Quality Management
Which of the following points of Deming's 14 points discusses creating and publishing to all employees a statement of the aims and purposes of the company or other organization, and the management demonstrating constantly their commitment to this statement?
Point 1
The quality assurance function helps to achieve quality by:
providing special statistical studies and analyses to the manufacturing or business support functions.
In Juran's quality trilogy, the process of preparing to meet quality goals is called:
quality planning.
Japanese scientists and Engineers established the Deming application prize in 1951 to recognize companies that show a high level of achievement in:
quality practices.
While designing a customer satisfaction survey, organizations should use:
questions that address only one issue or idea.
The term "workforce engagement" refers to:
the extent of workforce commitment, both emotional and intellectual, to accomplishing the work, mission, and vision of the organization.
The transcendent definition of quality was first defined as the goodness of a product. T/F
true
For statistical process control, a good sampling method should always:
use rational subgroups.
The criteria for the Canadian Awards for Business Excellence are similar in structure to the criteria for the:
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
Which of the following perspectives of quality is meaningful for production workers who are responsible for guaranteeing that design specifications are met during production?
Manufacturing perspective
Which of the following activities included in the DMADV process gathers the voice of the customer, identifies the vital characteristics that are most important to customers, and outlines the functional requirements of the product that will meet customer needs?
Measure
In 2001, the China Association for Quality (CAQ) introduced the _____.
National Quality Award
According to Herzberg's Two-Factor theory, which of the following factors is an example of a motivational factor?
Nature of work
One of the reasons for poor deployment of action plans is insufficient operational measures. Which of the following is a feature of this aspect?
New legislative mandates
Which of the following is a process measure that helps to assess workforce effectiveness?
Number of suggestions made by the employees
c-charts are based on the _____ probability distribution.
Poisson
The impact of other process on a particular process must be considered while designing the process, as processes rarely operate in isolation.
T
The improvement aspect of process management focuses on continually seeking to achieve higher levels of performance, such as reduced variation, higher yields, fewer defects and errors, and smaller cycle times.
T
The materials supplied by a certified supplier do not require manufacturers to conduct routine testing on all the lots supplied.
T
The methodology of axiomatic design is based on the premise that good design is governed by laws similar to those in natural science.
T
Which of the following is a creativity tool that finds extensive use in product design?
TRIZ
Most women in the township of Adington prefer to visit Sharon's Hair Salon because of the attractive interiors, well-designed equipment, and neatly dressed employees. Which of the following dimensions is influencing customer perceptions of quality in the above scenario?
Tangibles
Stella works as a customer service executive at a firm that manufactures computer systems. She is motivated to perform her job effectively, as she is aware that her job of helping customers to resolve technical issues has a direct impact on the performance of the organization. Which of the following job characteristics, as identified by Hackman and Oldham in their work design model, is motivating Stella in the above scenario?
Task significance
According to Juran, the customers who fall under the category of "useful many" typically need only standardized attention as a group.
True
According to the manufacturing perspective of quality, quality is based on the consistency between goods and services. T/F
True
Complaints allow an organization to learn about product failures and service problems, particularly the gaps between expectations and performance.
True
Customer -supplier partnerships help organizations to improve products through early design recommendations and also reduce operations costs through better communications.
True
Over the years, the Baldrige Criteria have been streamlined and simplified; most significantly, the word "quality" was judiciously dropped in the mid-1990s.
True
Services cannot be inventoried or inspected prior to delivery as manufactured goods.
True
Services cannot be inventoried or inspected prior to delivery as manufactured goods. T/F
True
The Baldrige Award Criteria form a model for business excellence in any organization, whether large or small.
True
Fully empowered TQ organizations and those with strong self-directed teams typically use the coaching style of leadership.
false
If all sample averages on an -chart fall within the control limits, all output will be conforming.
false
In line and staff organizations, staff departments carry out the functions of marketing, finance, and production for the organization.
false
Job design refers to how employees are organized in formal and informal units, such as departments and teams, within an organization.
false
Leaders who take on a transformational style of leadership have a short-term perspective.
false
Management teams are specially empowered work teams whose members gather to solve a specific problem and then disband.
false
Manufacturing is generally more labor intensive compared to services.
false
Natural work teams are usually cross-functional, as they work on specific tasks or processes that cut across boundaries of several different departments.
false
In the context of transactional leadership theory, contingent reward behavior includes clarification of the work required to obtain rewards to influence motivation.
true
In the first stage of the Baldrige Award process, each application is thoroughly reviewed by approximately seven examiners chosen from among leading professionals in business, education, health care, and nonprofits (all of whom are volunteers).
true
Interlinking is the term that describes the quantitative modeling of cause-and-effect relationships between performance measures, such as the customer satisfaction and product quality or employee performance.
true
Leading organizations continually improve their performance measurement systems, staying abreast of new techniques.
true
Loyal customers are most likely to be dissatisfied when problems are not resolved after complaining to the organization.
true
Culture is driven by:
leadership
A process is said to be out of control when:
special causes are present
A p-chart is used with the attribute data.
true
Defects per million opportunities (dpmo) = _____.
