Jennifer E.

Shute QMS 101 Chapter 7 Review Questions 10/12/09

1) Texas Nameplate Company, highlighted in the Performance Excellence Profile, is

a small company with fewer than 50 employees and a high level of ethnic diversity.
What challenges would such a firm face in implementing and TQ-Based tools? How
might it overcome these challenges?

Change is not always positive thing among small business employees. Many times
there are employees that have been in the company for an extensive period of time
and they are very comfortable with the way things are and/or have been. A good
way to overcome this challenge is to enlist someone with a very outgoing
personality to implement the change to new TQ methods and tools. This would be
one who was reliable and available to take time to answer any questions, they
would need to be above all, patience.

2) Why is good planning important to achieve high quality? Why should managers
invest in the time to learn many of the tools presented in this chapter?

Planning is one of the basic functions of every manager. Many planning tools have
been designed by several Japanese companies including, seven management and
planning tools, Affinity Diagram/K.J. Method, and Interrelationship Diagraphs. These
tools can be used to address problems typically faced by managers who are called
upon to structure unstructured ideas, strategic plans, and organize and control
large complex projects.

6) What is concurrent engineering? What type of organizational culture would be

required to make concurrent engineering successful?

Concurrent engineering is where a company builds a cross functional teams to

accomplish product development. Sales are a good example, the salesperson’s
goal is to sell the product, and it is finance personnel are to make a profit.
Purchasing must ensure that purchased parts meet quality requirements.
Packaging and distribution personnel must ensure that the product reaches the
customer in good operating conditions, and so on.

13) A flowchart for a fast-food drive through window is shown in Fig. 7.18. Discuss
the important quality characteristics inherent in this process and suggest possible
improvements.

This chart shows the importance of quality in the process, it allows management to
identify the weak points, and make room for improvement. This is exceptionally
important to the overall Quality management.
17) How might poka –yoke be applied to the U.S. election system based on the
information described in the example in this chapter? You might wish to do some
additional research on the subject or find out how your local election process is
performed.

Poka yoke would eliminate the issues of miscounts and other detrimental issues
associated with the election process. This would encourage the public to be more
supportive and put more faith in the government.