The course, compulsory for the Master of Science in Management Engineering, provides the skills to analyze in detail the important aspects of Quality Management Systems related to companies/services.
The course objectives are:
• Sensitizing student awareness of the concepts of Quality of a product/service and competition-oriented design. Particular attention will be devoted to the general problem of measuring Quality.
• Presenting a structured framework of the Italian Quality System and the accreditation and certification activities.
• Describing the main techniques of Process Control and Acceptance Monitoring in the acquisition phase of semi-processed/raw-materials and during the introduction on the market of end-products/services.
• Stimulating capabilities of design and verification of the entire supply chain, starting from the market demand analysis, up to the policies of outsourcing/insourcing of facilities and support structures.
Real evidences of Quality practitioners and case studies will complement the course.

At the end of the course, students are expected to have acquired knowledge in the following fields:
• Key techniques for design under the perspective of the Quality of a product/service (FMEA - Failure Mode and Effects Analysis, QFD - Quality Function Deployment, etc ...).
• Methods and techniques for competitive analysis (Market Analysis, Benchmarking, etc ...).
• Principles and methods of measurement and Quality control in manufacturing systems and service provision.
• Understanding of fundamental concepts related to the current standards for Quality (ISO 9000 and 14000) both locally (for Quality Management System of an organization) and at national level (Italy Quality System and related activities accreditation and certification).
• Plan and implementation of the main techniques of Statistical Process Control (Process Capability, Control Charts, etc ...) and Acceptance Control (Sampling Plan, Product Test, etc ...).
• Methods of assessment, selection and monitoring of suppliers.
Concerning the future application in the professional life of the acquired knowledge, at the end of the course, the student will have taken the methodological skills for independently designing, implementing and managing a Quality Management System for an organization providing products or services.

Adequate knowledge of statistical methodologies and tools for analyzing production processes and services. Specifically, good knowledge of the basic notions of probability and statistics, including the main techniques for the analysis of experimental data and statistical inference. Also, basic understanding of the principles of production systems management, with particular reference to modeling and representation in quantitative terms.

1. Preliminary concepts (5 h)
The meaning of Quality. Quality Terminology. An historic overview of Quality Methodology. Quality in design and production.
2. Quality in Design (20 h)
Quality and Innovation. Quality Function Deployment. Customer Requirements, Technical Characteristics and Relationship Matrix. The prioritization of Technical Characteristics. Competition Driven Design: Qbench algorithm. Quality costs. Prevention, Inspection, Scraps and field interventions. Supplier-customer chain. Claims management.
3. Quality in Services (10 h)
The concept of service. Definition and main characteristics of services. Differences and analogies between product Quality and service Quality. Design and industrialization of a service. Methods and models for the implementation of Quality measurement of products and services.
4. Statistical Process Control (30 h)
Fundamentals of statistical methods for Quality. Modeling Process Quality. Nominal specifications and service tolerances. Variability and natural tolerances of a process. Sum of tolerances. Control charts for variables and attributes. Process capability analysis. Acceptance Sampling. Lot by lot acceptance sampling by attributes. The OC curve. Acceptance sampling by variables. MIL STD 105E standard. MIL STD 414 standard.
5. Quality standards (5 h)
Italian Quality System. Design and implementation of a Quality system. ISO 9000 standards. Accreditation and certification of Quality systems. The Quality manual. The role of certifiers and certification organisms.
6. Quality and procurement (10 h)
General Framework to analyze procurement processes. Technical elements influencing purchasing decisions. Suppliers evaluation (qualification and evaluation, performance indicators, insourcing-outsourcing, etc.). Design of a Performance Measurement System.

The central topics of the course will be illustrated through a number of complementary activities that will take place in the classroom and/or laboratory. Some of these include the drafting of a technical report (individually or by group work).
These activities will cover:
• analysis of case studies proposed by the instructor;
• application of QFD and benchmarking techniques;
• construction and use of control charts and sampling plans;
• design and Quality control of a service.

In addition to course notes and documents distributed by the teacher, the following reference texts are recommended:
• Franceschini F., Dai prodotti ai servizi. Le nuove frontiere della Qualità. UTET Libreria. Torino, 2001.
• Franceschini F., Advanced Quality Function Deployment, St. Lucie Press/CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL, 2002. ISBN/ISSN 1-57444-321-6.
• Franceschini F., Quality Function Deployment: uno strumento progettuale per coniugare Qualità e Innovazione. Ed. Il Sole 24 ORE Libri, Milano, 2003.
• Franceschini F., Galetto M., Esercizi di Gestione Industriale della Qualità. Ed. CELID, Torino, 2003. ISBN 88-7661-596-2.
• Franceschini F., Galetto M., Maisano D., Indicatori e misure di prestazione per la gestione dei processi. Ed. Il Sole 24 ORE Libri, Milano, 2007. ISBN13 978-88-8363-868-8.
• Franceschini F., Galetto M., Maisano D., Management by Measurement: Designing Key Indicators and Performance Measurements. Springer, Berlin. ISBN-13: 978-3540732112
• Montgomery D.C., Introduction to Statistical Process Control, 5th Ed., J. Wiley, New York, 2005.

The student must have acquired the concepts and contents of the course.
Verification is performed through a written test with exercises and problems on the topics covered by the course. Teacher reserves the right to perform any additional oral exam. The final mark will also take account of the activity during the exercises (preparation of technical reports, writing essays, etc.).