Quality Assurance of Products

Quality Assurance of Products

This category concerns the existence of a quality system within the company for design and control of products.Factors within this category  include:

- customer needs converted to product and process requirements.

- control of business and manufacturing processes so that products meet design plans or specifications.

- continuous improvement of products and processes.

- activity in assessing the quality of products and processes.This concerns both manufacturing and business processes.

- documentation existing to support the quality system.

- control and improvement of the quality of the material provided by suppliers.

- a focus on preventing mistakes,not merely correcting them.

Quality Results

This category relates to having tangible improvements in terms of quality measures. The measures are derived from customer needs and from business operations.

Key factors are:

- improvement trends in product and service quality measures.

- comparisons with quality results of competitors.

- improvement trends in quality measurements of business processes.

- improvement trends in quality measurements of suppliers.

Human Resource Utilization

Human Resource Utilization

This category is next in importance. It deals with how a company manages its human resources to reach full potential. Also, it pertains to the involvement of everyone in quality efforts. 

Major factors concern:

- human resource planning to support quality goals.

- involvement of employees in improvement using teams with members from different functional areas and suppliers. Also, providing a suggestion system or other means of making input to management.

- education and training in quality knowledge and skills. Important is training in problem identification and improvement skills. 

- performance measurements for the identification of teams and individuals making quality improvements.

- recognition for contributions of teams and individuals by both management and peers.

- health and safety considerations in quality improvements.

Quality Assurance of Products

This category concerns the existence of a quality system within the company for design and control of products.

Factors within this category include:

- customer needs converted to product and process requirements

- control of business and manufacturing processes so that products meet design plans or specifications.

- continuous improvement of products and processes.

- activity in assessing the quality of products and processes.This concerns both manufacturing and business processes.

- documentation existing to support the quality system

- control and improvement of the quality of the material provided by suppliers.

- a focus on preventing mistakes, not merely correcting them.

Insights for Improvement

Insights for Improvement

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award provides insight into what is needed for continuous quality improvement. This award was created in 1987 by U.S. Public Law 100-107. Its purpose is to stimulate and reward companies for improving the quality of their goods and services. The application for the award has guidelines and criteria that can provide a benchmark for companies to judge how they are organized for quality improvement.

The guidelines and criteria form the foundation of an effective improvement effort. There are seven categories of effort supporting continuous improvement.; some are considered more critical than others, and are given different points or weights in recognition of this. In reality, an effective effort cannot exist without all seven components puling together.

Customer Satisfaction:

The component given the largest weight in the award is customer satisfaction. This category accounts for almost one-third of the total points allowed in the award, showing its importance. Criteria about this category reflect how a company addresses customer requirements and service relationships.

Key factors are:

- knowledge of customer requirements and expectations through interviews, surveys, and other means. A deep understanding of customers is needed so their wants can be turned into products. 

- effective management and improvement of relations with customers. This would include providing customers with easy access to the company for help.An important element is establishing a long standing relationship going beyond selling the product.

- standards for the servicing of customers. This would include response time and other key service performance indicators.

- commitment to customers on warranties.

- complaint resolution procedure for customers and feedback of difficulty to company for preventing future problems.

- measurement of the satisfaction of customers.

- improvement of customer satisfaction.

- comparison of customer satisfaction with competitors.

Continuous Improvement of Individuals

Continuous Improvement of Individuals

In the past, the major focus for quality improvement was the individual. The cause of a problem was usually traced to a person, and pressure was applied for improvement. Sometimes this included disciplinary action. Now, it is widely recognized that most individuals try to do high quality work, but are blocked from doing so by the organization or the process they work within. For example, only a small portion of the problems pointed out by SPC can be solved solely by the operator. The bulk of the problems require a change in the process or organization.

To a large extent,individuals mirror the organization or process they work in. A human receives input,produces the understood output and changes actions based  upon any feed back. To help an individual get high-quality performance, a standard of what is expected for output is needed. The standard should be custom-driven,and supported by the process. To develop the standard, it is necessary to understand what is needed by the customer,how this need can be satisfied and measured,and the limits acceptable to the customer. This must be clearly conveyed in some type of documentation. Also desirable in the standard is what the customer can expect if acceptable limits are not maintained. Conveying this to the individual is particularly challenging; feedback to the individual is vital to the improvement of quality. It can be internal feedback, with individuals checking their output against the standard, or external feedback from others, particularly customers. often, what is shown in the standard may need additional clarification. Modifications in the resources available to the individual may have to be made. The way feedback is given is critical. For example, if workers are struggling with quality problems and management complains that they are falling behind, the wrong signal is given,it ,may be seen as a strong statement that getting the product out is more important than quality.

