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