Deck 3: Quality and Performance

Question 1

A professor,dissatisfied with a product he's purchased,bad mouths the product to his class,resulting in decreased market share (since the students believe everything he tells them).The manufacturer suffers:

A)an internal failure cost.
B)an external failure cost.
C)a prevention cost.
D)an appraisal cost.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which one of the following is part of prevention costs?

A)the costs of quality audits
B)the costs resulting from scrap
C)the costs of improving process design and product design
D)the costs of lawsuits from injury from use of the product

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which one of the following is considered to be an appraisal cost?

A)cost of quality audits
B)cost of supplier programs
C)cost of rework
D)cost of process design

Answer 3

A

Question 4

The investment a company makes in training employees to perform their duties and redesigning products and processes to improve them would be categorized as prevention costs.

Question 5

A cost that is incurred if some aspect of a service must be performed again is called a(n):

A)yield loss.
B)prevention cost.
C)appraisal cost.
D)rework cost.

Question 6

Improving quality seems to be a strategic weapon in gaining market share.However,improving quality entails allocation of resources and effort.As greater effort is expended to stop defects before they occur,which one of the following costs increases?

A)prevention costs
B)appraisal costs
C)internal failure costs
D)external failure costs

Question 7

A prime example of an internal failure cost is the:

A)labor cost associated with inspecting every item produced.
B)labor cost associated with repairing an item returned under warranty.
C)material cost of a piece of stock metal that has had too large a hole drilled in it.
D)material cost of the paint applied to the case of a finished unit.

Question 8

From an ethical standpoint,it is acceptable for a hospital's cardiac surgery unit that is striving for zero complications to turn down high-risk patients.

Question 9

Appraisal costs are associated with preventing defects before they happen.

Question 10

When errors have been made while producing a product such that the item must be discarded,the resultant cost is called a(n):

A)warranty.
B)scrap cost.
C)rework cost.
D)external failure cost.

Question 11

Which one of the following is a potential consequence of external failures?

A)longer lead times
B)less rework
C)more litigation costs
D)lower product costs

Question 12

Increasing the quality level by better products and processes may:

A)allow a company to raise the price of the product.
B)move a company closer to a competitive priority of price.
C)reduce prevention costs.
D)ensure that the trade-off between prevention costs and other costs of poor quality is worthwhile.

Question 13

Which one of the following statements is TRUE?

A)Appraisal costs decrease as quality level decreases.
B)Appraisal costs increase as the variation of output increases.
C)Appraisal costs increase as the variation of output decreases.
D)Appraisal costs increase as quality level increases.

Question 14

When a process fails to satisfy a customer:

A)it is quite often the customer's fault.
B)it is considered a defect
C)it is time to reengineer the process.
D)it is usually half the customer's fault and half the company's fault.

Question 15

Which of the following would be considered an appraisal cost of quality?

A)training workers to perform their jobs
B)purchasing better tools for workers to perform their jobs
C)repairing an item under the warranty
D)running a functional test on each item before it is boxed for shipment

Question 16

Consumers consider five aspects when defining quality.Which one of the following is least likely to be one of these aspects?

A)value
B)fitness for use
C)psychological impressions
D)individual development

Question 17

Since an employee's responsibility is to move production along,it is ethical to knowingly pass defective services or products to internal or external customers when capacity is tight.

Question 18

Which of the following would be considered a prevention cost of quality?

A)inspecting incoming raw materials
B)training workers to perform their jobs
C)issuing a recall of defective product before another customer is injured
D)performing a 24 hour burn-in on every item produced to make sure it works before it is shipped.

Question 19

An example of an internal failure cost would be warranty cost.

Question 20

Which one of the following is a consequence of internal failures?

A)increased customer service
B)increased inventory costs
C)increased productivity
D)decreased lead time

Question 21

________ refers to how well the product or service performs its intended purpose.

Question 22

The notion of internal customers applies to all parts of a firm.

Question 23

What is the long-term impact of unethical business practices on product and service quality?

