The major new element in world market competition is quality. During the 1970's and
1980's, the Japanese and their U.S. companies demonstrated that high quality is
achievable at lower costs and greater customer satisfaction. It was the result of using
the management principles of total quality management (TQM). More and more U.S.
companies have demonstrated that such achievements are possible Using TQM as a new way to
manage. Such companies also found that they were recognized with everyone pulling in the
same direction. Improvement had become a way of live.
Improving competitive position and profit has always been the responsibility of
management. Before the 1980's, U.S. management was broadly successful. Until then the
dominant management model was that of the autocrat. Management, primly senior
management, decided how the business was to operate, including what the policies and
objectives were; how it was organized; what jobs were established; and how should they be
done. It was an unquestioned axiom that if everyone did what the upper management
required, the business would be successful.
Organizations are composed of the people in them and the managers who lead them. People
respond strongly to leadership expectations and rewards. If they are given little power
in their jobs, they have little interest in improving them. If leaders exhort the
members for better output but reward (promotions, bonuses, recognition) for mostly higher
output, they get the behavior they reward. Quantity over quality has been a common
management philosophy in the United States.
The first step in implementing TQM requires the an upper-management change in both
philosophy and behavior. Managers must adopt the objectives of customer satisfaction and
continuous improvement. They must implement the change to achieve these objectives
through their personal and continuous involvement and in the reeducation of everyone in
the organization in TQM principles and practices. The past philosophy of management can
work reasonably well if a company dominates world markets. When markets become complex
and worldwide with more and stronger competitors, a new model is needed. Asian
companies and some in the United States have demonstrated that there is a more effective
way to manage, quite different from the autocratic model: It is employee involvement in
quality improvement. These companies also introduce high quality at lower cost as a
competitive element, thereby changing the competitive equation for everyone.
TQM is a way to continuously improve performance at every level of operation, in every
functional area of an organization, using all available human and capital resources.
Improvement is addressed toward satisfying board goals such as cost, quality, market
share, schedule, and growth. It demands commitment and discipline, and an ongoing
effort.
The quality management process includes the integration of all employees, suppliers, and
customers, within the corporate environment. It embraces two underlying tenets:
Quality management is a capability which inherent in your employees.
?. Quality management is a controllable process, not an accidental one.
The idea of an integrated, human-orientated systems approach to management was
successfully used by W. Edwards Deming in the 1950's. Deming told the Japanese that they
could become world-class leaders if they followed his advice and they did. He lectured
top Japanese business leaders on statistical quality control. He proposed a system that
would change the approach to management in many ways. Today, this system is the pillar of
TQM philosophy. These components make up the strategic portion of the quality pyramid
(figure. 1). There are mainly eight functional elements from which other concepts flow.
These are:
1.Organizational vision
Organizational vision provides the frame work that guides a firm's believes and values.
The gist of the corporate vision should be a simple, one sentence guide or motto that
every employee knows, and more important, believes. If well crafted, the vision
statement can serve through a torrent of change in product and service technology. The
strategic vision needs to consider both the external customer and the employees, but
should lack a defining or differentiating phrase between them. For example, General
Motors provides all employees a card with its strategic vision, including a cause-effect
diagram that indicates the importance of team work (figure 2).
Simply stating a vision is not enough. It needs to be demonstrated by the actions of
the executives, managers , superiors, foremen, and individuals. It should be done
continuously in all their actions and initiatives. Moreover, deliberation must be
exercised in developing these goals and strategies. They must reflect the values and
culture of the work force. While top-management commitment is essential, managers should
realize when to lead and when to get out of the way. In a sense quality management is
management from the bottom up. An atmosphere of responsibility must be created toward
the customer for whatever product is produced or service is rendered (fig.3, below).
Figure 3
Strategies in Successful Vision Implementation
Demonstrate commitment. Inform suppliers.
Maintain a constancy of purpose. Take a long-term view.
Create more leaders. Establish meaningful goals.
Examine your mission. Discuss TQM with peers.
Behavior and action must be consistent with goal. Build awareness.
2. Barrier Removal
It is inevitable that change will be resisted. In fact, a great deal of effort in
quality management is expended in overcoming such resistance, usually by allowing change
to come from individuals directly involved, rather from management. The whole idea of
continuous improvement leads to continuous change.
Some of these barriers are:
?. We know what they really want (without asking them).
?. Quality is not a major factor in decisions-low initial cost mentality prevails.
?. Creative accounting can increase corporate performance.
?. Can't manufacture competitively at the low end.
?. The job of senior management is strategy, not operations.
?. Success is good, failure is bad.
?. If it isn't broke, don't fix it.
?. The key disciplines from which to draw senior management are finance and marketing.
?. Increase in quality means increase in cost.
?. Thinking that time, quality, cost are the worst mutuality exclusive, at best we can
only choose two out of three.
