Chapter 6: Review

16) 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

13) PDCA, developed by Shewhart, stands for which of the following? A) Plan-Do-Check-Act B) Plan-Develop-Check-Accept C) Problem-Develop Solution-Check-Act D) Problem-Do-Continue-Act E) Prepare-Develop-Create-Assess

A) Plan-Do-Check-Act

24) 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 1970s. 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) The term has two distinct meanings-one is statistical; the other is a comprehensive quality system.

7) 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

17) A hospital benchmarked against Ferrari Racing in an effort to: A) improve patient handoff quality. B) increase surgery prep time. C) lengthen surgery duration. D) reduce the number of doctors. E) all of the above

A) improve patient handoff quality.

29) Costs of dissatisfaction, repair costs, and warranty costs are elements of cost in the: A) quality loss function. B) Pareto chart. C) ISO 9000 quality cost calculator. D) process chart. E) Ishikawa diagram.

A) quality loss function.

21) 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) a commitment to quality that goes beyond internal company issues to suppliers and customers.

18) One of Britain's largest children's hospitals working with Ferrari Racing is an example of: A) internal benchmarking. B) external benchmarking. C) Taguchi concepts. D) employee empowerment. E) corporate responsibility.

B) external benchmarking.

28) 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) benchmarking.

15) A Three Sigma program has how many defects per million? A) 34 B) 3 C) 3 times the standard deviation D) 2700 E) 1500

D) 2700

20) Suppose that a firm has historically been achieving "Three Sigma" quality. If the firm later changes its quality management practices such that it 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) The average number of defects will be cut by 99.87%.

Which of the following statements regarding Arnold Palmer Hospital is FALSE? A) The hospital uses a wide range of quality management techniques. B) The culture of quality at the hospital includes employees at all levels. C) The hospital scores very highly in national studies of patient satisfaction. D) The hospital's high quality is measured by low readmission rates, not patient satisfaction. E) The design of patient rooms, even wall colors, reflects the hospital's culture of quality.

D) The hospital's high quality is measured by low readmission rates, not patient satisfaction.

30) 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) sales costs.

12) 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.

6) 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

26) 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) All of the above are techniques for employee empowerment.

25) Members of quality circles are: A) paid according to their contribution to quality. B) external consultants designed to provide training in the use of quality tools. C) always machine operators. D) all trained to be facilitators. E) None of the above; all of the statements are false.

E) None of the above; all of the statements are false.

4) Arnold Palmer Hospital uses which of the following quality management techniques? A) Pareto charts B) flowcharts C) benchmarking D) just-in-time E) The hospital uses all of the above techniques.

E) The hospital uses all of the above techniques.

23) 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) continuous improvement.

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

FALSE

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

FALSE

7) Benchmarking requires the comparison of your firm to other organizations; it is not appropriate to benchmark by comparing one of your divisions to another of your divisions.

FALSE

A normal distribution is generally described by its two parameters: the mean and the range.

FALSE

If the process average is in control, then the process range must also be in control.

FALSE

Managers at Arnold Palmer Hospital take quality so seriously that the hospital typically is a national leader in several quality areas-so that continuous improvement is no longer necessary.

FALSE

The purpose of process control is to detect when natural causes of variation are present.

FALSE

The x-bar chart indicates that a gain or loss of uniformity has occurred in dispersion of a production process.

FALSE

1) Some degree of variability is present in almost all processes.

TRUE

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

TRUE

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

TRUE

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

TRUE

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

TRUE

6) Quality circles empower employees to improve productivity by finding solutions to work-related problems in their work area.

TRUE

9) One of the ways that just-in-time (or JIT) influences quality is that by reducing inventory, bad quality is exposed.

TRUE

A process range chart illustrates the amount of dispersion within the samples.

TRUE

Averages of small samples, not individual measurements, are generally used in statistical process control.

TRUE

In statistical process control, the range is often used as a substitute for the standard deviation.

TRUE

Mean charts and range charts complement one another, one detecting shifts in process average, the other detecting shifts in process dispersion.

TRUE

Mistakes stemming from workers' inadequate training represent an assignable cause of variation.

TRUE

19) 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) 3.4

5) 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

31) A manager tells her production employees, "It's no longer good enough that your work falls anywhere within the specification limits. I need your work to be as close to the target value as possible." Her thinking is reflective of: A) internal benchmarking. B) Six Sigma. C) ISO 9000. D) Taguchi concepts. E) process control charts.

D) Taguchi concepts.

22) A successful TQM program incorporates all EXCEPT which of the following? A) continuous improvement B) employee involvement C) benchmarking D) centralized decision-making authority E) JIT

D) centralized decision-making authority

A process is said to be in statistical control when assignable causes are the only sources of variation.

FALSE

An improvement in quality must necessarily increase costs.

FALSE

14) PDCA is most often applied with regard to which aspect of TQM? A) Six Sigma B) employee empowerment C) continuous improvement D) benchmarking E) JIT

C) continuous improvement

27) 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) employee empowerment.

11) 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.

8) Line employees need the knowledge of TQM tools.

TRUE

The Central Limit Theorem states that when the sample size increases, the distribution of the sample means will approach the normal distribution.

TRUE