Deck 17: Project Management

Question 1

Contact refers to the nature of the person-to-person contact which might take place.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Which function is mainly responsible for ensuring that the actual product or service conforms to its internally specified quality level?

A) Operations
B) Finance
C) Human Resources
D) Marketing

Answer 2

Operations

Question 3

Step 2 of quality planning and control involves:

A) Defining quality characteristics
B) Deciding how to measure each quality characteristic
C) Controlling quality against set standards of quality
D) Finding and correcting poor quality

Answer 3

Deciding how to measure each quality characteristic

Question 4

The Operations view of quality is 'quality is consistent conformance to customers' expectations'. By this it is meant that:

A) The product will be seen as synonymous with innate excellence
B) There are clear specifications consistently met that provide customers with what they would realistically believe they should receive
C) Anything the customer wants and desires should be provided by the organisation
D) The product must be right every time, irrespective of cost to the operation

Question 5

Step 5 of quality planning and control involves:

A) Controlling quality against set standards
B) Finding and correcting causes of poor quality
C) Continuing to make improvements to quality
D) Deciding how to measure each quality characteristic

Question 6

The product-based approach is concerned with making products or providing services that are
free of error and that conform precisely to their design specification.

Question 7

Which of the following quality characteristics does NOT relate to 'durability'?

A) Keeping up with industry trends.
B) Keeping to published flight times.
C) Useful life (with repair).

Question 8

Which function is mainly responsible for ensuring that promises made to customers concerning the product or service can be delivered by the operation in reality?

A) Human Resources
B) Operations
C) Finance
D) Marketing

Question 9

Reliability means the total useful life of the product or service, assuming occasional repair or
modification.

Question 10

For a car, speed, acceleration, fuel consumption and ride quality are all aspects of which quality characteristic?

A) Reliability
B) Durability
C) Appearance
D) Functionality

Question 11

Functionality means how well the product or service does its job.

Question 12

For an aircraft journey, keeping to published flight times is a ________ characteristic.

A) Recovery
B) Functionality
C) Durability
D) Reliability

Question 13

What term is used to describe producing a product or providing a service to its design specification?

A) Designed quality achievement
B) Conformance to specification
C) Output quality
D) Specified quality

Question 14

Which of the following is an indirect benefit of quality improvements?

A) Reduced service costs
B) Reduced processing time
C) Increased scale economies
D) Reduced inventory

Question 15

The value-based approach takes the manufacturing definition a stage further and defines quality
in terms of cost and price.

Question 16

Which of the following is a product, service, and website characteristic for an online grocery shopping service?

A) Staff attitude
B) Product range
C) Site uptime
D) Shelf life

Question 17

Reliability is the consistency of the product's or service's performance over time.

Question 18

For a car, the knowledge and courtesy of sales staff is what quality characteristic?

A) Contact
B) Recovery
C) Reliability
D) Durability

Question 19

Which of the following is an indirect benefit of improved quality?

A) Reduced scrap
B) Reduced inventory
C) Improved image
D) Reduced cost of inspection

Question 20

Which of the following is an example of a 'recovery' quality characteristic?

A) Mean time between failures
B) Ease of repair
C) Courtesy of contact personnel
D) Knowledge of sales staff

Question 21

Acceptance sampling is concerned with sampling the process during the production of goods or
the delivery of service.

Question 22

Internal failure costs are costs associated with errors that are dealt with inside the operation.

Question 23

If road conditions are unsafe to cross, but an individual decides to cross, what type of error has occurred?

A) Positive Distortion Error
B) Type II Error
C) Negative Distortion Error
D) Type I Error

Question 24

Total quality management (TQM) programmes are less likely to remain effective if:

A) TQM does not become a separate 'bolt-on' set of activities
B) Slogans and exhortations about TQM's effectiveness are avoided
C) TQM becomes a substitute for normal managerial leadership
D) Quality improvement relates to the operation's performance objectives
E) The term 'quality' is not defined too narrowly

Question 25

The TQM model looks to reduce all known and unknown failure costs.

Question 26

Staff attitude, delivery vehicle appearance and service reliability are all delivery service
characteristics for an online grocery shopping service.

Question 27

Which one of the following would normally be considered as one of the 'costs of quality'?

A) Performance-related pay
B) The Economic Order Quantity
C) Appraisal costs
D) Relocation costs
E) Purchase order discounts

Question 28

The process of disaggregating quality characteristics into their measurable components can result
in characteristics losing some of their meaning.

Question 29

TQM approach asserts that there is an optimum amount of quality effort to be applied in any
situation, which minimises the total costs of quality.

Question 30

Total quality management (TQM) programmes are more likely to remain effective if a number of prescriptions are followed. Which of the following prescriptions should NOT be followed?

A) Slogans and exhortations about TQM's effectiveness are avoided.
B) TQM should become a substitute for normal managerial leadership.
C) TQM does not become a separate 'bolt-on' set of activities.
D) Quality improvement relates to the operation's performance objectives.

Question 31

A criticism of the 'traditional' TQM approach is that it assumes that costs are known and
measurable.

Question 32

The specific concerns of total quality management (TQM) do NOT include:

A) Cutting back on output to give preference to quality
B) Developing systems and procedures that support quality and improvement.
C) Developing a continuous process of improvement
D) Getting things 'right the first time'
E) Examining all costs relating to quality

Question 33

Top-management support is vital to the success of TQM implementation. Which statement best represents the role of top management?