(Number of defects discovered / Opportunities for error) x 1,000,000
An electric component has a failure rate of ë= 0.0035 failure per hour. For this component, the mean time to failure(è) is _____.
285.7 hours
A machined part has a lower specification limit of 3.5 inches and an upper specification limit of 3.9 inches. The range for the pre-control green zone is:
3.6 inches to 3.8 inches.
What is the Six Sigma quality level when the process standard deviation is 1ó and the tolerance range is 10 ó?
5
In the context of a Six Sigma team, who among the following is typically a senior-level manager who owns the Six Sigma project and is responsible for its completion and results?
A champion
_____ is a study of variation in a measurement system using statistical analysis.
A repeatability and reproducibility (R&R) study
Which of the following is a proper description of a tree diagram?
A tool to map out the paths and tasks necessary to complete a specific project or reach a specified goal
With respect to American Express's change process, which of the following steps answer the question "How are we going to manage the effort on an ongoing basis?"
Accelerating the transition
_____ represents the critical stage in planning when strategic objectives and goals are made specific so that effective, organization-wide understanding and deployment are possible.
Action plan development
Which of the following is a management and planning tool for organizing a large number of ideas, opinions, and facts relating to a broad problem or subject area?
Affinity diagram
Which of the following "conditions of collaboration," proposed by Kendall and Bodison, creates a congruency between what the organization stands for and the personal beliefs of the individual?
Aligned values
According to Hackman and Oldham work design model, which of the following core job characteristics is most likely to have an impact on an employee's experienced responsibility?
Autonomy
_____ is a methodology used in the product design process, developed by Dr. Nam Suh from MIT, which is based on the premise that good design is governed by laws similar to those in natural science.
Axiomatic design
Which of the following is most likely to be used to obtain comparative data?
Benchmarking approach
In the context of Six Sigma teams, who among the following are fully trained Six Sigma experts with extensive technical training who perform much of the technical analysis required in Six Sigma projects, usually on a full-time basis?
Black Belts
In the context of the Weber's classification of the way leaders exercise authority, which of the following leadership styles is based on an individual's ability to inspire others and usually is tied to that person's personal characteristics?
Charismatic leadership
In the context of the leadership styles defined by Hersey and Blanchard, in which of the following styles of leadership do leaders set the overall approach and direction but work with subordinates and allow them to manage the details?
Coaching
With respect to the six competencies summarized by the human development and leadership division of the American society for quality, which of the following competencies involves the creation of an environment that reduces barriers and fosters the use of open, honest and honorable means for exchanging information?
Communicator
Which of the following terms best represents a firm's ability to achieve market superiority?
Competitive advantage
Which of the following activities of the design for six sigma (DFSS) focuses on creating and building a product idea and determining its functionality based upon customer requirements, technological capabilities, and economic realities?
Concept development
Which of the following is the first step involved in designing a manufacturing process?
Conducting a detailed technical analysis of the characteristics of the product
The ultimate purchaser of a product or service is referred to as a(n) _____.
Consumer
Which of the following is one of the three major activities in process management that focuses on maintaining consistency in output by assessing performance and taking corrective action when necessary?
Control
_____ is seeing things in new or novel ways.
Creativity
Leadership, strategic planning, and _____ categories represent the "leadership triad."
Customer Focus
Which of the following perspectives of quality provides the basis for coordinating the entire value chain?
Customer perspective
The _____ theory states that improvements in quality lead to lower costs because they result in less rework, fewer mistakes, fewer delays and snags, and better use of time and materials. Lower costs, in turn, lead to productivity improvements.
Deming Chain Reaction
_____ is the process of designing a product for efficient production at the highest level of quality.
Design for manufacturability
Which of the following activities of the design for six sigma (DFSS) ensures that the quality level and reliability requirements of the product are achieved?
Design verification
Which of the following activities of the design for six sigma (DFSS) focuses on developing specific requirements and design parameters such as specifications and tolerances to ensure that the product fulfills the functional requirements of the concept?
Detailed design
Which one of the following Crosby's basic elements of improvement means that the top management must take quality improvement seriously?
Determination
Which of the following is the first step in developing a customer satisfaction survey?
Determining the purpose of the survey
_____ systems allow organizations to share databases in a networking environment and store and process key data in a unique database and distribute it to a large group of users.
Enterprise resource planning
In which of the following stages of the FADE approach is the solution implemented and a monitoring plan is established?
Execute
An organization must address certain key practices to achieve a strategic focus on performance excellence. Which of the following is NOT one of them?
Execute mergers and acquisitions, with an aim to expand business globally and to form coalitions and cartels to achieve the same
_____ knowledge includes information stored in documents or other forms of media such as databases, policies and procedures, and technical drawings.
Explicit
_____ knowledge is easily captured, stored, and disseminated using computer technology.
Explicit
Shenzen Electronics, a cell phone manufacturing company, buys microphones and bluetooth handsets from Atid Infotech which manufactures cell phones and cellular accessories. For Atid Infotech, Shenzen is a(n) _____.
External Customer
A kaizen blitz is an improvement initiative that is gradual and continuous and is performed on a part-time basis.
