Quality & Continuous Improvement Quiz – Printable Version
20 multiple-choice questions with an explained answer key, ready to print.
Print the sheet (or save it as a PDF from the print window), hand it out, then mark it together using the answer page: every answer is explained. Perfect for a party, a birthday, a classroom, a care home or a team activity.
Name: ………………………………Score: ……… / 20
- What does the Ishikawa diagram, used to find the causes of a problem, look like?
- A. A pyramid
- B. A fish skeleton
- C. A pie chart
- D. A family tree
- What does the famous ‘Pareto principle’, widely used in quality, say?
- A. About 80% of effects come from 20% of causes
- B. One defect in two comes from the customer
- C. You need 80% inspection for 20% production
- D. Any problem can be fixed in 20 days
- What is the ‘5 Whys’ method used for?
- A. Writing a five-step procedure
- B. Choosing between five suppliers
- C. Assessing five employees
- D. Getting to the root cause of a problem
- Where does the name ‘ISO’, the International Organization for Standardization, come from?
- A. The Greek ‘isos’, meaning equal
- B. The organisation's English initials
- C. Its founder's name
- D. A Swiss town
- A ‘Six Sigma’ process aims for a quality level of about…
- A. 1 defect per 100 parts
- B. Absolutely zero defects
- C. 1 defect per year
- D. 3.4 defects per million opportunities
- What does ISO 9001 cover?
- A. Environmental management
- B. Quality management systems
- C. Occupational health and safety
- D. Energy management
- What is the 5W1H method (Who, What, Where, When, How, Why) used for?
- A. Describing a problem completely and factually
- B. Calculating the cost of a defect
- C. Planning a team's holidays
- D. Rating suppliers
- What is a control chart (SPC) used for?
- A. Checking staff attendance
- B. Controlling stock
- C. Monitoring a process's stability and spotting drifts
- D. Approving invoices
- A capability index Cpk of 1.33 most often means that the process…
- A. Produces 33% scrap
- B. Is considered capable, with a comfortable margin within the tolerances
- C. Is out of control
- D. Makes 1.33 defects per part
- In a classic FMEA, the risk priority number (RPN) is obtained by multiplying…
- A. Cost, lead time and quantity
- B. The number of parts, machines and operators
- C. Severity, lead time and price
- D. Severity, occurrence and detection
- What does “just-in-time” production mean?
- A. Producing as much as possible to fill stock
- B. Producing what is needed, when it is needed, in the quantity needed
- C. Always delivering a day early
- D. Working only at night
- In the 5S method, what does the fifth S, “Shitsuke”, require?
- A. Sorting out what is unnecessary
- B. Cleaning the workstation
- C. Putting everything in its place
- D. Being disciplined and sustaining good practices
- The “8D” method is mainly used to…
- A. Plan a product launch in eight days
- B. Assess eight suppliers
- C. Deal with a problem, often a customer complaint, down to the root cause, with no recurrence
- D. Organise eight audits a year
- Why should an internal auditor not audit their own work?
- A. To ensure the audit is impartial and objective
- B. Because it would take too long
- C. Because the standard forbids internal audits
- D. So that the audit can be invoiced
- What is the difference between a correction and a corrective action?
- A. There is none
- B. A correction is made by the customer, a corrective action by the company
- C. A correction deals with the defect found; a corrective action removes its cause so that it does not happen again
- D. A corrective action is always quicker
- A manager sets a “zero defects” target without providing resources or a method. What is the most likely risk?
- A. An immediate improvement in quality
- B. That defects get hidden rather than dealt with
- C. Lower inspection costs
- D. No risk: an ambitious target is enough
- To reduce data-entry errors on a form, which solution is the most robust?
- A. Reminding people of the rule by email
- B. Having a colleague check every entry
- C. Punishing mistakes
- D. Making the error impossible: drop-down lists, automatic checks
- A 100% inspection is added at the end of the line. What is its main limitation?
- A. It is forbidden by the standards
- B. It permanently eliminates all defects
- C. It sorts without removing causes, is expensive and still lets some defects through
- D. It only applies to food products
- A 40-page procedure is not being followed on the shop floor. What is the best first action?
- A. Make every operator sign it
- B. Go and see with the operators how the work is really done, then simplify
- C. Reprint it in colour
- D. Add a monthly audit
- During a problem-solving session, the team suggests a solution in the very first minute. What should the facilitator do?
- A. Go back to the facts and causes before choosing a solution
- B. Adopt the solution to save time
- C. Hold an immediate vote
- D. Let the most senior person decide
Answer key — Quality & Continuous Improvement Quiz
- B. A fish skeletonThe problem is the head and the main cause categories are the bones, often the ‘5Ms’ (Material, Machine, Method, Manpower, Milieu/environment).
- A. About 80% of effects come from 20% of causesFirst noticed by economist Vilfredo Pareto in the distribution of wealth, the 80/20 rule helps focus effort: tackle the few causes that produce most of the defects.
- D. Getting to the root cause of a problemYou keep asking ‘why?’ until you reach the real cause, like a curious child.
- A. The Greek ‘isos’, meaning equalThe acronym would have been IOS in English and OIN in French: to have the same name in every language, the founders chose ‘ISO’, from the Greek isos.
- D. 3.4 defects per million opportunitiesPopularised by Motorola and then General Electric, Six Sigma uses statistics to reduce process variation.
- B. Quality management systemsISO 9001 is the most widely used standard in the world, with over a million certified organisations.
- A. Describing a problem completely and factuallyBefore looking for causes, you need to know exactly what you are talking about.
- C. Monitoring a process's stability and spotting driftsProcess measurements are plotted on it regularly. As long as the points stay within the limits, with no unusual trend, the process is stable; a drift is detected before out-of-tolerance parts are produced.
- B. Is considered capable, with a comfortable margin within the tolerancesCpk compares the process spread with the distance between its mean and the nearest tolerance limit.
- D. Severity, occurrence and detectionEach criterion is scored (often from 1 to 10) and then multiplied.
- B. Producing what is needed, when it is needed, in the quantity neededA pillar of the Toyota Production System, just-in-time reduces stock, which hides problems.
- D. Being disciplined and sustaining good practicesThe first four S's (sort, set in order, shine, standardise) take a few days; the fifth, sustain, takes months.
- C. Deal with a problem, often a customer complaint, down to the root cause, with no recurrenceIts eight steps run from forming the team to closure, including an often forgotten one: protecting the customer immediately, even before the cause is known.
- A. To ensure the audit is impartial and objectiveIt is hard to see your own blind spots. Someone from outside the department more easily spots deviations that have become habits and that no one notices any more.
- C. A correction deals with the defect found; a corrective action removes its cause so that it does not happen againSorting a defective batch is a correction: useful, but the problem will come back.
- B. That defects get hidden rather than dealt withWhen a target is unreachable and punishment is certain, information stops flowing upwards.
- D. Making the error impossible: drop-down lists, automatic checksThis is poka-yoke applied to the office: rather than relying on attention, design the form so that an impossible date or an empty field is rejected automatically.
- C. It sorts without removing causes, is expensive and still lets some defects through“Quality cannot be inspected into a product; it has to be built in.” A tired inspector working at line speed misses some defects.
- B. Go and see with the operators how the work is really done, then simplifyThe gap between work as prescribed and work as done often holds the answer: the procedure may be unrealistic, incomplete or unreadable.
- A. Go back to the facts and causes before choosing a solutionJumping to solutions is the most common trap: you solve the problem you think you have.