Chapter 6 Managing Quality

31. "Making it right the first time" is a. an unrealistic definition of quality b. a user-based definition of quality c. a manufacturing-based definition of quality d. a product-based definition of quality e. the definition proposed by the American Society for Quality

c (Defining quality, moderate)109

56. ISO 9000 seeks standardization in terms of a. products b. production procedures c. suppliers' specifications d. procedures to manage quality e. all of the above

d (International quality standards, moderate)

71. The goal of inspection is to a. detect a bad process immediately b. add value to a product or service c. correct deficiencies in products d. correct system deficiencies e. all of the above

a (The role of inspection, moderate)

59. Pareto charts are used to a. identify inspection points in a process b. outline production schedules c. organize errors, problems, or defects d. show material flow e. all of the above

c (Tools of TQM, moderate)

42. Stakeholders who are affected by the production and marketing of poor quality products include a. stockholders, employees, and customers b. suppliers and creditors, but not distributors c. only stockholders, creditors, and owners d. suppliers and distributors, but not customers e. only stockholders and organizational executives and managers

a (Defining quality, moderate) {AACSB: Ethical Reasoning}

43. Regarding the quality of design, production, and distribution of products, an ethical requirement for management is to a. determine whether any of the organization's stakeholders are violated by poor quality products b. gain ISO 14000 certification for the organization c. obtain a product safety certificate from the Consumer Product Safety Commission d. have the organization's legal staff write disclaimers in the product instruction booklets e. compare the cost of product liability to the external failure cost

a (Defining quality, moderate) {AACSB: Ethical Reasoning}

76. A recent consumer survey conducted for a car dealership indicates that, when buying a car, customers are primarily concerned with the salesperson's ability to explain the car's features, the salesperson's friendliness, and the dealer's honesty. The dealership should be especially concerned with which determinants of service quality? a. communication, courtesy, and credibility b. competence, courtesy, and security c. competence, responsiveness, and reliability d. communication, responsiveness, and reliability e. understanding/knowing customer, responsiveness, and reliability

a (TQM in services, moderate) {AACSB: Communication}

66. A fishbone diagram is also known as a a. cause-and-effect diagram b. poka-yoke diagram c. Kaizen diagram d. Kanban diagram e. Taguchi diagram

a (Tools of TQM, easy)

60. The "four Ms" of cause-and-effect diagrams are a. material, machinery/equipment, manpower, and methods b. material, methods, men, and mental attitude c. named after four quality experts d. material, management, manpower, and motivation e. none of the above

a (Tools of TQM, moderate)

70. Which of the following is false regarding control charts? a. Values above the upper control limits always imply that the product's quality is exceeding expectations. b. Control charts are built so that new data can be quickly compared to past performance data. c. Control charts graphically present data. d. Control charts plot data over time. e. None of the above is false.

a (Tools of TQM, moderate)

63. A production manager at a pottery factory has noticed that about 70 percent of defects result from impurities in raw materials, 15 percent result from human error, 10 percent from machine malfunctions, and 5 percent from a variety of other causes. This manager is most likely using a. a Pareto chart b. a scatter diagram c. a Taguchi loss function d. a cause and effect diagram e. a flow chart

a (Tools of TQM, easy)115

37. Which of the following statements is not true? a. Self-promotion is not a substitute for quality products. b. Inferior products harm a firm's profitability and a nation's balance of payments. c. Product liability transfers from the manufacturer to the retailer once the retailer accepts delivery of the product. d. Quality—be it good or bad—will show up in perceptions about a firm's new products, employment practices, and supplier relations. e. Legislation such as the Consumer Product Safety Act sets and enforces product standards by banning products that do not reach those standards.

c (Defining quality, moderate)

78. Which of the determinants of service quality involves having the customer's best interests at heart? a. access b. courtesy c. credibility d. responsiveness e. tangibles

c (TQM in services, moderate)

55. The process of identifying other organizations that are best at some facet of your operations and then modeling your organization after them is known as a. continuous improvement b. employee empowerment c. benchmarking d. copycatting e. patent infringement

c (Total quality management, moderate)

