Quality Management for Science and Technology

TC S319 Quality Management for Science and Technology is a one-semester, five-credit Higher level undergraduate course. This course is a compulsory course for the BSc/BSc (Hons) in Product Design, Testing and Certification, BSc/BSc (Hons) in Applied Science (Biology and Chemistry) and BSc/BSc (Hons) in Product Design and Technology programmes. Quality management is one of the most important competitive dimensions for companies in both the manufacturing and service sectors to gain competitive advantage. This course provides a fundamental, yet comprehensive, coverage of quality management. It covers the principles and practices, and the tools and techniques as well.

There are five units in total in this course. These five units introduce you to the concepts of quality, quality philosophies and quality management systems. The core concepts of customer satisfaction and total quality management (TQM) are permeated throughout the units. Quality tools and techniques including statistical techniques in quality management are also discussed. A brief introduction of the basic statistics in the first unit provides the foundation for the revision of basic statistical techniques. While statistical methods are inevitably involved in this subject area, emphasis is put on the practical applications and implications of these tools and techniques, rather than the theories and mathematics involved.

The first part of the course will provide you with the foundation of understanding the concepts of quality management. Then, quality tools and techniques will be introduced. We will start with some simple tools and then move on to the applications of statistical methods such as statistical process control and acceptance sampling for process monitoring and control. Nowadays, quality management systems (QMS) are commonly required in different industries as a demonstration of their performance in quality management. Quality awards will be an indication of their outstanding achievement in quality management. We will discuss some of the commonly adopted quality management systems and awards. In the last part of the course, we will introduce total quality management and Six Sigma. The approaches of renowned quality philosophers and leaders are an important part of quality management strategy in many organizations. Quality management strategy has become a key senior management issue for enhancing global competitiveness and business success. The application of Six Sigma also proves to be a very successful means for continuous improvement. In summary, TC S319 Quality Management for Science and Technology is an important and challenging course that will help you prepare for an increasingly competitive and demanding environment, in which quality management is the essence to success and win.

This course introduces you to the importance of quality management in relation to the design of products/services or processes. The overall aims of this course are to introduce to you the basic principles and practices of quality management.

Aims

The aims of the course are to:

• Introduce you to the concepts and philosophies of quality management.
• Enable you to apply quality management tools and techniques including statistical techniques in quality management.
• Introduce you to quality management systems and awards commonly adopted in the field of science and technology.
• Equip you with the state-of-the-art quality management principles and practices.

Course learning outcomes

Once you have completed this course you should meet the following learning outcomes corresponding to the five study units in the course:

1. Explain and demonstrate the importance of quality management in areas of science and technology.
2. Identify, interpret and apply mathematical models in quality assurance.
3. Identify and apply well-known quality tools in quality assurance.
4. Implement the ISO 9000 quality management system and review its development in Hong Kong.
5. Identify the key elements and implement total quality management (TQM) and Six Sigma.

The following table gives a general overview of the course structure. It suggests the amount of time you should allow for completing units and provides a broad schedule for you to plan your work. These times are intended as a guide only and should be adjusted to fit your personal needs more closely. You will need about 12-14 hours per week to work through the course. This estimation includes time for reading the units, completing activities, self-tests and assignments, attending tutorials and preparing for you final examination.

The course materials include a printed course guide, study units and assignment booklet. Students do not have to subscribe to other additional materials.

Materials

In addition to this Course Guide, the course has the following important components. Please ensure that you have all of these materials available.

Study units

The five study units in this course are:

Unit 1 introduces you to the basic concepts of quality management. Common definitions and measures of quality are defined and discussed. Several important statistical distributions and their applications in quality are also presented. This unit provides the foundations you need for the later units of this course.

Unit 2 describes the concepts and techniques of basic tools of quality, advocated by the Japanese quality philosopher Kaoru Ishikawa. Applications of these simple yet effective quality improvement tools are illustrated. In addition, some other commonly and useful quality tools such as benchmarking, poka-yoke and quality circles are introduced.

Unit 3 introduces you to the basic principles of two commonly used statistical quality techniques -- statistical process control and acceptance sampling. The common and special causes in the production process will be discussed first. The steps of implementation of the two techniques are then described with examples of applications. Process capability will be discussed after the discussion of the first technique to judge whether the process is capable of meeting the customer requirements supplemental to the limitation of statistical process control.

