Quality engineering question
Please read the pages and make a short and clear summary of them with your own words please. Mention only the necessary important parts
Also, you will put your comments and ideas about the topic briefly
It is what you understand
You must prepare neat the summary
Thank you
Transcribed Image Text: of debate between and among various interest groups and
stakeholders. Nonetheless, when compared with other coun-
tries competing in the global marketplace, the United States
fares well in all of these key areas. This being the case, a key
advantage of American firms trying to compete in the global
marketplace is these six factors working in their favor. Other
advantages and disadvantages are summarized in the follow-
MANAGEMENT-BY-ACCOUNTING:
financial considerations rather than broader thinking that
encompasses all factors that contribute to organizational
excellence and make a company competitive.
ANTITHESIS OF TOTAL QUALITY
In too many businesses, accounting trumps quality. Often,
managerial accounting becomes the tail that wags the dog-a
questionable approach to doing business in a highly com-
petitive environment. When managerial accounting becomes
management-by-accounting, quality inevitably suffers.
Management-by-accounting amounts to focusing solely on
an organization's financial performance rather than manag-
ing the factors that most affect financial performance (e.g.
people, process, and quality).
The most obvious problem with management-by-
accounting is that it leads to short-term thinking and short-
term decision making. According to this approach, one of the
fastest ways to improve financial performance in the short run
is to ignore investing in continual improvement that are nec-
essary to remain competitive in the long run. The practices
like (1) keeping people trained and well equipped; (2) employ-
ing best practices to keep processes operating at peak perfor-
mance levels; and (3) maintaining world-class quality in all
aspects of an organization's operations cost money in the short
run but pay off in the long run. In other words, total quality
is a long-term concept while management-by-accounting is a
short-term concept.
One of the many reasons why companies fall into
the management-by-accounting trap is that many CEOS
come from a finance-related background, the most com-
mon college degree among the American CEOS being
an MBA-a degree with a strong finance orientation. To
avoid such ideological pitfalls, all business-related de-
grees need to include a more thorough study of quality. It
is also why more quality professionals need to put them-
selves on the "CEO track" in their professions. Consider
the following problems that result from the application of
management-by-accounting:
The master's of business administration degree, or MBA,
is an excellent credential. So are the various other under-
graduate and graduate degrees available from colleges
and universities in the United States. It is the concept of
focusing excessively on the score rather than the game-
management-by-accounting-that is being questioned by
quality advocates, not any specific degree. Management-
by-accounting is an approach to management, not an aca-
demic credential.
As anyone knows, both the game and the score are im-
portant. We advocate a blending of the principles of quality
management with the curricula of business, engineering,
technology, and management programs. Students pursuing a
degree in any of these disciplines should learn the principles of
quality management set forth in this book as well as their tra-
ditional curriculum content. This will ensure that they know
how to continually improve both performance and the score.
ing sections.
Global Advantages of U.S. Companies
In the global marketplace, the United States is the world
leader in the following industries: aerospace, airlines, bev-
erages, chemicals, computer services, electrical products,
entertainment, general merchandise, motor vehicles, office
equipment, paper products, pharmaceuticals, photographic
and scientific equipment, semiconductors, soap and cosmet-
ics, and tobacco. Some of the reasons the United States is
able to lead the world in these key industries include
1. Strong entrepreneurial spirit
2. Presence of a "small capitalization" stock market for
small and mid-sized companies
3. Rapidly advancing technologies
4. Comparatively low taxes
5. Low rate of unionization
6. World-class system of higher education (colleges and
universities)
U.S. COMPANIES: GLOBAL
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
The United States leads the world in new business start-ups.
This is because the entrepreneurial spirit is an integral part
of the American persona. The presence of a small capitaliza-
tion stock market allows small and mid-sized companies to
start up and expand without having to use all of their own
capital or to take out higher-interest loans from banks, as
As business continues the current trend toward global-
ization, how are companies in the United States faring? A
business trying to compete in the global marketplace is like
an athlete trying to compete in the Olympics. Nowhere is
the competition tougher. Correspondingly, no country in
the world gives its businesses such a solid foundation from
which to work. The following factors account for a country's
ability to compete in the international marketplace:
is often the case in other countries. The United States leads
the world in the development, transfer, diffusion, and use
of technology. This helps ensure a continual stream of new
products on the one hand and improved productivity on the
other. Americans complain constantly about taxes (as they
are entitled to do in exercising their rights as free citizens).
But when compared with other industrialized nations, the
1. An economy that is open to foreign investment and trade
United States has a low tax burden. Tension between labor
and management can harm productivity and, in turn, de-
crease a company's ability to compete in the global market-
place. The amount of tension that exists between labor and
management can typically be demonstrated by the level of
union activity: the more the tension, the more the union
activity. Compared with other industrialized nations, union
activity in the United States is low.
The United States also provides the world's best higher
education system. The number of top-notch colleges and
universities in the United States is so much greater than
those in other countries that comparisons are irrelevant.
. Management-by-accounting leads to decision making by
analysis of financial spreadsheets rather than by consider-
ation of the factors that lead to organizational excellence
and world-class quality.
2. A government that minimizes controls on business but
does a good job of supervising financial institutions
3. A judicial system that works well and helps reduce
corruption
4. Greater transparency and availability of economic
information
- Management-by-accounting encourages short-term cost
cutting instead of long-term improvements to quality,
value, and competitiveness.
- Management-by-accounting leads to narrowly focused
leadership of companies based solely on short-term
5. High labor mobility
6. Ease of entry by new businesses
The cost
f higher education in America, although viewed
In varying degrees, the United States meets all of these crite-
ria. Of course, how well these criteria are fulfilled is a matter
as high by U.S. citizens, is inexpensive when compared with
that of other industrialized nations. In addition, financial
aid is so readily available that almost any person with the