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Chapter 17
Quality management
Key questions
➤ What is quality and why is it so
important?
➤ How can quality problems be
diagnosed?
➤ What steps lead towards
conformance to specification?
➤ What is total quality management
(TQM)?
Introduction
Quality is the only one of the five ‘operations performance
criteria’ to have its own dedicated chapter in this book. There
are two reasons for this. First, in some organizations a separate
function is devoted exclusively to the management of quality.
Second, quality is a key concern of almost all organizations.
High-quality goods and services can give an organization a
considerable competitive edge. Good quality reduces the costs
of rework, waste, complaints and returns and, most importantly,
generates satisfied customers. Some operations managers
believe that, in the long run, quality is the most important
single factor affecting an organization’s performance relative
to its competitors.
Figure 17.1 This chapter covers quality management
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