Question 24

Which one of the following statements is a key feature of both TQM and Six Sigma?

A)Quality is primarily the responsibility of all employees in the organization.
B)Quality is primarily the responsibility of the quality control department.
C)Quality is primarily the responsibility of the production department.
D)Quality is primarily the responsibility of top management.

Question 25

Quality at the source refers to the effort to catch and correct any mistakes as they are being made by those that are making them.

Question 26

At which of the following steps will the cost of detecting product defects be the highest?

A)customer
B)process
C)final testing
D)raw material

Question 27

Internal customers are those that have some familial relation working at the business providing the good or service.

Question 28

________ is an internal cost of quality incurred when a process step must be performed again or fixed before an item can be shipped.

Question 29

The Six Sigma five-step approach contains the elements define,measure,analyze,improve,and control.

Question 30

People often evaluate the quality of a service on the basis of psychological impressions.

Question 31

One of the principles that total quality management (TQM)stresses is customer satisfaction.

Question 32

________ costs are associated with preventing defects before they happen.

Question 33

________ costs arise when a defect is discovered after the customer has received the product or service.

Question 34

Applying Six Sigma to service processes is more challenging than for manufacturing processes.

Question 35

The internal failure known as ________ occurs when an item is unfit for further processing.

Question 36

A firm's internal program in employee involvement includes which of the following considerations?

A)defining who is the customer
B)supplier management
C)product availability
D)psychological impressions

Question 37

Because Six Sigma involves the elimination of defects,it can only be applied in manufacturing processes.

Question 38

The Six Sigma improvement model can be applied both to projects involving incremental improvements to processes and to projects requiring major changes.

Question 39

"Quality at the source" implies:

A)less expensive raw materials.
B)lower scrap.
C)higher rework costs.
D)more final-test inspectors.

Question 40

Illustrate the differences between prevention and appraisal costs using a restaurant setting as an example.

Question 41

The 15-year-old car didn't dazzle students or members of the opposite sex,but it started every morning and evening and got the professor to his destination on time,thereby scoring high on the:

A)psychological impressions scale of quality.
B)fitness for use scale of quality.
C)support scale of quality.
D)bells and whistles scale of quality.

Question 42

Small groups of employees and supervisors that meet to identify,analyze,and solve process and quality problems are known as ________.

Question 43

Quality measured with reference to price is captured by the notion of:

A)conformance to specifications.
B)value.
C)fitness for use.
D)psychological impressions.

Question 44

If a product initially fails to live up to the customer's expectations,which dimension of quality might salvage the sale and the company's reputation?

A)psychological impressions
B)fitness for use
C)support
D)value

Question 45

Continuous improvement is a philosophy that:

A)uses problem-solving techniques within work teams.
B)ensures there are plenty of quality inspectors to find areas for improvement.
C)waits until a big problem occurs,then systematically solves it.
D)encourages the hiring of statistical process control specialists to reduce the need for current employees to learn statistical methods.

Question 46

Which step of the Six Sigma DMAIC procedure monitors the process to make sure high performance levels are maintained?

A)Define
B)Measure
C)Analyze
D)Improve
E)Control

Question 47

When considering the plan-do-study-act cycle for problem solving,quantitative goals are set for process improvement in the ________ step.

A)plan
B)do
C)study
D)act

Question 48

Defects are caught and corrected where they were created under a(n)________ philosophy.

Question 49

As he entered his broker's office for the first time,the young associate professor was dazzled by its tasteful accoutrements and the offer of a double tall split shot skinny hazelnut latte.He knew his lottery winnings would be safe here,thanks to his:

A)broker's conformance to specifications.
B)broker's fitness for use.
C)broker's support.
D)own psychological impressions.

Question 50

What is one reason that Six Sigma is more difficult to apply to service processes?

A)There is no manual that suggests how Six Sigma can be applied to services.
B)The work product is more difficult to see.
C)There is no way to measure process capability of a service product.
D)The National Six Sigma Society cautions against using it for services.

