LOW JUN WEN ZP03374

Assignment 1
Explain how improving quality can lead to reduced cost
Based on Heizer & Render (2009), cost of quality involving such as prevention costs, appraisal
costs, internal failure costs and external failure costs.

Prevention costs – training the staff in the organization to perform their tasks better and having
programs to educate staff on improving quality.
Appraisal costs – the costs of “quality testing” the products produced. These appraisals can
include, but aren’t limited to: product testing, product/service inspectors, quality assurance labs
etc.
Internal failure – this is when a product or service is produced and fails or is defective. The
internal aspect is that this is when the defective/failed product is detected before delivery to the
customers. The product/service then needs to be scrapped or reworked.
External costs – similar to the situation above, usually a defective product or part of a product
which occurs after the sale of the product or service. The costs involved in recalling, refunding
and/or replacing the product or service.

Prevention & Appraisal costs is more towards on costing involved before the product is being out
from market, focusing on quality improvement and mostly their costs is much more lower then
Internal Failure & External costs is more on recovery cost involved to recover failure or problem
occurred when prevention and appraisal action is not functioning.
Assignment 2

Answer following Question:

What is the purpose of using a Pareto chart for a given problem?
A Pareto chart, also called a Pareto distribution diagram, is a vertical bar graph in which values
are plotted in decreasing order of relative frequency from left to right. Pareto charts are useful for
helping analysing and in decision making on which problems need to prioritize to solve. On the
Pareto chart, the taller bars on the chart, which represent frequency, clearly illustrate which
variables have the greatest cumulative effect on a given system.
Assignment 3

Answer following Question:

Name the four quadrants of the service process matrix. Discuss how the matrix is used to
classify services into categories.
The four quadrants are:(1) Mass service (low interaction/customization; high labor intensity)(2)
Professional service (high interaction/customization; high labor intensity)(3) Service factory (low
interaction/customization; low labor intensity)(4) Service shop (high interaction/customization; low
labor intensity)
Assignment 4

Answer following Question:

What do we mean by a process-control system, and what are the typical elements in such
systems?

Process-control system, is using the advantage of information technology to control a physical

processes in Real-time monitoring. There are 4 elements in the system, as below:

1. Sensors collect data,

2. Devices is read based on periodic basis, perhaps once a minute or sec
3. Measurements are translated in to digital signals, which are transmitted to a PC.
4. Computer programs read the file and analyze the data. The resulting output my take
numerous forms. These include messages on computer consoles or printers...
4. Resulting output may take numerous forms
Identify and explain the four strategies that operations managers of international and
multinational firms use to approach global opportunities.

There are four strategies that operations managers of international & multinational firms use to
approach global opportunities such as International strategy,

International strategy

An international strategy uses exports and licenses to penetrate the global arena. It is the least
advantageous strategy, with little local responsiveness, as these companies sell the same
product in every country, and little low cost advantage because they use their existing production
process at some distance from the new market. Thus, an international strategy implies both low
local responsiveness and cost reduction.

However, an international strategy is often the easiest one, as exports can require little change in
existing operations, and licensing agreements often leave much of the risk to the licensee. In an
international strategy markets are penetrated using exports and licenses.

An example of a company that follows an international strategy is Harley Davidson which sells
“Made in America” products all over the world by exporting them from the US.