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CQE practice questions

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Question 1Management and Leadership

Which of the following is one of W. Edwards Deming's 14 points for management?

  1. Set numerical quotas for work groups and manage by objectives
  2. Cease dependence on mass inspection to achieve quality Correct answer.
  3. Award business solely on the basis of the lowest price tag
  4. Rank employees annually and identify the bottom ten percent for replacement

Explanation

Deming taught that quality must be built into the process, so routine mass inspection should be replaced by statistical evidence that the process is capable. He explicitly opposed work standards and quotas, purchasing on price alone, and annual merit rating, which he saw as generators of fear and short-term thinking.

Question 2Management and Leadership

Joseph Juran described quality management as a trilogy of managerial processes. Which set of processes makes up that trilogy?

  1. Quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement Correct answer.
  2. Standardize, do, check, and act on the standardized work
  3. Inspection, testing, and rework of nonconforming product
  4. Design, manufacturing, and field service of the product

Explanation

Juran framed quality management as three interrelated processes: planning to set goals and design the means to meet customer needs, control to compare performance with goals and act on the gap, and improvement to break through to a new level of performance. The other sets describe operations or improvement cycles, not Juran's trilogy.

Question 3Management and Leadership

Which statement is most consistent with Philip Crosby's approach to quality?

  1. Quality improvement is achieved mainly through frequent inspection audits and rework
  2. Quality is best improved by statistical methods applied by trained specialists
  3. Quality means the best possible grade or goodness of a product, so it cannot be measured
  4. Quality means conformance to requirements, and the cost of nonconformance measures it Correct answer.

Explanation

Crosby defined quality as conformance to requirements rather than as goodness or elegance, and he measured quality by the price of nonconformance. His program rests on prevention, zero defects as a performance standard, and making quality free by eliminating nonconformance costs.

Question 4Management and Leadership

A newly formed quality improvement team disagrees about its goals, roles, and leadership, and members openly challenge one another. According to Tuckman's model of team development, which stage is the team in?

  1. Performing
  2. Storming Correct answer.
  3. Norming
  4. Forming

Explanation

Tuckman's sequence is forming, storming, norming, and performing. Storming is the stage in which conflict over goals, roles, and influence surfaces before the team establishes shared norms.

Question 5Management and Leadership

A quality manager finds that raising salaries reduced complaints about pay but did not increase commitment to a new quality initiative. Which explanation fits Herzberg's two-factor theory?

  1. Salary is a hygiene factor that prevents dissatisfaction but does not motivate Correct answer.
  2. Salary satisfies esteem needs and therefore must precede any quality training
  3. Salary is a negative reinforcer that suppresses quality-oriented behavior
  4. Salary is a motivator whose effect on performance appears only after a delay

Explanation

Herzberg separated hygiene factors, such as pay and working conditions, from motivators, such as achievement, recognition, and responsibility. Improving hygiene factors can remove dissatisfaction but does not create the engagement that motivators supply.

Question 6Management and Leadership

Two department managers each need the same scarce piece of testing equipment on overlapping schedules. Which conflict-handling approach is most likely to produce a lasting win-win outcome?

  1. Collaboration, searching for a solution that fully satisfies both parties Correct answer.
  2. Accommodation, letting the other manager use the equipment first this time
  3. Avoidance, letting the schedule work itself out over the next few weeks
  4. Compromise, splitting the available equipment hours equally between the two

Explanation

Collaboration addresses the underlying interests of both parties, for example by re-sequencing work or finding a shared testing arrangement, and therefore produces an integrative solution. Compromise divides the disputed resource and leaves both parties partially unsatisfied.

Question 7Management and Leadership

The primary role of a quality council in an organization is to:

  1. Approve individual operator work instructions and inspection checklists
  2. Set quality policy, deploy goals, and review overall progress of improvement efforts Correct answer.
  3. Perform all internal audits and issue corrective actions for every finding
  4. Resolve individual customer complaints case by case at the working level

Explanation

A quality council is a cross-functional senior body that establishes policy, sets and deploys strategic quality goals, allocates resources, and reviews the overall progress of improvement. Detailed technical and operational work is delegated to the appropriate functions.

