmarking goes beyond competitive analysis to compare how the
product is engineered, manufactured, distributed, and supported.
Benchmarking is not so much interested in what the product is and what
it costs1 but rather in the underlying processes used to produce,
distribute, and support it.

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2. Explain the difference in objectives for continual improvement
and benchmarking.
An organization can make incremental improvements to its process
through continual improvement, but it might take years to make a 4X
improvement, and by then the competition would probably be at 6X or
better. Benchmarking is used to show which processes are candidates
for continual (incremental) improvement and which require major (on-
site) changes. Benchmarking offers the fastest route to significant
performance improvement. It can focus an entire organization on the
issues that really count.

3. List five factors that lead organizations to benchmarking.

Some factors that drive companies to benchmark are commitment to
total quality, customer focus, product-to-market time, manufacturing
cycle time, and financial performance at the bottom line.

4. On which processes should an organization concentrate for

benchmarking?
Never benchmark a process that you do not wish to change. The
processes that are put on a benchmark list should be those known to be
inferior and that you intend to change. Leave the others for incremental
change through continual improvement at least for the time being.

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5. Why is it necessary that top management be committed as a
prerequisite to benchmarking?
Benchmarking requires a great deal of time from key people, and
money must be available for travel to the benchmarking partners'
facilities. Both of those require management's approval. You expect to
gain information from your benchmarking partner for which they will
expect payment in kind, namely information about you and your
processes. This can be authorized only by management. Finally, the
object of benchmarking is to discover processes to replace yours or at
least to make major changes to them. Such changes cannot be made
without management's approval. Without a mandate from top
management, there is no point in attempting to benchmark. Several
benchmarking considerations require management's approval before the
process can start: commitment to change, funding, personnel,
disclosure, and involvement.

6. Explain why it is not enough to simply clone the benchmarking

partner's process.
The objective is to put in place a process that is best-in-class. If the
team merely transplants the partner company's process, it will not
achieve the objective, although improvements may occur. To achieve
best-in-class, an organization must surpass the performance of the
benchmark process. It may not be possible to do this at the outset, but
the team's initial planning should provide for the development work
necessary to achieve it in a specified period of time.

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 Quality Management Systems Topic

True and False Questions

1. An appropriate quality management system will enable the objectives
set out in the quality policy to be accomplished. ( T )
2. The system should follow the plan, Do, Check, Act cycle through
documentation implementation, audit and review. ( T )
3. Quality management systems are not necessary to apply and interact
with processes in the organization.
( F )

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)

1. A good quality management system ensures that the following
important requirements are met:
A. The customer requirement
B. Employee requirement
C. The organization requirement
D. Both (A) and (C)
The Right Answer is (D).

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2. The organization should prepare a quality manual that is
appropriate and it should include:
A. Definition of TQM
B. HR Policy
C. The Quality Policy
D. Description and interaction for the process of production
The Right Answer is (C).

3. A quality management system may be defined as an assembly of:

A. Employees
B. Work in progress services
C. Components
The Right Answer is (C).

Define and Explain Questions:

1. Define The Quality Management System?
A Quality Management System is a collection of policies, procedures,
plans, resources, processes, practices, and the specification of
responsibilities and authority of an organization designed to achieve
product and service quality levels, customer satisfaction and company
objectives.

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2. Any organization should prepare a ‘quality manual’ that is
appropriate. What should the quality manual include ?
The Quality Manual Should Include:
(a) the quality policy;
(b) definition of the quality management system – scope, exclusions,
etc.;
(c) description of the interaction between the processes of the quality
management system;
(d) documented procedures required by the QMS, or reference to them.

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 Continual Improvement Topic

TRUE OR FALSE: Place T or F in the space provided to the left of

the statement.
_____1 A project improvement team should consist of representative
from units that are most closely related to the problem in question.
_____2. After the source of variation has been identified, it is important
for the team to reduce the variation by one-half.
_____3. Flow production means production that runs smoothly and
steadily without interruption.
_____4. Kaizen means halting an entire process when a defect is
discovered so that it won’t cause additional problems down the line.
_____5. The evaporating clouds technique involves the use of
brainstorming to verbalize intuitive sense of problems and their causes.

