Approaches to quality management

Some key approaches to quality management are explored in this section.

Use of Total Quality Management. Continuous improvement (or kaizen) is a philosophy to continually improve the quality of goods/services of an organisation, it involves the con-tinual analysis of organisational processes to ensure continued improvement in perform-ance and quality. Total Quality Management (TQM) builds on the kaizen concept and can be defi ned as an all encompassing organisational philosophy that encourages and fosters continuous improvement. The fundamental features of TQM are as follows:

● prevention of errors and defects before they occur

● the importance of total quality in design of products/services and systems.

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By breaking TQM down into its constituent elements, the meaning and methodology behind the philosophy can be better understood:

Total Everyone linked to the organisation (staff, customers and suppliers) is involved in the process. The concept of viewing every business activity as a process that can be improved is shared.

Quality The requirements of customers are achieved.

Management Senior managers must be fully committed to continuous improvement if all other parties are to help achieve it.

Importantly, TQM focusses on quality from a customer perspective, using a systematic, integrated, organisation-wide approach. TQM encourages the full involvement of all people, at all levels, working within multi-disciplinary teams to suggest and implement improvements from within the organisation. Then the principles of TQM can be imple-mented throughout the organisation.

There are several approaches to developing a TQM philosophy, however there are some common features:

● Those departments not directly involved in satisfying the needs of external customers must serve the needs of their internal customers – that is, the departments which use their services within the organisation.

● Open, honest communication is to be encouraged throughout the organisation.

● An investment in employee training and education to equip them with the skills required for TQM and to enable them to realise their potential.

● An emphasis on teamwork and collaboration (some initiatives make use of ‘quality cir-cles’, in which the employees involved in a process meet at regular intervals to discuss problems and implement improvements).

● Involvement of customers and suppliers as an integral part of the improvement process.

Table 3.7 summarises organisational pre-requisites for TQM.

Use of Quality control is an approach involving:

● establishing quality standards for a service or product

● designing a process to deliver the service or product to the required quality

● measuring the quality of the service or product

● comparing actual quality with planned quality

● taking remedial action where quality does not meet standard

● reviewing the standard originally set and adjust if necessary.

Table 3.7 Prerequisites for TQM

Prerequisite Feature

Leadership Senior management commitment

Methodology Zero-tolerance philosophy

Objective 100% customer satisfaction and competitive advantage

Performance measurement Quality costs: prevention, appraisal, internal and external failure Customer retention and market share

Scope Total organisation and external stakeholders (suppliers and customers)

Nature Continuous improvement

Skills Continuous training

Communication Quality circles

Management reporting

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A quality control mechanism would be used mainly in technical production processes and consists of identifying an element of the production process that is critical to the quality of production, then establishing warning limits and tolerances to measure any unacceptable variances. The process is monitored closely (possibly using advanced technology) to ensure that immediate action is taken to remedy any breach of the tolerance. A worked example is provided in Table 3.8.

The quality control system can be organisation-wide and could include the design proc-ess, quality assurance of suppliers of raw materials, production, warehousing, distribution, or after-sales service, etc.

Use of Quality assurance (QA) systems are in certain ways superior to quality control systems in that they attempt to create quality rather than control it. According to Campbell (1997) QA must account for:

● design of products and services

● materials of a consistently appropriate standard

● suppliers who are reliable and consistent in the supply of materials

● plant and machinery that is reliable

● staff that benefi t from training development so reducing the potential for human error

● operations procedures and the way in which they are planned, managed and carried out.

Use of European Quality Foundation model. Self-assessment models for business improve-ment have become widespread. One of the most common is the European Quality Foundation model. This provides a structured methodology for organisations to measure their own performance in areas that are critical to businesses. The model allows strengths and areas for improvement to be identifi ed through self-assessment and thereby contributes signifi cantly to the business planning cycle. It is a non-prescriptive framework based on nine criteria. The assessment looks at an entire organisation. The nine criteria are divided into what the organisation achieves (results) and how results are achieved (enabler). Results, that is, customer results, people results, society results, key performance results. Enablers involve leadership, policy and strategy, people, partnerships and resources, processes. An

Table 3.8 Quality control: a worked example of a roadside breakdown service such as the RAC or AA

Action Detail

Set standard 98% of breakdowns to be attended to within one hour of the call being received, 75% of breakdowns to be repaired at the roadside.

