Chapter 3 - Quality Management

Internet Exercises

Chapter 3 - Quality Management

1.There are many quality-related sites on the Internet. Begin your search by accessing ASQ's homepage. Discuss the history of ASQ and how it started? What is its purpose? How large is the organization? What specialized divisions does ASQ sponsor? Is there an ASQ chapter near you? A student chapter? From the “Quality Basics” link discuss how ASQ defines quality? Also look at the history of quality management and identify the important milestones.

2. Read about Walter Shewart ( W. Edwards Deming ( Kaoru Ishikawa ( and Joseph Juran ( at the ASQ site, and at the Skymark ( site and write a brief summary of each man and his contribution to the quality management movement. Develop a timeline of their contributions. Also read about Philip Crosby at the Skymark site and discuss his contribution.

3. The Skymark ( site has a more in-depth discussion of the 7 quality tools than the text. Read these different presentations and indicate one pertinent fact about each of these tools that’s not mentioned in the text.

4. Go to the American Customer Satisfaction Index ( site and discuss what the ACSI model does and how it is constructed. Discuss the ASCI model as a predictor of economic indicators for companies. Look at the scores for the different companies in an industry that you are very familiar with like fast food, cars, hotels, beverages, etc., and discuss how these scores coincide (or don’t coincide) with your own perceptions about the quality of the companies and their products.

5. Like the ACSI site, The J.D. Power ( site measures the quality of companies in various industries and develops scores and rankings. Go to the J.D. Power “consumer” site, join the J.D. Power panel and take the survey about consumer products you use. How do you think the J.D. Power survey model differs from the ACSI scoring model? How do you think they compare? Pick some companies in a specific industry that are listed at both the J.D. Power site and the ACSI site and compare their quality ratings. Are they consistent? If not, discuss why you think they are inconsistent.

6. Go to the Motorola ( six sigma site and discuss how Motorola differentiates between six sigma and TQM. Also visit the General Electric ( six sigma site and discuss any similarities (or differences) between the six sigma programs at GE and Motorola. Using these two company sites plus the Skymark ( six sigma site write a brief overview of six sigma and how it is implemented. Using these sites also explain just what “six sigma” means in statistical terms.

7.Go to the Malcolm Baldrige Award web site. What are the different award categories and criteria? Describe the award process. How would a company apply for the award? How are the winners chosen? Who are the most recent winners? From the group of Baldrige Award winners in the last three years choose one company from each award category and write a report on what each of these companies did particularly well to win the award? What did the winners that you selectedhave in common?

9.Link to the European Quality Award ( site. How does this award compare to the Malcolm Baldrige Award? Do they have similar categories and criteria? How are they similar and different? Who are the most recent winners of the European Quality Award in each category? Look at the history of the European Quality Award winners; are any of the companies familiar to you?

10.Find out more about ISO ( its web siteWrite a report on ISO and indicate what ISO is, how I got started, how it benefits society, and how it relates to world trade. Who is the ISO member in the U.S.? What is the relationship between the ISO country member and ISO?Briefly describe the process for becoming ISO 9000 certified. Approximately how many ISO registrars are there in the U.S.? What is the Registrar Accreditation Board and how does it relate to ISO?

11. Quality World ( is a leading professional magazine about quality management that has articles describing different companies’ quality management efforts and activities. Who publishes Quality World and where is it published. The magazine posts a selection of its recent articles at its web site. Pick a recent article and write a brief overview of it, like the “Competitive Edge” boxes in the text.