Question 8Management and Leadership

During a strategic quality planning session an organization lists its aging, capacity-limited metrology laboratory. In the SWOT analysis this item is properly classified as:

  1. A weakness Correct answer.
  2. A strength
  3. An opportunity
  4. A threat

Explanation

SWOT classifies internal attributes as strengths or weaknesses and external conditions as opportunities or threats. A capacity-limited internal laboratory is an internal limitation, so it is a weakness that improvement planning must address.

Question 9Management and Leadership

Which mechanism is central to hoshin kanri (policy deployment)?

  1. Cascading objectives through catchball dialogue so targets align at every level Correct answer.
  2. Setting stretch goals at the top and publishing them to all levels without negotiation
  3. Replacing the annual improvement plan with rolling monthly cost budgets set by finance
  4. Assigning all quality objectives to the quality department and reviewing them at year end

Explanation

Hoshin kanri links long-range strategy to annual improvement by deploying objectives downward and upward through catchball, a two-way dialogue that adjusts targets and builds ownership at each level. Alignment and shared accountability, not unilateral assignment, distinguish it from simple goal setting.

Question 10Management and Leadership

A hospital wants to improve patient scheduling and studies the reservation system of a well-known airline. This study is best described as:

  1. Functional (generic) benchmarking Correct answer.
  2. Competitive benchmarking
  3. Internal benchmarking
  4. Product benchmarking

Explanation

Functional or generic benchmarking compares a business process against best practice in the same function regardless of industry. Studying an airline's reservation process to improve patient scheduling is a cross-industry comparison of a similar function.

Question 11Management and Leadership

Which statement about the economics of quality is best supported by cost-of-quality analysis?

  1. Prevention costs and failure costs normally move in the same direction as prevention spending increases
  2. External failure costs are always smaller than internal failure costs in a mature quality system
  3. Increased prevention usually reduces appraisal and failure costs, lowering total cost Correct answer.
  4. Total cost of quality is minimized when appraisal activities are maximized and prevention is minimal

Explanation

Prevention spending attacks the causes of defects, so appraisal and failure costs generally decline as processes become more capable, and total cost of quality falls. The optimum is a balance in which prevention is emphasized rather than an extreme reliance on appraisal or failure.

Question 12Management and Leadership

In Kotter's eight-step model for leading change, which step immediately precedes 'generating short-term wins'?

  1. Communicating the change vision to all employees
  2. Anchoring new approaches in the corporate culture
  3. Empowering broad-based action by removing barriers Correct answer.
  4. Establishing a sense of urgency among managers

Explanation

Kotter's sequence runs from urgency, through a guiding coalition, vision, and communication, to empowering broad-based action, then short-term wins, consolidation, and anchoring in the culture. Removing obstacles must come before early wins can be produced and celebrated.

Question 13Management and Leadership

Which is a recognized advantage of a matrix organizational structure for quality improvement projects?

  1. Decision making is always faster than in a purely functional structure at any size
  2. Each employee reports to exactly one manager, which greatly simplifies accountability
  3. Expertise is shared across projects while functional reporting lines are retained Correct answer.
  4. It eliminates the need for cross-functional coordination and communication in projects

Explanation

A matrix structure overlays project responsibility on the functional hierarchy, letting specialists contribute to multiple projects while remaining in their technical home. The trade-off is dual reporting, which can create role ambiguity and slower decisions if not managed.

Question 14Management and Leadership

A supervisor who believes that employees naturally dislike work and must be closely controlled and coerced is applying which set of assumptions?

  1. Theory X Correct answer.
  2. Theory Y
  3. Two-factor theory
  4. Theory Z

Explanation

McGregor's Theory X assumes employees are inherently averse to work and require close supervision, while Theory Y assumes work is natural and employees seek responsibility. The supervisor's beliefs match the Theory X set.

Question 15Management and Leadership

Employee empowerment in a quality-focused organization is best described as:

  1. Rotating employees through more tasks so that each job becomes broader in scope
  2. Transferring administrative tasks that managers dislike to frontline staff without additional authority
  3. Granting employees authority and responsibility to decide how their work is done Correct answer.
  4. Allowing employees to determine their own salaries, budgets, and working hours without management oversight

Explanation

Empowerment pairs authority with responsibility, giving employees the information, skills, and permission to make decisions about their own work and act on problems. It is distinct from simply enlarging a job or shifting tasks downward without authority.

