What is quality management

 

 

What is quality management

 

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QUALITY MANAGEMENT


- INTRODUCTION -

 

Businesses of all types are using quality management to improve every aspect of their operations and, ultimately, becoming more competitive and profitable.

 

  • INTRODUCTION              
  • WHAT IS QUALITY MANAGEMENT    
  • THE CONCEPTS             
  • CASE STUDY
  • MORTGAGE EXPRESS    
  • CASE STUDY
  • APPORT LIMITED     
  • IMPLEMENTING QUALITY MANAGEMENT
  • IN YOUR BUSINESS       

 

Introduction

How well is your business performing?

Having been developed in manufacturing, quality management has grown into a way of helping any business improve.

It aims to makes sure that at every level of an organization; things are done right first time.

Quality is for: Any business interested in reforming the way it works to improve profitability.

What quality management are (the basic concepts and methods), and guidance on how to approach business/process/quality improvement projects?

What is quality management?

Originally developed as a way of improving manufacturing processes, quality management is now a complete business philosophy. By emphasizing quality at all stages of your business it can help improve reliability, delivery, price, performance and, ultimately, profitability.

There is also a considerable body of evidence that suggests that quality – above reliability, price and delivery – is the most important competitive weapon that businesses have.

It can be used to win and retain customers, recruit the best people, gain resources, and enable organizations to compete more effectively.

This document looks at some of the key concepts and methods in quality management and examines how businesses of all sizes are using them.

 

WHY SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT IT?

Quality management has an image problem. The phrase tends to conjure up visions of management gurus, complex academic theories and huge, automated production lines.

In fact, quality management involves formalizing the things that most businesses do already. There are many different quality management methodologies, but all are based on two fundamental assumptions:

  • Whatever the business process, quality can be assessed and managed; and
  • The failure to address quality costs a business financially and reduces its competitiveness.

Increasingly businesses in all industries are responding to this message – often at the request of large supply chain partners who encourage suppliers to adopt quality management. The result can be:

  • a clearer business focus;
  • improved efficiency;
  • increased customer satisfaction;
  • improved communications; and
  • increased cash-flow and the potential for profit.

Taken together these can also deliver an improved reputation – something that can be an incredibly powerful business asset.

Read on to find out more about how quality management works and how to apply it to your business.

The concepts

Quality management goes far wider than just assuring product or service quality – it is a way of managing people and business processes to ensure complete customer satisfaction at every stage, internally and externally.

Combined with effective leadership, it aims to get an organization doing the right things right, first time.

This section explains more about what quality management involves by looking at some of the concepts that underpin it. More detailed documents exploring the issues below are also available from the DTI.

  • Quality
  • Quality management systems
  • Process understanding
  • Process improvement
  • Measurement
  • People

QUALITY

The most important concept is quality itself. What does it mean? A frequently used definition is “delighting the customer by fully meeting their needs and expectations”.

In other words, what ‘quality’ is will be different for each business. First the organization needs to know what these needs and expectations are and be able to measure its ability to meet them. This may include performance, appearance, availability, delivery, reliability, maintainability, cost effectiveness and price.

 

QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

 

A quality management system is a set of coordinated activities to help an organization achieve quality improvements and then build on them. It does this by ensuring that two important sets of requirements are met:

  • customer requirements – by building confidence in the ability of the organization to deliver consistently products or service that meet customers’ needs and expectations.
  • organizational requirements – by ensuring that that the available resources – materials, human, technology and information – are used as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible.

PROCESS UNDERSTANDING

In the simplest terms, a process is any activity that adds value in an organization. Everything we do is a process and ultimately forms part of the network of processes that makes up the whole organization.

In every organization there are some very large processes, which are (can be broken down into groups of smaller processes, called key or core business processes. These must be carried out well if an organization is to achieve its mission and objectives.

Process understanding is a key part of overall process improvement (see below). It involves examining and mapping the processes in a business to understand how well it is performing. Processes are commonly documented under the following headings: title, purpose, scope, inputs, outputs, controls and resources.

 

PROCESS IMPROVEMENT

The central aim of a newly introduced quality management system is to identify underperforming processes and improve them.

