Question Paper
Quality and Productivity Management(MB3G1OP): October 2008
Section A : Basic Concepts (30 Marks)
- This section consists of questions with serial number 1 - 30.
- Answer all questions.
- Each question carries one mark.
- Maximum time for answering Section A is 30 Minutes.
1. / In order to build quality into the culture, a quality council is established to provide overall direction. Which of the following is/are the duty/duties of the quality council?
I.Determine and continually monitor the cost of poor quality.
II.Establish single-functional project and departmental teams and monitor their progress.
III.Create the total education and training plan.
(a) / Only (I) above
(b) / Only (II) above
(c) / Both (I) and (II) above
(d) / Both (I) and (III) above
(e) / All (I), (II) and (III) above.
/ <Answer>
2. / Valuing employees means committing to their satisfaction, development and well-being. Major challenges in the area of valuing employees include(s)
I.Recognition that goes beyond the regular compensation system.
II.Development and progression within the organization.
III.Creating an environment that encourages risk-aversion.
(a) / Only (II) above
(b) / Only (III) above
(c) / Both (I) and (II) above
(d) / Both (II) and (III) above
(e) / All (I), (II) and (III) above.
/ <Answer>
3. / The American Society for Quality (ASQ) conducted a survey on end user perceptions of important factors that influenced purchases. Which of the following is not one of the factors?
(a) / Performance
(b) / Features
(c) / Service
(d) / Feedback
(e) / Price.
/ <Answer>
4. / Employee empowerment requires that an individual is held responsible for accomplishing a whole task. Which of the following condition(s) is/are necessary, in order to create an empowered environment?
I.Everyone must understand the need for change.
II.The system needs to change to the new paradigm.
III.The organization must enable its shareholders.
(a) / Only (II) above
(b) / Only (III) above
(c) / Both (I) and (II) above
(d) / Both (II) and (III) above
(e) / All (I), (II) and (III) above.
/ <Answer>
5. / The groups of people from one work unit who voluntarily meet together on a regular basis to identify, analyze and solve quality and other problems within their area are referred to as
(a) / Quality control circles
(b) / Quality councils
(c) / Natural work teams
(d) / Motivators
(e) / Sponsors.
/ <Answer>
6. / Kaizen is a Japanese word for the philosophy that defines management’s role in continuously encouraging and implementing small improvements involving everyone. The Kaizen improvement focuses on the use of
I.Value-added and non-value-added work activities.
II.Principles of motion study and the use of cell technology.
III.Documentation of diverse operating procedures.
IV.Visual management by means of visual displays that everyone in the plant can use for better communication.
(a) / Only (I) above
(b) / Only (III) above
(c) / Both (I) and (III) above
(d) / Both (II) and (IV) above
(e) / (I), (II) and (IV) above.
/ <Answer>
7. / There are six basic techniques for presenting performance measures. Which of the following is the simplest and most common of all that benchmarks the process?
(a) / Control chart
(b) / Taguchi’s loss function
(c) / Capability index
(d) / Time series graph
(e) / Cost of poor quality.
/ <Answer>
8. / Quality costs are used by management in its pursuit of quality improvement, customer satisfaction, market share and profit enhancement. Appraisal cost is one of the primary quality cost category. Which of the following are classified under appraisal cost category?
I.Miscellaneous quality evaluations.
II.Customer or user goodwill.
III.Review of test and inspection data.
IV.Complaint investigation of customer or user service.
(a) / Both (I) and (III) above
(b) / Both (II) and (IV) above
(c) / (I), (II) and (III) above
(d) / (II), (III) and (IV) above
(e) / All (I), (II), (III) and (IV) above.
/ <Answer>
9. / Benchmarking is a tool to achieve business and competitive objectives. When Southwest Airlines was unhappy with the airplane turnaround time, it benchmarked auto-racing pit crews and implemented many new ideas. Which of the following types of benchmarking process was implemented?
(a) / Internal benchmarking
(b) / Competitive benchmarking
(c) / Process benchmarking
(d) / Product benchmarking
(e) / Service benchmarking.
/ <Answer>
10. / Quality system documentation can be viewed as a hierarchy containing various tiers that moves from one level to the next level in a descending order. Which of the following is the third tier of documentation?
(a) / Document development
(b) / Records
(c) / Procedure
(d) / Work instructions
(e) / Policy.
/ <Answer>
11. / In ‘Quality Function Deployment’ (QFD), which of the following is the most suitable method for collecting and organizing the information?
(a) / Interrelationship diagram
(b) / Cause-and-effect diagram
(c) / Affinity diagram
(d) / Tree diagram
(e) / Matrix diagram.