The following are the steps to barrier removal:
I. Identify barrier. As seen above some of these barriers may apply effecting
progress.
II. Place into categories. Related barriers and their systemic causes may now be
analyzed. Categorization may be facilitated by using either cause-effect diagrams or
quality function deployment.
III. Establish priority. An objective process that is not influenced by management or
hidden agenda must be developed. At this stage barriers are judged on their validity in
accordance with the severity of the problem.
IV. Problem solve. This means more than symptoms removal. Sick organizations do not
recover for the long term if the symptoms are masked. It is vital to address the root of
the problem. The elimination of one barrier may solve many problems for example poor
communication between management and staff. Keep in mind that analyzing the problem
should include estimates of resources required for it solution.
V. Goals and strategies for resolution. Resolution of problems may entail goals over a
period of months or years. Goals should be realistic and attainable with the given
resources. Strategies ensure that goals can be accomplished. Bear in mind that
numerical goals as such may not be what is required. Numerical goals may also limit the
amount of growth, particularly in organizations used to working up to an average.
3.Communication
Communication is the glue that binds all the techniques, practices, philosophies, and
tools. Communication may be written, verbal, or nonverbal. Understanding and refining
skills for each main type communication is an ongoing process for everyone.
All forms of communication involve four elements: the sender, the receiver, the message,
and the medium. The medium is the method of delivery, and can effect the message. It
was said that "the medium is the message", referring in part to the filtering effects
that can happen to the message and how personality factors may influence our
understanding (figure. 4).
VI. Written Communication. Office memos and reports are the result of hundreds of hours
(studies indicate anywhere from 21% to 70% of office workers' time is spent in
manipulating written information) of work, and their final form should be worthy of
spending some time to get words right. The use of white space and graphical elements
such as charts and figures enhances the readability of any written piece. Given the vast
amount of time spent on reading and creating memos, letters, proposals, and the like, the
byword on written communication should be more is better, and the less is permanent
(memos sent electronically, faxes, hand notes on the bottom of the letters, rather than
typed, recorded reply) the better.
VII. Verbal. Verbal communication takes place in many different settings, and the
form of the communication will vary. One sort of vocabulary may be used to address
shareholders and a different idiom may be used altogether when chatting with construction
workers. The skills principally lacking in verbal communication are public speaking and
small group interactions. Public speaking scares people to death. This fear may be
overcome by training(organizing and practice), videotaping the presentation (to review
latter), and practice(on small group to build confidence). Small group interactions are
essential to buildup comfort and ease among the group.
It will provide a sense of team work and it is vital to have small talk among the team.
VIII. Nonverbal. Humans infer a great deal of information from nonverbal clues. This
non verbal clues includes body language as well as things as dress for success.
Psychologists believe that nonverbal clues lead to "gut feels" about how to interact with
another person. Despite the similarities of nonverbal communication, there are cultural
differences, and is probably most important to understand these, rather than reading
individuals body language. It is easy to fall into the trap of overanalyzing nonverbal
clues and infusing them with meaning, when, for example, someone may be hard of hearing
or near/far-sighted rather than being inattentive (or too attentive).
4.Continuous Evaluation
Feedback is essential to continuous improvement. How else would we know if our goals
are being reached?. These feedback mechanisms may be simple oral or written reports,
information systems, or complex automated statistical analyses integrated with our expert
systems. The key is to receive the information in time to allow initiating corrective
action. For example, in construction feedback from engineers, subcontractors and so
forth can help us as managers to find new ways to reduce cost and schedule. Feedback may
also help architects to find the best way to construct a building and therefore effecting
the design. We also should understand and separate assessable causes from chance causes.
Assessable causes have distinct reasons for there existence, while chance causes are
those causes that we have no control over.
5.Continuous Improvement
Unlike innovation, which require great resources, and no small amount of serendipity,
continuous improvement is easier to manage and utilize everyone's talent. Japanese
companies have used this idea for some time, and call this approach kaizen. This idea
fits hand in hand with team building approach. Kaizen and innovation are compared in
figure 5 below.
Figure 5.
Improvement versus Innovation
Continuous Improvement Innovation
Effect long term and long lasting but undramatic. Shot term, but dramatic.
PaceTime frame Small steps.Continuous and incremental. Big steps.Intermittent and
nonincremental.
Change InvolvementApproach Gradual and constant.Everybody.Collectivism, group efforts,
systems approach. Abrupt and volatile.Select few "champions."Rugged individualism,
individual ideas and efforts.
Mode Maintenance and improvement. Scrap and rebuild.
Spark Conventional know-how and state of the art. Technological breakthroughs, new
inventions, new theories.
Practical requirements. Requires little investment but great effort to maintain
it. Requires large investment but little effort to maintain it.
Effort orientationEvaluation criteria People.Process and efforts for better
results. Technology.Result for profit.
Advantage Works well in slow-growth economy. Better suited to fast-growth economy.