F
Identifying potential defects and errors and stopping a process before they occur is the best approach to avoid mistakes in a process.
F
Projects generally cut across organizational boundaries but do not require the coordination of many different departments and functions.
F
Reengineering focuses on improving the existing procedures rather than eliminating them and reinventing the process.
F
The idea generation phase of product development usually includes prototype testing, in which a model is constructed to test the product's physical properties or use under actual operating conditions.
F
Wide tolerances in product design have a positive impact on product characteristics.
F
According to Dr. Ishikawa's philosophy, the ideal state of quality control occurs when inspection becomes necessary.
False
According to the Kano Model, "satisfiers" are the basic requirements that customers expect in a product or service which are generally not stated by customers but assumed as given.
False
American Express pioneered the concept of Six Sigma as an approach to measuring product and service quality.
False
As managerial roles shift from directing and controlling to coaching and facilitating, managers who deal with cross-functional problems, benefit more from upward movement rather than horizontal movement in narrow functional areas.
False
Deming laid out a "quality improvement program" for companies such as Ford, GM, and Procter & Gamble, when invited to work with them to improve their quality.
False
ISO 9000:2000 is a comprehensive business performance framework.
False
If quality is built into the product properly, inspection is necessary for auditing purposes and functional testing.
False
In the Baldrige Criteria, areas to address that request information on approach or deployment begin with the word "what."
False
In the context of the criteria for performance excellence, the strategic planning category is positioned as the foundation for all other categories in the systems framework that underlies the Baldrige philosophy.
False
In the context of the dimensions of quality, as suggested by David A. Garvin, reliability is the amount of use one gets from a product before it physically deteriorates.
False
In the context of the gap model, a customer will be satisfied when the expected quality of a product is higher than the actual quality.
False
Services are produced prior to consumption.
False
The "conformance" dimension of a service depends on the ability of the service provider to provide what was promised to the customers, dependably and accurately.
False
The "do" stage in the PDSA cycle involves identifying problems.
False
The EFQM framework based on the concept of excellence in corporate social responsibility refers to excellence as exceeding the maximum regulatory framework in which the organization operates and to strive to understand and respond to the expectations of their stakeholders in society.
False
The bottom-up way to generate six sigma projects is generally tied to business strategy and is aligned with customer needs.
False
The function of tool engineers in manufacturing industries is to work with product design engineers to develop realistic specifications.
False
The internal customers of a company are those people who ultimately purchase and use the company's products.
False
_____ is a method to describe combinations of conditions or events that can lead to a failure.
Fault tree analysis
Which of the following measures of the Baldrige criteria of performance measurement includes revenue, return on equity, return on investment, and operating profit?
Financial outcomes
Which of the following survey instruments is most likely to be effective in generating a significant amount of qualitative information from the customers?
Focus groups
Which of the following survey instruments is most commonly used because of low data collection costs and ease of analysis associated with it?
Formal written surveys
The Leadership category in the 2011-2012 Baldrige Criteria consists of two examination items: Senior Leadership and _____.
Governance and Societal Responsibilities
In pre-control, which zone covers the nominal specification of a process?
Green zone
Which of the following is used by organizations to measure customer response by allowing them to express their degree of opinion?
Likert Scale
Which of the following focuses on product and service conformity for guaranteeing equity in the marketplace and concentrates on fixing quality system problems and product and service nonconformities?
ISO
Topline Inc. is a leading supplier of food products to retailers across the United States. As part of its quality management principle, it focuses on product and service conformity for guaranteeing equity in the marketplace and concentrates on fixing quality system problems and product and service nonconformities, with the key requirement being customer focus. The guidelines for the quality management system followed by Topline are as per the framework of _____.
ISO 9000:2000
Who among the following in an organization are responsible for selecting appropriate technologies, equipment, and work methods for producing quality products?
Industrial engineers
Which of the following is NOT considered in strategic human resource plans? Initiatives to foster knowledge sharing and organizational learning Initiatives to reduce collective bargaining through union involvement Redesign of the work organization to increase empowerment and decision-making or team-based participation Partnerships with educational institutions to help ensure the future supply of well-prepared employees
Initiatives to reduce collective bargaining through union involvement
_____ involves the adoption of an idea, process, technology, product, or business model that is either new or new to its proposed application.
Innovation
Which of the following perspectives of the balanced scorecard directs attention to the basis of a future success —the organization's people and infrastructure?
Innovation and learning
Which of the following phases of the Baldrige roadmap is characterized by action on the feedback, usually by incorporating it into the strategic planning process?
Integration phase
_____ is the term that describes the quantitative modeling of cause-and-effect relationships between performance measures, such as the customer satisfaction and product quality or employee performance.
Interlinking
Which of the following statements is true regarding kaizen?
It focuses on small, gradual, and frequent improvements.
Which of the following is a negative impact of information technology on the customer service provided by service organizations?
It has resulted in lesser personal interaction between consumers and service providers leading to decreased customer satisfaction among some consumers.
Which of the following is a reason why organizations measure customer engagement and satisfaction?
It helps them to discover customer perceptions of how well the organization is doing in meeting customer needs.
