208KM Tutorial 4
Question 1
What do you understand by innovation within the education sector?
Answer:
This can be products such as new courses and new units, as well as innovation in process such
as delivery of materials or assessment such as online multiple-choice questions.
Question 2
‘Technology changes. The laws of economics do not.’ Discuss the implications and
validity of this statement.
Answer:
The need to consider a holistic approach is often necessary to consider all factors involved in
complex problems. For example, if political or other such sources of influence are at play, it
causes instability. Nonetheless, simplicity is very popular and very desirable.
Question 3
The vast improvements in stock reduction made possible by the technology and
combined with organised distribution from strategically located warehouses has
reduced the stock holding of the combined operations of supermarkets to 20 from 45
days’ sales. If customers pay with cash and the supermarkets pay their suppliers 30
days after delivery to the warehouse, who is funding the stock on the supermarket
shelves?
Answer:
The answer is the cash supplied by the customer. This illustrates how good supermarkets are at
generating cash – an output that is seen by many as a better guide to a firm’s health than a
firm’s profits.
Question 4
Which elements of the TQM philosophy could you apply to your university or
college? What might be the benefits?
Answer:
One of the difficulties of the application of TQM to a university is the identification of the
customers and their relative significance. The TQM philosophy stresses the following points,
most of which can be applied to a university:
meeting the needs and expectations of customers;
covering all the parts of the organisation;
involving everyone in the organisation;
investigating all costs related to quality (internal and external);
getting things right by designing in quality;
developing systems and procedures that support quality improvements; and
developing a continuous process of improvement.
Question 5
5. Do you think the EFQM model of excellence could apply to your university? What
might be the benefits?
Answer:
The EFQM model could be applied to any system, and its application can be tailored to those
identified needs. Whether a university should be only results (qualifications or research outputs)
orientated is a moot point. Improving the grades achieved by students is of course only one
method of assessing performance and one also needs to consider with what level of knowledge
the students are starting. Nonetheless, this usually provides for an interesting in-class discussion.
Question 6
6. Can you think of any circumstances in which the philosophy of ‘keeping things
simple’ would not apply?
Answer:
In the dotcom boom era of the late 1990s the Internet was regarded as a source of unlimited
business opportunities. In practice, it was merely another tool to facilitate businesses in much
the same way as the telephone has helped.
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