To obtain the best quality,individual strengths should be matched to the needs of the job. Training should be done before placing a person on the job. The training objectives should include a clear understanding of the quality standards and how to measure them. The person also should understand what must be done if acceptable limits are not obtained. More companies are insisting that the operation be shut down until quality issues are resolved. Other important considerations are whether a person is mentally,physically and emotionally fit to do the job. Additional training may be in order. many companies are providing basic math and reading classes to those who need help. Physical impairments often can be handled by modifying work stations. In a few situations, it may be that the employee should be assigned elsewhere. When improvements are required from individuals during production, the same type of training mentioned above should be repeated. talking to the individuals to find out heir ideas could be an immense help. Most often the fix requires changing the process, not the individual. 

Continuous Improvement of Processes

Continuous Improvement of Processes

High priority for making improvements focuses on processes. An organization is made up of many processes,of both a business and manufacturing nature.In general, this is where lasting solutions are best made.Improving the organization is necessary to have the climate favorable for a company to do the right things , but this improvement takes a long time.

For processes, changes that last can be made quickly. Probably 85% of the problems in a company are due to inadequate processes. Much of the necessary improvement is in the business processes, not in those processes making the product. The small reminder of problems can be corrected by working solely with individuals within the processes.

There are surprisingly large numbers of business, and manufacturing processes in a company. For the most part, business processes are run by white-collar workers who support selling or scheduling the product. Others are concerned with the design of the product and production equipment. Manufacturing processes are usually run by blue-collar workers  who make the product.

Determining how critical a process  may be easier for manufacturing than for business processes.Techniques such as DFMEA (Design failure Mode Effects Analysis) and PFMEA (Process for Failure and Effects Analysis) can be used for manufacturing processes. A consensus of the members of a steering committee may be the best way of identifying critical business processes. Although there can be a large number of these processes,often less than thirty are critical to a company. At this point,the steering committee can rate how the company performs on each critical process. One basis for the rating is how each process supports the values and beliefs envisioned for the company. based on the analysis, specific goals can be assigned for cross-functional improvement teams.

The setting of clear goals that are realistic but challenging is the starting point of quality improvement. Motorola, another winner of the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award,achieved its goal of a ten-fold increase in quality over a five year period. Bench marking the performance of other companies is often useful in setting the goals to a realistic level.For example, a competitor may have 30% fewer field problems. For this company, a reduction in field failures by 30% would be realistic. Achievement of this goal also would be necessary to remain competitive in the market place.

Conceptually, a process is an activity that transforms inputs into outputs. Simply,inputs could be people,material,equipment and information. Inputs are mostly received from other processes within a company. The output from each process is either a product or service. The output is furnished to a customer. Within a company,there are many processes intricately linked together and each successive process is a customer for the preceding process. In a like manner,the pending process is a supplier to the following process.Collectively,the processes form the system that delivers products to customers of the company. The output of the last process in the chain is delivered to the customer who placed the order within the company. A process is usually represented by input-output box.within the process  there may be many operations dedicated to making a transformation. These operations may be in several different functions of a company.take,for example,the product design process. This process is a customer of the scheduling process. It also is a supplier to both the purchasing process and production engineering process. The scheduling process must furnish information about detailed customer needs. How thoroughly this job is done has a lot to do with the effectiveness of the design process. Each process acts as a link in an intricate chain.The chain is as good as the weakest link. Priority for quality improvement should be given to the weakest link. Reaching solutions is often complex because each process may involve several functional areas in a company. Under these circumstances, no one functional area feels an "ownership" of the process. Usually there is a total lack of ownership,which is why many problems occur.