Which of the following is true regarding the employee suggestion system?
It improves workers' reasoning ability and leads to higher levels of peer recognition.
Which of the following is true regarding the six-sigma approach to quality improvement?
It integrates many traditional quality improvement tools and techniques that have been tested and validated over the years, with a bottom-line and strategic orientation.
Which of the following is true of the American Customer Satisfaction Index?
It is based on customer evaluations of the quality of goods and services.
Which of the following is CORRECT regarding an x-chart?
It is less sensitive to many conditions that can be detected by -chart and R-chart.
Which of the following is true of the "customer perceived value" measurement used by organizations to measure customer satisfaction?
It measures how customers assess benefits of the product against costs in making purchase decisions.
Which of the following is the difference between Deming's and Juran's quality philosophy?
Juran sought to improve quality by working within the system familiar to managers.
_____ assets refer to the accumulated intellectual resources that an organization possesses, including information, ideas, learning, understanding, memory, insights, cognitive and technical skills, and capabilities.
Knowledge
Six samples of size 10 were collected. The data are provided in the following table: Sample number 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sample mean 4.80 4.62 4.81 4.55 4.92 4.65 Sample standard deviation 0.35 0.33 0.31 0.35 0.37 0.39 The upper control limit (UCL) and lower control limit (LCL) for an s-chart are:
LCL = 0.0994, UCL = 0.6006.
_____ is the first category in the Baldrige framework, signifying its importance in driving quality and performance excellence throughout an organization.
Leadership
Which of the following concepts and assumptions are included in GE's virtuous teaching cycle?
Leadership at all levels
With respect to the six competencies summarized by the human development and leadership division of the American society for quality, which of the following competencies in a leader involves continuously developing personal knowledge, skills, and abilities through formal study, experience, reflection, and recreation?
Learner
_____ is essentially a quality-based approach to executing a strategy by ensuring that all employees understand the business direction and are working according to a plan to make the vision a reality.
Policy deployment
A consumer electronics company introduced a new music system into the market with multiple features like built in alarm, mobile and iPod charger, radio and many more. The company is trying to influence the _____ perspective of quality by providing multiple features in a single product.
Product
Which of the following functions in the manufacturing system is responsible for specifying long-term and short-term production requirements for filling customer orders and meeting anticipated demand?
Production planning and scheduling
Which of the following is true of quality management during the age of craftsmanship that existed before the advent of the Industrial Revolution?
Quality assurance was informal and efforts were made to ensure that quality was built into products by the people who produced them.
In determining whether a process is in statistical control, the _____ is/are generally analyzed first.
R-chart
A company wishes to monitor the variation in the length of time it takes to process and send a bill to a customer. Seven bills will be randomly selected each day for a 60-day period and the length of time it takes to process and send the bill to a customer will be recorded for each bill. The appropriate control chart is a(n):
R-chart.
In the context of the Weber's classification of the way leaders exercise authority, which of the following leadership styles is established by policies, rules, and laws?
Rational-legal leadership
According to Kay Kendall and Glenn Bodison, which of the following "conditions of collaboration" refers to believing in the inherent worth of another person?
Respect
Which of the following dimensions that contribute to customer perceptions of quality refers to the willingness of the service providers to help customers and provide prompt service?
Responsiveness
The criteria for performance excellence for the Malcolm Baldrige Award consist of a hierarchical set of categories, items, and areas to address. Which of the following is NOT one of them?
Return on investment
Which of the following practices will lead to effective recognition and rewarding of employees?
Rewarding behavior, not just results
With respect to 5S, which of the following Japanese terms refer to formalizing procedures and practices to create consistency and ensure that all steps are performed correctly?
Seiketsu
Cindy Hayes, the CEO of Spurling Inc., wants the organization to focus on measuring product quality, driving process improvement, and cost savings throughout the organization. To this end, she makes different teams and provides champions to sponsor projects, provides training resources, and communicates progress and achievements. The entire plan is integrated into the strategic planning process. Project selections are made based on understanding of the financial as well as the nonfinancial benefits to the organization. Cindy Hayes is practicing the _____ methodology to lower the cost of quality because of its focus on the financial return.
Six Sigma
In which of the following stages of the Baldrige roadmap, do visionary leaders recognize the inherent limitations of a project-based approach to performance improvement?
Stage 1
The senior management at Life Inc., a pioneer in the health care domain, came up with a blueprint to address the current issues facing the company. This blueprint provides the framework for the company to address the current business needs while giving it the agility and strategic management to prepare successfully for the future, to prepare for real-time or short-term emergencies, and for workforce and customer engagement. Which of the following Baldrige organizational concepts is being used by the company?
Sustainability
After basic technical requirements have been established in product development process, designers must set specific dimensional or operational targets and tolerances for critical manufacturing or service characteristics.
T
Attribute measurement requires a much larger sample size than variable measurement to obtain the same amount of statistical information.
T
Breakthrough improvement refers to discontinuous change, as opposed to the gradual, continuous improvement philosophy of kaizen.
T
Control limits for variables and attributes data utilize different mathematical formulas.
