This subject was introduced at the inception of the Department of Business Systems and has had minor additions and deletions to update the course on a regular basis. Principal among the additions are International Standards and the relationship to the Service Industry. Students should be able to run a modern quality control and quality assurance department in industry and/or commerce on successful completion of the course.

This is a re-coding from BUS5540.

The changing international scene with respect to environmental, occupational health and safety, food and ethical trading standards. Developments in life cycle costing and dependability.

The unit takes a quantitative approach to handling data and, where appropriate, uses graphical techniques to simplify complex methods.

The unit complements many other IT units that handle data.

In most ways this unit is unique in its broad application to most aspects of industry and commerce.

The course involves many standard and some unique ways of extracting management information from data.

(ASCED code: 029999)

This unit introduces students to the principles and practices of Total Quality Management and the relevant International Standards in use. There is no viable organisation, be it in industry, commerce or government, that does not plan and inculcate quality into its operations. These latter stretch from manpower planning through to customer service and maintenance of equipment.

There is direct relationship to world-class performance via statistical methodology for process capability, process control, acceptance sampling and reliability design. Concepts such as lifecycle costing and replacement planning all form a part of the larger canvas of continuous quality improvement.

Applications of personal computer software in quality management, reliability and replacement are constantly being upgraded.

Course textbook: FIT5064 Lecture Notes

Preferred textbook: Evans J R and Lindsay W M (2002) The management and control of quality 5th edn. Sydney: International Thomson Publishing

Other reference texts are given with the course outline in the first lecture.

One 2 hour lecture per week for 13 weeks One 1 hour tutorial per week for 12 weeks

These will be achieved from the basic material of the lectures and course textbook, but strongly reinforced by the requirement of "hands on" class tests and assignments.

Competence in the principles of quality and reliability and in the handling of data for best management practice.

Students should expect to spend an average of 12 hours per week for the 13 weeks of this unit, with a breakdown as follows:

Attending lectures and consultations: 3 hours

Reading for lectures and assignments: 3 hours

Preparing for class tests and assignments: 6 hours

Tuorial rooms with good OHP facilities and adequate seating.

Faculty computer laboratories for out-of-lecture periods.

100% Clayton School of Information Technology.

Faculty of Engineering masters students have attended sessions.

Caulfield and Peninsular students have attended sessions.

Site licenses for the appropriate software packages to be paid by Faculty of Information Technology

None

Some familiarity with the use of probability in problem solving and the basic techniques of management.

B W Jenney