This can be costly, time consuming and disruptive, so it’s vital that it is properly planned and then effort targeted where it will produce the greatest benefits.

A simple six-step methodology for process improvement includes:

  • Process selection – where an achievable number of key processes are selected for investigation.
  • Process understanding – see above.
  • Process performance – involves recording a processes historical performance and defining how progress should be measured (see below).
  • Process review – where performance data is analyzed and recommendations made for improvement process – including timings, resources and reporting mechanisms.
  • Process change – translates the recommendations into a detailed project plan with milestones, objectives, performance measures and targets.
  • Capturing the change – where the process improvements are integrated into the business management system, ensuring the change is reviewed, managed and built upon.

MEASUREMENT

Performance measurement translates the aims of quality management program into a set of targets that can be used to monitor and control the project. To be truly effective, these need to be established at all levels in the organization.

Traditionally, organizations have measured performance in financial terms.

However, quality management requires a more sophisticated approach that uses not only cost accounting information but also measures the improvements seen by the customer and the results delivered to other stakeholders.

PEOPLE

The complexity of most processes in an organization places them beyond the control of any one individual. This means that the only efficient way to tackle process improvement is through teamwork.

Senior managers need to nurture a culture of quality – building trust, improving communication and encouraging contributions from everyone.
________________________________________________________________________

CASE-STUDY

MORTGAGE EXPRESS

Mortgage Express is the specialist lending arm of the Bradford & Bingley Building Society. It is based in New Barnet, north London, and employs 310 staff. It sells mortgages to customers via mortgage advisors who recommend its products to customers, through partnerships with major mortgage providers and direct to consumers.

OBJECTIVES
When Mortgage Express first embraced total quality and the Business Excellence Model® in 1992, the company was no longer taking on new business and was winding down for closure. The company performed its first self-assessment in 1992, returned to profit in 1993, was short-listed for the 1995 UK Business Excellence Awards, and eventually won an award in 1996.

In 1992, bad debts and the decline in the UK housing market caused the company record losses of more than £70m. At that time no new business was being taken on, and the company had withdrawn from the market. Staff were being redeployed into the growing ‘Management of Arrears’ area to bring the arrears problem under control.

SOLUTION
A culture of continuous improvement was introduced through a number of initiatives:
● ‘Hassle boards’ where staff could write down problems and potential solutions
● ‘Quality time’ – each employee was allocated two hours per month where s/he could undertake improvement activities
● Re-branding of the company’s mission and value statements to focus on maximizing the long term value for the company’s shareholders; providing customers with a first class service; and enabling all employees to achieve their best.

RESULTS
As part of the Lloyds TSB Group, Mortgage Express was put on the market to find a suitable buyer, and in May 1997 came under the new ownership of Bradford & Bingley Group. Even during this time of change and reviews, sales still surpassed expectation and the business was flooded with mortgage applications.

Mortgage Express realized the need for departmental reorganization to improve efficiency and speed of service, and formed multi-skilled teams to deal with and own applications from receipt to completion. It continues to review its processes, procedures and policies through its ‘Listening to

Customers’ program, which gathers feedback from complaint analysis, satisfaction surveys and call recordings.

CHALLENGES
The business has undergone a restructuring, during which the management team targeted specific areas for improvement. In addition, Mortgage Express undertook its first self-assessment since winning the 1996 UK Business Excellence Award, which highlighted key areas for improvement that have since been incorporated into the operational plan.

THE LAST WORD
Managing Director, Keith Greenough recognizes the need to stay abreast of change: ‘The market place is changing rapidly and we need to continue to motivate our team of people to keep up with this change.’
________________________________________________________________________

Methods
Approaches to quality management are continually evolving and developing. This section introduces three of the most commonly used approaches and explains their differences.

For a more detailed appraisal of these standards, please visit www.dti.gov.uk/bestpractice

 

ISO 9000
Perhaps the best-known quality management system, ISO 9000 is a family of quality standards created and maintained by the International Organization for Standardization.