54. Building high-morale organizations and building communication networks that include employees are both elements of a. ISO 9000 certification b. Six Sigma certification c. employee empowerment d. Taguchi methods e. the tools of TQM

c (Total quality management, moderate) {AACSB: Communication}

48. Total quality management emphasizes a. the responsibility of the quality control staff to identify and solve all quality-related problems b. a commitment to quality that goes beyond internal company issues to suppliers and customers c. a system where strong managers are the only decision makers d. a process where mostly statisticians get involved e. ISO 14000 certification

b (Total quality management, moderate)

33. According to the manufacturing-based definition of quality, a. quality is the degree of excellence at an acceptable price and the control of variability at an acceptable cost b. quality depends on how well the product fits patterns of consumer preferences c. even though quality cannot be defined, you know what it is d. quality is the degree to which a specific product conforms to standards e. quality lies in the eyes of the beholder

d (Defining quality, moderate)

68. A quality circle holds a brainstorming session and attempts to identify the factors responsible for flaws in a product. Which tool do you suggest they use to organize their findings? a. Ishikawa diagram b. Pareto chart c. process chart d. control charts e. activity chart

a (Tools of TQM, moderate) {AACSB: Communication}116

35. Which of the following is not one of the major categories of costs associated with quality? a. prevention costs b. appraisal costs c. internal failures d. external failures e. none of the above. they are all major categories of costs associated with quality

e (Defining quality, moderate)

51. Which of the following statements regarding "Six Sigma" is true? a. The term has two distinct meanings—one is statistical. the other is a comprehensive quality system. b. Six Sigma means that about 94 percent of a firm's output is free of defects. c. The Six Sigma program was developed by Toyota in the 1970's. d. The Six Sigma program is for manufacturing firms, and is not applicable to services. e. Six Sigma certification is granted by the International Standards Organization (ISO).

a (Total quality management, moderate)

44. If 1 million passengers pass through the St. Louis Airport with checked baggage each month, a successful Six Sigma program for baggage handling would result in how many passengers with misplaced luggage? a. 3.4 b. 6.0 c. 34 d. 2700 e. 6 times the monthly standard deviation of passengers

a (Total quality management, moderate) {AACSB: Analytic Skills}

32. Three broad categories of definitions of quality are a. product quality, service quality, and organizational quality b. user-based, manufacturing-based, and product-based c. internal, external, and prevention d. low-cost, response, and differentiation e. Pareto, Shewhart, and Deming

b (Defining quality, easy)

30. "Quality is defined by the customer" is a. an unrealistic definition of quality b. a user-based definition of quality c. a manufacturing-based definition of quality d. a product-based definition of quality e. the definition proposed by the American Society for Quality

b (Defining quality, moderate)

77. Marketing issues such as advertising, image, and promotion are important to quality because a. they define for consumers the tangible elements of a service b. the intangible attributes of a product (including any accompanying service) may not be defined by the consumer c. they educate consumers on how to use the product d. they make the product seem more valuable than it really is e. they raise expenses and therefore decrease profitability

b (TQM in services, moderate)

74. "Poka-yoke" is the Japanese term for a. card b. foolproof c. continuous improvement d. fishbone diagram e. just-in-time production

b (The role of inspections, moderate) {AACSB: Multiculture and Diversity}117

64. A customer service manager at a retail clothing store has collected numerous customer complaints from the forms they fill out on merchandise returns. To analyze trends or patterns in these returns, she has organized these complaints into a small number of categories. This is most closely related to the ____________ tool of TQM. a. Taguchi loss function b. cause and effect diagram c. scatter diagram d. histogram e. process control chart

b (Tools of TQM, easy)

61. Among the tools of TQM, the tool ordinarily used to aid in understanding the sequence of events through which a product travels is a a. Pareto chart b. process chart c. check sheet d. Taguchi map e. poka-yoke

b (Tools of TQM, moderate)

62. The process improvement technique that sorts the "vital few" from the "trivial many" is a. Taguchi analysis b. Pareto analysis c. benchmarking d. Deming analysis e. Yamaguchi analysis

b (Tools of TQM, moderate)

67. If a sample of parts is measured and the mean of the measurements is outside the control limits, the process is a. in control, but not capable of producing within the established control limits b. out of control and the process should be investigated for assignable variation c. within the established control limits with only natural causes of variation d. monitored closely to see if the next sample mean will also fall outside the control limits e. none of the above

b (Tools of TQM, moderate)