/ <Answer>
12. / After analyzing last week’s performance, the bearings division of Nupur Ltd., is planning their schedule for the following week. The schedule called for 12-hour shift per day for six days. Downtime charged to production averaged 200 minutes per day. Downtime charged to maintenance averaged 155 minutes per day. The percentage of available time for the bearings division is
(a) / 88.80%
(b) / 99.70%
(c) / 91.78%
(d) / 94.20%
(e) / 85.40%.
/ <Answer>
13. / Which of the following is/are true regarding ‘Matrix diagram’ as a management tool?
I.It provides for issue/idea input from everyone on the team and for effective decisions.
II.It allows the team to classify the cause-and-effect relationships among all the factors.
III.It allows individuals or teams to identify, analyze and rate the relationship among two or more variables.
IV.It provides the mechanism to effectively minimize uncertainty in an implementation plan.
(a) / Only (I) above
(b) / Only (III) above
(c) / Both (I) and (II) above
(d) / Both (III) and (IV) above
(e) / All (I), (II), (III) and (IV) above.
/ <Answer>
14. / Calculate the standard deviation for the following data:
16, 25, 18, 17, 16, 21, 14.
(a) / 3.72
(b) / 4.08
(c) / 2.09
(d) / 4.00
(e) / 3.00.
/ <Answer>
15. / An ISO 14000 series standard is divided into two separate areas. Which of the following standards is/are categorized as organization evaluation standards?
I.Environmental Auditing (EA).
II.Environmental Labeling (EL).
III.Environmental Performance Evaluation (EPE).
(a) / Only (I) above
(b) / Only (III) above
(c) / Both (I) and (II) above
(d) / Both (I) and (III) above
(e) / All (I), (II) and (III) above.
/ <Answer>
16. / Organizations can dramatically improve team performance by understanding and recognizing the stages in the life cycle of teams. Bruce Tuckerman found that there were four stages to a team’s development. Which of the following is true regarding ‘Norming’ stage?
(a) / In this stage, team needs to evaluate its performance and determine lessons learned
(b) / In this stage, team members have settled their relationships and expectations
(c) / In this stage, team members start to realize the amount of work that lies ahead
(d) / In this stage, team members begin to work together
(e) / In this stage, team members become aware of the boundaries of acceptable behavior.
/ <Answer>
17. / Juran Trilogy has three components and it is based loosely on financial processes. Cost reduction can also be viewed as
(a) / Improvement
(b) / Expense measurement
(c) / Control
(d) / Budgeting
(e) / Planning.
/ <Answer>
18. / In deciding what to benchmark, it is best not to choose too large a scope. In order to limit the scope of the study and thereby limit the time it takes to conduct the study, it is best to choose which of the following scopes?
I.Broad and deep.
II.Broad and shallow.
III.Narrow and deep.
IV.Narrow and shallow.
(a) / Only (I) above
(b) / Only (II) above
(c) / Only (III) above
(d) / Both (I) and (IV) above
(e) / Both (II) and (III) above.
/ <Answer>
19. / Which of the following advantages accrue to the producer and consumer when a process is in control?
I.Individual units of the product will be more uniform.
II.The percentage of product that falls within any pair of values can be predicted without any assurance.
III.The operator is performing satisfactorily from a quality viewpoint.
IV.The process capability is easily attained from 3σ.
(a) / Both (I) and (III) above
(b) / Both (II) and (III) above
(c) / Both (III) and (IV) above
(d) / (I), (III) and (IV) above
(e) / All (I), (II), (III) and (IV) above.
/ <Answer>
20. / The de facto standard for capability index (Cp) is given by
(a) / 1.00
(b) / 2.00
(c) / 1.33
(d) / 0.67
(e) / 0.33.
/ <Answer>
21. / In a Quality Cost Report, which of the following costs includes ‘Retrofit and recall costs’?’
(a) / Prevention cost
(b) / Appraisal cost
(c) / Internal failure cost
(d) / External failure cost
(e) / Quality cost.
/ <Answer>
22. / Continuous improvement is the principle and renovation is one of the improvement strategies followed by organizations. Which of the following statements are not true regarding renovation?
I.This is a temporary or short term measure.
II.It is usually undertaken by teams rather than individuals.
III.After renovation, the product appears to be different from the original, but is basically the same.
IV.It is preceded by the feeling that the current approach will never satisfy the customer requirements.
(a) / Both (I) and (II) above
(b) / Both (I) and (III) above
(c) / Both (I) and (IV) above
(d) / Both (II) and (III) above
(e) / Both (II) and (IV) above.