The most recent set of standards are:

  • ISO 9000:2000 – QMSs – Fundamentals and vocabulary. This is an introduction to the ISO 9000 family.
  • ISO 9001:2000 – Quality Management Systems – Requirements. This is the core member of the ISO 9000 family, as it specifies the key requirements of an efficient, effective and adaptable QMS.
  • ISO 9004:2000 – Guidelines for performance improvement. This focuses on the processes that quality management systems should embrace.

These standards originated from a regular six-year review and are intended to be generic and adaptable to all kinds of organizations.

They are built around business processes, with a strong emphasis on improvement and a focus on meeting the needs of customers. ISO 9001 recognizes that customers play a significant role in defining requirements as inputs, and it stresses that monitoring customer satisfaction is central to determining whether customer requirements have been met.

 

THE EFQM EXCELLENCE MODEL
The Excellence Model was developed by the European Foundation for Quality Management and is promoted in the UK as Business Excellence by the British Quality Foundation (BQF).

Since its introduction in 1992, the Model has become the most popular improvement framework in Europe, used by more than 20,000 organizations. Regardless of sector, size, structure or maturity, organizations need to establish an appropriate management system if they are to be successful, and the Excellence Model is a practical tool to help them do this by measuring where they are on the path to excellence, helping them understand the gaps and then stimulating solutions.

The Excellence Model uses a mixture of qualitative and quantitative measures, underpinned by eight ‘fundamental concepts’. These concepts are:

  • Results orientation – excellence is dependent upon balancing and satisfying the needs of all relevant stakeholders
  • Customer focus – the customer is the final arbiter of product and service quality.
  • Leadership and constancy of purpose – the behavior of an organization’s leaders must create unity of purpose.
  • Management by processes and facts – decisions must be based on reliable information.
  • People development and involvement – shared values and a culture of trust and empowerment is needed.
  • Continuous learning, innovation and improvement – a culture of continuous learning, innovation and improvement is needed.
  • Partnership development – mutually beneficial relationships, built on trust, sharing of knowledge and integration, should be built with partners.
  • Corporate social responsibility – the long-term interest of the organization are served by adopting an ethical approach.

________________________________________________________________________

CASE-STUDY

APPORT LIMITED

Apport Limited moulds and assembles soap dispensers. It is based in Derby and employs around 40 people. During the past 15 years, the company has gradually expanded and now produces a wide range of products, colors and printed logos. As a result, lead times are now measured in days not weeks and though sales are growing, so too are labor and material costs.

OBJECTIVES
Peter Arnott, General Manager of Appor since December 1999, noted the deterioration of relationships between management and staff in the last few years and realized the need for change. In the past, employees had been actively encouraged to identify ideas for improvement, but all too often these ideas did not get implemented, usually because of lack of direction and guidance from management. This resulted in growing frustration amongst employees.

SOLUTION
Towards the end of 1999, Appor made a conscious decision to fortify internal relationships and improve customer service. Though the business was already meeting 98% of deadlines, it was under pressure to reduce lead times further, reduce costs and improve employee morale.

As a result, four continuous improvement (CI) teams were formed. Each team is made up of five or six employees and a representative from management, and can run a maximum of four projects at a time. Once a project is completed, it is reviewed to establish whether initial objectives have been met and whether any further work is necessary.

RESULTS
Benefits include:

  • The design and manufacture of an assembly jig, which cost £950 but saves labor costs of £2000 per year. Now operators can assemble more products each day, reducing overtime and waste and creating better products.
  • A change in layout of a conveyor system, enabling operators to work more comfortably and effectively at minimal cost to the business.
  • Sourcing alternative raw materials, thereby getting more competitive prices and creating more beneficial relationships with suppliers. Cost savings arising from this can either be reinvested in the business or passed on to customers.

Current projects include further streamlining of assembly operation, automation of certain moulding tools and evaluation of services to ensure best value for money. It is thought that all of these initiatives will benefit employees and customers alike.

Information about these improvements and current financial performance are communicated to employees every three months in face-to-face sessions. Staff is also informed about future developments and plans, and are given the opportunity to ask questions.

THE LAST WORD
The next phase of the improvement plan involves the introduction of structured training for staff. A more flexible, fulfilled and highly skilled workforce will enable Appor to continue to grow, increase its product range and techniques, and provide a higher standard of customer service.