To reduce cost and time and increase productivity, in any industry, the focus must
be projected on the process that produces the product. Improving the process in
construction, for example, reduced or may eliminate costly change orders and therefore
reduced complexity and time. Through inspection and analysis of the process, everyone
shares a common learning experience and the accumulated knowledge and understanding
of the process become the basis for improving it.
Precepts of Quality Improvement
?. Quality leadership must begin with top management.
?. The most important aspect of quality is identifying the activities within the
organization that effect quality.
?. Written procedure are one of the necessary communication media by which the management
functions of directing and controlling are exercised.
?. One of the most critical activities in quality improvement is preparing a clear,
concise description of the services to be acquired.
?. The cost, time, and effort devoted to evaluating and selecting suppliers must be
commensurate with the importance of the goods and services to be procured.
?. Quality audits must determine the adequacy of, and compliance with, established
policies, procedures, instructions, specifications, codes, standard and contractual
requirements. Quality audits must also assess the effectiveness of their
implementation.
?. The simple objective of most quality audits is to gather enough reliable data through
inspection, observation, and inquiry to make reasonable assessment of the quality of the
activity being audited.
?. the foundation of quality control is having timely and accurate information so that
systems that are not capable of producing consistent quality can be identified and
improved.
?. An effective quality cost program can help the management team to allocate strategic
resources for improving quality and reducing costs.
?. Productivity, profit, and quality are the ultimate measure of success of the
production system.
6.Customer/Vendor Relationship
The "hearing the voice of the customer" has become a key phrase in the past few years.
This would seem to be a obvious point but it's not. After world war II, The United
States was the only major country that did not have a devastated economic infrastructure.
Therefore, it was able to produce items of any quality and sell them. Industries were
internally driven and not customer driven. As the glob markets grow, new competitors
with new technologies approached these markets providing better quality products and
involving the customers. This approach worked miracles for these new industries and
valuable lessons should be learned from this. Here are some strategies for improving
customer and vendor relation:
?. Link organizational vision to customer satisfaction.
?. Reward suppliers.
?. Move to a single source.
?. Minimize the overall number of vendors.
?. Identify the internal and external customers.
?. Identify end users and distributors.
?. Establish routine dialogue with customers.
?. Involve the customer in planning and development.
Keep in mind that vendors must be qualified and have policies that are compatible with
yours. Viewing these vendors as partners, rather than adversaries leads to the ability
to implement successfully such cost-saving measures as just-in-time, whereby materials
arrive as needed to the construction site.
7.Empowering The Worker
Empowering the worker means enabling the worker to achieve his or her highest potential.
For most American companies, this is new, and may be the most powerful and useful
concept in quality management. Allowing and facilitating workers to achieve their
highest potential may seem obvious or impossible, but in fact it is neither. Empowering
requires turning the organizations chart upside down, recognizing that management is in a
place to aid the worker in overcoming problems they encounter, not to place new
roadblocks on the way.
Empowering strategies may include:
I. Ownership. A key strategy in empowering employees is to allow them ownership of
tasking, project, or division. Ownership implies trust and requires a delegation of
authority commensurate with the responsibility of the task. Ownership can also be
granted to a team. Ownership also demands that the final resolution of the tasking be in
the hands of the owner.
II. Value all contributions. Whether or not we appreciate them, it is important to
enhance self-esteem of the contributor to accept their contribution and evaluate it.
III. Every one has a value. If they didn't why would they be employed? Treat everyone
with respect. All work has dignity to it.
IV. Teams must own problem. Teams are a waste of time if management vetoes or
substantially changes their recommendation. If management is unable to trust the
recommendations that come from the team, then management fear rules, and will spiral to
lower and lower productivity.
V. Delegate authority to the lowest possible organizational level. Constantly ask: why
should I do this? If you have hired competent people, let them do there job. No one
knows about the job than the person directly involved with it.
8.Training
The outcome of training is modified behavior. It may be enhanced interpersonal skills
or specific manual skills, but there is a direct, identifiable modification. Training
need not consist solely of traditional classroom instruction. Employees can train other
employees very effectively.
A company-wide curriculum should be developed that address the needs of each department.
Courses should be just long enough to be effective. Anything over three or four days
is unlikely to immediately be absorbed into daily work habits. Immediate reinforcement
of the training is necessary to be effective.
Bibliography
1. R. Stein, The Next Phase of Total Quality Management., Macel Dekker, Inc.,1994.
2. T. Cartin, Principles and Practices of TQM., ASQC Quality Press.,1993.
1. W. Schmidt and J. Finnigan, TQManager., Jossey-Bass Publishers., 1993.
1. B.Brocka and S. Brocka, Quality Management: Implementing The Best Ideas Of the
Masters. Irwin, Inc.,1992.
2. H. Kerzner, Project Managment., Van Nostrand Reinhold.,1992.
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