The operations in the product design process can be viewed simply as:

Step                                              Functions Involved

Product  Definition                         Marketing,Product development

Preliminary Design                         Marketing,Product development,suppliers,production

                                                     engineering, purchasing

Design review                                Marketing,Product development,suppliers,production

                                                     engineering,production, purchasing

Validation                                      Product development,Quality

Final design                                   Marketing,Product development,suppliers,production

                                                     engineering,production, purchasing

Release for production                   Marketing,Product development,suppliers,production

                                                     engineering,production, purchasing

There are seven functional areas involved in the process. Getting an improvement in the process is complex. No one functional area is the natural owner of the entire process. Many companies have solved this dilemma by using cross-functional improvement teams. members of the team represent each functional area in the  process. The team is recognized as the natural owner of the process.Consensus is sought to obtain the best solution for the company. 

A popular strategy for improving processes is to evaluate variations in the parameters for both manufacturing and business processes. performance measures are sought for the process to be improved. For a manufacturing process,they may be such things as downtime or level of inventory. A business process such as product design, may make a number of changes after release for production. Changes in design after tooling is complete are usually very disruptive.There is also a large risk of making a mistake.

The performance measures may be chosen at the output of the process. In this way, the measures reflect what the entire process is doing. For many companies,the measure of the output is the key issue in process performance.

In a process where operations are done by different functional areas,additional measures may be identified. Usually,these measures are at the interfaces between two functional areas. Many companies have found that most problems occur at these interfaces. Often these problems are due to confusion between the functional areas about what is required. This confusion can be cleared up in team meetings after being pointed out.

Properly selected measures will vary over time. The variation will be stable if it is due to the inherent nature of the process.It will not be stable if it is due to something else.(such as workers not paying attention).When plotted on SPC charts,this will be clear.

A major auto producer used this approach in a product design process. There were 17 designers involved. Management was not pleased with the large number of design changes after release to production. SPC charts showed that there was only one designer who needed individual help. The other 16 were victims of the process. Though unacceptable, they could do no better until the design process was changed. Dramatic improvements came about through rethinking the process.

This example shows the advantages of improving processes. Without this,analysis, the designers would,rightly become more frustrated. Pressure would undoubtedly be used on each designer to improve performance.If the process was not changed, most of them would fail/ They would be unhappy and productivity would likely suffer.

There are other ways of showing process measures. so they  can be analyzed for improvement. Various means of doing this will in due course. 

Continuous Improvement of Organizations

Continuous Improvement of Organizations

Many will agree that a drastic change in culture is necessary to improve the organization of most companies. These changes require a big shift in the way things are done. This is the most difficult part of continuous improvement and takes a long time. A few companies started the transition in the early 1980s, and the end is not in sight, but the rewards so far have exceeded the expectations of everyone. Some believe the end will never be reached, because of the need to adapt constantly to the dynamic world that we operate within.

Formally, culture is made up of the values and beliefs shared by most members of an organization. Beliefs are assumptions about what is true.Values are opinions about what is worthwhile or desirable. To survive, there must be a culture within a company dedicated to quality as viewed by the customer.There also must be a dedication to continuous improvement in everything. This culture must have clear values and beliefs driving its behavior, since behavior is the foundation by which the company is managed and seen by everyone One way to look at the cultural change required is by seeing it as a ladder as per the given below steps:

CUSTOMER FOCUS

CROSS FUNCTIONAL TEAMS

CULTURAL TRAINING

COOPERATION AMONG FUNCTIONS

STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL

INSPECTION AND AUDIT

Though described as a ladder,the changes need not be made one step at a time or in the sequence shown. Stages at each step may be pursued together. Also, all  these steps may not be necessary and additional steps may be added to meet the unique needs of each company. To illustrate the cultural change,a hypothetical situation is described. At the bottom rung,a company that relies heavily on inspection and auditing by QC is shown. Little prevention activity to avoid problems is practiced. The company realizes it must change to survive. They know because the companies that they supply told them they must change. At this point,  they really have no vision of what they must do. If they did,they would see that they must be customer-driven as shown on the top rung of the ladder.

The company reached the second rung on the ladder when SPC was adopted. The work concerned with SPC was doe by QC. It made their customers happy for a while, but the company could see little improvement to offset the added cost. Adjustments were then made in the approach. The work for SPC was shifted from QC to the operator. Some improvements were obtained, but not enough. The company realized that the operator could only correct perhaps 15% of the problems;the rest were due to things that others in the company controlled.

More adjustments were made. Different functions started working more closely together. The company was now on the third rung of the ladder.Responsibility was matched with control by the shift of inspection to manufacturing. Marketing worked closer with product development to help with the design. Engineers from manufacturing got involved with looking at products early in the design phase.Things were getting better for this company,but it was still struggling to survive.

