Final answer:
Hiring more inspection personnel to ensure defect-free products violates the TQM core value of prevention.
Step-by-step explanation:
The action described in the question, of hiring more inspection personnel to ensure that all products shipped are free of defects, violates the TQM (Total Quality Management) core value of a. Prevention is better than rework. This is because the company is relying on inspections after the fact to catch and fix defects, rather than implementing measures to prevent defects from occurring in the first place. Prevention, through techniques such as statistical process control and error-proofing, is emphasized in TQM to reduce the need for rework and improve quality.