Performance
checks

Image1Quick quiz

Jot down the answers to the following questions on Providing Quality to Customers.

Question 1

Which group of people ultimately make all the decisions, and set all the standards, regarding the quality of a product or service?

Question 2

What do we mean by the ‘utility’ or ‘performance’ of a product?

Question 3

What kinds of activities are quality control specialists involved in?

Question 4

Explain why quality control can’t deliver high quality on its own.

Question 5

What is the driving force which makes organizations want to improve their quality standards?

Question 6

In one sentence, what is meant by prevention costs?

Question 7

What’s the difference between internal failure costs and external failure costs?

Question 8

How would you define dependability?

Question 9

Name two potential benefits to an organization of accreditation to ISO 9001.

Question 10

What guarantee does accreditation to ISO 9001:2000 provide that an organization will meet its quality goals?

Question 11

Write down the main concepts involved in total quality management.

Question 12

What exactly do we mean by ‘continuous improvement’?

Question 13

Explain what is meant by the statement: ‘Everybody in the workplace has customers.’

Question 14

Give two possible reasons why a typical organization is not aware of all its quality problems.

Question 15

What are the two main ways in which the problems facing quality improvement groups can be minimized?

Answers to these questions can be found on pages 96–7.

Image2Workbook assessment

Images

Read the following case incident and then deal with the questions which follow, writing your answers on a separate sheet of paper.

At the Grimchester Hotel, Myrna Leighton is in charge of general housekeeping, which includes cleaning and replacing supplies. Myrna has a team of five, and between them they have to clean thirty-five rooms, plus the dining room, bars, reception, conference hall and leisure facilities. The job consists of cleaning and dusting all surfaces, making beds and general tidying, putting out fresh towels and replenishing supplies such as toilet rolls, soap and tea and coffee. Myrna reports to the hotel under-manager, who makes a point of inspecting rooms on a random basis to make sure they are up to the hotel’s standards.

You do not need to write more than two or three sentences in reply to each of the following questions.

1 Who are Myrna’s team’s ‘customers’? Give a brief reason for your answer.

2 Suggest a way in which the quality of the service that Myrna’s team provides could be measured.

3 How would you suggest that Myrna could best convey the quality standards that the hotel demands, to a new member of the team?

4 If the hotel introduced a system of total quality management, how would you expect that to affect Myrna and her team?

5 Suppose the under-manager is not consistent in his inspection visits: sometimes he picks up on the slightest thing, but at other times he ignores things which Myrna knows to be wrong. How might this result in quality problems?

Image3Work-based assignment

Images

Images

The time guide for this assignment gives you an approximate idea of how long it is likely to take you to write up your findings. You will find you need to spend some additional time gathering information, perhaps talking to colleagues and thinking about the assignment.

Your written response to this assignment may form useful evidence for your S/NVQ portfolio. The assignment is designed to help you to demonstrate your personal competence in:

Imagesbuilding teams;

Imagescommunicating;

Imagesfocusing on results;

Imagesthinking and taking decisions.

What you have to do

1

Write down the names of all your internal customers. (If you only have external customers, go to step 2.)

2

Collect as much evidence as you can about customers’ wants and expectations. Do this by:

Images talking to them, if possible, and asking them to say, or (preferably) write down, what they consider their wants and expectations are;

Images talking to other relevant people in your organization.

3

Separately, write down what you believe you currently provide to your customers, again in as much detail as possible, including customer feedback, records of output, defects, returns or cancelled orders, etc.

4

Compare the lists from 2 and 3 above, and identify the differences.

5

Now write down a plan of action, so that you can close the gap between what your customers want and what you actually give them. Make a distinction between what you can do yourself, and the actions that you will require help or further authority to instigate.

Present your plan of action to your manager or other relevant person.

5

Your plan of action, plus the supporting evidence you have collected can be used in your S/NVQ portfolio.

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