Question

1.       How has the emphasis of quality control changed in recent years? Describe some of the modern quality control techniques that illustrate this change in emphasis.

2.       How are MRP and ERP similar? How do they differ?

3.       PERT is a popular control method used by organizations. Explain the purpose of PERT analysis, and describe the steps involved in constructing a PERT network. Your explanation should include a discussion of the significance of the critical path in a PERT network.

4. List the three generations in the workplace today, and provide at least two characteristics of each generation that affect their motivation.

5. Explain how managers could motivate employees by using expectancy theory? Create a story/example of expectancy theory at work, incorporating the three questions that according to expectancy theory employees will ask.

6. Compare the assumptions Theory X makes about employees with those of Theory Y. How do these different assumptions influence management style

Answer 1

1. Answer:

In todays compettitve world where at each and every step firms, organisations, manufacturing plants, whether small or large are facing fierce competition. In today's economy customer is king and no of player in each segment is huge the quality of the product or service becomes one of the important features that distinguish any firm or organisation from others. Every organisation is thrive to produce high quality product and services due to globalisation, increasing competition and number of other factors like incresing labour charges, increasing raw material, innovation and technology, etc.

In earlier economy every organisation used to have separate department for quality who use to check quality at the end of the production. Earlier it was effective also but after the changes in economic condition and rising competition it became a forgone technique. Now the quality becomes a continuous process which is used to check at each and every step of production. With the requirement of this kind of technique many modern techniques has been developed over a period of time. Below are some of the modern techniques that are widely used in todays economic world:-

a) Total quality management (TQM) :- TQM is a management approch towards increasing customer satisfaction while manage to reduce cost, higher revenues and empowering employees. This approach not only increase the customer satisfaction but also generate delighted customer. In this method all the members of the organisation at all level work towards the process imrovement , product manufacturing , service improvement, etc. The improved quality thus result in right features, on time delievery, correct documentation, error free invoice, etc. It stresses on the continuos learning and adaptation of new and improved technology and developement what is required to achieve the success of organisation.

b) Six sigma- It is first discovered by motorola first and later was incorporated in GE also. The sysytem is based on the continuous process improvement by reducing number of defects to 3.4 out of 1 million instance. It uses the statstical based data to take decision to eleminate the root cause of the problem. On the basis of customer feedback it reduces the no of defects by finding out the major indicator of the problem.

c) Lean production: It is originally developed for toyota. It represts the continuos flow of the product or services to the customer the momemt it is required by the customer. Due to this approach it is also called just in time approach. The approach is basically focused on improving quality, eleminating waste and productivity while reducing inventory and delievery time. It empowers company to quickly adapt the change and respond faster than their competitors to customer demand.

d) International standard organisations (ISO): ISO is an organisations that set quality standards to be managed by the corporations while manufacturing a product or provide services. Their are certain parameters which is essential to be followed. The parameters includes specifications for product, service and sysstems to ensure quality, safety and servicces. These standards are being modified over the years to maintain optimum quality. It has developed a series of quality standards to support the quality philosphy. It has developed 22144 international standards accoding to its website covering almost all industry.

These modern technology evolved a lot in past years. The emphasis of quality control changed is changing over the period of time and every organisation is adapting theses changes to ensure optimum quality and higher customer satisfaction.