A) Understand the principles and techniques of quality, participate in problem-solving processes, formulate and maintain a clear idea of what quality means.
B) Insist that TQM is seen as an important, but separate, activity and as a worthy end in itself.
C) Articulate the quality strategy and empower and exhort the workforce to implement it.
D) Involve themselves in quality teams and regularly meet with customers to understand quality issues.

Question 34

Which of the following is NOT a decision involved in Step 4 of quality planning and control?

A) Should customers check the product or the service provider?
B) Should checks be made for every product or service?
C) Where in the operation should checks be made?
D) How should checks be performed?

Question 35

Why are disaggregated measures of quality not always useful in services?

A) Because services are tangible.
B) Because some aspects of service can't be measured.
C) Because measurement is less important than customer loyalty.
D) Because disaggregated measures are complicated to use.

Question 36

The TQM approach suggests that each individual has an impact on quality.

Question 37

Many factors lost by disaggregating quality characteristics are those embedded in the design of the
product.

Question 38

TQM lays particular emphasis on which one of the following areas?

A) Business Process Re-engineering.
B) Getting the customer-facing part of the operation right.
C) Delighting the customer.
D) Meeting the needs of customers, covering all parts of the organisation, continuous improvement.

Question 39

What factors appear to be influential in ensuring the success of TQM?

A) Quality strategy, top management support, a steering group, appropriate training and recognition and reward.
B) Motivate the workforce through a programme of hype, slogans and exhortations.
C) Committed workers and supervisors, investment in training, financial benefits for staff.
D) Focus TQM on the areas of the operations that have the greatest impact on customers.

Question 40

Which one of the following would normally be considered as one of the 'costs of quality'?

A) Research and development costs
B) Stockholding costs
C) Internal failure costs
D) Marketing costs
E) Distribution costs

Question 41

The TQM Model looks for 'optimum' levels of quality effort.

Question 42

Statistical Process Control (SPC) is concerned with:

A) Assessing the ability of customers to cope with new service layouts
B) Sampling the process during production
C) Assessing the quality of outgoing batches
D) Assessing the acceptability of incoming materials

Question 43

If a batch of products is deemed to be unsatisfactory and withdrawn, but is in fact of an acceptable standard to sell, what type of error has occurred?

A) Type III Error
B) Type I Error
C) Type II Error
D) Determination Error

Question 44

If the natural variation of the process is greater than the specification range, which of the following is true?

A) The process can be termed 'capable'.
B) The process can be termed 'not capable'.
C) The process can be termed 'controlled'.
D) The process can be termed 'deviant'.

Question 45

The range of weights that can be tolerated by the operation is called the:

A) Acceptable mean
B) Specification range
C) Variable control limit
D) Range of tolerance

Question 46

Errors that occur when something is done, when a situation did not warrant it are called:

A) Type II Errors
B) Type III Errors
C) Type I Errors
D) None of the above

Question 47

Statistical Process Control (SPC) gives guidelines on whether or not intervention should occur. In
The following scenario determine whether the occurrences should be seen as a sign to intervene:Alternating points either side of the mean.

A) Intervene
B) Do not intervene

Question 48

Which of the following is a criticism of the TQM approach?

A) It is incompatible with more radical approaches such as business process re-engineering.
B) It focuses too much on external failure costs.
C) It results in higher costs of internal failure.
D) It results in the loss of jobs.

Question 49

UTL stands for:

A) Upper Component Target
B) Unnecessary Control Target
C) Upper Control Tolerance
D) Unique Component Tolerance

Question 50

The range (R) chart picks up changes in the average output from the process.

Question 51

Which of the following methods focuses on assessing whether an incoming or outgoing batch of materials or customers is acceptable or not?

A) Acceptance Sampling
B) Production Assessment
C) Statistical Process Control
D) All of the above

Question 52

What name is given to quality characteristics which can assessed by judgement and are dichotomous (e.g. looks OK / not OK)?

A) Variables
B) Vectors
C) Components
D) Attributes

Question 53

TQM puts the customer at the forefront of quality decision making. Customer's needs and
expectations are always considered first in measuring achieved quality.

Question 54

TQM can be seen as an extension of the traditional approach to quality - inspection-based quality
control being replaced by the concept of quality assurance which in turn has been superseded by
TQM.

Question 55

The implied cost models of TQM are quite similar to those used in the traditional approach to
quality

Question 56

If the process average is offset from the specification range, this is termed:

A) Incapability
B) One-sided capability
C) Deterministic capability
D) Lop-sided capability

Question 57

Errors that occur when nothing is done, but when something should have been done, are referred to as:

A) Positive Distortion Errors
B) Negative Distortion Errors
C) Type I Errors
D) Type II Errors

Question 58

In the Six Sigma approach, what is the name of those who work within improvement teams, possibly as team leaders?

A) Master Green Belt
B) Master Black Belt
C) Black Belt
D) Green Belt

Question 59

Statistical Process Control (SPC) gives guidelines on whether or not intervention should occur. In
The following scenario determine whether the occurrences should be seen as a sign to intervene:1 point over the control limit.

A) Intervene
B) Do not intervene

Question 60

Statistical Process Control (SPC) gives guidelines on whether or not intervention should occur. In
The following scenario determine whether the occurrences should be seen as a sign to intervene:3 points one side of the line, followed by 2 points the other side, followed by 1 back the other side.

A) Intervene
B) Do not intervene

Question 61

Which of the following is a criticism of the Six Sigma approach?

A) It results in the reduction of workforce.
B) It can be too hierarchical.
C) It is too technology-focused.
D) It increases costs of external failure.