Question 16Management and Leadership

An organization checks whether participants in a statistical process control course are actually using control charts on the job six months after training. In Kirkpatrick's model of training evaluation, this measure is:

  1. Results
  2. Behavior Correct answer.
  3. Learning
  4. Reaction

Explanation

Kirkpatrick's four levels are reaction, learning, behavior, and results. Observing whether trainees apply the skills on the job corresponds to the behavior level.

Question 17Management and Leadership

A quality engineer is asked to sign an inspection report for a lot that was sampled with an unapproved plan that understates the defect rate. What is the most appropriate action?

  1. Sign the report and mention the concern informally to a colleague
  2. Sign only if the customer has not requested a specific sampling plan
  3. Refuse to sign and report the situation through established channels Correct answer.
  4. Adjust the reported defect rate to reflect what the unapproved plan found

Explanation

Professional codes of ethics require honesty and protection of the public, so an engineer must not certify results known to be unsound. The concern should be raised through documented channels so that the sampling issue can be corrected.

Question 18Management and Leadership

Which practice is consistent with effective brainstorming?

  1. Encouraging freewheeling ideas and building on ideas offered by others Correct answer.
  2. Limiting each participant to submitting one idea per session
  3. Allowing only subject-matter experts to contribute ideas during the session
  4. Critiquing each idea as it is offered to keep the list realistic

Explanation

Brainstorming separates idea generation from evaluation: participants withhold judgment, generate freely, build on one another's ideas, and aim for quantity before quality. Critique and expertise filters are applied in a later screening step.

Question 19Management and Leadership

Under what circumstance is nominal group technique preferred over unstructured brainstorming?

  1. When a single manager wants to communicate a decision to the group
  2. When the team must reach consensus without any voting or ranking
  3. When a large number of creative, unusual ideas must be generated quickly
  4. When quiet members must contribute and the ideas must be ranked Correct answer.

Explanation

Nominal group technique has members write ideas silently, then share and rank them, which prevents domination by vocal members and produces a prioritized list. It trades some spontaneity for equality of input and structured ranking.

Question 20Management and Leadership

Early supplier involvement in new product development is most likely to produce which benefit?

  1. Guaranteeing the lowest possible purchase price for each of the designed components
  2. Transferring full design responsibility to the supplier without internal review or approval
  3. Designs that are easier to manufacture because process capability is known early Correct answer.
  4. Shortening the purchasing cycle by eliminating detailed specifications and engineering drawings

Explanation

Bringing suppliers in during design gives the development team early access to process capability and cost data, which reduces late design changes and improves manufacturability. The buyer retains design authority and specifications rather than transferring them away.

Question 21Management and Leadership

A project network contains four paths with durations of 14, 18, 20, and 23 days. Which statement is correct?

  1. Slack exists on the 23-day path because it is the longest path
  2. The project duration equals the average of the path durations, 18.75 days
  3. The 23-day path is critical and determines the project duration Correct answer.
  4. The 14-day path has the most slack and therefore sets the project duration

Explanation

In a network, the longest path through the activities is the critical path, and its length sets the shortest possible project duration. The critical path carries zero total float, so any delay on it delays the project.

Question 22Management and Leadership

Which practice best supports knowledge management in a quality management system?

  1. Capturing lessons learned from improvement projects in a searchable repository Correct answer.
  2. Storing process records in individual employees' personal files to protect privacy
  3. Restricting process knowledge to the engineering department for consistency
  4. Relying on retiring experts to document their procedures only after they leave

Explanation

Knowledge management converts individual and project learning into organizational assets that others can retrieve and reuse. A maintained, searchable repository of lessons learned keeps improvement knowledge available after the team disbands.

Question 23Management and Leadership

According to Lewin's force-field analysis, the most effective way to move an organization toward a new quality culture is to:

  1. Reduce or remove restraining forces while strengthening selected driving forces Correct answer.
  2. Increase driving forces until they overwhelm the restraining forces that remain
  3. Ignore the restraining forces until they disappear on their own over time
  4. Freeze the current state firmly so that resistance is eliminated before change

Explanation

Force-field analysis treats current behavior as a balance between driving and restraining forces. Reducing restraints, such as fear or unclear roles, lowers tension and produces more durable change than simply adding pressure.

Question 24Management and Leadership

Which condition most increases the risk of groupthink in a quality improvement team?

