Syllabus for APS-402

APPLIED QUALITY MANAGEMENT


COURSE DESCRIPTION

The Applied Quality Management course (APS-402) provides students with the knowledge and techniques required to improve product quality and process efficiency by identifying and measuring production process variability which, if not successfully addressed, leads to inconsistent product quality, costly wastage, non-standardization and other reliability and productivity problems. This course introduces basic quality management concepts and definitions and builds on that knowledge to explore Statistical Process Control (SPC) based quality improvement techniques as a means to diagnose, reduce, and eliminate causes of variation and to assist in process improvement, production control, production planning, and decision making.  A brief review of the fundamentals of statistics and probability and their applications in quality management is provided, and various measurement and control techniques -- for example, charts for variables and attributes, are presented.

COURSE TOPICS

COURSE OBJECTIVES

After completing this course, students should be able to: 

  1. Explain the concepts of Total Quality Management and Total Quality Education.
  2. Diagnose problems in the quality improvement process.
  3. Identify ethical and unethical behavior in Quality Management.
  4. Apply various quality improvement techniques.
  5. Describe and apply the development and nature of quality control charts.
  6. Apply the basic concepts of statistics and probability to quality management and control.
  7. Utilize Statistical Process Control (SPC) techniques as a means to diagnose, reduce and eliminate causes of variation.
  8. Analyze Statistical Process Control (SPC) data to improve processes, production controls, production planning and decision making.
  9. Perform process capability and specification studies.
  10. Explain each total quality implementation phase then list the steps that are associated with each.
  11. Propose how business leaders might plan and execute quality management strategies to gain and sustain a competitive advantage in today’s global business arena.
  12. Communicate why Total Quality Management (TQM) is fundamental to partnering for mutual benefit.

COURSE MATERIALS

You will need the following materials to complete your coursework. Some course materials may be free, open source, or available from other providers. You can access free or open-source materials by clicking the links provided below or in the module details documents. To purchase course materials, please visit the University's textbook supplier.

Required Textbook

  • Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2016). Quality management for organizational excellence: Introduction to total quality (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

ISBN: 978-0133791853

COURSE STRUCTURE

Applied Quality Management is a three-credit online course, consisting of the ten modules. Modules include topics, study materials, and activities. Module titles are listed below.

PART 1 - Philosophy and Concepts

The following course objectives will be addressed within this module:  CO 1

The following course objectives will be addressed within this module:  CO 2

The following course objectives will be addressed within this module:  CO 3

The following course objectives will be addressed within this module:  CO 3, 4

The following course objectives will be addressed within this module:  CO 1, 9

PART 2 - Total Quality Tools and Techniques

The following course objectives will be addressed within this module:  CO 5

The following course objectives will be addressed within this module:  CO 6, 7, 8 and 9.

The following course objectives will be addressed within this module:  CO 4

The following course objectives will be addressed within this module:  CO 4

The following course objectives will be addressed within this module:  CO 10

ASSESSMENT METHODS

For your formal work in the course, you are required to participate in online discussion forums, complete written assignments, take a proctored midterm examination and complete a final project. See below for more details.  Consult the Course Calendar for assignment due dates.

Promoting Originality

One or more of your course activities may utilize a tool designed to promote original work and evaluate your submissions for plagiarism. More information about this tool is available in this document.

Online Discussion Forums

Applied Quality Management requires you to participate in ten graded discussion forums. Discussion forums are on a variety of topics associated with the course modules. There is also an ungraded but required introduction forum in module 1.

Located within the Evaluation Rubrics section of the course website is the online discussion forum rubric used to aid in the grading of all online discussion assignments.

Written Assignments

You are required to complete six written assignments. The written assignments are on a variety of topics associated with the courses modules. 

Located within the Evaluation Rubrics section of the course website is the written assignment rubric used to aid in the grading of all written assignments.

Midterm Examination

You are required to take a closed-book, proctored midterm examination. Consult the Course Calendar for the scheduling of this examination.

The midterm exam is two hours long and consists of multiple-choice and short essay questions. The exam covers materials assigned in modules 1-5 of the course.

For the midterm, you are required to use the University's Online Proctor Service (OPS). Please refer to the "Examinations and Proctors" section of the Online Student Handbook (see General Information area of the course Web site) for further information about scheduling and taking online exams and for all exam policies and procedures. You are strongly advised to schedule your exam within the first week of the semester.

 

Final Project

You will be required to complete a final project entitled "Quality Management in Local Organizations” (25% of your grade). The objective of the project is to apply the theory and principles that you have learned during this class, to a real quality problem within your workplace or a local industry. The major focus of your final project is to identify quality problem(s) using SPC principles, techniques and total quality tools then create hypotheses on ways to optimize and control your identified quality problem(s).

GRADING AND EVALUATION

Your grade in the course will be determined as follows:

All activities will receive a numerical grade of 0–100. You will receive a score of 0 for any work not submitted. Your final grade in the course will be a letter grade. Letter grade equivalents for numerical grades are as follows:

A

=

93–100

C+

=

78–79

A–

=

90–92

C

=

73–77

B+

=

88–89

C–

=

70–72

B

=

83–87

D

=

60–69

B–

=

80–82

F

=

Below 60

To receive credit for the course, you must earn a letter grade of C or better (for an area of study course) or D or better (for a course not in your area of study), based on the weighted average of all assigned course work (e.g., exams, assignments, discussion postings, etc.).

STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS

First Steps to Success

To succeed in this course, take the following first steps:

Study Tips

Consider the following study tips for success:

ACADEMIC POLICIES

To ensure success in all your academic endeavors and coursework at Thomas Edison State University, familiarize yourself with all administrative and academic policies including those related to academic integrity, course late submissions, course extensions, and grading policies.

For more, see:

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