Organise resources For example, breakdown vehicles, call centres, trained mechanics, to deliver the service (of the standard) from work records and customer surveys The results with the standard.

Measure achievement Compare

Take remedial action For example, if the target of 98% attended within 1 hour standard is not met it may be necessary to increase the numbers of vehicles and drivers; or if the target of 75% of repairs at the roadside is not met it may be necessary to retrain mechanics or improve their equipment.

Review If the standards are easily met consider revising standards to improve service further.

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explanation of how this was introduced in one organisation is refl ected in the following web page extract:

Thames Valley, in common with the National Probation Directorate and the other 41 local areas, under- took its fi rst self-assessment under the model in the summer of 2001 and published the results in the autumn.

Aided by a consultant from TQMI (sponsored by the British Quality Foundation), a cross-grade group of staff gathered evidence throughout the organisation over a period of several weeks. This culminated in a consensus workshop in which the validity and weight of each piece of evidence was analysed. This in turn led to a self-assessment score, and a report to Senior Managers and the Board.

The report contributed signifi cantly to the Area’s Business Plan. . . . and also heav-ily infl uenced a restructure of the Area’s management arrangements and priorities.’

Source: Thames Valley probation board www.thamesvalleyprobation.gov.uk/about/about_eem.html

Use of British and European systems. The ISO 9000:2000 series quality award is a form of a quality system standard which according to CIMA (2005):

requires complying organisations to operate in accordance with a structure of written policies and procedures that are designed to ensure consistent delivery of a product or service to meet customer requirements

The forerunner of this series of quality standards was the British Standards Institution (BSI) BS 5750 series of quality standards. To qualify for accreditation an organisation defi nes a standard for quality and the processes needed to achieve it. Registration under the standard requires the submission and approval of documentation, including a quality manual, procedures manuals and work instructions. There is an initial external inspection before accreditation is awarded and then regular reappraisal visits. The key feature of the ISO 9000:2000 series is the underlying assurance that customer satisfaction and fulfi lment of customer requirements are achieved. The series of quality standards are designed to:

● provide a clear system of quality management which includes establishing processes, their interactions, the resources required and how to manage and improve the processes

● gain total company involvement and commitment

● obtain a nationally accepted standard of quality, ensure commitment to quality and cus-tomer requirements of quality.

Benefi ts of implementing ISO 9000:2000 are listed in Table 3.9.

Table 3.9 Benefi ts of ISO 9000:2000 implementation Recognised standard of quality.

Excellent marketing tool.

Better quality will improve customer satisfaction, leading to more sales, competitiveness and profi tability.

Customers are less likely to conduct an independent quality audit on the supplier, thus saving costs and time.

Increasingly useful in export markets.

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Accreditation of ISO 14001 is closely allied to the ISO 9000:2000 series. It specifi es a process for controlling and improving a company’s environmental performance. It covers:

● environmental policy

● planning

● implementation and operation

● checking and corrective action

● management review.

Environmental management systems focus on the environmental practices in organisa-tions, including use and source of raw materials, use of energy, waste, emissions to air, water and soil, noise, aesthetic impact and use of hazardous substances.

The organisation identifi es elements of its business that impact on the environment, sets objectives for improvement and implements a management programme for achievement.

This programme is regularly reviewed for continual improvement.

Exercise 3.8

What are the main benefi ts of this accreditation?

Solution

Benefi ts of this accreditation are:

● enhancement of environmental awareness within the organisation

● cost savings and reduction in use of resources

● improved compliance with legislation

● potential competitive advantage over companies without accreditation

● demonstration of environmental commitment to stakeholders.

To ensure quality throughout the value chain, some organisations insist that their suppliers produce and deliver using a certifi ed quality system.

There are, however, inevitably critics of these types of quality approaches. Managers of some small- and medium-sized organisations are unhappy at being required to develop apparently expensive and bureaucratic procedures that are not consistent with their organi-sation’s culture and ways of working. Other critics claim that registration under the stand-ards does not guarantee quality products and services, and that this approach might even make it more diffi cult to obtain the levels of employee support and involvement required.