Quality Management (Module 3)

Section A- ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS

Question 1

The continuous business improvement process is an ongoing endeavor to improve a product, service or process.

Question 1 (a)

• Using an organisation of your choice describe five typical areas of failure. The description needs to identify where the failure is internal or external.
  (16 marks)

Question 1 (b)

• Explain three reasons why the use of objectives and targets supports the promotion of continuous quality improvement.
  (9 marks)

Question 2

The PAF is one of a number of quality costing models. Within the standards, the categories of quality costs have been rationalized to the cost of Prevention, Appraisal and Failure.

Question 2 (a)

• Explain how the PAF model could be applied to a company of your choice. Include a description of the sources of cost information and show how the costs can be graphically represented.
  (12 marks)

Question 2 (b)

• Describe THREE obstacles to implementing an accurate PAF project.
  (6 Marks)

Question 2 (c)

• Compare and contrast the PAF model with other quality costing models.
  (7 marks)

Section B- ANSWER ONE OF THE QUESTIONS

Question 3

A product or service that meets or exceeds its design specifications and is free from defects is said to have a high quality of conformance. Preventing, detecting and dealing with defects causes costs, referred to as quality costs or costs of quality.

Question 3 (a)

• Describe a method of implementing a quality cost programme in an organisation of your own choice.
  (12 Marks)

Question 3 (b)

• Identify three examples of appraisal costs in the organisation you mentioned in (a) and suggest actions that could be taken to improve the quality of conformance.
  (6 Marks)

Question 3 (c)

• Describe the difference between internal and external failure costs and provide three examples of each.
  (7 marks)

Question 4

Business processes and their interactions have to be managed in a systematic way to ensure they are efficient and effective and capable of adaption to improve performance and reduce risks. They are commonly categorized into core business processes and support processes.

Question 4 (a)

• Explain what is meant by core business processes and support processes including within your explanation, three examples for each process.
  (12 marks)

Question 4 (b)

• Discuss what is meant by process ownership within management systems and explain in detail five
  responsibilities of a process owner.
  (13 marks)

Question 5

There are many approaches to managing change and problem solving with the Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) cycle being one adopted by many organisations.

Question 5 (a)

•  Explain what the PDCA cycle is.
  (5 marks)

Question (b)

• Describe, in detail, the four stages of the PDCA cycle and provide TWO examples of activities at each stage.
  (12 marks)

Question 5 (c)

• Using an example of the application of the PDCA cycle of your own choosing, provide a description of your example and how it was applied to an organisation. From your example, draw conclusions on how the PDCA cycle can support the effective resolution of problems or business improvement.
  (8 marks)