  1. Including members with diverse functional backgrounds and experience
  2. A directive leader who states a preferred solution first Correct answer.
  3. Assigning a rotating facilitator who invites dissenting views
  4. Using anonymous idea-generation methods such as nominal group technique

Explanation

Groupthink flourishes when a directive leader signals a preferred answer early, discouraging members from raising doubts and creating an illusion of unanimity. Rotating facilitation, anonymity, and diverse membership are recognized countermeasures.

Question 25The Quality System

Under ISO 9001, which group is responsible for establishing, implementing, and maintaining the quality policy?

  1. The internal audit team
  2. The process owners collectively
  3. The quality assurance department
  4. Top management Correct answer.

Explanation

The standard places the quality policy and its communication within the leadership responsibilities of top management, who must ensure it is compatible with the organization's context and strategic direction. Delegation of the drafting task is possible, but accountability cannot be delegated.

Question 26The Quality System

A completed calibration certificate filed in the quality management system is best classified as:

  1. A procedure
  2. A work instruction
  3. A quality plan
  4. A record Correct answer.

Explanation

Records are documents stating results achieved or providing evidence of activities performed, and they are not revised once created. A completed calibration certificate captures the result of a specific calibration event, which makes it a record.

Question 27The Quality System

Management review of a quality management system is primarily intended to:

  1. Calculate the cost of poor quality for each department
  2. Ensure the system remains suitable, adequate, and effective Correct answer.
  3. Assign responsibility for each nonconformity to an individual
  4. Verify that individual products meet specification

Explanation

Management review is a strategic evaluation of the system as a whole, using defined inputs such as audit results, customer feedback, and performance trends. Its output is a set of decisions and actions about improvement, resources, and needed changes to the system.

Question 28The Quality System

Once product is identified as nonconforming, the organization must first:

  1. Rework it immediately to the original specification
  2. Ship it to a customer who accepted a deviation
  3. Segregate and control it against unintended use Correct answer.
  4. Scrap it and replace it from finished-goods stock

Explanation

The standard requires nonconforming product to be identified and controlled to prevent unintended use or delivery until disposition is determined. Disposition options such as rework, concession, or scrap are considered only after the product is contained.

Question 29The Quality System

Corrective action is taken to:

  1. Document the disposition of nonconforming product
  2. Eliminate the cause of a detected nonconformity Correct answer.
  3. Detect nonconformities before the product leaves the facility
  4. Reduce inspection costs by sampling fewer units

Explanation

Corrective action addresses the underlying cause of a nonconformity so that it does not recur, and its effectiveness must later be reviewed. Correction, by contrast, only repairs or disposes of the nonconforming item itself.

Question 30The Quality System

ISO 9001 requires internal audits to be conducted:

  1. At planned intervals, objectively and impartially Correct answer.
  2. Whenever a new employee is hired
  3. Only when a customer complaint is received
  4. Annually by an external registrar

Explanation

The organization must plan an audit programme at planned intervals, taking into account process importance, changes, and prior results. Auditors must be selected and the audits performed so that objectivity and impartiality are safeguarded.

Question 31The Quality System

A purchasing group is choosing a new supplier for safety-critical fasteners. Which action best reflects quality system control of externally provided processes?

  1. Defining selection criteria and risk-based controls Correct answer.
  2. Relying on the supplier's own complaint records
  3. Requesting a certificate of conformance with each shipment only
  4. Awarding the contract to the lowest bidder who promises to meet the spec

Explanation

Control of externally provided processes must be proportionate to the potential impact of the supplied item on the organization's ability to meet requirements. Criteria for selection, evaluation, and monitoring, plus controls matched to risk, are the core requirements.

Question 32The Quality System

Which set of quality objectives best meets the intent of ISO 9001 clause 6.2?

  1. Improve quality awareness throughout the entire organization
  2. Cut warranty returns 15% by December 31, with an owner Correct answer.
  3. Achieve world-class quality
  4. Exceed customer expectations in all areas

Explanation

Quality objectives must be measurable, monitored, communicated, and supported by plans stating what will be done, the resources needed, who is responsible, when it will be completed, and how results will be evaluated. A quantified target with a deadline and an assigned owner satisfies these attributes.

