19 Achieving quality production

Revision answers
1 Quality means to produce a good or service which meets customer expectations.
2 Examples:
i) Helps to establish a brand image.
ii) Builds brand loyalty.
iii) Will maintain a good reputation.
iv) Will help to increase sales.
v) Will help to attract new customers.
3 Examples:
i) May lose customers to other brands.
ii) Raises costs when replacements for faulty goods or services required.
iii) Bad reputation.
4 i) Quality control: inspection by quality control inspectors.
ii) Quality assurance: setting quality standards at each stage of production.
iii) Total quality management: all workers involved in the quality process to
achieve zero defects.
5 i) Tries to discover faults or errors.
ii) Less training required for workers.
6 Examples:
i) Expensive to implement.
ii) May not find out why fault has occurred.
iii) Increased costs if products scrapped.
7 Examples:
i) Tries to eliminate faults at each stage of production before customer receives
product or service.
ii) Fewer customer complaints.
iii) Reduced costs if fewer goods or services scrapped.
8 i) Expensive to train employees.
ii) Relies on employees following instructions to achieve/maintain standards set.
9 Examples:
i) Quality is inbuilt into the production process.
ii) It eliminates faults.
iii) No customer complaints.
iv) Reduced costs as no products or services scrapped.
v) Waste from faulty items is eliminated.
vi) Workers involved in the quality process.
10 i) Expensive to train employees.
ii) Relies on employees following TQM ideology and they may not understand it.

Answers to activities
Activity 19.1
Student’s own answer.

Activity 19.2
a) Maintain reputation; safety of the product. Due to the high cost of producing
aircraft engines it would not be good to find a fault at the end of the production
process.
b) Quality should be inbuilt and so TQM is the best method to use.

Cambridge IGCSE Business Studies 4th edition Teacher’s CD © Hodder & Stoughton Ltd 2013 1
 19 Achieving quality production

Activity 19.3
Student’s own answer.

Sample answers to Paper 1 style questions

(with mark annotations for Question 2)
1 a) Quality control is the checking of quality at the end of the production process
whether it is the production of a product or service.
b) Quality assurance and total quality management.
c) i) Tries to eliminate faults or errors before the customer receives the product
or service, therefore the flip-flops do not have any faults and the customer
is happy wearing them.
ii) Less training required for workers, as they just carry out their task to make
the flip-flops and do not need any further skills to check the product.
d) i) Expensive, as have to pay employees to check the product or service, and
it may make the final cost of the flip-flop higher, so the price of the shoes
will be higher.
ii) Identifies faults but doesn’t find out why the fault has occurred, therefore
difficult to remove the problem, and the shoe could be sold to a customer
leading to more customer complaints and a poor reputation.
iii) Increased costs: if the flip-flops are faulty and have to be scrapped then
more shoes will need to be made and this will increase the total costs of
producing the flip-flops, leading to lower profits.
e) Yes, because it will give a good reputation to the product, internationally
recognised, leads to higher sales.
No, because it is expensive to gain the quality mark and it is a low cost
product; inspected regularly to keep the mark.
Overall conclusion/judgement needed.
2 a) The service provided by the business will meet the expectations of customers,
e.g. short waiting time. [2K]
b) Any two of:
i) Employees are late handing out food and drinks.
ii) Food and drinks may be cold.
iii) The table is dirty.
iv) The food or drinks are of poor quality. [2App]
c) i) It is expensive to train employees as they will need to keep checking the
products before they are given to customers. [1K; 1App]
ii) It relies on employees following instructions to maintain the standards set
by the café owners. [1K; 1App]
d) Any two of:
i) It tries to eliminate faults or errors before the customer receives the
product or service so that they are not disappointed with the coffee or
sandwiches. [1K; 1App; 1An]
ii) There will be fewer customer complaints because faults will be found and
put right before the coffee and food is given to the customer. This will
mean the café does not get a poor reputation. [1K; 1App; 1An]
iii) There will be reduced costs of food ingredients if products do not have
to be scrapped or the service repeated. Again customers will be happy as
they will not have to send their coffee or cakes back. [1K; 1App; 1An]

Cambridge IGCSE Business Studies 4th edition Teacher’s CD © Hodder & Stoughton Ltd 2013 2
 19 Achieving quality production

e) Yes: quality assurance should increase the quality of the food and drinks
products served in the café and so customers will be willing to pay a higher
price for a better service and higher quality products.
No: customers might not want to pay higher prices for their food and coffee
and might go to a competitor’s café instead. The café might therefore lose
sales revenue and profit.
Student’s overall conclusion. [1K; 1App; 2An] + [2Eval]

Answers to revision test

1 3)
2 2)
3 4)
4 2)
5 2)
6 1)
7 3)
8 2)
9 2)
10 4)

Cambridge IGCSE Business Studies 4th edition Teacher’s CD © Hodder & Stoughton Ltd 2013 3