1. What is your definition of quality.

2. How might the definition of quality apply to WSU? Provide some examples of customers and how their expectations can be met or exceeded.

3. Think of a product or service with which you are familiar. Describe the eight multiple dimensions of quality discussed (see below for the eight).

1. Performance: a product's primary operating characteristics.
2. Features: the "bells and whistles" of a product.
3. Reliability: the probability of a product's surviving over a specified period of time under stated conditions of use.
4. Conformance: the degree to which physical and performance characteristics of a product match pre-established standards.
5. Durability: the amount of use one gets from a product before it physically deteriorates or until replacement is preferable.
6. Serviceability: the ability to repair a product quickly and easily.
7. Aesthetics: how a product looks, feels, sounds, tastes, or smells.
8. Perceived quality: subjective assessment resulting from image, advertising, or brand names.

4. Cite an example of a product or service you did not buy because it lacked "dissatisfiers." Cite another example where you received some "delighters/exciters."

5. What are the positive points that Taylor contributed to today's management?

6. Examine some process you are familiar with. Make a list of ways you could measure the process and improve it. What are some of the difficulties you might experience in implementation of your ideas?

7. Have you ever felt restricted in your work because of a lack of empowerment? Why is empowerment so difficult to implement in firms?

8. Briefly discuss the implications of the following statements with respect to introducing current quality thinking into a classroom: (or ...Do you agree with the statement? Why?)

a. Embracing customer focus does not mean giving all students A's and abandoning standards.

b. If students fail the system has failed.

c. Faculty members are customers of those who teach prerequisites.

d. Treating students as customers means allowing them to choose to come to class.

e. Completing the syllabus is not a measure of success.

f. New and tenured instructors should visit each other's classrooms.

g. Eliminate performance appraisals based on classroom evaluations.

h. No matter how good the test, luck will be involved.