AS Business Studies

Unit 2: Business Functions (Operation Management)

Quality Standards and Quality Assurance

While controlling and monitoring quality is important, first of all we need to set a measure by which we will measure the quality of our products. These quality standards are vitally important too high a standard will result in extra unnecessary costs while too low a standard will put off customers. The key is getting the balance exactly right. Remember, quality control is monitoring and preventing poor quality. Here, we are talking about QUALITY STANDARDS rather than monitoring them. This is the minimum quality you would expect your products to be when they come off the production line. As a business, we need to decide what measure of quality we will use i.e. what definition of quality we are going to use. Once weve decided this, we can then implement a system of QUALITY ASSURANCE. This is a commitment by the organisation to maintain quality throughout its business, the aim being that they will stop problems before they occur. It is PREVENTATIVE rather than inspective. They can also use codes of practice to set their quality assurance standards.

ISO 9000
One code of practice businesses can measure their quality against is ISO 9000. If a business achieves this award then it means that their product and production processes meet the standards set by the British Standards Institute. This means that customers can be reassured that the products that the business sells are safe and of the quality required by industry standards. ISO 9000 certification can help a business to:
Examine and improve systems, methods and procedures. Motivate staff Ensure consistency in production Give clear signals to customers that they are taking measures to ensure good quality

Benchmarking
This is when you select the market leader in your particular industry and then benchmark your product standards against them. John Lewis for example states that they are never knowingly undersold i.e. they benchmark their prices against competitors to make sure that they give you best value for money. It also means benchmarking internally. In other words, employees should look at the best process and then benchmark against it to ensure maximum efficiency and a consistent product quality.

EU/UK Legislation
One final area of importance is abiding by legislation. Businesses must all abide by a range of laws that will ensure the customers will receive a minimum standard of quality. Health and Safety Consumer Protection

Recap!
Total Quality Management Quality Control Quality Assurance

(write a definition and consider pros and cons of each)

Quality @ JKL
NDNA Quality Counts initiative
Case Study Reference: P.4-5, lines 92-129.

Provide advantages and Disadvantages of this initiative

Feed your findings back to the group