Deck 7: Measures and Metrics

Question 1

John has just been hired as a color separator in a printing company. John is familiar with many types of separators, but each has its own processes that must be learned. The person doing the hiring assured John that a training program was in place. John's first day at work was a disaster. He was assigned to separator 3 and told to "run it". When he explained to the supervisor that he needed some training to get up to speed on the machine, the supervisor grudgingly asked another employee to spend 15 minutes with John. Wanting to get back to her machine, the other employee gave a quick 5 minute run through and John was on his own. John made many mistakes that first night and production was lost. His supervisor thinks John won't make it through his probationary period. What costs of quality have been incurred?

Answer 1

Internal failure costs (waste of time and effort)
Intangible costs (employee satisfaction)
External failure costs (potential for incorrectly done job)

Question 2

Describe a situation where you, as the customer, did not receive the product or service that you expected. What costs of quality did you, as the customer, incur? What costs of quality did the provider of the product or service incur?

Answer 2

NO ANSWER

Question 3

What does Deming mean when he said: "Figures are only useful if we know how to use them; they are no use on their own. Give an example to support your conclusions.

Answer 3

Very simply, what gets measured gets done. Effective organizations recognize that if they cannot measure, they cannot manage. They know that if they do not have sufficient information about a process, product, or service, they cannot control it. And if a process cannot be controlled, the organization is at the mercy of chance. So, effective organizations choose their measures wisely and then use the information they provide to make decisions.

Question 4

An employee is asked to prepare computer printouts for timely delivery. While the information is printing out, the paper keeps tearing and jamming in the printer. The employee knows that this particular brand of paper is incompatible with this printer. When he checked on this in the past he was told that the paper was the least costly, and since the company was facing a budget crunch, purchase orders were being filled with the least expensive items possible. Unfortunately, no one thought to check on what kind of impact those choices would have on the productivity in various departments. Because of jams and tears, the document preparer now has to work longer on the job than expected. More paper is also used because of the loss associated with the jams. What costs of quality did you, as the customer, incur? What costs of quality did the provider of the product or service incur?

Question 5

Recently, a customer in a store purchased over $100 worth of household cleaning supplies. As the clerk bagged the purchases, the customer notice that the bags were flimsy and the items (laundry soap, detergent, cleanser, furniture polish, bleach, ammonia, etc.) were rather heavy. The customer requested that the items be separated into several different bags and double-bagged to avoid ripping the bags.

Question 6

Passenger airline companies typically measure quality in terms of on-time departures and on-time arrivals. While these are two good measures of a portion of the flying experience, what other measures would be useful?

Question 7

How does a reduction in the costs associated with poor quality result in an improvement in a company's profit performance?

Question 8

Why should a company be concerned about the intangible costs associated with not providing a product or service that the consumer expected?

Question 9

Describe the difference between an internal failure cost and an external failure cost. Give an example of each.

Question 10

Describe the difference between a prevention cost and an appraisal cost. Give an example of each.