Operations management

Table of Contents

1. Topic pack - Operations management - introduction
2. Operations Management (OM) - Introduction
3. 5.1 Production methods notes
4. 5.1 Production methods - questions
5. 5.2 Costs and revenues - notes
6. 5.2 Costs and revenues - questions
7. 5.3 Break-even analysis - notes
8. 5.3 Break-even analysis - questions
9. 5.3 Break-even analysis - simulations and activities
10. 5.4 Quality assurance - notes
    1. Quality control and assurance
    2. The customer, the customer and the customer
    3. Case study - quality through your customer's eyes
    4. Case study - Portakabin
    5. Operations management and quality
    6. Quality control and quality assurance
    7. Classic quality control (QC)
    8. Quality Assurance (QA)
    9. Total quality culture (TQC)
    10. Total Quality Management (TQM)
    11. TQM planning process
    12. Case study - Six sigma
    13. Lean Production
    14. Continuous improvement
    15. Benchmarking
    16. Case study - Strategy: Benchmarking
    17. Case study - Cadillac benchmarks BMW
    18. Task - Benchmarking report
11. 5.4 Quality assurance - questions and activities
12. 5.5 Location - notes
13. Innovation - notes (HL only)
14. 5.6 Innovation - questions
15. 5.7 Production planning - notes
16. 5.7 Production planning - questions
17. 5.8 Project management - notes (HL only)
18. 5.8 Project management - questions (HL only)
19. Print View

Total quality culture (TQC)

Modern quality management

The traditional method of quality control made the holding of stocks essential. Pressures to reduce stock holding and their associated costs led to the development of Quality Assurance and Total Quality Management (TQM) as replacements for Classic QC. The emphasis now is to prevent the purchase or production of defective goods in the first place, not to catch them after the event.

It is now appreciated that quality depends on the people and the processes used, not just the materials. Quality and efficiency has been widened, therefore, to cover the entire firm, not just materials and products. The avoidance of faulty production requires that three aspects are efficient:

• Methods - systems and procedures
• People - both line and staff functions
• Materials

All these have to be efficient for a quality outcome. All aspects of a firm's operations have to be examined and improved across the firm.

Businesses do not operate in isolation, but as part of a group of organisations forming the supply chain, which includes suppliers, wholesalers, agents and final customers. So, quality assurance teams must work with all of these groups and organisations to ensure that quality is maintained at all levels. This has led to the movement from traditional quality methods to broader quality approaches and philosophies including:

• Quality Assurance - procedures as well as products are examined and changed if necessary to ensure/assure customers that products are fit for purpose.
• Total Quality Management (TQM) - this is the system where the responsibility for quality lies with ALL employees. It commits the organisation to continuous improvement (Kaizen) of all activities relating to the quality of the product and the satisfaction of the customer. TQM is really a culture, as to be effective it requires a change in attitudes.
• Self-checking - the individual or group responsible for the product or task checks quality all the time, ensuring that the next person in the chain receives a quality product.
• Team working. Firms work with their suppliers, sometimes even investing money and/or buying shares in them, to ensure that the product purchased is of the desired quality, so needing no checking on delivery; in effect it is pre-checked at the supplier's factory.

Quality has become a team responsibility ensuring a focus on high quality at all times. However, quality is not a static concept. The quality of the competitor products may improve, changing the competitive position so requiring a consistent and on-going process of analysis of the external environment and a commitment to continuous improvement.