T
In practice, product design reliability is determined by the number of failures per unit time during the duration under consideration.
T
Innovation is built upon strong research and development (R&D) processes.
T
Narrow tolerances in product design tend to raise manufacturing costs and also increase the interchangeability of parts within the plant and in the field, product performance, durability, and appearance.
T
Process control is the responsibility of those who directly accomplish the work.
T
Processes must be measurable and repeatable in order to apply the techniques of process management.
T
Which of the following points about Crosby's absolutes of quality management is true?
The only performance measurement is the cost of quality.
Which of the following is a major drawback of the bottom-up approach to Six Sigma projects?
The projects receive little support and low recognition from the top management.
Which of the following is true of the workforce management system proposed and designed by Frederick W. Taylor?
The system changed many manufacturing jobs into mindless and mundane tasks.
Which of the following statements best describes process owners?
They are accountable for process performance and have the authority to control and improve their process.
Which of the following is a disadvantage associated with using formal written surveys as survey instruments for measuring customer satisfaction?
They generally measure predetermined perceptions of what is important to the customers.
Which of the following is most likely to be true of a customer-focused organization?
They make it easy for the customers to conduct business.
Which of the following is true regarding internal customers of an organization?
They receive goods or services from suppliers within the organization.
Which of the following is NOT one of the basic applications of a control chart?
To calculate the average-range.
In the context of the Weber's classification of the way leaders exercise authority, which of the following leadership styles extends from customs, habits, and social structures, and often involves the passing of position and power from one generation to the next?
Traditional leadership
Which of the following perspectives of quality considers quality to be synonymous with superiority or excellence?
Transcendent perspective
A structured problem-solving approach to process improvement ensures that solutions are developed objectively, rather than based on opinions or rash judgments.
True
A useful approach to ensuring data reliability is for internal cross-functional teams or external auditors to conduct periodic audits of the processes used to collect the data.
True
Customer relationship management systems help organizations to identify and target their most profitable customers.
True
Customer satisfaction surveys will be effective when the questions included in the survey can provide actionable results.
True
Customers evaluate a service primarily by the quality of the human contact.
True
Customers evaluate a service primarily by the quality of the human contact. T/F
True
Deming stressed that the highest levels of operational staff in an organization must assume the overriding responsibility for quality management.
True
Dissatisfied individual and business customers seldom complain to the organization about the problems.
True
Employees who embrace quality as a personal value often go beyond what they're asked or normally expected to do in order to provide extraordinary service to a customer.
True
Empowerment, teamwork, and good working environment motivate employees intrinsically.
True
ISO typically focuses on product and service conformity for guaranteeing equity in the marketplace and concentrates on fixing quality system problems and product and service nonconformities.
True
Improvements in operations are achieved by reducing the causes and impacts of variation.
True
In the case of a customer satisfaction survey, face-to-face interviews tend to generate more qualitative data than formal written surveys.
True
The Performance Excellence Award criteria are based on components of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, and are geared toward China's unique business environment.
True
The accounting function helps in achieving quality by identifying areas of quality improvement and tracking the progress of quality improvement programs. T/F
True
The criteria for performance excellence consist of a hierarchical set of categories, items, and areas to address.
True
The customer satisfaction measurement of "customer perceived value" focuses more on loyalty than on customer satisfaction.
True
The effectiveness of the field intelligence method of gathering customer information depends upon a culture that encourages open communication with superiors.
True
The inspection step in manufacturing should ideally be used as a means of gathering information that can be used to improve quality of the products rather than simply to remove defective items.
True
The needs and expectations of external customers are different from those of consumers.
True
The net promoter score is the difference in the percentage of promoters and detractors.
True
Today, organizations are asking employees to take more responsibility for acting as the point of contact between the organization and the customer.
True
Today, organizations are asking employees to take more responsibility for acting as the point of contact between the organization and the customer. T/F
True
Traditional hiring practices have been based on cognitive and technical rather than interpersonal skills.
True
Traditional organizations tend to develop structures that help them to maintain flexibility.
True
Twenty samples of size 6 were collected for a variable measurement. Determine the upper control limit (UCL) and lower control limit (LCL) for an R-chart if the sum of the sample ranges equals 88.0.
UCL = 8.8176, LCL = 0.0000
Which of the following categories of problems is characterized by unsatisfactory performance by processes that are not well-specified or understood?
Unstructured performance problems
Kosher's, a supermarket in Surbury, employs various strategies to provide good quality products to consumers at lower prices compared to other competing stores. This marketing strategy is most likely to influence the _____ perspective of quality.
Value
Which of the following principles supports statistical thinking, a philosophy of learning and action?
Variation exists in all processes.
Which of the following is NOT an objective of state-sponsored quality awards?
Winning a state award as a prerequisite to apply for the Baldrige Award
_____ refers to how employees are organized in formal and informal units, such as departments and teams.
Work design
_____ refers to an organization's ability to ensure sufficient staffing levels to accomplish its work processes and successfully deliver products and services to customers, including the ability to meet seasonal and varying demands.
Workforce capacity
Which of the following can be regarded as a task error in a service process?
