4.3.

Achieving Quality Production

4.3.1. WHY QUALITY IS IMPORTANT AND HOW QUALITY PRODUCTION
MIGHT BE ACHIEVED

Learning Outcomes:
• What quality means and why it is important for all businesses.
• The concept of quality control and how businesses implement quality control.
• The concept of quality assurance and how this can be implemented.

WHAT QUALITY MEANS AND WHY IT IS IMPORTANT FOR ALL BUSINESSES

Quality means that the good or service is free from defects and meets the expectations and
requirements of its consumers.
Businesses can find out consumer expectations through market research. Once they find out, then
they may set quality standards in their production lines to ensure that the goods produced are at the
best quality at the lowest possible cost.
Meeting quality expectations is important to businesses because it helps them to:
Benefits of Quality Explanation
Develop brand It will be easier for businesses with a strong brand image to introduce new
image products to the market as customers will also perceive them as good
quality.
Customer loyalty Attracting new customers while also getting existing ones to make repeat
purchases allows the business to have a constant source a revenue.
Charge premium Businesses can sell better quality products at higher prices than other
prices similar competitors and make a higher profit.
Encourage retailers Businesses selling a good quality product can benefit from having multiple
and wholesalers to revenue streams as retailers and wholesalers will want to stock the item
stock that consumers want.
Lengthen product Good quality products tend to have longer product life cycles allowing the
life cycle business to stay profitable for an extended period of time.

QUALITY CONTROL
Businesses typically achieve quality production through either quality control or quality assurance.
Quality control involves employing trained quality inspectors to check the quality of products at the
end of the production process. As it would be too time consuming to check every single item, quality
control usually involves inspecting a sample and this could lead to several problems:
• Defected products: as not every item is checked, there is a possibility of defected products
reaching the customers, leading to dissatisfied customers.
• Wasted resources: if finished products are defected, then they will have to be scrapped and
all the resources used to produce it will be wasted which could be costly.
• Demotivated employees: checking for quality at the end can be a repetitive task for the
inspectors which may cause them to be demotivated and not perform their job efficiently.

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QUALITY ASSURANCE
To avoid the problems with quality control, businesses have been adopting quality assurance instead,
which focuses on preventing defects by systematically checking for defects throughout the entire
production process from start to end. Unlike quality control which is more product-oriented, quality
assurance is more process-oriented.
There are many benefits to businesses of quality assurance:

• Motivates employees: as every employee is responsible for quality, they will feel as they have
a more important role in the business, hence more motivated to help the business improve.
• Reduce cost of wastage: there will be less wastage of resources therefore less cost from
purchasing supplies.
• Quality awards: it will be easier for businesses with quality assurance to obtain ISO 9000
certification which can be used to improve their brand reputation and public trust.

Exercise 4.3.1: Case Study: Toyota’s Approach to Quality

Toyota has achieved a reputation for the production of very high-quality vehicles in all country around the world. Toyota
considers quality control as a key part of the activities to produce products or services economically and of a standard
which exceeds customer needs. To achieve total quality control, Toyota makes each worker responsible for the quality of
his or her work. If a problem is found, then the worker can stop the production process, allowing time to investigate and
confirm the quality before continuing. Careful recruitment and selection along with continuous training has resulted in
the company having a workforce that is multiskilled, flexible, and highly motivated; committed to maintain and improving
the company performance.

(a) Identify and explain two reasons why quality is important to Toyota. [6]
Reason 1: ____________________________
Explanation:
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Reason 2: ____________________________
Explanation:
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Master Your Definitions

Quality: the good or service is free from defect and meets the expectation and requirements of its consumers.
Quality control: employing trained quality inspectors to check the quality of products at the end of the
production process.

Quality assurance: preventing defects by systematically checking for defects throughout the entire production
process from start to end.