Question 33The Quality System

A plant spends $40,000 on final inspection and testing, $25,000 on rework, and $10,000 on supplier audits. In a cost-of-quality model, the $10,000 is classified as:

  1. External failure cost
  2. Prevention cost Correct answer.
  3. Appraisal cost
  4. Internal failure cost

Explanation

Prevention costs are incurred to keep defects from occurring at all, and supplier evaluation and audit activities fall in this category. Inspection and testing are appraisal costs, while rework is an internal failure cost.

Question 34The Quality System

An operator is found using an obsolete revision of a work instruction at a workstation. Which control element has most directly failed?

  1. Management review
  2. Calibration control
  3. Document distribution control Correct answer.
  4. Records retention

Explanation

Controlled documented information must be available and suitable where it is used, and obsolete versions must be prevented from unintended use. Finding the superseded revision in active use shows the distribution and version control step broke down.

Question 35The Quality System

An engineer investigates a coolant leak that never caused a defect and revises the maintenance schedule for all similar machines. This activity is best described as:

  1. Deviation
  2. Corrective action
  3. Preventive action Correct answer.
  4. Containment

Explanation

Preventive action addresses a potential nonconformity that has not yet occurred, removing the cause before a problem arises. Here no nonconformity existed, and action was taken to stop one from developing.

Question 36The Quality System

A new automated visual inspection station is installed. Which approach best satisfies competence requirements?

  1. Assign the most senior operator to the station permanently
  2. Ask operators to sign a statement that they read the manual
  3. Post a copy of the manufacturer's manual at the station
  4. Define competence, train, and keep evaluation records Correct answer.

Explanation

The organization must determine the necessary competence, ensure people are competent through training or other means, and retain evidence of competence. Documenting the required competence, providing training, and evaluating the result covers all three elements.

Question 37The Quality System

An internal auditor finds that a process is performed exactly as its procedure states, but the procedure does not satisfy an applicable requirement. The auditor should:

  1. Issue a corrective action against the operator
  2. Record it as a nonconformity against the requirement Correct answer.
  3. Close the audit finding as an observation
  4. Report nothing, since the operator followed instructions

Explanation

Audit criteria include the applicable standard as well as the organization's own documentation, and a gap against a requirement is a nonconformity regardless of operator compliance. Findings are raised against the system or process, not against individual employees.

Question 38The Quality System

Which measure best indicates whether the organization is meeting customer requirements?

  1. Overtime hours in production
  2. Number of internal audits completed
  3. Complaint trends and on-time delivery Correct answer.
  4. Internal scrap rate

Explanation

Customer-related performance is monitored through feedback such as complaints, returns, and delivery performance against commitments. These measures reflect the customer's experience of whether requirements were met.

Question 39The Quality System

Before launching a new product, a team identifies the processes needed, the resources required, and the acceptance criteria for each stage. This activity is best described as:

  1. Continual improvement
  2. Quality planning Correct answer.
  3. Corrective action
  4. Management review

Explanation

Quality planning establishes the objectives and processes, resources, and criteria needed to deliver a product that meets requirements. Defining stages, resources, and acceptance criteria before launch is the essence of that planning activity.

Question 40The Quality System

A small company wants to keep documentation to a minimum while remaining compliant. Which statement best reflects current quality management system practice?

  1. Every process must have a written procedure
  2. Records must be retained indefinitely
  3. A quality manual is mandatory for ISO 9001:2015 certification
  4. Documentation is limited to what supports effectiveness Correct answer.

Explanation

The standard requires documented information to the extent necessary for the effective operation of the system, and it does not mandate a quality manual or a procedure for every process. The organization determines the appropriate level of documentation based on its size, activities, and competence of people.

Question 41The Quality System

A company repeatedly records the same nonconformity in successive audits even though each corrective action is formally closed. Which systemic weakness is most likely?

  1. Weak root cause analysis and effectiveness checks Correct answer.
  2. Too many corrective actions are opened at once
  3. The internal audit checklist is too detailed
  4. The organization has too few suppliers

Explanation

Recurrence after closure signals that the true cause was never identified or that closure was granted without evidence the action worked. Effective corrective action requires cause analysis and a review of effectiveness before the action is closed.

Question 42The Quality System

An organization audits every process at the same frequency and depth regardless of how those processes are performing. What is the most significant weakness in the audit programme?

