Temasek INT School
Quality & Service Management
AY 2007/2008 October Semester 

Quality Standards

Tutorial Questions

1. Research on at least one guru of quality and present your findings. Some of the areas that you
should cover are :
- His philosophy
- Assumptions
- Methods
- Successes & failures
- Critical Reviews
- Etc…..

Some of the well known gurus are:

 Juran, Armand V.Feigenbaum, Philip b. Crosby, Genichi Taguchi, Ishikawa, Shinago, Imai
 Dr W.Edwards Deming

2. What are the 7 common tools used in Quality measurement?

These are the most fundamental quality control (QC) tools. They were first emphasized by Kaoru
Ishikawa, professor of engineering at Tokyo University and the father of “quality circles.”
This list is sometimes called the “sever quality control tools,” the “seven basic tools” or the
“seven old tools.”

1) Cause-and-effect diagram (also called Ishikawa or fishbone chart): Identifies many possible
causes for an effect or problem and sorts ideas into useful categories
2) Check sheet: A structured, prepare form for collecting and analyzing data; a generic tool that
can be adapted for a wide variety of purposes.
3) Control charts: Graphs used to study how a process changes over time.
4) Histogram: the most commonly used graph for showing frequency distributions, or how often
each different value in a set of data occurs.
5) Pareto chart: Shows on a bar graph which factors are more significant.

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6) Scatter diagram: Graphs pairs of numerical data, one variable on each axis, to look for a
relationship
7) Stratification: A technique that separates data gathered from a variety of sources so that
patterns can be seen (some lists replace “stratification” with “flowchart” or “run chart”).

For more details: www.freequality.org

3. What are the different quality standards managed and administered by SPRING Singapore?

 Singapore Accreditation Council (SAC) – This is the national authority for conformity
assessment bodies in Singapore. SAC develops schemes for accreditation of certification
bodies.
 As the Safety Authority, SPRING administers the Consumer Protection (Safety Requirement)
Scheme. It ensures that 45 categories of household electrical, electronic and gas appliances
meet specifies safety standards and are safe for consumer use.
 The Weights and Measures programme managed by SPRING helps to ensure a uniform
weights and measures used in Singapore. It aims to protect consumers and traders by
regulating measuring instruments for trade use by weight or measure and pre-packed foods.
 SPRING also manages the Business Excellence Initiative that provides organizations a
framework of standards to develop and strengthen management systems and processes.

4. Research into one of the Quality Standards taught in Lecture (especially how they are used in
the commercial industry).

- ISO 9000
- Total Quality Management (TQM)
- 6 Sigma
- Capability Maturity Model (CMM)