Then management got interested in changing the culture of the company. Other companies involved in this approach appeared to be making progress.Training was set up for the top people in the organization. The company was now on the fourth rung of the ladder. Top management learned that they must be the innovators of change. They must have a vision of what the company should be like.From this vision, they must prepare plans to get there. The most difficult change is in the area of behavior. This must correlate to the values and beliefs according to what they observe.

Top management learned, during the training, that typical values and beliefs of companies involved in a cultural change include:

- The entire organization must focus on customers and their needs. The judgement of the quality of products is in the eyes of the final customer.

- There must be a strong focus by the organization on each employee. Through serving its own employees well, a like behavior is carried over to its customers. Efforts must be made to develop a work force with high motivation.

- There also must be a strong emphasis on safety in everything the company does. This includes its products and facilities. Also of concern is the safety of the community in which it resides.

- Prevention of problems must be another area of focus for the company. For this, the company needs to continuously improve the ability of its individuals,processes and organization.

- A strong emphasis must be placed on teamwork. Solutions by a team are usually better than those developed separately.

- There must be total involvement of everyone in an organization regularly. Each employee should participate in problem solving and continuous improvement. Decision making should be done on the lowest level by those involved in the process. Those closest to problems can make good solutions.

- Every employee in the company must be able to speak the truth without fear of punishment. Continuous improvement efforts will not succeed without open discussions of the issues.

The changing of any company to these values and beliefs is a difficult task. Much patience and persistence are required. Each process within a company , whether done by blue or white collar workers, must be looked at and improved. barriers and resistance to change must be handled delicately. The pace must be such that it does not overtax the organization.

After training, management of the hypothetical company decided to plan how they would go ahead. They recognized that changes must start with them. Through their behavior,the right values and beliefs will trickle down through the organization. First on the list was a review of the mission statement to see if it matched the desired values and beliefs. Next,the strategic plan was reviewed to adjust it for required changes. Goals were set for achievement of the needed  changes.

In the next step, the organization of the company was reviewed. It was decided that a continuous improvement steering committee was required. This would be made up of leaders of various functional areas. In this way,any conflicts in goals could be resolved. Also, those involved could reach a consensus about the focus of improvement efforts. Finding ways of making the identified improvements would be up to improvement teams.

The improvement teams are made up of members from each functional area. The make-up of each team depends upon the project assigned by the steering committee. Implementation of this approach will allow the company to reach the fifth rung of the ladder. This is where cross-functional teams are used to obtain improvements.

The company is now one step from the top rung of the ladder,but it is a giant step. The last rung denotes that the desired belief and value system is in place.This means that the behavior of most people in the organization reflects the new culture. Reaching this point takes dedication from everyone. Management must provide leadership in changing behavior.Resources must be provided,particularly for massive and continuous training.

Cross-functional improvement teams must change and fine-tune various processes to reflect the new value system. Most individuals in the company must see the need for change and reflect new values in their behavior. The way this is done is different for each company. There is no 'canned approach' to be emulated. Much of it depends on the personalities involved.

The change in culture is worth it No company has reported that they have completed the change to a new culture.Those that are close report the following results:

Increased market share

Cost reductions

Lower throughput time

Management is easier

Communications are better

Employees are happier

Focuses of continuous Improvement

Focuses of continuous Improvement

The most successful continuous improvement efforts do not focus on the product.This approach has not worked well in the past. Improvements were generally short-lived and not effective, because permanent solutions were not obtained:

Permanent solutions often require a basic change in how the business is run. This involves both business processes and company organization.

Today it is thought that continuous improvement can be obtained by focusing on three factors: the organization, the processes involved with the organization, and concerned individuals.Processes can be classified as business and manufacturing. Targets for improvement,organization and continuous improvement are the real focuses of improvement. Collectively they make up the system that influences the quality of the product.The focuses exist both inside and outside a company. For example, a supplier is external to a company. In reality, the supplier is part of the organization that influences quality. Recognizing this, many companies refer to a supplier as a partner.The processes used by the supplier extend to and are integral with those in the buying company. Individuals from the supplier are concerned in these processes.

