Quality Management Essay

What are product, delivery process and services? Indentify and explain one definition that you will be using for this assignment. The company my chose is Burger King. Definition of product: A product is tangible with a physical form. Its design is to fit into a specific purpose defined by the customer of a target market. It is produced through a manufacturing process with specification. The customers will evaluate product’s performance against its price while using it. A product has to be designed for use safely and environment friendly, as often one of the guiding principle. For example, the Burger King’s product, and some of history. When the predecessor of international fast food restaurant chain Burger King (BK) first opened in 1953, its menu predominantly consisted of hamburgers, French fries, soft drinks, milkshakes, and desserts. After being acquired by its Miami, Florida franchisees and renamed in 1954, BK began expanding its menu by adding the Whopper sandwich in 1957, and has since added non-beef items such as chicken, fish, and vegetarian offerings, including salads and meatless sandwiches. Other additions include a breakfast menu and beverages such as Icees, juices, and bottled waters. As the company expanded both inside and outside the United States, it introduced localized versions of its products that conform to regional tastes and cultural or religious beliefs. To generate additional sales, BK occasionally introduces limited-time offers of special versions of its products, or brings out completely new products intended for either long- or short-term sales. Burger king, in general, the main business is fast food, and taste delicious, can satisfy the needs of the customers. (Burger King Product, 2013) Delivery Process The delivery process usually involves six factors: The accountable product/service provider and his product/service suppliers (e. g. the people) Equipment used to provide the product/service (e. g. vehicles, cash registers, technical systems, computer systems) The physical facilities (e. g. buildings, parking, waiting rooms) The requesting product/service consumer Other customers at the delivery location Customer contact The service encounter is defined as all activities involved in the service delivery process. Some service managers use the term â€Å"moment of truth† to indicate that defining point in a specific service encounter where interactions are most intense. Service is through a delivery process meeting and exceeding customer’s expectations. It consists of many back – and front-stage activities where the customer interacts directly or indirectly with the service organization. The purpose of the interaction is To satisfy specific needs and wants of the customer, In a way that meets the customer’s expectations and gives value to him/her. Each customer contact is called a moment of truth. Customer is either satisfy or dissatisfy them when you contact them. For example, a massage shop provide massage services. The services they provide is intangible, and can help the customers to relax. In Burger King, there is also some services provided. For example, when customers order at the counter, the staff will serve the customers by providing them ordering services. When the food is not ready, the customers will take a queue number and take a seat first. When the food is ready, the staff will deliver the food to their table. This is also another services. Thus in Burger King, although they are selling products, but they also provide certain services to add value to customers. 1. 2 Explain and illustrate, in the quality system, the processes of inspection and assurance. Quality assurance inspection is defined as the assessment of characteristics with respect to defined standards in order to assure quality to the customers for any industry of business. Any quality monitoring inspection process consists of the following steps Deciding the sample size – The sample size for quality inspection is decided based on the total lot size to be inspected and the criticality of the characteristics involved. International standards such as ISO 2859 help the inspector to decide the right sample size for the inspection. Selection of samples – Once the sample size is decided, the next step is in the inspection process is selection of the samples. Based on this sample, a decision needs to be taken on the entire lot so it should be a true representative of the lot. To ensure this, the samples should be selected randomly. Measuring or Testing – Once the samples have been selected randomly, these need to be measured and tested. Various standards are available which can be used depending upon the characteristics to be measured or tested. Sometimes the customers may ask for the tests as per their procedures, which may be more stringent than the standards adopted by the organization. However, these terms and conditions need to be agreed upon before entering into a contract with the customer. Examining – Some characteristics only need to be visually examined or inspected. These characteristics may look easy but these are the ones, which may become a point of controversy, since these are subjective in nature. For e. g. shade of the color. Again standards come to an inspectors rescue at this time. Moreover, measurement system analysis helps in removing any doubts on measurement, testing or examining. Comparing with specifications – The results of measurement, test results, results of visual examination need to be then compared with the agreed specifications to decide if the goods or the services meets them the very purpose of a QA inspection. If the samples tested meet the specifications, the entire lot is accepted, otherwise it is rejected. Deciding on subsequent action – Based on the quality inspection results and the comparison of the same with the specifications a decision on a lot is taken. The important point to be noted here is the kind of action initiated if the lot does not meet the specifications. If the manufacturer takes action only to dispose off the defect then the defect may reoccur in the next lot too. All this results in wastage of various resources. The right approach in such cases is to find the real reason or the root cause of the defect and then take corrective and preventive action to eliminate these causes and hence assure good quality.