Awesome Study Guide To Help You Learn PQM And Score Amazing Marks

Introduction:

Productivity and Quality Management deals with the output of whatever you produce in your factory and how you produce it. Let’s break up the name to understand it better; productivity of a person or a factory is the ratio of output to input, which means that if I need 3 hours to understand one chapter of business law, then my input is 3 hours and output is chapter so my productivity for business law is 1:3. Similarly if a company spends 5000 INR in raw materials to get pencils worth 10,000 INR so my productivity is 2:1. Basically productivity determines the efficiency of the company/ factory/ individual when compared with certain factors of input or cost.

Quality Management is when we manage the quality of the output and ensure that certain standards of quality are maintained. Your personal quality standards as a student would be the marks you get, my quality standards will be the level of help you get when you read this article, similarly ‘Apple’s’ quality standards will be to ensure world class features for its ‘iPhones’ and the quality standard for ‘Jimmy Choo’s’ shoes will be to the latest in the fashion circuit like no other in the industry. So we can infer that all of us have different functions and accordingly different quality standards.

Now, how can we simply determine the quality unless there is something to compare with? So when you compare your marks with the class topper you will realize how well you have fared, I compare my writing to the other posts on PQM on the site, Apple compares itself with Samsung or Sony and Jimmy Choo with Catwalk, so quality is usually determined when we compare it with someone or something else that is of higher standard than our product.

Boring and PQM? Naah!

Studying PQM is a lot of fun because it has a lot of theory in it intertwined with quite a few sums and diagrams. It has concepts that are new and interesting and the best part is that a lot of chapters have super fun names, just saying Poka Yoke or Kanban fast for 10 times is like having an in-house tongue twister for yourself, so not to worry about PQM being boring you can simply have a lot of fun with the subject in class and while doing group studies as well.

If you have presentations then for this subject the presentations too would be a lot of fun, because the kind of concepts and theories present or the different case studies that are covered here are a lot of fun to understand, plus they are really very interesting and keep your attention glued to the subject for a long period of time.

Do I need to join a Coaching Class for this subject?

No, you do not need to join a coaching class for this subject.

What is the Syllabus for this Subject?

Unit I : Concept of productivity and various ways/modes of calculating it.

Unit II : Suggestion Schemes. Various types of wage incentive plans. Total Productivity Maintenance.

Unit III : Concepts of customer service in relation to right quality, right quantity, etc.

Unit IV : Holistic Quality Management. Quality performance and various excellence awards.

You can get the detailed syllabus and reference books right Here! 

How can I study this subject?

Time allocation is the most crucial thing to keep in mind while planning out schedules for studying a particular subject. Another important aspect to be considered is the kind of subject and your comfort zone with the subject.

Initial lectures will help you determine your comfort zone and interest levels for this subject, if you feel that you like it and you are comfortable with the theory and the terminology, then an hour a day for the theory on alternate days of the week and an hour for the practical sums and diagrams on the remaining days of the week should be good enough to help you to study and be able to pass this subject with good marks.

The approach towards theory will be to read and understand it, you do not need to refer to a lot of textbooks or go crazy over making notes in this subject, just ensure you get one textbook where you understand the language of the author and all the components of the syllabus mentioned in the detailed link above have been covered. You can go to your college library and go through the books there and then finalize on which one you are most comfortable with. If you have a faculty who does guide you with this then their decision is obviously the best one you should rely on.

If the subject seems complicated and difficult to understand then the first thing you must do is attend your lectures and get your doubts solved, then start reading the chapters one by one and once again if you get stuck up ask a friend or your professor to help you out. If your concepts are clear it will become very easy to learn this subject and score good marks.

Internal Exams Mantra:

Half an hour a day for a week before the exams should be enough to cover up the syllabus for the internal test, if you have been prescribed a lengthy syllabus then you must rationalize the time requirements accordingly.

External Exams Mantra:

1. Do all the chapters properly.
2. Do not miss out on the numerical sums as they can lead to your downfall.
3. Diagrams (if any), need to be given top priority.

Like I said above the one hour on alternate days for one month should be good to help you cover up your syllabus in time, with a subject like this understanding the concepts isn’t very difficult the problem area is scoring marks. To be able to score good marks the basic necessity is being able to solve the entire paper in the time provided, to achieve that you must practise writing answers in the structured format.

The definitions and theories also need to be mugged up along with certain concepts that are difficult to remember so you must spend more time on it. If you do not have time to leisurely understand the subject a month in advance then you can simply follow this 3 step system:

1. Read the entire textbook like a book (you don’t need to learn, simply understand the concepts)
2. Learn the important theories and question answers as marked by your subject professor.
3. You can also get a list of important questions from BMS.co.in/ coaching classes/ past year college papers/ other college’s prelims papers.
4. You can complete this entire subject in a span of a week if you focus properly, this method may not guarantee brilliant marks but if followed properly can help you pass the exams.

The Importance of solving Case Studies:

 A case study is the method of studying where the students are provided with a case that has either happened in the past or a situation that is likely to come up, followed up with certain questions related to the same and the students are expected to answer them using their knowledge of the subject, information given out in the case and their analytical abilities.

This method has been popularly used across business study courses and colleges and is quite popular with the BMS course as well. This method helps students to be able to grasp and evaluate many tricky concepts and theories, understanding which is quite difficult only with the help of textual knowledge.

In the subject of PQM too, a lot of importance has been levied upon case studies and it is a big help in understanding the subject and the theories, concepts provided. For any student to be able to learn subjects like PQM that have a strong theoretical base, solving as many case studies as you can is of a big help and it is a necessity that students understand the importance of solving them regularly.

Work hard, study well, solve your case studies and all the best for PQM!