Comprehension

1. Answer the following questions.

1. What is quality control?

2. What does quality control involve?

3. What does statistically quality control focus on?

4. What does total quality management imply?

5. Are there any methods for quality control?

6. Quality assurance is a basic method of quality control, isn’t it?

7. What does product testing include?

8. How can customers influence the quality of products and services?

Vocabulary

2. Match the beginning of the sentence with its ending.

1. Total quality control	a) test every department or product component
2. Quality control	b) can provide input
3. The company might	c) ensure that a product or service is produced and delivered according to given requirements
4. Inspectors	d) implies a complete overview and re-evaluation of the specification of a product
5. Consumers	e) focuses primarily on the conformance element of quality
6. Statistical process control	f) to determine if there are any problems with the item that the company can correct
7. Quality control methods and techniques	g) test the product to ensure it meets a certain standard for the company
8. It is necessary	h) is a matter of checking and re-checking various components in the manufacturing and marketing process

3. Fill in the correct words from the list below.

Say, organization, suppliers, enterprises, certification, improving, expensive quality, services

Quality certification

Many companies complain that … is unnecessary for them. Certain providers of … , for example, believe that quality certification was only designed for manufacturing firms and is not, therefore, relevant to themselves.

Other organizations … that they have only adopted quality certification unwillingly. They feel, for instance, obliged to gain a … assurance standard only to avoid being dropped from a list of "preferred … ". A further criticism is that the process of gaining quality assurance certification can be … and bureaucratic. This is particularly problematic for small and medium-sized … .

Possibly the greatest cause of concern is that some companies see certification as an aim in itself rather than as a step towards … the quality of the organization. Companies forget that the aim of certification should be to demonstrate that the … is trying to meet the needs of their clients - not the demands of the quality assessor.

4. Translate the words in brackets into English. Use the following words:

approach, production, effective, process, required, improvement, services, determine, goals, consists, monitor, assurance

Quality (гарантия) is the process of verifying or determining whether products or (услуги) meet or exceed customer expectations. Quality assurance is a process-driven (подход) with specific steps to help define and attain (цели). This process considers design, development, (производство), and service.

The most popular tool used to (определить) quality assurance is the Deming Cycle, developed by Dr. W. Edwards Deming. This cycle for quality assurance (состоит) of four steps: Plan, Do, Check, and Act. These steps are commonly abbreviated as PDCA.

The four quality assurance steps within the PDCA model stand for:

Plan: Establish objectives and processes (необходимые) to deliver the desired results.

Do: Implement (процесс) the developed.

Check: (Контролировать) and evaluate the implemented process by testing the results against the predetermined objectives.

Act: Apply actions necessary for (улучшение) if the results require changes.

PDCA is an (эффективный) method for monitoring quality assurance.