/ <Answer>
23. / Which of the following statements is/are not true regarding forced field analysis?
I.Forced field analysis clarifies the interrelationship of many factors of a complex situation.
II.It helps an organization to better understand promoting (or driving) and restraining (or inhibiting) forces that influence the goal.
III.It encourages team creativity, breaks down barriers and stimulates ownership of the process.
(a) / Only (I) above
(b) / Only (II) above
(c) / Only (III) above
(d) / Both (I) and (III) above
(e) / All (I), (II) and (III) above.
/ <Answer>
24. / In addition to the core values and concepts, the quality statements include the vision statement, mission statement, and quality policy statement. Which of the following statements is/are not true regarding quality policy statement?
- Quality policy is a guide for everyone in the organization.
III.Quality policy should be approved by the quality council.
(a) / Only (I) above
(b) / Only (II) above
(c) / Only (III) above
(d) / Both (I) and (II) above
(e) / Both (I) and (III) above.
/ <Answer>
25. / Which of the following types of decisions occurs when members abdicate their responsibility and go along with the decision in order to be cooperative and avoid conflict?
(a) / Non-decision
(b) / Unilateral decision
(c) / Handclasp decision
(d) / Minority-rule decision
(e) / Consensus.
/ <Answer>
26. / Mr. Ankit is a good leader in the organization. Usually, whenever a problem occurs in the organization, he not only tries to find out the solution by himself but also tries to take inputs from the team about various alternatives, to find a suitable solution. This particular behavior of Mr. Ankit indicates
(a) / Putting first things first
(b) / Proactiveness
(c) / Synergy
(d) / Renewal
(e) / Think win-win.
/ <Answer>
27. / Which of the following statements is/are true regarding ‘Harry and Schroeder’ approach for continuous improvement?
I.Black belts assist green belts in their projects.
II.160 hours of class room instructions and one-to-one project coaching is provided to Black Belts.
III.Green belts provide the technical leadership.
IV.The approach emphasizes on full time job for making improvements.
(a) / Only (I) above
(b) / Both (I) and (II) above
(c) / Both (I) and (III) above
(d) / Both (II) and (IV) above
(e) / (I), (II) and (IV) above.
/ <Answer>
28. / Which of the following ISO standards is used for registration by demonstrating conformity of the Quality Management System (QMS) to customers, regulatory and the organization’s own requirements?
(a) / TL 9000
(b) / AS 9100
(c) / ISO/TS 16949
(d) / ISO 19011
(e) / ISO 9001:2000.
/ <Answer>
29. / Quality system registration is the assessment and audit of a quality system by a third party known as a ‘registrar’. Which of the following are the criterion for selecting a ‘registrar’?
I.Qualification and experience.
II.Auditor recognition.
III.The registration process.
IV.Time and cost constraints.
(a) / Both (I) and (III) above
(b) / Both (II) and (III) above
(c) / Both (III) and (IV) above
(d) / (I), (III) and (IV) above
(e) / All (I), (II), (III) and (IV) above.
/ <Answer>
30. / Suggestion systems are designed to provide the individual with the opportunity to be involved by contributing to the organization. Which of the following is/are the ground rule(s) for stimulating and encouraging employee participation in suggestion systems?
I.Be progressive by asking employees for suggestions.
II.Remove fear by focusing on the person and not on the process.
III.Simplify the process so it is easy to participate.
(a) / Only (I) above
(b) / Only (II) above
(c) / Only (III) above
(d) / Both (I) and (III) above
(e) / Both (II) and (III) above.
/ <Answer>
END OF SECTION A
Section B : Problem/Caselets (50 Marks)- This section consists of questions with serial number 1 – 5.
- Answer all questions.
- Marks are indicated against each question.
- Detailed working/explanations should form part of your answer.
- Do not spend more than 110 - 120 minutes on Section B.
