OVERVIEW

Quality management in any organization, public or private, both in the manufacturing and service sectors, either small or large, local or multinational, industrial or academic, is today an absolutely transversal topic that represents an essential know-how in the professional life of anyone.

The present teaching, now in its twenty-first edition, has represented over the years and continues to represent a positive opportunity for Materials Science Students to acquire knowledge, specifically transversal, that prepares them to face the real world of work and enriches their personal curriculum.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The teaching aims at introducing the reasons and the importance of Quality and Certification in various fields, with specific reference to knowledge management in the training and research environment. The reasons and importance of the process approach in managing organizations is presented and critically discussed, rationalizing the relevant concepts. The fundamentals of managing, monitoring and improving processes are developed. The conceptual elements of the ISO 9001:2015 standard are presented, providing the appropriate interpretation keys. The basic elements of statistical process control are introduced, with presentation of some specific techniques. The principles of quality of analytical data, uncertainty assessment and validation of test methods are discussed with reference to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The educational objectives of the present teaching can be detailed as follows:

To introduce and discuss aspects relating to the Professional Life of Technicians and Scientists, which usually:

• Are often considered marginal or completely outside their sphere of interest;
• In the medium term, such aspects turn out to be factors of paramount importance for the development and even the existence of organizations (both industrial and scientific);
• Represent elements of enrichment and professional growth ("curriculum lines") at an individual level in an increasingly multidisciplinary context.

To correctly place quality standards and certification aspects in the current context of organizations belonging to different sectors, such as:

• Industry and research facilities;
• Private companies and public bodies;
• Small/medium enterprises and multinationals.

To develop the aspects of quality and certification as expressions of knowledge management and as elements for the implementation of the organization's management system, through:

• Knowledge creation and management;
• Process management and process improvement;
•  Adoption of international standards;
• Compliance with the applicable legislation.

To introduce the technical aspects of quality and some operational tools belonging to statistical process control:

• How to represent processes;
• How to ensure the quality of the process/product;
• How to obtain the maximum information with the minimum number of measurements;
• How to ensure the quality of analytical data.

The learning outcomes can be summarized in the following points:

• Awareness of the importance of quality management both in industrial activities and services, as well as in the teaching and research environment;
• Ability to read, decode and implement management system standards, with specific reference to ISO 9001 and ISO/IEC 17025;
• Acquisition of the basic principles of statistical process control and statistical quality control;
• Understanding and ability to present and discuss all the topics on which the teaching is structured, as detailed in the section Syllabus/Content..

PREREQUISITES

No particular prerequisites are necessary, in terms of specific knowledge, to follow the present teaching.

However, a mind openness to topics that are not strictly technical/scientific, and therefore a willingness to deal with multidisciplinary aspects is a useful predisposition to better accept and  understand the topics covered.

TEACHING METHODS

Teaching delivery methods:

• Traditional / Online (only in case of specific needs and circumstances).

Organization of teaching

• Classroom (and/or online) lectures, with continuous examples taken from real experiences gained both in industrial and in research environments.
• Continual verification of the level of learning and maturation of skills with discussion in the classroom during the presentation of each thematic module.
• Stimulation to tackle, independently and/or in small groups, exercises based on practical cases found or possibly being encountered in real situations.
• Sessions for recovery and review of the topics presented.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The teaching program is arranged into specific thematic modules, which fall into two main categories of equivalent consistency and duration: the organizational aspects of quality management and the technical aspects of quality assurance and quality control, with specific reference to statistical process control (SPC).

Eleven thematic modules are planned, together with an introductory module (0) and a final one (12):

0. Presentation, schedule and organization of teaching.

1. Quality Management
    The motivations and the context

2. Historical evolution of quality:
    At the he roots of Total Quality Management

3 Quality and Certification
   The Italian Quality System

4. Quality, Market, and Management System

5. Management System and Management by Processes
    Elements of analysis, mapping and re-engineering of processes

6. The ISO 9001:2015 Standard
    The role of the Management System as a current organizational paradigm

7. Statistical tools of quality (7a)
    Control charts (7b)

8. Natural Tolerance and Machine and Process Capability Indices

9. Dixon Test
    Search for aberrant values

10. Statistical Process Control (SPC)
      Elements of basic statistics (Binomial, Poisson and Gauss distributions)

11. Validation of Test Methods
      The ISO/IEC 17025 Standard

12. Summary and conclusions

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Power Point presenations for all didactic modules.
Supporting documents for specific aspects/topics presented and discussed..

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

MAURO ZAMBELLI (President)

MARCELLA PANI

LUCA VATTUONE (President Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

For the lessons calendar you are invited to refer to the following link:

https://corsi.unige.it/corsi/11634/studenti-orario

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The exam is held in oral mode over three questions, respectively relevant to the organizational/general aspects of quality management, to the comment of a clause of the ISO 9001 standard and to a method/problem characteristic of the technical aspects of quality assurance/control and statistical process control.

The exam modalities want to simulate real situations that the Student can encounter later in his professional life, when she/he will have to explain the topics in question both to expert colleagues and to an inexpert audience. Therefore, during the exam the Student is requested to use all the teaching material provided during the lectures (presentations and supporting documents) as well as her/his own notes.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

In the spirit of simulating real situations in which the Student will find him/herself in his/her professional life, the ability to explain the arguments proposed by the Commission in relation to the three aspects mentioned above will be evaluated, in terms of capability to master the concepts and clarity and completeness of the exposure.

The evaluation is therefore based not on the ability to memorize the different topics, but on the deepness of understanding of the concepts developed during the teaching and the consequent ability to communicate them to an audience.

A maximum of 10 points will be assigned to each of the three topics covered, which added together will provide the vote out of thirty.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

References to specific quality aspects encountered in Material Science are made whenever possible and applicable, in order to provide evidence of the importance of quality management in the future professional life of today's Students.