The customer who is external to the a company, plays a critical part in focusing quality direction. If the customer is another company, strong direction is given by the customer's requirements for quality products. For companies selling directly to the customer market,the direction is more subtle. For these companies,it is critical to seek out the perceptions of customers. A few companies consider customers as part of the organization that influences quality. by doing this, they include the parties that really decide if quality exists.

To show the relationships among the real focuses of improvement- the individual, the processes, and the organization consider what may happen when a product fails. The scenario can be the same whether the failure occurs in the plant or when the product is used by the customer. If a failure occurs in the plant or when the product is used by the customer. If a failure occurs, an improvement is needed in one or more of the focuses.

Assume that a failure happens because an assembly was not put together correctly. Considering the individual, this may be because the operator was not instructwed adequately.

Looking at the process, improvements may be needed in both manufacturing and business processes. Perhaps the business process of materials delivery is providing wrong but look-alike parts to the operator. Also, the assembly process may not have the proper fixtures to prevent putting together wrong parts. Another possibility is that the business process of product development did not make a design that prevented incorrect assembly.

Regarding the organization, the culture may be driven around the need to make production schedules despite all obstacles. Because of this,the climate in the company may have led the operator to compromise quality for quantity.
For continuous improvement, efforts must be focused on all three objectives. Past quality improvement efforts focused on the individual after analyzing the product.The individual was usually someone on the factory floor. In the example just given, the operator possibly would be retrained and the problem considered solved; but what happens when the operator is sick or transferred? The new operator may make the same mistake. Although it is important to start with individuals, permanent solutions are often  not reached with this approach.
Usually, an individual can provide valuable input leading to permanent solutions. These often require changes in the process and organization. Perhaps a combination of changing fixtures and product design can lead to an enduring solution to the problem. Also,seeking solutions in the process and organization can suggest more individual improvements. Training in design for assembly for a product development engineer may be appropriate. Training in quality for the plant manager may start needed changes in the organization also.

Continuous Quality Improvement

Continuous Quality Improvement

The improvement of quality has been sought by manufacturers for a long time. The path seeking improvement is marked by many thrusts. Some earlier ones started in the 1960s were quality control,quality assurance,and product assurance;then came total quality control and company wide quality control. Today there is total quality management.

Companies in business for any length of time embarked on a series of thrusts to improve quality. Despite these efforts,companies today may spend over one-fourth of their revenue to find and correct quality problems. Because of product failures,customers are getting products not up to par and seeking other sources. The survival of many companies depends on correcting this situation.

Broad concept of continuous improvement:

The concept of continuous improvement is the strategy that companies must adopt. Knee-jerk reactions to problems are no longer sound.It is an established fact that inspection has little effect on quality. Companies must be involved in an ongoing effort to seek better levels of performance. Once new levels are reached,the effort must continue toward the next level. The journey for continuous improvement is expected by many to last forever.

Improvement efforts must be broad and applied to everything.Continuous improvement is far more than just improving the quality of products.For example, it could relate to improving cash flow through better customer billing methods, or reducing the lead time  required to develop a product.

Quality improvement is only part of the broader improvement effort. Continuous improvement mandates that there must be a basic change in the way that we think,learn,govern and operate any organization. Many efforts of the past to improve quality were fruitless because this basic change did not happen.

Continuous Improvement

Continuous Improvement

It implies a quest for identifying the source of a problem eliminating the source attaining a level of performance and repeating the cycle again and again to achieve unprecedented levels of performance.

A total quality organization aims to be a performance leader in satisfying the customer.

Use of PDCA (Plan-Do-check- Act) - Deming Cycle:

A total quality organization constantly makes use of PDCA cycle to move to the higher levels of performance. With continuous improvement comes the need to work as teams to jointly resolve chronic problems faced by the organization.

Customer Orientation

Customer Orientation

Total Quality requires a shift from inward looking organization to an outward looking organization. In customer oriented organizations the goal of constant focus is to be ahead of customer's needs and competitors.

Customer Satisfaction:

Customer defines the quality. This unambiguous concept has profound implications for organizations that take it seriously.'You have to start with the customer and key your actions off them. See the customer as the starting point,listening post and ultimate arbiter for everything'.First they determine the customer's needs and expectations - the attributes that are desired. then they develop the product or services to suit their continuing changing needs.

Focus on customers - Outward looking:

It prescribes an approach to quality improvement that begins by looking at the needs of the external customer and then working backwards through customer-supplier links. Instead of asking 'what is that we can make' a total quality organization asks 'what is it that customer desires that we should attempt to make'. This applies to every individual,section or department in the organization.