1. / HomeMade Ltd., manufactures and packages fruit juices in 1ltr cans using automatic filling equipment. It takes 5 cans in every two hours and also measures the filling up in each of the cans. The following observations are available for 9 samples:
(A2 = 0.577, D3 = 0, and D4 =2.114)
Sample
Cans / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9
1 / 1001 / 1002 / 1000 / 998 / 999 / 996 / 995 / 998 / 997
2 / 999 / 998 / 1001 / 998 / 999 / 1000 / 998 / 996 / 995
3 / 995 / 1002 / 1003 / 1001 / 1002 / 999 / 1004 / 1002 / 1000
4 / 1000 / 1001 / 1000 / 1001 / 1001 / 996 / 1000 / 999 / 995
5 / 990 / 996 / 990 / 1002 / 995 / 1000 / 1005 / 990 / 990
You are required to find the Upper control limit and Lower control limit for Mean and Range charts and test whether the process is in control. / ( / 10 / marks) / <Answer>
Caselet 1
Read the caselet carefully and answer the following questions:
2. / The ISO 9000 series of standards is generic in scope. By design, the series can be tailored to any particular industry such as automotive, aerospace or telecommunications. In this context, explain the AS9100 and ISO/TS 16949 standards. / ( / 8 / marks) / <Answer>
3. / “Motorola Computer Group, a part of Motorola Inc. (NYSE : MOT), announced that it is among the first vendors of embedded computing building blocks to receive TL9000 v. 3.0 quality management system certification for hardware, software and services”. Discuss the purpose of TL9000 certification and justify the reasons behind Motorola to initiate for this certification. Also, discuss the benefits it is going to derive from this certification. / ( / 12 / marks) / <Answer>
Motorola Computer Group, a part of Motorola Inc. (NYSE : MOT), announced that it is among the first vendors of embedded computing building blocks to receive TL9000 v. 3.0 quality management system certification for hardware, software and services. TL9000 is a telecommunications-specific set of quality system requirements and measurements that, when implemented, provide telecommunications customers with faster, better and more cost-effective products and services. The QuEST (Quality Excellence for Suppliers of Telecommunications) Forum developed the TL9000 standard in 1999 on the basis of ISO 9001 system.
The ISO 9000 system is designed as a simple system that could be used by any industry. Other systems have been developed that are specific to a particular industry such as automotive or aerospace. These systems use the ISO 9001 as the basic framework and modify to it to their needs. There are currently three other quality systems: AS9100, ISO/TS 16949 and TL9000. The purpose of TL9000 is to define the telecommunications quality management system requirements for the design, development, production, delivery, installation and maintenance of products: hardware, software and services. Included in TL9000 are performance-based measurements that quantify reliability and quality performance of these products. Long-term goals include both cost reduction and performance-based measurements. TL9000 comprises several industry standards including Telecordia, BellCore, ISO/IEC 12207 and the ISO 9000 family of quality standards. Built upon the framework of ISO 9001:2000, TL9000 v. 3.0 provides added focus on planning, customer satisfaction, use of the product life cycle and metrics. One of the problems with sector-specific standards is the need for suppliers with customers in different industries to set up quality systems to meet each sector’s requirement. The goal of TL9000, through the fostering of continuous improvement processes, is the attainment of “best in class,” reliable, high quality products and services for customers.
Motorola Computer Group, a business unit of the Motorola Integrated Electronic Systems Sector (IESS), is leading the innovation of intelligent building blocks for standards-based embedded computing. These building blocks include open-architecture hardware, rich software and application-ready platforms that enable equipment manufacturers to quickly and cost-effectively embed leading-edge functionality into their next-generation systems. By working with Motorola, manufacturers of telecommunications, industrial automation, medical imaging, and defence and aerospace equipment can rapidly develop and deploy the systems upon which they build their applications. For more than 20 years, Motorola has driven industry standards and pioneered technologies based on them and the company continues to support its customers over the long term by providing clear migration paths allowing applications to evolve with the advancements in technology. Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT) is a global leader in providing integrated communications and embedded electronic solutions. Sales in 2001 were $30 billion. Motorola, the Stylized M Logo are registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office.
“We were awarded this certification six months ahead of schedule, which is a great achievement for every department in the company. It demonstrates to our customers our focus on quality and implementation of group-wide quality processes that support it. We will now be able to benchmark our software and service performance measurements to the industry,” said Amy Peters, director of quality at Motorola Computer Group. “The TL9000 requirements promote consistent, efficient and effective processes which will enable us to improve our customers' satisfaction. They also enable us to improve quality and reliability, reduce costs and increase our competitiveness.”
Motorola Computer Group’s worldwide headquarters in Tempe, Arizona has received certification not only for hardware, but also for software and services. The company's European headquarters in Loughborough, England was recently recommended for re-certification to the ISO 9001: 1994 standard. Motorola intends to have the Loughborough facility and its design center in Shanghai, China certified to TL9000 in 2003, providing worldwide certification.
END OF CASELET 1
Caselet 2
Read the caselet carefully and answer the following questions:
4. / Manufacturers who thrive and prosper in the new millennium must treat customers as “insiders.”Under mass customization,what are the other considerations taken care by manufacturers? Discuss the benefits that organizations derive through mass customization and also the benefits to BMW. / ( / 10 / marks) / <Answer>