Deck 19: Satisfying the Quality, Innovation and Continuous Improvement Imperatives

Question 1

When an organisation works with internal customers and suppliers, or service partners, to continually refine and improve the way it creates and provides products and services, this is known as:

A) a strategic alliance.
B) total quality management.
C) integrated value chain management.
D) quality control.
E) quality assurance.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which of the following is not one of the main areas to which the kaizen approach can be applied?

A) Customer-oriented innovation
B) Process innovation
C) Product innovation
D) Capital innovation
E) Service innovation

Answer 2

D

Question 3

What is the rate of defects for an organisation operating at the Six Sigma level?

A) Zero defects per million (100% of products and services meet quality standards or specifications)
B) 2 defects per million (99.9998% of products and services meet quality standards or specifications)
C) 3.4 defects per million (99.9997% of products and services meet quality standards or specifications)
D) 5.4 defects per million (99.99946% of products and services meet quality standards or specifications)
E) 900 defects per million (99.91% of products and services meet quality standards or specifications)

Answer 3

C

Question 4

'Lean' is a methodology that concentrates on:

A) upskilling and multiskilling workers.
B) instilling quality into all operations.
C) reducing waste and improving cycle times.
D) improving supply-chain efficiency.
E) All of the above responses are correct.

Question 5

Which of the following is not one of the four essential elements that contributes to the development of a quality culture?

A) Leadership emphasis
B) Organisational structure
C) Message credibility
D) Peer involvement
E) Employee ownership

Question 6

Seeing a problem, event or person in a new light is an example of the characteristic of creativity and innovation known as:

A) determination.
B) mental nimbleness.
C) helicopter thinking.
D) originality.
E) fluency.

Question 7

Establishing meaningful key performance measures for important aspects of operations, which then become the standards used to measure and monitor performance and for comparison with other organisations, is known as:

A) after-action reviews.
B) benchmarking.
C) measures of success.
D) core process redesign.
E) quality improvement teams.

Question 8

Which of the following is not a tool to help organisations to identify problems and decide which one to address first, or next?

A) Brainstorming
B) The P-D-C-A cycle
C) Nominal group technique
D) Pie chart
E) Pareto chart

Question 9

An organisation that has employees focused on and committed to quality, works with suppliers to streamline work, and makes a habit of enacting systematic, continuous improvements, or enhancements, to processes, products and services would be said to have a:

A) team culture.
B) organisational culture.
C) top-down culture.
D) quality culture.
E) diverse culture.

Question 10

Which of the following represents the correct order for finding and making improvements?

A) Identify improvement; improvement idea; implement improvement; Monitor improvement
B) Identify improvement; implement improvement; monitor improvement; improvement idea
C) Identify improvement; monitor improvement; implement improvement; improvement idea
D) Identify improvement; implement improvement; improvement idea; monitor improvement
E) Improvement idea; identify improvement; implement improvement; monitor improvement

Question 11

Which of the following effects may the introduction of quality improvement teams result in?

A) Improved quality and customer service
B) More effective teamwork
C) Improved efficiencies
D) Improved communication
E) All of these responses are correct.

Question 12

Core process redesign involves the redesign of an organisation's workflows and operating procedures, which can lead to significant improvements in productivity and customer service.

Question 13

Scatter diagrams can be used to help to:

A) identify problems and decide which one to address first, or next.
B) identify and analyse problems.
C) analyse and resolve problems.
D) implement solutions.
E) All of these responses are correct.

Question 14

The nominal group technique can contribute to quality improvement by:

A) giving specialist innovative thinkers the authority to decide which problems to work on, and in what order.
B) giving everyone an equal say in deciding which problems to work on, and in what order.
C) giving those higher in an organisation's hierarchy the power to decide which problems to work on, and in what order.
D) giving operational workers the authority to decide which problems to work on, and in what order.
E) None of these response are correct.

Question 15

Using statistical process control (SPC) to monitor quality involves:

A) inspectors carrying out quality checks.
B) management taking responsibility for quality checks.
C) employees monitoring the quality of their own work.
D) calculating the ratio of defective products and services as a proportion of total production based on customer feedback.
E) None of these responses are correct.