  1. Audits are conducted by trained internal auditors
  2. Process importance and prior results are ignored Correct answer.
  3. Auditors are not using checklists
  4. Audit results are reported to top management

Explanation

The audit programme must be planned with reference to the importance of processes, changes affecting the organization, and the results of previous audits. A uniform schedule disregards risk and past performance, so auditing effort is misallocated.

Question 43The Quality System

An engineering change alters a component in a product already in production. Which practice ensures the change is reflected correctly in the product and in the associated records?

  1. Relying on the supplier to notify the customer of the change
  2. Verifying the change only after the product is shipped
  3. Applying the change to the next lot without documentation
  4. Identifying configuration, controlling and recording changes Correct answer.

Explanation

Configuration management identifies the configuration of a product at defined points, controls changes through authorization, and records the status of changes and their implementation. This traceable chain is what keeps product, documentation, and records consistent.

Question 44The Quality System

Top management reviews a quality management system that meets all applicable requirements but shows declining customer satisfaction. Which conclusion is most consistent with quality management principles?

  1. Customer satisfaction cannot be used to judge QMS performance
  2. Declining satisfaction always indicates a product defect
  3. Conformance to requirements guarantees customer satisfaction
  4. A compliant system can still be ineffective in practice Correct answer.

Explanation

Compliance with requirements addresses whether the system conforms to the standard, while effectiveness concerns whether intended results are achieved. A system can satisfy every clause and still fail to deliver the outcomes customers value, which is why performance results matter.

Question 45Product, Process, and Service Design

In a House of Quality matrix, what does the roof section represent?

  1. Links between customer needs and technical requirements
  2. Target values to be achieved for each technical requirement
  3. Correlations among the technical requirements Correct answer.
  4. Rankings of competing products on each customer need

Explanation

The roof is a triangular correlation matrix that shows how each pair of technical requirements supports or conflicts with another, so engineers can spot trade-offs early. The body of the house, not the roof, links customer needs to technical requirements.

Question 46Product, Process, and Service Design

Which design change best illustrates design for manufacturability?

  1. Specifying a finer surface finish on a critical bore
  2. Adding a final inspection step after machining
  3. Tightening the tolerance on a mating shaft
  4. Consolidating two machined brackets into one casting Correct answer.

Explanation

Design for manufacturability simplifies the product so it can be produced with fewer parts, operations, and setups. Merging two machined parts into a single casting removes an entire machining and assembly sequence.

Question 47Product, Process, and Service Design

Which activity is an example of design validation rather than design verification?

  1. Testing a prototype against the published performance specification
  2. Trialing the device with representative users Correct answer.
  3. Confirming that each drawing requirement is met by inspection
  4. Checking that a purchased component meets its datasheet limits

Explanation

Validation asks whether the right product was built, which requires evidence that the needs of the actual user are met in the intended use environment. Verification only confirms that specified requirements were satisfied.

Question 48Product, Process, and Service Design

In an FMEA, the risk priority number is obtained by which calculation?

  1. Occurrence multiplied by detection multiplied by frequency
  2. Severity multiplied by occurrence multiplied by criticality
  3. Severity plus occurrence plus detection
  4. Severity multiplied by occurrence multiplied by detection Correct answer.

Explanation

The risk priority number is the product of the severity, occurrence, and detection rankings, each scored on a ten-point scale. It is used to rank failure modes for action priority, not to quantify actual field risk.

Question 49Product, Process, and Service Design

A formal design review is best described as which of the following?

  1. A meeting held only after the design has been released to production
  2. An inspection of finished units before they leave the plant
  3. An audit of each supplier's quality management system performed by the customer
  4. A scheduled cross-functional check of a design against its requirements Correct answer.

Explanation

A design review is a planned, documented examination of a design by a team representing all affected functions, performed at defined stages of development while changes are still inexpensive. Its purpose is to catch weaknesses before release.

Question 50Product, Process, and Service Design

Taguchi's quality loss function implies that loss does which of the following?

  1. Is zero for every unit that is inside the tolerance band
  2. Increases as a quadratic function of the deviation from the target value Correct answer.
  3. Depends solely on whether a part is reworked or scrapped
  4. Begins only when a characteristic falls outside the specification limits

Explanation

The loss function treats any departure from the nominal target as a loss that grows with the square of the deviation. This is why reducing variation about the target improves quality even when all units conform to specification.