Unit 4 introduces you the basic concepts of quality management systems. The structure, elements, and implementation of the system, with reference to the ISO 9000 quality management system, and other relevant international standards are explained in detail.

Unit 5 introduces the concepts and issues of total quality management (TQM) and Six Sigma. Key elements of total quality management and Six Sigma, and different approaches of TQM implementation are presented and discussed.

Set textbook

There are no compulsory textbooks for this course.

Audiovisual materials/software

You will need access to a computer with access to the Internet.

Assignment File

The Assignment File (available from Online Learning Environment, OLE) provides you guidelines for working on your assignments. You can refer to the Course Guide section on assessment that follows, and to the Assignment File itself for more information.

Presentation Schedule

The Presentation Schedule is available on the Online Learning Environment (OLE). It gives you the dates for completing assignments, and attending tutorials and surgeries, and so on.

Supplementary readings

It is recommended that you read updates on quality activities from the website listed in the course units.

Assessment

This course is designed to assist you in moving easily from the subject material to the assignments and examination. You are expected to apply concepts and techniques introduced during the course in attempting the assignments. Most problems require qualitative and narrative responses.

There are informal and formal assessments in this course. The informal assessment includes self-assessed activities and self-tests stipulated in each unit. The formal assessment includes three assignments and one final examination. Assignments must be submitted to your tutor for formal assessment according to the stated deadlines. The non-assessed activities are not part of your formal assessment, but it is very important that you complete all these activities as you work through the units.

Assignments

There are three assignments for this course. They are distributed evenly within the whole course. The first assignment will cover Units 1 and 2, the second assignment will cover Unit 3 and the last assignment will cover Units 4 and 5. You can find the assignments in your Assignment File (available from OLE) along with detailed instructions on how to complete them. You must submit all assignments to your tutors for marking.

Your assignment schedule can be found in the 'Course overview' section. These assignments will be marked by your tutor. Marks of the two best performed assignments will be selected and each counts for 25% of the final assessment contributing 50% in total for the course. The final examination also accounts for 50%. In order to pass TC S319 Quality Management for Science and Technology, you must pass both the assignments and the examination.

Assignment submission extension policy

The assignment policy of the University as stated in the Student Handbook should be observed. You are required to submit assignments for this course in accordance with the dates communicated by your course coordinator. You may apply for a submission extension on the grounds of illness, accident, disability, bereavement or other compassionate circumstances.

Applications for extensions of up to seven days should be submitted to the tutor. The tutor shall consider valid and unexpected emergencies on an individual basis. Normally, documented proof of the extenuating circumstances is not required for extensions of up to seven days. The tutor shall decide and advise you of the revised date for submission.

For extensions of over seven days, you should note the following:

1. If you require an extension of more than seven days on the grounds of illness, accident, disability, bereavement or other compassionate circumstances, they are required to complete an 'Application Form for Assignment Extension over seven days' and submit it to the Course Coordinator through the OLE.
2. Supporting documents must be submitted along with the application for extension of over seven days to justify the claim.
3. Applications for extension should normally be lodged before or on the due date.
4. Applications are considered by:
   1. the Course Coordinator for extensions of 8 to 21 days; and
   2. the Dean for extensions of over 21 days.

If the assignment is posted to the tutor, it is your responsibility to check that the assignment has successfully arrived (see Assignment File). Extension applications without supporting documents on the grounds of postal loss will not be accepted. The University cannot accept any responsibility for assignments that are not received by your tutor due to problems with the post. As a precaution, you are advised to keep a copy of each assignment you submit and obtain a certificate of posting from the post office when you post your assignment.

According to the University's policy, there is no extension of the cut-off date for the final assignment.

Final examination and grading

The final written examination for this course will be a 2-hour closed book examination and will account for 50% of the total course grade. It covers all the units. You are suggested to use the time between finishing the last unit and the examination to review the entire course. You might find it useful to review your non-assessed activities, self-assessment exercises, assignments and your tutor's comments on them in preparing for the examination.

Course marking scheme

The structure of the course marking scheme is summarized in the following table. Assignments and final examination each account for 50% of the total course marks.

There are totally five units in this course. Each of the five units consists of three to five weeks of work and includes specific objectives, directions for study, commentaries on the activities, and summaries of key concepts and techniques. The units direct you to work on exercises and activities related to the material covered. They can both help you gauge your progress and reinforce your understanding of the material covered in the unit. More importantly, they give examples to help you fully understand the concepts presented in the text, and can assist you in applying these concepts and techniques in the working environment. Also, you can read quality journals and websites on related issues and events in quality management to keep in pace with the latest development.

