NEGUSSIE YIBAS, Maths Building 2nd floor office No 2026

INTRODUCTION TO QUALITY AND ITS MANAGEMENT

• Monitoring (controlling) and improving the

quality of
– Production process
– Products
– Services
is an important business strategy for
manufacturers, distributors, transportation
companies, financial services, health care
providers, and government agencies.
INTRODUCTION TO QUALITY AND ITS MANAGEMENT

• Quality is a competitive advantage; that is

quality is one of the most important consumer
decision factors in selecting competing products
and services.
• Quality of goods and service is related to one or
more desirable characteristics that a product or
service should possess (acquire)
• Thus a business that can delight customers by
improving and controlling quality can dominate
its competitors.
ADDITIONAL FEATURES OF SERVICE QUALITY

• Unlike manufactured products, every service is

made to order. Therefore, the service quality
has additional features. Thus, the additional
features of service quality are:
– Quality of customer service
– Quality of service design
– Quality of service delivery
• Refer to the study guide and/or the text book
for further reading.
DIFFERENT VIEWS ON QUALITY

• User’s point of view of quality

– For users quality is an expression of usefulness of
products/services in meeting their needs and
expectations and its reliability, safety durability etc.
• Producer’s view of quality
– For producers quality of a product is measured by the
quality of the performance production process which
depends on the quality of design and the quality of
conformance.
DIFFERENT VIEWS ON QUALITY

• Quality indeed is a complex entity.

• The traditional definition of quality is based
on the viewpoint that products and
services must meet the requirements of
those who use them (Consumers).
• The above leads to the following definition.
– Quality means fitness to use.
DIFFERENT VIEWS ON QUALITY

• The two aspects of fitness for use:

– Quality of design
– Quality of conformance
• Quality of design:
– Goods and services are produced in various
grades (levels) of quality.
– The variations in grades of quality are
intentional variations introduced in the design
of the product or service.
INTRODUCTION TO QUALITY MANAGEMENT

• A preferred modern definition of quality:

– Quality is inversely proportional to variability.
• This definition implies that if undesirable
variability in the important characteristics
of a product decreases, the quality
increases (quality improves)
• Quality improvement is the reduction of
variability in the process and products.
• Excessive variability results in waste.
INTRODUCTION TO QUALITY MANAGEMENT

TOTALQUQLITY MANAGEMENT
• TQM is a management approach of an organization,
centered on quality, based on the participation of all its
members and aiming at long-term success through
customer satisfaction, and benefits to all members of the
organization and to society.
• The above definition reveals the following characteristics
– TQM is a customer oriented.
– TQM required a long term commitment for continuous
improvement of all processes.
– TQM is a teamwork.
– TQM requires the leadership of top management and continuous
involvement.
– TQM is a strategy for continuous improving performance at all
levels and in all areas of responsibility.
INTRODUCTION TO QUALITY MANAGEMENT

• Quality has many dimensions. The dimensions

of quality are the various features of a product
or service.
• The different dimensions of quality can be
summarized under the following major topics.
– Performance - Will the product do the intended job?
– Reliability - How often does the product fail?
– Durability - How long does the product last?
– Serviceability (Maintainability) - How easy it is to
repair the product?
INTRODUCTION TO QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Dimensions of Quality
• Quality has many dimensions. The dimensions of
quality are the various features of goods and services.
• The different dimensions of quality can be summarized
under the following major topics.
1. Performance
• (Will the product do the intended job?)
2. Reliability
• (How often does the product fail?)
3. Durability
• (How long does the product last?)
4. Serviceability
• (How easy is it to repair the product?)
INTRODUCTION TO QUALITY MANAGEMENT

5. Aesthetics
• (What does the product look like?)
6. Features
• (What does the product do?)
7. Perceived Quality
• (What is the reputation of the company or its
product?)
8. Conformance to Standards
• (Is the product made exactly as the designer
intended?)
VARIABILITY AND CAUSES OF VARIABILITY

• There is a certain amount of variability

(variation, dispersion) in every product:
hence, no two products are ever identical.
• Since variability can only be described in
statistical terms, statistical methods play a
central role in quality improvement efforts.
• Data on quality characteristic is classified as
either attributes (discrete) or variables
(continuous).
Variability and causes of variability
• Variable data are usually continuous
measurements, some examples are:
– Length of a product of interest
– Voltage
– Viscosity
– Time and temperature for example
• Attributes data are usually discrete data,
often generated as a result of counting.
Variability and causes of variability
• Examples of attributes data:
– Number of loan applications
– The number of emergency rooms
SPECIFICATIONS:
• For a manufactured product specifications
refers to the desired level (value) of
measurements that the quality characteristic
should have as a final product
– Quality characteristics are evaluated (assessed)
relative to a desirable specifications.
Variability and causes of variability
• Specifications are set by engineering design.
• Nominal (target) value: A measured value
that corresponds to the desired value for that
quality characteristic.
• Specification is a range of values bounded by
a lower and upper boundaries, believed to be
sufficiently close to the nominal value so as
not to impact the performance of the product
if the quality characteristic is in that range.
VARIABILITY AND CAUSES OF VARIABILITY

• The final product of a process can either

conform or fails to conform the desired
specification. (Binomial distribution).
• Nonconforming products are those that fail to
meet one or more of the specifications.
• A nonconforming product is not necessarily unfit
for use, it could be reworked .
• A nonconforming product with one or more
defects is considered defective.
Variability and causes of variability
• There are two causes of variation in a
process: Chance and assignable.
• Chance variation is a variation random in
nature. These causes variation cannot be
completely eliminated unless a major
change in the equipment or material is
introduced in the process.
• Assignable variation is usually are correctable,
where as chance variation cannot be corrected
or stabilized.
Variability and causes of variability
• Assignable variation is a non-random
variation that can be eliminated or reduced
by investigating the problem and finding
the cause.
• Reasons why for being concerned about
variation:
– It will change the shape, dispersion, and
central tendency of the distribution of the
product characteristic being measured.
TYPES OF QUALITY CONTROL

