D1 Introduction to Quality

Introduction:
Membership of the Institute of Quality Assurance depends upon previous qualifications and experience. One of the educational requirements is the IQA D1 module ‘Introduction to Quality’. This course is intended for personnel wishing to prepare for this examination.

The packages:
The packages are stand-alone private tuition packages that allow the delegate to work at their own pace through the preset training material. There is the option of one day workshops for further training guidance if required.

The distance learning material is presented in seven parts which will be sent to you upon course registration. This package includes:

• A comprehensive set of tutorial notes
• Work books
• Text book - Introduction to Quality Assurance ISBN 1-904302-00-9 by Tickle and Vorley - supplied free with this distance learning package
• Text book Statistical tables ISBN 0-333-558559-6 by Murdoch and Barnes - supplied free with this distance learning package
• Assignment to be submitted for marking
• Typical examination questions with solutions
• Optional CD-ROM - course material provided on a CD-ROM in PDF format - price on application
• One year’s unlimited tutorial support is provided by telephone, fax, e-mail or written correspondence as required
• Monthly Quality Newsletter with all the very latest QA news, keeping you right up to date and informed on what is happening in the Quality Assurance field
• There is an optional revision workshop held six weeks before the exams are due to take place.

The contents:

Aims of the package:

• To provide students with an understanding of quality concepts
• To develop an appreciation of the need for quality and its control
• To enhance students’ awareness of the terminology of quality
• To provide students with an understanding of the basic statistical methods used in quality.

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

• Argue and justify the need for involvement in quality addressing a wide range of practical approaches
• Analysing standardising organisations and procedures
• Identify the contribution by the quality department during the design and development of products or services
• Appraise the control of goods and services through supplier evaluation, control and inspection methods
• Understand and apply quality cost applications in a variety of different circumstances
• Interpret and apply control charts and process capability studies
• Analyse the reliability of a product/service
• Explain and interpret variability and probability distributions in specific situations.

Covering

    1. Quality concepts, philosophy and systems (10%)

• Establishment and interpretation of an organisation’s quality policy
• Natural, material and subjective standards.

    2. The relationship between specifications, measurements and process capability (15%)

• Standardising organisations
• Company, industrial and national
• Product certification procedures.

    3. Total involvement in quality (15%)

• Communication and feedback of information
• Justification of quality assurance activities
• Supplier evaluation rating.

    4. Quality costs (15%)

• Process cost model
• Prevention appraisal failure model
• Taguchi loss function.

    5. Statistical process control (15%)

• Process capability studies
• Statistical process control charts
• Calculation and use of decision lines.

    6. Reliability (15%)

• Basic concepts of series and parallel systems
• Use of redundancy to improve reliability
• Interpretation of time life distribution in terms of probability density function and reliability function.

    7. Variability (15%)

• Continuous and discrete random variables
• Probability distributions
• Binomial and Poisson distributions
• Application of acceptance sampling by attributes.

Costs