Please note that the biggest temptation that students face, when they are short of time, is just to read the course materials. When they get to a learning activity or self-test, they flip straight to the back of the study unit to see the suggested answer. It saves time and students still know the correct answer, right? Wrong! Terribly wrong! Many contemporary educationists believe that learning is not a process that happens when people listen to lecture or read a book passively. They think that learning takes place as people actively construct the knowledge. Do not take a shortcut that compromises your learning. Attempt the learning activities and self-tests presented in the study units.

When done properly, working with fellow students on difficult learning activities or assignments can be beneficial. However doing so without acknowledging the contributions of other students in your own work is plagiarism. It has happened that after enough cosmetic changes had been made, the act of cheating may not be caught by the tutor who is marking the assignment. But in this case, the student's learning will suffer and it will show in the final examination. Be an honest and virtuous student.

Tutors and tutorials

Compared to the mega classes attended by hundreds of students in a typical university, the tutorials at HKMU provide a good opportunity for you to meet your classmates and to get to know your tutor. You will find that support and encouragement from classmates and tutors are very helpful.

Attendance in tutorials is optional but you are urged to take advantage of them. You can get the most from tutorials by pre-studying the relevant materials, making comments and asking questions. Remember that learning does not happen passively. Your active participation in tutorials is crucial.

Your assignments will be marked and commented on by your tutor, who will keep an eye on your progress and assist you if you encounter problems during the course. Marked assignments will be returned to you as soon as possible.

It is good practice to keep a copy of each assignment submitted for marking, so that you can always refer to queries with the tutor during discussion. Please contact you tutor should the following arise:

1. You do not understand any part of the study units or the assigned readings.
2. You have any difficulty with self-tests.
3. You have a question or problem with the assignment, or with your tutor's comments on or grading of an assignment.

Apart from self-study, tutorials will also be organized to assist you in your learning process. Details of the dates, times and location of the tutorials as well as the name, email address and phone number of your tutor will be sent to you in due course.

It is strongly recommended that you attend all these tutorials, which will provide considerable assistance in your study of this course. Moreover, you will have the chance to meet fellow students and be with other distance learners who are studying at HKMU.

While you may think you are studying on your own, it doesn't need to be that way. You can be in regular contact with your tutor and, once you've met for the first tutorial, you can be in contact with your fellow students. Make a point, when you meet fellow students, to exchange phone numbers or email addresses. In this way, you will be well on the way to developing a learning network of your own.

Tutorials and regular surgeries will be held throughout the course. Tutorials will be based on the major course units and tutors may also introduce further explanation, examples and readings. Full details are given in the Presentation Schedule.

TC S319 Quality Management for Science and Technology is designed to develop your understanding of how quality management is built into a product or process; and to provide you with the knowledge and the analytical skills required throughout the quality problem solving and continuous improvement processes.

To understand the content of this course you will need to analyse the course materials and apply the concepts and techniques you are learning. I hope you will find Quality Management for Science and Technology interesting, and more importantly, you will be able to use the knowledge and skills acquired from this course throughout your career or even your daily life. I wish you every success in your study and hope you enjoy the course.

Mr Alfred Wong has over 20 years experience in both manufacturing and service sectors at managerial level. He has wide and in-depth experience in quality, environmental, health and safety, and operations management. During his career in the manufacturing area, he has successfully implemented statistical process control and total quality management in different companies. During his career in the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, he was responsible for the development and operation of the integrated management system — quality, environmental, and health and safety management systems, of the Rolling Stock Department. He was also involved in the regimes on asset management, reliability and maintenance. He served as the facilitator of the Corporate Quality Control Circles Steering Committee to driving quality improvement initiatives in the corporation and to coordinating quality improvement activities with major organizations in Hong Kong. During his career in the other service areas, he has been involved in factory and quality audits providing a good opportunity to explore quality practices in vast variety of industries. In addition, he has been teaching in local tertiary institutions for over 20 years from certificate level to master's degree level in various disciplines such as quality management, reliability, statistics, operations management and marketing. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and a Master of Business Administration Degree from the University of Strathclyde. He is a Senior Member of the American Society for Quality, a Chartered Engineers of both the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (UK) and the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, and a Quality Management System Lead Auditor of the International Register of Certified Auditors.