Quality Concepts

A further approach is to define WCM under the Quality concept. Quality is associated not only with products and services but also with how people work, how machines are operated and how systems and procedures are handled, and includes all aspects of human behaviour (Imai, 1991). In order to discuss the relevance o f quality to the WCM concept, it is first necessary to summarise the quality terms that can be found in the literature. Oakland (1993) summarised the quality term as used by other authors as:

• Fitness for purpose or use - Juran;

• The totality o f features and characteristics o f a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs - BS 4778, 1987 (ISO 8402, 1986), Quality Vocabulary: Part 1, International Terms;

• Quality should be aimed at the needs of the customers and the future - Deming; • The total composite product and service characteristic o f marketing, engineering,

manufacture and maintenance through which the product and service in use will meet the expectation by the customer’- Feigenbaum;

• Conformance to requirements - Crosby.

It should be noted that all the terms described above have been considered as ‘best practice ‘ methods in recent years. Flynn et a l (1997) stresses that quality is a key element to attain WCM. Hodgetts et al. (1994) define world-class as those who have mastered total quality. It requires careful planning and a philosophy o f company-wide quality improvement and its programmes must be permanent, on going practices (Fine (1995)). Y usof and Aspinwall (2000) claim that TQM is a management philosophy that helped many organisations towards achieving world class status. It will help the company create a culture o f trust, participation, teamwork, quality-mindedness, zeal for continuous improvement, continuous learning and, ultimately, a working culture that contributes to a firm’s success and existence. Shores (1994) argues that TQM should be thought o f as the management system for implementing the process of reengineering the factory through the integration o f WCM tools (i.e. JIT, continuous improvement, Quality Control, self-management teams, flexibility o f machinery etc.).

Other authors such as Voss and Blackmon (1996) and Morton (1994), place quality in their lists for assessing world-class practices and performances together with other factors such as culture, manufacturing systems, Lean Production and concurrent engineering. Anderson Consulting (1995) uses two criteria, quality and productivity, to assess the world-class company performance. Their measurement o f quality is represented by the number of units claimed to be defective by the plants’ customers and is represented in parts per million (ppm), while productivity is represented by the annual output o f finished units divided by annual labour hours. Only plants that achieved outstanding results on both these measures qualified as world class. O f the

71 plants surveyed by Anderson Consulting (1995) in 8 countries, 13 plants showed both high quality and high productivity.

More detailed advice to relate the quality approach to the WCM concept came from Deming’s philosophy, the so-called Fourteen-Points o f management. According to Drummond (1993), Deming’s philosophy is founded upon three basic foundations: • customer orientation;

• continuous improvement; and • quality is determined by the system.

Deming (1982) claimed that the company’s competitiveness depends upon the customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is formed through a combination o f responsiveness to the customer’s views and needs and continuous improvement of products or services. The system is defined as inputs, and the manner in which these are processed (Drummond (1993)). The system must be changed to make sure targets can be met. For instance, anyone can show a reduction in inventory, simply by paying the supplier or some other agent to hold goods. However, the actual reduction requires a redesign o f manufacturing systems, ordering procedures, and so forth. The list of Deming’s Fourteen-Points of management is as follows:

1. Create constancy of purpose for improvement o f product and service; 2. Adopt the new philosophy;

3. Create dependence upon inspection to achieve quality;

4. End the practice o f awarding business on the basis o f price alone. Instead, minimise total cost by working with a single supplier;

5. Improve constantly, and forever, every process for planning, production and service;

6. Institute training on the j ob; 7. Adopt and institute leadership; 8. Drive out fear;

9. Breakdown barriers between staff areas;

10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the workforce;

11. Eliminate numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical goals for management;

12. Remove barriers that rob people of pride o f workmanship. Eliminate the annual rating or merit system;

13. Institute a vigorous programme of education and self-improvement for everyone; 14. Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation.

Deming’s (1982) claimed that numerical quotas, numerical goals and work standards work against the improvement of quality. They considered only quantity, not quality, and encouraged the production o f defective goods to fulfill the quotas. He introduced statistical scales to measure company performance and claimed that employing control charts is “managing for success” because it allows management to see what exists, not some arbitrary figure that it desires (quotas). However, Deming (1982) believed that quality problems are not the responsibility o f the shop floor employees. Deming’s (1982) argues that 94% of all quality problems are the senior management responsibility. He also claimed that shop floor employees need to be supervised and shouldn’t be involved in any managerial level activities. These ideas seem to be different from the more common understanding within the WCM literature. In

general, the WCM concept requires a full involvement o f employees in the system (Schonberger (1996), Shores (1994)).