Internal customer orientation:

TQM focuses on the internal customer as well as external. you can not meet the needs of external customers unless your internal processes are in alignment. The idea that everyone has a customer provides a framework for improvement. Regardless of one's job everyone in the organization is a link in a chain of internal customers and suppliers that eventually leads to ones company's external customer.

Human Resource Excellence - continued

Human Resource Excellence - continued

Continuous Training & Education:

The vitality of an organization depends on its people and its human organization. Adequate attention must be paid to the training and development. Market competitiveness,profitability,industrial relations and quality of life depend in large part on training. Because a timely competitive edge comes from people who know why they are there,what their job is and how it fits into the larger picture. What the system needs is people who are resourceful,innovative and educated and who can operate in new culture with new attitude.

Link individual & organization goals:

Organization goals must be broken down and in that light individual's roles and their job descriptions should be prepared and intimated to them. Each individual has his own personal goals. Care has to be taken that while achieving the organizational goals, each individual also attains his personal goals. This goal congruency will motivate people to a great extent. This implies a management capable of specifying multiple goals, weighing them,inter-relating them and finding synergetic policies.

Participation in Improvements:

Participation leads to involvement which improves efficiency and leads to member's / employee's satisfaction,enhances morale and makes the relationship more harmonious.Human resource policies today have to be oriented towards encouraging participative management culture and team work. The present information age needs synergy that results when several people focused on a common goal work in a collective manner with cohesive behavior, a higher productivity is accomplished than could ever be achieved by them independently.

Working in teams is one of the best examples of participative management.Team work is characterized by a striving for perfection. - a relentless pursuit of excellence. Again the objective of team work is to obtain the commitment of employees at all levels. A simple conceptual diagram given below demonstrates the commitment objective quite succinctly,while emphasizing the importance of participation.

TEAMS-PARTICIPATION-OWNERSHIP(INVOLVEMENT)-COMMITMENT

Eliminate fear of failure:

The main thing to bear in mind is that competence is created on the job. It is only when one shoulders responsibility that he makes his own decisions and deals with people that he develops. The secret of development lies in encouraging the people to take initiative and to attempt the seemingly impossible,even if this entails some failures. It is known that initially only few venturesome take the risk,with encouragement more and more people become venturesome. It provides the best strategy for generating and managing creative human energies.

Cross functional teams / Quality circles etc.:

Some of the successful methods in developing the people and encouraging participation are cross functional reams,departmental quality goal teams,Quality circles and suggestion schemes. Through these structured activities people participate in the improvement process as teams.

Recognition & reward:

People who stand out in their efforts should be recognized and rewarded both for performance and behavior. Those working for continuous improvement need this in particular as a stimulus and motivation. When desirable behavior is encouraged by recognition and rewards, such behavior is reinforced. When people are recognized for a worthy effort, others who come to know of it, will strive to emulate them for similar recognition.The selection criteria should not be just what has been achieved but how it has been achieved.

Next: Customer orientation

Human Resource Excellence

Human Resource Excellence

It is well known that happy people alone can produce outstanding quality. The creation of happy, skilled and motivated people is on the other imperatives of total quality. Self-esteem and pride in their organization and pride in their organization and in the work they do is a prerequisite for human resource excellence.

Pride is a function of two main factors:

A clear and consistent articulation of appealing corporate values - what the organization stands for.

The product offerings that embody quality service and value, or in other words giving people a product or service them can be proud of.

An individual's performance in an organization is the result of two factors: ability and attitude. It is only the synergetic combination of these two factors acting together in balance which will result in the desired performance. Anyone of these factors working in isolation will fail to achieve desired results. The ability aspect helps answer the employee's question, 'what should I do and how should I do it?' Ability is the basic and primary requirement. All ability building interventions will help bring performance to the threshold of average mediocrity in to the domain of customer delight. On the other hand, attitudinal development interventions focus on creating a strong purpose in work for the industry and other organizations and help answer the employee's question,’ why should I do it?' It is here that pride helps answer this question. Once an employee is proud of his / her organization he/ she will never let it down. The employee then performs not because the organization wants performance but the employee has a desire to perform for him or herself, and it is this intrinsic pride that will take performance beyond the threshold of mediocrity into the domain of customer delight.