• It is desirable to control and improve the

quality of the performance of a process
and hence it products.
• The quality of Goods and services may
be controlled in two different ways
– process control-assures stability/repeatability
– product or lot Control ensures consistency
TYPES OF QUALITY CONTROL

PROCESS CONTROL
• A process is a system with a set of inputs and
outputs. A process can be either a manufacturing or
non-manufacturing (service).
• Process control is a technical procedure practiced to
control the quality of the products while the products
being produced remain in process of production.
• Process control ensures that the goods produced and
services rendered conform to the pre-determined
quality standards(specifications)
TYPES OF QUALITY CONTROL

PRODUCT OR LOT CONTROL

• Product control refers to the type of quality control of
the product which has already been manufactured
and which waits for sale and dispatch.
• By product control, we mean sampling inspection
plans which is concerned with the decision to accept
a lot of items conforming to a specified level of
quality or to reject the lot as non-conforming.
• Product control is an essential constituent of
production and it may be applied to raw material,
semi-furnished goods at intermediate stages of the
manufacturing process.
• Product control aims at generating a certain quality
level to the consumers.
STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL (SPC)

• SPC begins at planning stage where the

attributes of the product or service of
interest are specified.
• It continues through the production stage.
• Each attribute in the process contributes to
the overall quality of the product.
STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL (SPC)
• Three major areas of quality control and improvement:
– Statistical process control
– Design of experiments
– Acceptance sampling
• The objective of statistical quality control is to monitor
production through many stages of the manufacturing
process.
• Statistical quality control tools, such as X-bar and R-
charts are used to monitor the quality of processes and
services.
• Control charts are used identify when a process or
service is “out of control,” a situation where where an
excessive number of defective units are being produced.
STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL (SPC)

• SPC is the application of statistical methods

(the use of control charts and acceptance
sampling procedures) to quality control.
• SPC is a powerful collection of problem
solving tools useful in achieving process
stability and improving capacity through the
reduction of variability
• SPC enables a process to be stable or
repeatable to produce products that meet or
exceed customer expectations.
STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL (SPC)

• SPC has seven magnificent tools to use to

achieve its objective of making a given process
remain stable or repeatable.
– Histogram or Stem and leaf plot
– Check list
– Pareto chart or diagram
– Cause and effect diagram
– Defect concentration diagram
– Scatter diagram
– Control chart - developed by Walter A Shewhart
in the 1920s.
• See Sec 5.1 of the text book by Montgomery
and page 28 of the study guide.
STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL (SPC)

Quality of conformance
• Quality of conformance refers to how well the product
conforms to the set specifications.
• Some factors that influence quality of conformance
– The choice of manufacturing processes
– The training and supervision of the workforce
– The types of process controls, tests, and
inspection activities that are employed
– The extent to which these procedures are
followed, and the motivation of the workforce to
achieve quality.
STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL (SPC)

QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS (RV)

• A quality characteristic is an inherent
characteristic of a product that says something about
as aspect of the quality of the product.
• Quality characteristic is either countable or
measureable. It refers to a number of elements that
every product acquires.
– These elements jointly describe what the user
(consumer) thinks of as quality.
– Quality characteristics may be of several types.
1. Physical: Length, weight, voltage, viscosity
2. Sensory: taste, appearance, colour
3. Time orientation: Reliability, durability, serviceability.
STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL (SPC)

DMAIC PROCESS
• The Six sigma DMAIC project methodology includes five
phases (steps), each represented by the five letters in
DMAIC acronym (Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control)
• The five steps in DMAIC procedure are:
– Define the problem, the customer, the project
requirements and the ultimate goals and expectations
of the customer.
– Measure performance of the current process by
establishing a data collection plan to determine
defects and gather metrics.
STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL (SPC)

DMAIC PROCESS
• Measure step cont: The purpose of the measure step
is to evaluate and understand the current status of the
process. This involves collecting data on measures of
quality, cost, and throughput/cycle time.
– Analyse the process to establish root cause of variations
and defects to identify issues with the current strategy
that stand in the way of the end goal.
– Improve the process by eliminating the root causes of
defects through innovative solutions.
– Control the new process to avoid falling into old habits
and to ensure it stays on track.
SIX SIGMA MANGEMNT

• Products with many components typically have

many opportunities for failure or defects to occur.
The focus of six-sigma is reducing variability in
key product quality characteristics to the level at
which failure or defects are extremely unlikely.
• Six Sigma is a quality management methodology
used to help businesses improve current
processes, products or services by discovering
and eliminating defects.
• The goal is to make the quality control processes
more efficient and effective so that there is little to
no variance throughout.
SIX SIGMA MANGEMNT
• Six sigma makes use the normal probability distribution
as a model for a quality characteristic with the
specification limits at six standard deviations on either
side of the mean.
• As indicated in its definition a specification has lower and
upper limits located equidistance from either side of the
nominal (mean) value. This can be expressed as µ ± kσ
where µ is the nominal (mean) value, k is a positive
constant and σ a known standard deviation.
• Thus six sigma stands for ±6σ (within six standard
deviation from the mean, the total spread is 12 σ.
• It is possible to have ±1σ, ±2σ, ±3σ, etc.
SIX SIGMA MANGEMNT

• Thus it is possible to estimate some desired

probabilities of conforming and nonconforming and
the number of items which do and don’t conform to
the specification of in question.
CONTROL CHARTS

• Constructing Shewhart control charts manually and electronically:

MS excel.