________________________________________________________________________

Implementing quality management in your business

Whatever your size and type of business, and whatever the business process – delivery, design, manufacturing or customer service – reducing error by improving the way things are done can have dramatic benefits.

A central assumption of quality management, which is supported by a number of studies, is that when well executed, it pays for itself. This is because quality management is a practical and focused way of promoting best practice that concentrates its efforts where the greatest benefits will occur.

When asked if a business can afford to implement quality management, practitioners often respond ‘can you afford not to?’

One study claimed that many organizations have quality related costs of between 20% and 40% of their sales revenue. An effective quality improvement program that reduces this substantially can, therefore, make a direct and significant contribution to profits.

NEXT STEPS

If what you’ve read in this brochure interests you, you have three immediate options:

  • Read more – visit www.dti.gov.uk/bestpractice to read our whole range of quality management publications, all of which are available free of charge online or in print.
  • Talk to your colleagues – take soundings to find out who’s interested and informed about quality management and discuss your ideas.
  • Consult – talk to Business Link to get some help. Call 0845 600 9 006 to find your nearest adviser.

Before committing time and money to a quality program, you need to clarify your motives and the level of commitment in your organization, particularly at the senior management level.

There are two basic approaches to quality management implementation:

  • The ‘blitz’ approach – where the whole organization is exposed very rapidly to the concepts. This shock tactic can be extraordinarily effective is done well. However, if implemented badly, it can cause confusion among staff and even damage quality levels.
  • The slow, planned approach – which works through gradual change so that “business as usual” becomes “the implementation of quality and
  • excellence”. This relies on managers being role models and effectively
  • promoting quality and excellence.

Whichever option businesses settle on, many first run pilot scheme using a small team to explore the issues and dip a toe in the water.

Further help and advice
British Quality Foundation (BQF) – is Europe’s largest not-for-profit corporate membership organization promoting performance improvement and excellence through a range of services for its members. www.qualityfoundation. co.uk

British Standards Institution (BSI) – responsible for preparing British Standards that are used in all industries. www.bsi-global.com

Institute of Quality Assurance (IQA)
Provides training, seminars and other services for members, industry and commerce. www.iqa.org

Quality Methods Association (QMA)
Promotes the sharing of knowledge and best practice through seminars and workshops. www.qma.co.uk

United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS)
The UK body responsible for assessing and accrediting the competence of organizations in the fields of calibration, measurement, testing, inspection and the certification of systems, personnel and products. www.ukas.com

QUALITY MANAGEMENT: INTRODUCTORY GUIDE
For more information on Achieving best practice in your business:
● Visit the website at www.dti.gov.uk/bestpractice
best practice publications or visit www.dti.gov.uk/publications

 

Source: http://zaipul.wikispaces.com/file/view/1+Quality+Management+Requirements.doc
Web site: http://zaipul.wikispaces.com/

 

Author : not indicated on the document source

 

 

What is quality management

What is Total Quality management?
CET 765 Video Lesson 1

 

What is TQM – Total Quality management?

TQM is a way of thinking about goals, organizations, processes and people to ensure that the right things are done right first time. This thought process can change attitudes, behavior and hence results for the better.

 

What TQM is not

TQM is not a system, a tool or even a process.  Systems, tools and processes are employed to achieve the various principles of TQM.

 

What does TQM cover?

TQM applies to every activity in the organization, including issues such as ethics, attitude and culture.

 

What is the TQM philosophy?

There have been several persons who have made significant contributions to the TQM philosophy –  In particular, Deming, Crosby, Juran, Feigenbaum, Ishikawa and Imai. The wisdom of these persons can be expressed in eight principles.
The eight principles of quality management:

  • customer-focused organization - organizations depend on their customers and therefore should understand current and future customer needs, meet customer requirements and strive to exceed customer expectations
  • leadership - leaders establish unity of purpose, direction and the internal environment of the organization. They create the environment in which people can become fully involved in achieving the organization’s objectives
  • involvement of people - people at all levels are the essence of an organization and their full involvement enables their abilities to be used for the organization’s benefit
  • process approach - a desired result is achieved more efficiently when related resources and activities are managed as a process
  • system approach to management - identifying, understanding and managing a system of interrelated processes for a given objective contributes to the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization
  • continual improvement - continual improvement is a permanent objective of an organization
  • factual approach to decision making - effective decisions are based on the logical and intuitive analysis of data and information
  • mutually beneficial supplier relationships - mutually beneficial relationships between the organization and its suppliers enhance the ability of both organizations to create value.