Working on the wrong order
With respect to the "changing nature of leadership" (CNL) studies conducted by the Center for Creative Leadership, the leadership skills will have to change form from:
a functional orientation to a boundary-less orientation.
Deming synthesized the underlying foundations of the 14 Points of improving quality into four simple elements which are called:
a system of profound knowledge.
The term _____ capacity refers to the ability of an organization to learn.
absorptive
An organization that has a strategic orientation to human resource management will:
adapt to changing business needs through innovative programs and systems.
_____ refers to consistency of plans, processes, information, resource decisions, actions, results, and analyses to support key organization-wide goals.
alignment
_____ refers to an examination of facts and data to provide a basis for effective decisions.
analysis
The term "employee involvement" refers to:
any activity by which employees participate in work-related decisions and improvement activities with the objective of improving their motivation.
An organization chart shows the _____ of the formal organization.
apparent structure
In the Baldrige assessment, _____ refers to the methods a company uses to achieve the processes addressed in each category.
approach
A(n) _____ characterizes the presence or absence of nonconformances in a unit of work.
attribute
The process of measuring a company's performance against best-in-class companies and using that information as a basis to define the company's targets, strategies, and implementation is known as _____.
benchmarking
Successful green belts are often promoted to _____.
black belts
Organizations can assess worker satisfaction by:
conducting a formal survey that includes questions regarding quality of workalike, teamwork, opportunities and training provided, and leadership.
After the _____ review process for the Baldrige Award, the Panel of Judges selects potential applicants for site visits.
consensus
The ultimate purchaser of a product or service is referred to as a(n) _____.
consumer
Variable data are _____.
continuous
The quality team at Nigre, a cosmetics company, is continuously involved in monitoring the production process to ensure that the products are meeting specifications. They are also responsible for taking corrective measures when they identify variations in the products. In the context of the three major activities involved in process management, the quality team at Nigre is engaged in the _____ activity of process management.
control
Value-creation processes are sometimes called _____ processes.
core
With respect to American Express's change process, which of the following steps answer the question "What will the change look like?"
creating a vision
The term "customer engagement" refers to:
customers' investment in or commitment to a brand and product offerings.
In the Baldrige assessment, _____ refers to the extent to which the approach is applied by a company in addressing item requirements relevant and important to the organization, the approach is applied consistently, and the approach is used by all appropriate work units.
deployment
The final task in designing a customer satisfaction survey is to:
design the reporting format and the data entry methods.
According to the Kano Model, the basic requirements that customers expect in a product and which are generally not stated by customers but assumed as given, fall into the category of _____.
dissatisfiers
The _____ dimension of the quality, as suggested by David A. Garvin, refers to the amount of use one gets from a product before it physically deteriorates or until replacement is preferable.
durability
Customer-focused organizations consider complaints as opportunities for improvement as:
effectively resolving complaints increases customer loyalty and retention.
In service applications, the term _____ is generally used to describe a nonconformance.
error
_____ is the basis for Deming's plan-do-study-act cycle.
experimentation
A histogram of data that resembles the normal distribution indicates that the process is in control.
false
According to the situational leadership theory, the choice of leadership style applied by the leader must be driven by personal preference.
false
All organizations must take the one best route to quality and performance excellence, which is Six Sigma.
false
An interrelationship digraph shows that every idea can be logically linked with more than one other idea at a time and allows for "linear thinking" rather than "lateral thinking."
false
Control limits for the s-chart are given by: LCLs = B3s and UCLs = B4s, where B3 and B4 are constants.
false
Data mining is the most effective method of establishing cause-and-effect relationship among variables.
false
For variable data, the two important quality measures are the proportion nonconforming and nonconformances per unit.
false
Organizations that share quality, customer satisfaction, and financial performance results with its employees and customers often exhibit poor performance in comparison with organizations which do not share such information.
false
Process changes within an organization are the ones that impact the organization's culture the most rapidly.
false
Process decision program charts are spreadsheets that graphically display relationships between ideas, activities, or other dimensions in such a way as to provide logical connecting points between each item.
false
Setting simple goals and targets is one of the practices that are used for implementing leadership as a quality management principle.
false
Six Sigma is focused on improvement with little financial accountability whereas TQM requires a verifiable return on investment and focus on the bottom line.
false
Strategic change is confined to a particular unit, division, or function while process change motivates organization-wide changes in behavior.
false
The Baldrige Criteria are prescriptive in that they specify detailed procedures for achieving quality.
false
The Organizational Profile provides the "finer picture" of the various organizational parts and thus sets the context for good strategic decisions.
false
The Seven Management and Planning Tools had their roots in post—World War II operations research developments in Japan, but were combined and refined by several U.S. companies over the past several decades as part of their planning processes.
false
The term six sigma is based on a statistical measure that equates to 4.3 or fewer errors or defects per million opportunities.
false
The _____ function helps an organization in achieving quality by exposing the costs of poor quality and opportunities for reducing it.
finance and accounting
Which of the following perspectives of the balanced scorecard includes profitability, revenue growth, return on investment, economic value added (EVA), and shareholder value?
financial
Strategic human resource management differs from traditional HR practices in that strategic human resource management:
focuses on long-term, current, and future needs.