Question 16

Which of the following is not a way that an organisation can grow organically?

A) Mergers and acquisitions
B) Breakthrough improvements
C) Capital investment
D) Cost reduction
E) Incremental improvements

Question 17

When organisations are quality-certified, the benefit to customers is that:

A) they can be sure the organisation has quality systems in place.
B) the organisation's quality systems have been audited by an independent external body.
C) the organisation is capable of reliably producing a product or service that meets customer requirements.
D) the organisation's quality systems conform to the requirements specified in the relevant standard/s.
E) All of these responses are correct.

Question 18

The steps in the P-D-C-A cycle are:

A) Prepare-Develop-Control-Analyse.
B) Prioritise-Deliver-Certify-Action.
C) Practice-Design-Conform-Agree.
D) Ponder-Deliberate-Consider-Articulate.
E) Plan-Do-Check-Act.

Question 19

When errors in quality occur, organisations should look at their employees to find the cause/s, rather than at their work systems and processes.

Question 20

Which of the following ingredients does an organisation need to successfully innovate?

A) An innovation culture that encourages experimentation
B) An innovation culture that encourages learning
C) An innovation culture that has strong relationships with customers and suppliers
D) An innovation culture that has open communication
E) All of these responses are correct.

Question 21

Which of the following is a Pareto chart designed to do?

A) Identify a problem
B) Describe a problem and its basic cause
C) Plan to resolve a problem
D) Monitor success in resolving a problem
E) All of these responses are correct.

Question 22

To determine trends by looking at how things vary over time, the appropriate tool to use would be a:

A) Pareto chart.
B) stratification chart.
C) flow chart.
D) run chart.
E) pie chart.

Question 23

When considering the curve of a histogram, a process that has skewed distribution could be considered to be in control, whereas one showing normal distribution could be considered to not be in control.

Question 24

Scatter diagrams show only relationships between variables, but do not prove cause and effect.

Question 25

A control chart is a type of run chart that shows the upper and lower statistically acceptable limits of results drawn on either side of the average.

Question 26

If the distribution of data in a process capability chart shows that all of the data appears between the upper and lower specification limits, but is concentrated closer to the upper specification limit, then it is likely that:

A) the process is in control and comfortably meets specifications.
B) the process is in control and meets specifications, but is in danger of non-conformance because it is not centred in the target value.
C) the process is in control, but capability does not meet specifications.
D) the process is not in control, because capability does not meet specifications.
E) None of these responses are correct.

Question 27

For which of the following would a flow chart not be useful?

A) Working through a situation to decide what to do
B) Enabling each step in a process, and how each of them relates to the other steps, to be identified
C) Designing and refining procedures and training people to use them
D) Solving complex problems
E) Highlighting deviations from the ideal path a process should follow

Question 28

Which is true of data displayed in a scatter diagram?

A) The looser the cluster and the more the cluster resembles a straight line, the stronger the relationship between the two variables.
B) The tighter the cluster and the more the cluster resembles a curved line, the stronger the relationship between the two variables.
C) The tighter the cluster and the more the cluster resembles a straight line, the stronger the relationship between the two variables.
D) The looser the cluster and the more the cluster resembles a curved line, the stronger the relationship between the two variables.
E) The tighter the cluster and the more the cluster resembles a straight line, the weaker the relationship between the two variables.

Question 29

Check sheets are useful in relation to quality improvement because they:

A) highlight where work is going wrong.
B) highlight where work is going right.
C) highlight where work quality is not improving.
D) highlight where work quality is falling behind that of competitors.
E) All of these responses are correct.

Question 30

A tool used to identify and analyse problems by using a matrix that places elements of one key aspect of a problem on one side and elements of another aspect across the top, and then focuses on where they intersect is known as:

A) a pie chart.
B) checkerboard analysis.
C) a histogram.
D) a Pareto chart.
E) a stratification chart.