21 October 2021

BSA 2205 – OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND TQM

MIDTERM QUIZ NO. 2

Mark Joshua Pasicolan

Instructions:

Read the questions carefully and submit your answers in PDF. Each item is worth five (5) points. Use this format for
the file name and subject (Last name_Section_MidtermQuiz2). Kindly send your answers to my email at
vincent.ramiso@ue.edu.ph.

1. List and briefly explain the following:

a. The dimensions of service quality.
1. Convenience - the availability and accessibility of the service needed for the customers.
2. Reliability - The ability of the organization to execute services accurately, consistently, and dependably
3. Responsiveness -The desire of the organization to provide services to the customers even in uncommon
situations.
4. Time - the ability to provide services as soon as possible without compromising the quality of the service.
5. Assurance - to provide skilled personnel with proper training to perform the services to the customers and
indicate trust and confidence.
6. Courtesy - to provide an environment that is welcoming, reliable, and trustworthy to the customers.
7. Tangible - the tools, equipment, facilities, and communication material must be properly cleaned after use,
maintained on top performance and even the personnel must be properly dressed - or must be in uniform if
possible.
8. Consistency - The ability to provide consistent top-quality services back-up by skilled and trained personnel.

b. The determinants of quality.

1. Design - the design gives the first thing the customers will see and experience, thus the first impression
provides the level of quality the product has and will gill advantage to the product.
2. How well the product or service conforms to the design - this will be the support for the design, so the
product or service must be easily harmonized to the design or vice-versa.
3. Ease of use - despite the being having small knowledge about the product and services, if it will be used by
customer or personnel, he can use it or perform the service with ease and far from a failure.
4. Service after delivery - This will give the customers the ease and trust the company that they will support and
them with regards to the product or services.

2. Briefly explain the terms Quality of design and Quality of Conformance.

- Quality of design is the quality which the producer or supplier is intending to offer to the customer. When
the producer is making the quality of design of the product, he should take into consideration the customer's
requirements in order to satisfy them with fitness for use of the product.
- Quality of conformance is the level of the quality of product actually produced and delivered through the
 production or service process of the organization as per the specifications or design.

3. What are the benefits of good quality? Cite an example of a company with good quality and its characteristics.
- The benefits of good quality are customers’ trust in the company, return of investment can be achieved with
ease, having a great share to the market and a good quality can be good marketing.
- An example is Apple, the quality of the Apple products are top-notch with the IOS that can’t be easily
hacked, products such as phone, laptop, computer and other products can connect easily with each other.,
thus many customers trust the Apple products, making it one of the top producers of the electronic devices in
the world, having said that apple is also an indicator of social status.
4. What are the possible consequences of poor quality? Cite an example of a company with poor quality and its
characteristics.
- It brings more liability than income, takes too much cost, low productivity that could lead to loss of business.
- An example is Nokia, from years 2000-2010 Nokia is the top provider of phones with its durability and
user-friendly interface, but when smartphones entered the market, new designs have taken over durability
and user-friendly interface, but the Nokia stick to their old design, making it harder for them to sell their
products until they filed for bankruptcy.
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5. What is ISO 9000 and why is it important for global businesses to have ISO 9000 certification?
- ISO 9000 is a set of international standards, established by the International Organization for
Standardization, as the basis for quality management systems and quality assurance and it is important to
many global businesses to have ISO 9000 certification because it is the indicator that their company has met
the global standard and the quality of their products and services are globally competent.

6. Briefly explain how a company can achieve lower production costs and increase productivity by improving the
quality of its products or services.
- There are many ways to achieve lower production costs, increase productivity while improving the products
or services, one of them is increasing the morale of the personnel by providing proper financial and
emotional support. Buying machinery can help improve productivity or services, with less manpower needed
and less error.

7. What are the key elements of the TQM approach? What is the driving force behind TQM?
a. Continuous improvement
b. Competitive benchmarking
c. Employee empowerment
d. Team approach
e. Decisions based on facts rather than opinion
f. Knowledge of tools
g. Supplier Quality
h. Champion
i. Quality at source
j. Suppliers
- The driving force behind TQM is to build a foundation of ethics, integrity, and trust. It
fosters openness, fairness, and sincerity and allows involvement by everyone.

8. Explain the PDSA Cycle.

- The PDSA Cycle (Plan-Do-Study-Act) is a systematic process for gaining valuable learning and
knowledge for the continual improvement of a product, process, or service.

9. Describe the quality–ethics connection.

- Ethics and quality are intimately related to each other, as quality arises from three main factors, moral
attitudes as a result of consciousness or awareness-raising, culture as a result of education and the use of
 know-how, and the application of standards as results of learning and training. Ethics amount to fundamental
moral attitudes, binding values, and irrevocable standards.

10. CRITICAL THINKING EXERCISE: A computer repair shop had received a number of complaints on the length of
time it took to make repairs. The manager responded by increasing the repair staff by 10 percent. Complaints on
repair time quickly decreased, but then complaints on the cost of repairs suddenly increased. Oddly enough,
when repair costs were analyzed, the manager found that the average cost of repair had actually decreased
relative to what it was before the increase in staff. What are some possible explanations for the complaints, and
what actions might the manager contemplate?

- The possible explanation for the complaints is that before the increase of staff due to the lack of repair staff,
the number of computers that needed to be repaired must have been piled up thus resulting in a longer
period of time to repair the computers or they set a date when a customer can pick up their computer but
the repair staff failed to repair it due to the number of computers that are inline for repair, but when the
manager decided to hire repair staff, the time of repair decreases relatively but the cost of repairing
computer increase to increase of repair staff. What the manager should do is, determine the time needed to
repair a computer, since it may vary depending on the damage of the computer, the manager can assign to
the repair staff based on computer damages and their skill, with this he can determine how fast each repair
staff repair the computer so that they can make an accurate date when the customer can pick-up his/her
computer with this, the manager would not need to hire more repair staff to avoid the complaints about the
cost of repair.

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---THANK YOU---