Business Studies Collins Revision Guide. - StudyGuide.PK

●●●●●QUALITY CONTROL (3)Kaizen is the Japanese method of continuous improvement.Everybody in the company is encouraged to make suggestions as tohow the production process and the quality of the product can beimproved. By using the principles of Kaizen it is hoped to preventproblems, rather than wasting resources by finding faults aftergoods have been manufactured.Quality circles are a method of improving quality by havingdiscussion groups of all levels of workers who meet together toidentify problems and suggest solutions. The underlying principle isthat the workers on the shop floor understand the problem bestand also may know the solution. By encouraging them to contributetheir ideas, the workers are likely to be motivated as it is a form ofjob enrichment.Total quality management (TQM) is another Japanese method ofmanaging quality by involving everybody in the businessorganisation, not just in the production department. Quality is‘everybody’s business’ and there is an underlying principle of ‘rightfirst time’. Usually each group of workers views each other as acustomer resulting in more care being taken. TQM can eliminate theneed to test products at the end of the manufacturing process andusually includes quality circles and Kaizen.The benefit of TQM is that costs are reduced, by eliminating waste,and this should outweigh the costs of training people to operatethe system. Fewer rejects should improve the reputation of thebusiness and lead to increased sales.Benchmarking is the process of comparing the products producedagainst those of the most efficient producer. This means that abusiness does not just consider its own production methods buttries to understand its competitors’ methods. The obvious difficultywith this is obtaining information from competitors.79