According to Hackman and Oldham's work design model, "experienced meaningfulness" is a psychological state that refers to the need of workers to:
have the feeling that their work is a significant contribution to the organization and the society.
To form rational subgroups for an -chart, the goal is to choose the samples as _____ as possible.
homogeneous
In the Baldrige Criteria, areas to address that request information on approach or deployment begin with the word "_____."
how
Compared to the Baldrige Award, the European Excellence Award places greater emphasis on the _____ category.
impact on society
According to point one of Deming's 14 points for quality improvement, the responsibility of improving a firm's competitive position lies with ______.
top management
In the Baldrige assessment, _____ refers to the extent to which a company aligns the approach with organizational needs identified in the Organizational Profile and other process items.
integration
Organizations can ensure that the quality is rooted in their culture by:
internalizing quality at the personal level and encouraging employees to practice quality in all activities of life.
According to Deming, a product or service possesses quality if:
it enjoys a sustainable market.
In the Baldrige assessment, _____ refers to how a company refines the approach through cycles of evaluation and improvement, encourages breakthrough change to the approach through innovation, and shares refinements with other relevant work units in the organization.
learning
The marketing and sales department in an organization contributes to the quality of the product by:
learning the products and product features that consumers want and knowing the prices that consumers are willing to pay for them.
The _____ organization is the most prevalent type of structure for medium-sized to large firms.
line and staff
In the policy deployment process, the _____ forms the basis for shorter-term planning.
long-term strategic plan
With regard to quality management systems, a quality ______ serves as a permanent reference for implementing and maintaining the system.
manual
In a team's life cycle, the stage of _____ takes place when the issues of the previous stage have been worked out, and team members agree on roles, ground rules, and acceptable behavior when doing the work of the team.
norming
The control chart most appropriate for plotting the daily percentage of students that wait longer than 5 minutes in line at the undergraduate admissions office is a(n):
p-chart
The concept of total quality is defined as a(n):
people-focused management system that aims at continual increase in customer satisfaction at continually lower real cost.
When a service ranks low on the dimensions of customer contact, labor intensity, and customization, the service providers need to emphasize on _____ to provide a high quality service to the customers.
physical facilities and procedures
A $50 million information system has been upgraded by a healthcare organization as they discovered weaknesses in the organization's ability to collect and analyze information. This is an example of a _____ change within the organization.
process
The final House of Quality relates:
process operations to quality control plans.
The production of services differs from manufacturing as services:
produce outputs that are mostly intangible.
A _____ is a temporary work structure that starts up, produces products or services, and then shuts down.
project
A _____ defines the project, its objectives, and deliverables, and represents a contract between the project team and the sponsor.
project charter
Six Sigma is based on understanding and improving processes on a _____ basis.
project-by-project
The purchasing department helps a firm in achieving quality by:
providing quality-improvement training to suppliers.
An alternative to using the R-chart is the:
s-chart.
The ASQ Quality Glossary defines customer _____ as "the result of delivering a product or service that meets customer requirements."
satisfaction
Maple Products is a manufacturer of electronic goods that markets its products in several countries across the world. The company makes sure that the spare parts of the products are available in all their markets and also ensures that the technical personnel in their retail outlets are adequately trained to repair their products. In the context of the dimensions of quality, as suggested by David A. Garvin, the efforts taken by the company will enhance the _____ dimension of its product quality.
serviceability
Control limits are often confused with _____.
specification limits
The concept of _____ is defined as "a person's ability to anticipate, envision, maintain flexibility, think tactically, and work with others to initiate changes that will create a viable future for the organization, and its competitive advantage to the organization in this way."
strategic leadership
Point 7 of Deming's 14 points emphasizes on:
teaching and instituting leadership in an organization.
The term "voice of the customer" refers to:
the customer requirements as expressed in the customer's own terms.
The clarification of authority, responsibility, reporting lines, and performance standards among individuals at each level of the organization is referred to as _____.
the organizational structure
The Kano Model of customer requirements uses the term "satisfiers" to refer to:
the requirements that customers expressly say they want in a product.
The net present value of a customer is:
the total profits (revenues associated with a customer minus the expenses needed to serve a customer) discounted over time.
The s-chart is recommended when:
tight control of variability in the process is required.
Feigenbaum defined the term _____ as an effective system for integrating the quality development, quality maintenance, and quality improvement efforts of the various groups in an organization so as to enable production and service at the most economical levels which allow full customer satisfaction.
total quality control
Customers generally view quality from the _____ perspective.
transcendent
In times of change, organizational learning benefits more from _____ leadership.
transformational
A major benefit of Baldrige is that it naturally provides a framework for organizational learning and, therefore, helps to enhance and sustain an organization, no matter what its current level of maturity.
true
A measurement system may be precise but not necessarily accurate at the same time.
true
A well-aligned organization has its processes focused on achieving a shared vision and strategy.
true
According to situational leadership, leadership styles might vary from one person to another, depending on the "readiness" of subordinates.
true
An accumulation of continuously improving process changes always leads to a positive and sustainable culture change.