MULTIPLE CHOICE: Circle the letter before the correct answer

in each of the following questions.

1. In order for an organization to make continual improvement it

must:
A. Establish a quality council
B. Develop a statement of responsibilities
C. Establish the necessary infrastructure
D. All of the above

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2. Little Q sees the customer as:
A. The person who buys the product
B. All people involved, internal, and external
C. The decision-maker
D. Having continually changing needs

3. Differences in variation among people can be attributed to levels

of:
A. Capability, age, training
B. Training, education, experience
C. Motivation, training, age
D. None of the above

4. Pull control is:

A. An information dissemination system that allows abnormalities to be
identified visually as they occur.
B. A concept applied to eliminate idle time between scheduling points
in a production process.
C. An approach to work handling, inventory, lead time planning,
process balancing, capacity utilization, and scheduling cycling that cuts
down on work in progress.
D. A strategy involved in dismantling long-production lines with large
lot capacities and replacing them with production cells that turn out
smaller lots.

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5. Avraham Goldratt recommends teaching people which
techniques for facilitating change?
A. Effect-cause-effect; Socratic method; Evaporating clouds
B. Evaporating clouds; Black-white method; Socratic method
C. Prerequisite trees; Effect-cause-effect; Black-white method
D. Mushroom concept; Socratic method; Evaporating clouds

Test Key
True/False
1. T
2. F
3. T
4. F
5. F
Multiple Choice
1. D
2. A
3. B
4. B
5. A

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Define and Explain Questions
1. How is customer satisfaction ensured?
To ensure customer satisfaction, it must be renewed with every new
purchase. This cannot be accomplished if quality, even though it is high,
is static. Satisfaction implies continual improvement. Continual
improvement is the only way to keep a customer satisfied and loyal.

2. Define the following concepts: Continual Improvement?

Continual improvement is a key element of total quality. One talks
about improvement of products whatever they may be. In most cases, it
would be more accurate to talk about continual improvement in terms of
processes than in terms of products and services. It is usually the
improvement of processes that yields improved products and services.

1. Explain the rationale for continual improvement Continual

improvement is fundamental to success in the global marketplace.
Companies that are just maintaining status quo in such key areas as
quality, new product development, the adoption of new technologies,
and process performance are like a partner who is sitting still in a race.
Competing in the global marketplace is like competing in the Olympics.
Last year's records are sure to be broken this year. Athletes who don't
improve continually are not likely to remain long in the 'winner's circle.
The same is time of companies that must compete global. In addition,
customer needs are not static. They change continually. A typical
example is the personal computer.

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2. What is management's role in continual improvement?
Establishing an organization-wide quality council and serving on it.
Working with the quality council to establish quality improvement
goals with timetables and target dates. Providing the necessary moral
and physical support. Moral support manifests itself as commitment
Physical support comes in the form of the resources needed to
accomplish the quality improvement objectives. Scheduling periodic
progress review and giving recognition where it is deserved. Building
continual quality improvement into the regular reward system including
promotions and pay increases.

3. If you were an executive manager in an organization, how would

you structure the organization for quality improvement?
In a systematic, step-by-step manner, utilizing the following steps:
establishing a quality council; developing a statement of
responsibilities, and establishing the necessary infrastructure.

4. What is meant by using the scientific approach?

The scientific approach makes decisions based on data, looking for root
causes of problems, and seeking permanent solutions instead of relying
on quick fixes.

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5. What is multi-voting and how is it used?
Multi-voting involves using brainstorming to develop a list of potential
improvement projects. Team members vote several times: hence the
name: to decide which project or projects to work on first. Suppose the
original list contains fifteen potential projects. Team members vote and
cut the list to ten. They vote again and cut it to five. The next vote cuts
the list to three and so on until only one or two projects remain. These
are the first projects that will be undertaken.
The key now is to incorporate the types of improvements made on a
continual basis so that continual improvement becomes a normal part of
doing business. The Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle applies here. With this
cycle, each time a problem or potential improvement is identified, an
improvement plan is developed (Plan), implemented (Do), monitored
(Check), and refined as needed (Act).

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