Following are the focus areas to sustain and develop human resource excellence in an organization:

a. Continuous training and education

b. Participation in improvements

d. Eliminate fear of failure

E.Recognition and Reward

Product, Processes and Systems Excellence

Product, Processes and Systems Excellence

No organization can endeavor to become a total quality organization unless it produces goods and services that go well beyond the value expectation of its customers. To be able to produce such outstanding goods and services an organization will have to focus on the following:

1. Listens to Customer's voice: Develop products and services suitably after listening to the voice of the customer.' A total quality organization asks what is it that customers desire which we should attempt to make' instead of producing something and then trying to sell that.

2. Process Reliability - Zero Errors: Develop suitable processes that are capable of delivering the desired products and services consistently and without errors.

3. Right thing - first time - always: Having procedures and systems in place which ensure production of the kind of products right the first time, every time. This is to conform to the requirements of ISO 9000 series of standards or equivalent.

4. Vendor Relations - Long term: Developing long term partnership with vendors effectively so that the quality level of vendors also improves. Without the quality level of suppliers improving there could be no assurance of outstanding quality being produced and delivered to the organization's customers, all the time.

Quality partnership: Briefly stated, quality partnership is a special long term relationship between a customer and a supplier. On the part of the supplier this involves a commitment to provide a service or product which meets the customer's 'fitness for use' criteria and provides continually increasing value to him. Both customer and supplier commit to using statistical process control principles in their manufacturing processes. In all cases. Customer and supplier commit to sharing information that will aid in achieving continual improvement in the products and services supplied and in the processes in which they are used. Quality partnership is a win-win situation both for the customer and the supplier. It is becoming increasingly important.

Product Excellence is determined by:

Function

Product Appeal

Reliability   

Management Leadership

Management Leadership:

Without the whole hearted involvement and commitment of management, at all levels, total quality can just not happen. Management leadership is also discernible when top management performs the following actions:

Formulates strategy

Develops vision

States clearly the mission

Clarifies organizational goals and objectives

Plans and converts Vision to reality

Develops culture for TQM

Involves all organization-wide

Formulates Strategy: Strategy facilitates organizational growth by way of exploring and exploiting opportunities. Once the basic mission and objectives of an organization are set, a strategy is required and a process through which the organization uses its resources to achieve its objectives.

Develops vision: Develops a vision of what the business can and will be in future. Vision captures the worth of business, integrating the goals, strategies and action plans. A vision statement is expected to build an emotional climate of commitment and togetherness in an organization. It is expected to cover the market environment, competitive and economic positions that an organization is expected to encounter.

States clearly the mission: Mission is the character, identify and reason for the existence of an organization. A mission statement is complementary to vision and it states the basic purpose of the business by clearly defining a company's relationship to other organizations including its competitors.

A mission statement is expected to set a general objective of what a business is and what the management philosophy is in achieving the mission. It helps in articulating corporate values, which are guiding principles for corporate actions and ethical behaviors.

Clarifies organizational goals and objectives: Communicates unambiguously what it wants the organization to achieve. In doing so it provides an inspiring leadership which promotes organization-wide alignment and a wholehearted involvement and contribution by all. The leadership's main function is to motivate i.e.; draw from each of its people their fullest potentialities. Clarity of goals helps an organization to focus on critical and key success factors.

Plans and Converts Vision in to reality: Plans suitable for the actions that must be taken to convert the vision into o reality. By doing this, management ensures that there are no surprises that disorient people in their quest and in that of the organization for total quality. Without effectiveness there are only dreams. Effectiveness means setting out to do something and doing it. It apparently is easy to confuse decision with carrying out a decision in to action. The action involves both decision and its implementation. If the management is to have influence over what goes on, it must have influence on not only on the decisions, but also on the motivation and skill with which the decisions are carries out.

Develops culture for TQM: Total Quality is synonymous with a change in culture. A culture compatible with concepts of total quality. The creation of a total quality culture has to be the task of top management. Culture is th4e integral pattern of human behavior that includes thought, speech and action, and depends on man's capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations. Most elements of culture take a long time in their evolution and equally as long to change. An organization has a mission when its culture fits with strategy. Culture enables organizations to function as a collective unit. The cultural glue consists of strong norms and values that heavily influence the way people behave how they work together and how they pursue the goals of the organization. To strengthen the organization's culture a set of values, behavioral characteristics, procedural rituals and role models for professionals working in the organization should be identified.