IQA Quality Information Centre.  On-line:
http://www.iqa.org/information/d2-4.shtml  (2/13/03)

Related on-line references:
State of Nebraska Organization Effectiveness Group.  On-Line:
http://www.das.state.ne.us/personnel/nkn/index.htm (2/13/03)
Total Quality Management in Brief.  On-line: http://thequalityportal.com/tqm.htm  (2/13/03)
Total Quality Management (Lucent Presentation).  On-line:
http://users.rowan.edu/~blev7249/lucentpresentation/index.htm  (2/13/03)
Quest – About TQM.  On-line:
http://www.informaticsgroup.com/tqm/abt_tqm.htm  (2/13/03)

Source: http://www.edutechassociates.com/myweb/CET765/What%20is%20total%20quality%20management.doc

Author : not indicated on the document source

 

What is quality management

1.         Quality Management

 

Quality Management is a particular form of value-adding, cost-effective  management technology, used to manage organisations and work intended to produce specific outcomes.

 

At present, quality management includes, but is not limited to, the management technologies and applications detailed in Appendix A.  Each one of these discrete management technologies has the potential to positively contribute to and benefit every organisation.

 

Quality Management, like quality, cannot be precisely defined because it evolves as society itself evolves.

 

Quality Management has no boundaries and is concerned with managing quality:

 

  • of management              ie - the quality of manager capabilities, competencies, experience,          attitudes, traits, styles, probity, ethics
  • by management             ie - the quality of the ideologies, structures, approaches, resources             and  workplace environments created by management
  • in management              ie - the quality of leadership, focus, motivation, commitment,                   involvement,  strategies, and methodologies deployed in the            practice of management
  • from management                     ie - the quality of the results and outcomes produced from                management
  • into management                  ie - the systematic or ad-hoc management of continuous  improvement  opportunities into management practice to displace and replace ineffective technologies

 

Quality Management systematically manages:

 

  • what is intended to be done        - identifies, defines, specifies, plans, documents, informs

           

  • what is actually being done         - supervises, monitors, controls, measures, records

           

  • what was done                            - verifies, validates and records
  • what should have been done      - measures, assesses, reviews, identifies shortcomings, records

 

  • what needs to be done                - addresses and remedies shortcomings in performance outcomes
  • by whom, when, where, how and why.

 

Quality Management can holistically, or separately, manage all the discrete functions of management - ie leading, planning, organising, staffing, directing, controlling, feeding-back, correcting and improving, in any industry or discipline.

Quality Management seeks to contribute to identifying and satisfying the stated or implied needs and expectations, of suppliers, recipients and participants in all activities of human endeavour.

By virtue of its intent and methodologies, and the commitment of its practitioners, quality management is continuously improving itself - constantly striving to be better, more relevant, and a more effective means for attaining productivity, competitiveness and customer satisfaction.

 

  • Application

 

Quality Management is applicable to the management per se, of all aspects of the design, operation, performance and cost-effectiveness of all organisations, their products and their services - in all industries.

There is no organisational related activity which cannot be successfully managed or improved by the application of quality management technologies.

Quality Management is particularly valuable in uniting the tiers, or hierarchial levels of organisations, towards a common purpose.

Quality Management can provide a clearly defined structural framework in which all organisational activity occurs - a must for empowered self-directed or cross-functional workplace teams,  multi-skilled flexible workforces, or dynamic workplace environments.

Some of the current applications of quality management are detailed in Appendix B.

 

Source:http://oestex.com/ee/ims1r1.doc
Author : By Dennis R. Grimwood

Web site: http://oestex.com/

 

What is quality management

 

 

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What is quality management

 

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What is quality management