Chapter 6 Quiz

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) maintenance costs.

A cause-and-effect diagram helps identify the sources of a problem.

TRUE

A Six Sigma program has how many defects per million? A) 3.4 B) 34 C) 1000 D) 6 times the standard deviation E) 2700

A) 3.4

Quality can improve profitability by reducing costs. Which of the following is not an aspect of reduced costs by quality improvements? A) flexible pricing B) increased productivity C) lower rework and scrap costs D) lower warranty costs E) All of the above are aspects of reduced costs by quality improvements.

A) flexible pricing

"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 of quality proposed by the American Society for Quality

C) a manufacturing-based definition of quality.

Companies with the highest levels of quality are how many times more productive than their competitors with the lowest quality levels? A) 2 B) 3 C) 4 D) 5 E) None of the above because quality has no impact on productivity (units/labor hr.).

D) 5

Based on his 14 Points, Deming is a strong proponent of: A) inspection at the end of the production process. B) an increase in numerical quotas to boost productivity. C) looking for the cheapest supplier. D) training and knowledge. E) all of the above.

D) training and knowledge.

A successful quality strategy features which of the following elements? A) an organizational culture that fosters quality B) an understanding of the principles of quality C) engaging employees in the necessary activities to implement quality D) A and C E) A, B, and C

E) A, B, and C

An improvement in quality must necessarily increase costs.

FALSE

Conforming to standards is the focus of the product-based definition of quality.

FALSE

Deming's writings on quality tend to focus on the customer and on fitness for use, unlike Juran's work that is oriented toward meeting specifications.

FALSE

Quality is mostly the business of the quality control staff, not ordinary employees.

FALSE

Internal failure costs are associated with scrap, rework, and downtime.

TRUE

Kaizen is similar to TQM in that both are focused on continuous improvement.

TRUE

Pareto charts are a graphical way of identifying the few critical items from the many less important ones.

TRUE

Philip Crosby is credited with both of these quality catch-phrases: "quality is free" and "zero defects."

TRUE

TQM is important because each of the ten decisions made by operations managers deals with some aspect of identifying and meeting customer expectations

TRUE

The definition of quality adopted by The American Society for Quality is a customer-oriented (i.e., user based) definition.

TRUE

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) user based, manufacturing based, and product based.

The quality loss function indicates that costs related to poor quality are low as long as the product is within acceptable specification limits.

FALSE

Which of the four major categories of quality costs is particularly hard to quantify? A) prevention costs B) appraisal costs C) internal failure costs D) external failure costs E) None is hard to quantify.

E) None is hard to quantify.

Which of the following is NOT one of the major categories of costs associated with quality? A) prevention costs B) appraisal costs C) internal failure costs D) external failure costs E) None of the above; they are all major categories of costs associated with quality.

E) None of the above; they are all major categories of costs associated with quality

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) consistent with the commitment to continuous improvement.

Continuous improvement is based on the philosophy that any aspect of an operation can be improved

TRUE

Improved quality can increase profitability via allowing flexible pricing.

TRUE