29. Which of the following statements best describes the relationship between quality management and product strategy? a. Product strategy is set by top management. quality management is an independent activity. b. Quality management is important to the low-cost product strategy, but not to the response or differentiation strategies. c. High quality is important to all three strategies, but it is not a critical success factor. d. Managing quality helps build successful product strategies. e. Companies with the highest measures of quality were no more productive than other firms.

d (Defining quality, moderate)

47. To become ISO 9000 certified, organizations must a. document quality procedures b. have an onsite assessment c. have an ongoing series of audits of their products or service d. all of the above e. none of the above

d (International quality standards, moderate)

79. Which of the determinants of service quality involves performing the service right the first time? a. access b. courtesy c. credibility d. reliability e. responsiveness

d (TQM in services, moderate)

58. A quality loss function includes all of the following costs except a. the cost of scrap and repair b. the cost of customer dissatisfaction c. inspection, warranty, and service costs d. sales costs e. costs to society

d (Tools of TQM, moderate)114

69. When a sample measurement falls inside the control limits, it means that a. each unit manufactured is good enough to sell b. the process limits cannot be determined statistically c. the process output exceeds the requirements d. if there is no other pattern in the samples, the process is in control e. the process output does not fulfill the requirements

d (Tools of TQM, moderate,)

46. Suppose that a firm has historically been achieving "three-sigma" quality. If the firm later changes its quality management practices such that begins to achieve "six-sigma" quality, which of the following phenomena will result? a. The average number of defects will be cut in half. b. The specification limits will be moved twice as far from the mean. c. The average number of defects will be cut by 99.9997%. d. The average number of defects will be cut by 99.87%. e. The average number of defects will be cut by 99.73%.

d (Total quality management, difficult) {AACSB: Analytic Skills}112

49. A successful TQM program incorporates all of the following except a. continuous improvement b. employee involvement c. benchmarking d. centralized decision-making authority e. none of the above. a successful TQM program incorporates all of the above

d (Total quality management, moderate)

34. The role of quality in limiting a firm's product liability is illustrated by a. ensuring that contaminated products such as impure foods do not reach customers b. ensuring that products meet standards such as those of the Consumer Product Safety Act c. designing safe products to limit possible harm to consumers d. using processes that make products as safe or as durable as their design specifications call for e. All of the above are valid.

e (Defining quality, easy) {AACSB: Ethical Reasoning}

36. All of the following costs are likely to decrease as a result of better quality except a. customer dissatisfaction costs b. inspection costs c. scrap costs d. warranty and service costs e. maintenance costs

e (Defining quality, moderate)110

28. Arnold Palmer Hospital uses which of the following quality management techniques? a. Pareto charts b. flow charts c. benchmarking d. Just-in-Time e. The hospital uses all of the above techniques.

e (Global company profile, easy)

45. Which of the following is true about ISO 14000 certification? a. It is not a prerequisite for ISO 9000 certification. b. It deals with environmental management. c. It offers a good systematic approach to pollution prevention. d. One of its core elements is life-cycle assessment. e. All of the above are true.

e (International quality standards, moderate)

75. What refers to training and empowering frontline workers to solve a problem immediately? a. just-in-time b. poka-yoke c. benchmarking d. kaizen e. service recovery

e (TQM in services, easy)

72. Which of the following is not a typical inspection point? a. upon receipt of goods from your supplier b. during the production process c. before the product is shipped to the customer d. at the supplier's plant while the supplier is producing e. after a costly process

e (The role of inspection, moderate)

73. A good description of "source inspection" is inspecting a. materials upon delivery by the supplier b. the goods at the production facility before they reach the customer c. the goods as soon as a problem occurs d. goods at the supplier's plant e. one's own work, as well as the work done at the previous work station

e (The role of inspection, moderate)

50. "Kaizen" is a Japanese term meaning a. a foolproof mechanism b. just-in-time (JIT) c. a fishbone diagram d. setting standards e. continuous improvement

e (Total quality management, easy) {AACSB: Multiculture and Diversity}

40. The philosophy of zero defects is a. the result of Deming's research b. unrealistic c. prohibitively costly d. an ultimate goal. in practice, 1 to 2% defects is acceptable e. consistent with the commitment to continuous improvement

e (Total quality management, moderate)

53. Techniques for building employee empowerment include a. building communication networks that include employees b. developing open, supportive supervisors c. moving responsibility from both managers and staff to production employees d. building high-morale organizations e. All of the above are techniques for employee empowerment.

e (Total quality management, moderate)