OpenRevise GCSE

Viewing as

Student Teacher

Teaching this? The teacher view adds 2 files, the mark schemes and the model answers.

Business · Making operational decisions

Managing quality

Businesses manage quality in two ways: quality control checks finished products for faults, while quality assurance builds quality into every stage of production. High quality controls costs and gives a competitive advantage.

  • 5 key terms
  • All boards
Download the full pack · 3 files

Last Lesson

Answer from memory before the answers appear.

  • What is buffer stock?

    The minimum stock kept for emergencies.

  • What is just-in-time?

    Ordering stock to arrive exactly when needed, holding little or none.

  • Name three factors in choosing a supplier.

    Any three of: quality, delivery, availability, cost, trust.

  • What is lead time?

    The time between ordering stock and it arriving.

Learning Objectives

  1. 1Explain what quality means.
  2. 2Explain quality control.
  3. 3Explain quality assurance.
  4. 4Explain the importance of quality in controlling costs and gaining competitive advantage.

What Is Quality?

A quality product meets or exceeds customers' expectations - and does so every time.

  • Fit for purpose

    It does what customers need it to do.

  • Consistent

    Every product is made to the same standard.

  • Not the same as luxury

    A cheap product can be high quality if it meets the expectations of customers who buy it.

  • Services too

    Quality applies to service - speed, friendliness and reliability.

Quality Control or Quality Assurance?

Quality control

  • Checking finished products for faults, usually at the end of production.
  • Done by specialist inspectors.
  • Faulty products are thrown away or reworked.
  • Finds problems after they have happened.
  • Can be wasteful: materials and time are lost on every faulty product.

Quality assurance

  • Checking quality at every stage of production.
  • Every worker is responsible for their own work.
  • Aims to prevent faults happening in the first place.
  • Less waste, as faults are caught early.
  • Needs training, and staff who care about quality.

The Importance of Quality

  • Controlling costs

    Fewer faulty products means less waste, fewer returns and less money spent fixing mistakes.

  • Competitive advantage

    A reputation for quality helps a business stand out from rivals and win customers.

  • Premium prices

    Customers will often pay more for a product they trust to be well made.

  • Customer loyalty

    Customers who get good quality every time come back and recommend the business.

The Cost of Poor Quality

When quality fails, the costs mount up quickly.

  • Waste

    Faulty products must be scrapped or reworked.

  • Returns and refunds

    Customers return faulty goods and demand their money back.

  • Product recalls

    Dangerous faults can force a business to recall every product sold - extremely expensive.

  • Reputation

    Bad reviews and news stories drive customers away for years.

Case study

The Galaxy Note 7 Recall

In August 2016 Samsung launched the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone. Within weeks, reports emerged of phones overheating and catching fire because of faulty batteries. Airlines banned the phone from flights. Samsung recalled millions of phones, and when replacement phones also caught fire, it stopped making the Note 7 altogether in October 2016. The failure cost Samsung billions of dollars and damaged its reputation - a clear example of how poor quality can cost far more than getting it right would have done.

2016 Galaxy Note 7 launched and recalled
Billions The cost of the failure, in US dollars

Build Quality In

A sandwich factory has had complaints about missing ingredients and wrong labels. Design a quality assurance system for it: list three checks at different stages of production, and explain how each would prevent the problem rather than just finding it.

1. One check when ingredients arrive.

2. One check during assembly.

3. One check at labelling.

4. How each prevents problems.

A good answer shows: Three checks at different stages (ingredients arriving, assembly, labelling) with each explained as preventing faults.

Can I...?

  1. 1Explain what quality means.
  2. 2Explain quality control.
  3. 3Explain quality assurance.
  4. 4Compare quality control and quality assurance.
  5. 5Explain how quality controls costs.
  6. 6Explain how quality gives a competitive advantage.
  7. 7Explain the costs of poor quality.

Summary & Exam Focus

  • Quality means meeting customers' expectations, every time.
  • Quality control checks finished products; quality assurance builds quality into every stage.
  • High quality controls costs and gives a competitive advantage.
  • Poor quality brings waste, returns, recalls and damaged reputation.

Exam focus

Explain one benefit to a business of using quality assurance rather than quality control. (3 marks) (3 marks)

The difference is when quality is checked: control finds faults at the end, assurance prevents them throughout. Link your answer to costs or reputation.

Key terms

The vocabulary this lesson expects you to use. Each one is linked from the first place it appears above.

Quality
Meeting or exceeding customers' expectations, consistently.
Quality control
Checking finished products for faults.
Quality assurance
Checking quality at every stage of production to prevent faults.
Product recall
When a business asks customers to return a product because it is faulty or dangerous.
Competitive advantage
Anything that makes a business more attractive to customers than its rivals.

Downloads

Free to keep, print and annotate.

Download all 3 as a zip
Something here looks wrong?

Tell us what and we will go and look. It goes to whoever writes these pages, nobody else, and we do not ask who you are — so there is nothing to sign and nothing comes back to you.