An-Najah Staff

Brief Description of the Course:

Total Quality Management (TQM) as a field has been migrating towards managing for performance excellence with the integration of lean principles with six-sigma methods.  This course provides an introduction to the fundamental concepts of quality management, strategies and tools for managing the improvement process, and some basic tools to identify waste and root causes.

Desired Outputs:

Students who successfully finish this course are expected to:

• Be conversant in the methods, vocabulary and major trends in managing performance excellence.
• Understand the underlying theories and improvement techniques.
• Be able to use a diverse set of tools that should be helpful in overcoming some of quality problems that are likely to be encountered in real manufacturing and service systems.   and its effects.

General Policies:

• Turn off your cell phone before you get inside the class room.
• Be on time and respect deadlines; late homework will not be accepted!  
• Participate and attend class: be ready and prepare well, that is the key to success!
• Quizzes and exams will be closed-book.
• Avoid Make-up/incomplete exams!

Textbook:

Evan, J. R., and W. M. Lindsay, “The Management and Control of Quality ”, 7^th edition, South-Western Publishing, 2008.

Other References:

Summers, D. C. S., “Quality ”, 4^th edition, Prentice-Hall, 2006.

Geotsch, D. L., and D. Stanley,  “Quality Management: Introduction to Total Quality Management for Production, Processing, and Services ”, 5^th edition, Pearson Prentice-Hall, 2006.

Course Outline:

• Introduction      (4 weeks)
• Quality basics and history  
• Quality advocates
• Quality improvement
• Quality Improvement Techniques (2 weeks)
• Quality Costs (2 weeks)
• Quality Function Deployment (2 weeks)
• House of quality (2 weeks)
• Quality Systems (2 weeks)
• Benchmarking and Auditing (2 weeks)
• Other topics as time permits.

Team Project/Research Paper:

As part of the requirements for this class, students should form teams of (4 students) and work on a project or a research paper that is related to quality management issues. The topic (and its depth) can be proposed by the team, but it will be subject to the instructor’s approval. Teams should submit their proposed topics to the instructor in writing before the end of the 8^th week of the semester (9/10).

All teams should have their projects/research papers ready for submission before the end of the 14^th week of the semester (20/11). All written materials should be typed. Teams will present their projects or research papers to the rest of the class at a time to be announced later. 

Grading Policy:

First exam:                                           20 %                           

Second exam:                                      20 %                                                   

Homework and quizzes:                      5%

Participation:                                        5 %

Team project / research paper:             10 %

Final exam:                                          40 %