Managing Quality, Efficiency and Responsiveness to Customers

Question 1

In the traditional manufacturing process , a separate quality control department was created to minimize the volume of defective output . This means that the presence of defects was detected only at the end of the production process . Such a system cannot be implemented in a production system which is governed by priority scheduling . This is the scenario we see in the case of Washburn Guitars . The company has been implementing this system because of the wide variations in demand . Some of the demand is generated by rush s from big-name musicians

on concert tours Others may be generated by instruments which have to be replaced or repaired . These instruments can be of different categories as the company manufactures a wide variety of instruments , ranging from acoustic and electric guitars and basses to mandolins and banjos . For this reason the management has been implementing the strategy of flexible manufacturing . In to manage quality in this situation the strategy of one

TQM may be defined as an attitude in the organization where everyone and not just the people in quality control or production are committed to achieving quality control . As a result quality is being checked at every stage of the production process . This means that the management has to undertake training and development programs which would enable the employees to check the quality of their own work . In other words , the management is building a self-checking system so that there is...