Explain with an example how total quality management (TQM) impacts manufacturing.

What will be an ideal response?


One of the primary areas where total quality management (TQM) is having a big impact is in manufacturing. A number of TQM techniques have been successfully applied to improve the quality of manufactured goods. One is the use of concurrent engineering/interfunctional teams in which designers, engineers, production specialists, and customers work together to develop new products. This approach involves all the necessary parties and overcomes what used to be an all-too-common procedure: The design people would tell the manufacturing group what to produce, and the latter would send the finished product to retail stores for sale to the customer. Today, multinational companies (MNCs) taking a TQM approach are customer-driven. They use TQM techniques to tailor their output to customer needs, and they require the same approach from their own suppliers. Recently, Lenovo has transformed its design process from an engineer-driven one to a customer-driven one. In 2016, the company developed and began using an application that pulls together unstructured customer feedback from a variety of sources, including YouTube comments, online forums, and traditional call centers, and organizes the data in a useful way so that Lenovo can design tablets and products that best meet consumer demands.

Business

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Which of the following is not a cash outflow from an operating activity?

a. a withdrawal by the owners; b. a payment for the acquisition of inventory; c. a tax payment to the government; d. a payment for interest on a loan; e. the payment of wages.

Business

Laura Evans is risk manager of LMN Company. Laura decided to retain certain property loss exposures. Which of the following is a method that Laura can use to fund the retained property losses?

A) current net income B) private insurance C) noninsurance transfer D) high deductibles

Business

Which of the following is not a good example of a marketing-related key success factor (KSF)?

A) High utilization of fixed assets B) A well-known and well-respected brand name C) Breadth of product line and product selection D) Clever advertising E) Courteous, personalized customer service

Business

All of the following are requirements of a qualified pension plan except:

a. The plan must be in writing. b. The plan cannot discriminate in favor of highly paid employees. c. The plan must be for the exclusive benefit of the employees or their beneficiaries. d. The plan must cover all employees who have worked for the company more than 18 months. e. The plan must limit the amount of contributions that can be made to the plan and/or the benefits received from the plan.

Business