Involves all organization-wide: Total quality requires organization-wide participation at all levels. Participation leads to involvement which is a precondition to commitment. People become involved through seeing their ideas become part of their work and work environment. This can only happen when management instills a feeling of responsibility in everyone and also delegates authority to employees to fulfill their responsibilities. This implies that people are empowered to take action as and when required and also made accountable. Management leadership implies that anyone in a leadership position has this vital role to play.

Imperatives of Total Quality Management

Imperatives of Total Quality Management

One of the most important things that need to be accomplished for attaining performance superiority is that simultaneously a number of 'imperatives' have to be put in place in an organization. Imperatives represent basic minimum requirements that have to be incorporated within the organization for total quality to become an integral part of doing the business.

These are:

Management Leadership

Product, Process and Systems Excellence

Customer Orientation

Human Resource Excellence

Continuous Improvement

Definition of Total Quality

Definition of Total Quality
It is defined as an organization-wide approach towards quality which results in performance leadership in meeting customer's requirements by doing the 'right thing right the first time and every time'. The phrase 'Performance Leadership' implies that the organization has to be the best of its kind when compared with its competitors worldwide.
So what exactly is TQM?
TQM is relatively a new approach to the business of management. It seeks to improve product and service quality and increase customer satisfaction by restructuring traditional management practices. The application of TQM is unique to each organization that adopts such an approach. Common attributes which are vital for the implementation of TQM are customer focus, strategic planning, effective leadership, continuous improvement, fact based management, team work and involvement of all.
In TQM environment, company recognizes that the word 'Quality' includes 'quality management' as much as it means 'improving the management of quality'. In fact, taking steps for improving the Quality of management in the organization should take place before improving any thing else.
Need for Total Quality Management:
Rising customer expectations
Increasing competitive process and competitive position of organization
Internal pressure for improvement
How to do value addition in existing methods
To get the best from the people
Changing perceptions of vendors and customers
Perceptions of managers and work force
Organizational priorities for improvement
To survive.

Approaches for Quality

Approaches for Quality

In the traditional approach to Quality Control the focus was largely on output of the process. In the TQM approach the interest shifts from just the desired results to an active focus on the process of producing the results as well. Thus focus on the process and output together is a Total Quality requirement.

In the traditional approach through a process of inspection and detection of defects, the output from the firm was usually segregated into good production or bad production. This way customer's satisfaction to a certain extent was achieved because bad production would not get to them. This was an extremely wasteful way of quality control. When competition is intense, it is obvious that TQM approach is definitely a more prudent approach because by continually improving the process to deliver the right kind of output to the customer the very first time and every time the extent of wastage encountered in traditional approach is greatly reduced. It follows from this that while doing things right is essentially a sign of efficiency, doing right things right first time and every time is sign of both effectiveness and efficiency and points to the fact that Total Quality is the result of a completely new strategic direction adopted by choice. Therefore Total Quality has to do with the performance of an organization. It calls for the streamlining the operations so that non-value-added work is eliminated and continuous improvement takes place. The process on which continuous improvement is based in general is known as Deming Wheel, which consists of P (plan) - D (do) - C (check) - A (act)
This wheel shows a continuous movement in a certain direction. The idea behind this is that the input which generates activities with measurable output is the process and the perfection of the process is the ultimate objective. In Deming's wheel, the 'plan' defines the process which ensures documentation and sets measurable objectives against it. The 'do' executes the process and collects the information required. The 'check' analyses the information in a suitable format. The 'act' obtains corrective action using TQM techniques and methods and assesses future plans. At the end of each cycle, the process is either standardized or targets are adjusted based on the analysis and the cycle continues.

Organizational Problems

Organizational Problems

The issues are

How do we get everybody to work together?

How do we maintain their involvement?

How do we make them contribute their best?

How do we create their satisfaction?

How do we continuously improve?
The beliefs are
Employees are just resources; they are the very purpose to achieve the objectives
Company employs the total man with body, mind and intellect and not just hands
Problems are with systems and not with people
Variance analysis focuses on what - how- why (and not who)
People will be able to improve systems and solve problems
Aim is to utilize the full potential of all employees
Total employee involvement is essential for customer satisfaction