Question 51

The customer's assessment of quality with reference to the price paid for the good or service is known as ________.

Question 52

When considering the plan-do-study-act cycle for problem solving,evaluating how closely a project's results correspond to the initial goals set for the work is part of the ________ step.

A)plan
B)do
C)study
D)act

Question 53

Which of these elements is not part of the Deming Wheel?

A)plan
B)design
C)study
D)act

Question 54

The TQM wheel features ________ at its center.

A)incremental improvement
B)customer satisfaction
C)employee teams
D)leadership

Question 55

When considering the plan-do-study-act cycle for problem solving,instructing other employees in the use of the new process occurs in the ________ step.

A)plan
B)do
C)study
D)act

Question 56

One of the main challenges in developing the proper culture for TQM is to:

A)define customer for each employee.
B)suspend reward systems based on quantity.
C)institute an equitable employee recognition program.
D)get buy-in from the customer.

Question 57

As an operations manager,which definition of quality do you have the most control over?

A)conformance to specifications
B)support
C)psychological impressions
D)value

Question 58

Which step of the Six Sigma DMAIC procedure involves identifying data sources and preparing a data collection plan?

A)Define
B)Measure
C)Analyze
D)Improve
E)Control

Question 59

________ is an approach to teamwork that moves responsibility for decisions farther down the organizational chart-to the level of the employee actually doing the job.

Question 60

________ are small groups of supervisors and employees who meet to identify,analyze,and solve production and quality problems.

Question 61

________ is the application of statistical techniques to determine if the quality of incoming materials should be accepted or rejected,based on the testing of a sample of parts.

Question 62

An acceptable quality level is measured as the proportion of defective items a buyer is willing to tolerate.

Question 63

Why is employee empowerment important in a total quality management program?

Question 64

While acceptance sampling does determine if incoming materials should be accepted or rejected,it does not limit the buyer's risk of accepting bad-quality parts or rejecting good-quality parts.

Question 65

Common causes of variation are the purely random,unidentifiable sources of variation that are unavoidable with the current process.

Question 66

What are any three dimensions of quality and which one accurately describes how you assess education?

Question 67

Statistical process control (SPC)is the application of statistical techniques to determine whether a quantity of material should be accepted or rejected.

Question 68

What are the steps in the Six Sigma improvement model and how do they relate to the PDSA cycle?

Question 69

Full-time teachers and leaders of teams involved in six sigma projects are referred to as ________.

Question 70

Provide examples of the three main tenets of total quality management as applied to this operations management course.

Question 71

Wider limits on a control chart result in lower probability of a type I error.

Question 72

Acceptance sampling is the application of statistics to determine if the quality of incoming materials should be accepted or rejected.

Question 73

Assignable causes of variation include any variable-causing factors that can be identified and eliminated.

Question 74

On a control chart,a type I error occurs when the employee concludes that the process is in control when it is actually out of statistical control.

Question 75

In acceptance sampling,the proportion defective that the buyer will allow in an incoming shipment is:

A)the acceptable random sample (ARS).
B)the upper control limit (UCL).
C)the lower control limit (LCL).
D)the acceptable quality level (AQL).

Question 76

Convicting an innocent defendant is an example of a type II error.

Question 77

A process is monitored with a control chart.The process is correctly judged to be in-control once the results from the most recent sample are plotted.Therefore,all of the output produced at that time is good.

Question 78

________ is a comprehensive and flexible system for achieving,sustaining,and maximizing business success through intensive data analysis and process management,improvement and reengineering.

Question 79

In acceptance sampling,when the random sample passes the buyer's incoming test (low number of defects found),the next action taken is to:

A)accept the entire lot of incoming materials.
B)do additional testing to reduce the risk of accepting a bad-quality lot.
C)place the lot on hold and wait for additional lots from this seller to be tested to assure consistent good quality.
D)100% inspect the lot because some defects were found.

Question 80

In acceptance sampling,the ________ is the proportion defective that the buyer will allow in an incoming shipment.