true
An organization must align its performance measurement system to its vision and strategy and select meaningful measurements.
true
An ultimate stretch goal of all organizations that adopt a Six Sigma philosophy is to have all critical processes, regardless of functional area, at a six-sigma level of capability.
true
As performance excellence practices are used routinely within an organization, its people learn to believe in the underlying principles of total quality, and cultural changes can occur.
true
At each step, the Pareto diagram stratifies the data to more detailed levels, eventually isolating the most significant issues in process improvement.
true
Both Six Sigma and lean approaches are driven by customer requirements, focus on real dollar savings, have the ability to make significant financial impacts on the organization, and can easily be used in non-manufacturing environments.
true
Common causes of variation in a production process are a result of the design of the product and production system.
true
Confidentiality and security are critical in managing data, particularly with the increasing use of electronic data transfer.
true
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the "responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society."
true
Corporate social responsibility implies that organizations must behave ethically and be sensitive of social, cultural, economic, and environmental issues.
true
Creating a culture for high performance begins with senior leadership's commitment to the workforce.
true
Customer satisfaction and engagement measurement allows an organization to identify causes of dissatisfaction and failed expectations as well as drivers of delight to understand the reasons why customers are loyal or not loyal to the company.
true
Customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction takes place during moments of truth.
true
Customer-focused organizations empower their front-line people to do whatever is necessary to satisfy a customer.
true
DMAIC, a process improvement methodology, bears a close resemblance to the creative problem-solving process.
true
Effective strategy deployment is dependent upon, and tends to shape, organizational structure because the organizational structure must be aligned with and support the accomplishment of strategic initiatives.
true
Employee involvement (EI) refers to any activity by which employees participate in work-related decisions and improvement activities, with the objectives of tapping the creative energies of all employees and improving their motivation.
true
Employees who participate in team activities feel more empowered and receive better training in both job-related and problem-solving skills.
true
Empowerment requires employees to step outside their traditional roles and make decisions previously made by managers.
true
Financial measures of performance measurement in the Baldrige criteria are generally tracked by senior leadership to gauge overall organizational performance and are often used to determine incentive compensation for senior executives.
true
For quality and performance excellence to truly succeed in an organization, it must define and drive the culture of the organization.
true
Herzberg's Two-Factor theory states that factors such as recognition, advancement, achievement, and the nature of the work itself are effective in motivating employees to work harder.
true
If points on a control chart are determined to be the result of special causes, the points should be eliminated and new control limits should be computed.
true
Impatient managers often seek immediate results by adopting off-the-shelf quality programs and practices, or by imitating other successful organizations.
true
In the context of the characteristics of Baldrige Award recipients, organizations that have leadership and governance systems in place measure the performance of their leadership and governance teams—which is not common practice.
true
In the context of the criteria for performance excellence, the results category provides "real-time" information for evaluation and improvement of processes and products, in alignment with overall organizational strategy.
true
Mission statements typically include a definition of products and services the organization provides, technologies used to provide these products and services, types of markets, important customer needs, and distinctive competencies or the expertise that sets the firm apart from others.
true
Pre-control should only be used when process capability is no greater than 88 percent of the tolerance.
true
Rolled throughput yield is the proportion of conforming units that results from a series of process steps.
true
Senior management is responsible for creating an environment in which employees' decisions and actions and stakeholder interactions conform to the organization's moral and professional principles.
true
Six Sigma can have a significant impact on the cost of quality because of its focus on financial return.
true
Six Sigma initiatives fulfill in part many of the elements of ISO 9000:2000.
true
Six Sigma is not a substitute for continuous improvement.
true
The "define" phase of the DMAIC process focuses on describing the problem in operational terms that facilitate further analysis.
true
The American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) noted that executives have long felt frustrated by their inability to identify or transfer outstanding practices from one location or function to another.
true
The Taylor philosophy established an adversarial relationship between labor and management.
true
The core of a QMS is focused on creating the goods and services that customers want.
true
The larger the sample size, the narrower the control limits.
true
The most common approach to assess worker perceptions and satisfaction is through a formal survey.
true
The nominal group technique helps to achieve consensus among team members by providing a way to prioritize and focus on important project objectives during the project definition stage.
true
The quality assurance team in a firm is only partly responsible for ensuring that the products produced meet the required quality specifications.
true
The quality of information can be improved by capturing data only once, and as close to the origin of the data as possible.
true
Traditional organizations tend to develop structures that help them to maintain flexibility.
true
Transferring knowledge quickly and efficiently throughout the organization is the basis for modern knowledge management practices.
true
Using a structured problem-solving process helps teams to mitigate issues that might lead to storming.
true
Variation in a production process decreases capacity utilization.
true
When constructing a u-chart, the standard deviation of each sample varies because the size of the sampling unit varies.
true
Which of the following charts is used to monitor the average number of nonconformances per unit when sample sizes vary?
u-chart
A firm purchasing a key supplier to strengthen its value chain is an example of _____.
vertical integration
Which of the following pairs of charts are used together?
xbar-chart and R-chart
Which of the following symbols is used to denote a very strong relationship between any pair of technical requirements in a typical House of Quality?
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