Topic 1

� INTRODUCTION

Do you know that organisations which place priority on giving quality products and services to their customers not only survive in the market place but flourish? There are many examples that emphasise this point. Most, if not all, Japanese manufacturing companies, from Toyota to Nikon, lead the world in quality. It is true that quality did not originate in Japan. In fact, the well-known gurus of quality, namely, Edwards W. Deming and Joseph Juran, came from the United States. But how did the Japanese end up leading the world in quality? The answer is very simple. The Japanese worked hard to achieve what Deming and Juran advocated. They worked hard to understand what quality is, how to

TTooppiicc

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� Strategies in Quality Management

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this topic, you should be able to:

1. Define quality, quality control, quality assurance and Total Quality Management;

2. Explain the meaning of vision and mission;

3. Describe managementÊs responsibilities in implementing quality in an organisation;

4. Describe workersÊ roles and responsibilities in a quality organisation; and

5. Distinguish between a quality management plan and an implementation plan.

� TOPIC 1 STRATEGIES IN QUALITY MANAGEMENT2

achieve quality, how to sell with quality, and most importantly, how to maintain quality so that they could continuously improve the quality of their services and products. Early in their quest for quality, the Japanese realised that it was not just about techniques, but also culture. They realised that unless they accepted that the introduction and implementation of quality needed a change in culture, they would never achieve the competitive leadership they currently enjoy. Quality is a continuing and continuous effort. It is a journey and not a destination.

DEFINITIONS

Many people misunderstand what quality, quality control (QC), quality assurance (QA) and Total Quality Management (TQM) mean. It is important to have the same understanding of these terms, otherwise we may unnecessarily speak at cross purposes. (a) Quality Table 1.1 provides an explanation on what is meant by quality.

Table 1.1: Definition of Quality

Terms Definitions

Fitness for Purpose This is taken from the ISO 9000 series standard glossary. Quality is about meeting the purposes of what a product or service is meant to do.

Fitness for Purpose as Perceived by the Customer

This is a variation of the ISO 9000 series definition. It includes the recipients of the purposes the product or service is to satisfy, namely, the customers.

Meeting CustomersÊ Expectations

This is yet another definition of quality that underlines the importance of the customers.

Exceeding CustomersÊ Expectations

The Japanese went one step further to define quality as „exceeding customersÊ expectations‰. The idea here is that we go one or two steps beyond what customers want. In so doing, we hope to end up with an advantage over our competitors who offer the same products or services. However, we need to be cautious that the extra costs and efforts expended on going beyond what the customers want are actually worth it.

1.1

TOPIC 1 STRATEGIES IN QUALITY MANAGEMENT �

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(b) QQuality Control (QC) Before we define QC, we need to define a system as we need to use a

system to define QC. A system is a collection of three interacting entities, namely, input, process and output as shown in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1: Definition of a system

Input feeds into process and as a result of what is done to the input within the process, output is produced at the end of the process. Such a structure and the interactive combination of these three components is called a system.

QC is defined as a system in which the outputs of the process are further subjected to inspection in which defective items are separated from good ones. The theory here is that in this way, customers are shielded from receiving defective goods. The question is, can producers afford this system in relation to the benefits that accrue? The other question is, what happens to the defective items that could not be passed on to the customers?

As a result, not all outputs are normally inspected and a sampling plan is used. The sampling plan allows the checking of only a certain percentage of outputs and depending on the results of the inspection of this percentage, an extrapolation for the whole batch of products would be made and a decision to pass or fail the batch would be taken.

Also as a result of the above consideration, defective items are either reworked or rejected. A typical QC system is shown in Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.2: A typical QC system


(c) QQuality Assurance (QA) QA is a system where process outputs are no longer subjected to inspection

in order to separate the good from the bad. Instead, the focus changes from inspecting products to assessing the capability of the process. The argument here is that if the process could be made to produce outputs that are always meeting requirements and standards, then the need for inspecting the products no longer exists.

However, the outputs would still need to be measured in order to identify

shortfalls in the process and remove any errors that contribute to non- conformances. Figure 1.3 shows the quality assurance system.

Figure 1.3: Quality assurance system

(d) TTotal Quality Management (TQM) TQM is a term used to describe a system consisting of various elements

within and outside the immediate process or processes responsible for the products or services that determine the quality of the products or services. These elements may range from the companyÊs or organisationÊs policies (e.g. on marketing, corporate social responsibility, use of non-chemical ingredients) to government regulations and even international standards or requirements (e.g. AFTA, Washington Accord, World Trade Organisation).

It is normally not possible to consider all these externalities or extraneous

conditions as they could become very complex and demanding. Thus, only variants of TQM are being practised by organisations around the world.

(e) Kaizen Kaizen is a Japanese word that is commonly used in quality practices to

mean small incremental steps of improvement. Importantly, these small incremental steps are ratchet steps (i.e. only moving in one way) to ensure that the improvements will not be lost.

To get more information on Kaizen, you can surf the following websites:

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-kaizen.htm

http://www.graphicproducts.com/tutorials/kaizen/index.php


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(f) OOther Definitions Specific definitions used in quality practices are available in the Glossary document of the ISO 9000 standard series.

VISION AND MISSION

One of the first things that we must do in putting together a strategy in quality is to know where we are going. This is easily known if we have a vvision for our organisation which is complemented by a number of mmissions or more commonly known as mission statements.

1.2.1 What is a Vision?

In simple words, a vision is a ddream, wwish or something we would like to see happen in the future that is normally good for ourselves as well as for others. The following are different examples of vision. (a) EExamples of Vision Let us look at the following samples of vision.

1.2

Let us pause here to make sure that we have understood most if not all of the definitions you have encountered so far. Use diagrams to explain QC, QA and TQM. As you know, it is common in the engineering field to use diagrams and drawings to explain concepts. It is no different in this case as well. What is the major difference between QC and QA?

SELF-CHECK 1.1

ACTIVITY 1.1

What is the vision and mission of your workplace? Share this with your coursemates.


(i) A vvision of an organisation or a company may be to be profitable, competitive, efficient, effective and big such as the following:

� To be the communications company every customer prefers above all others.

� To be the organisation every employee aspires to work for, where they can maximise their full potential.

� To be the corporation every shareholder seeks to invest in.

� To be the partner every company wants to do business with.

� To be recognised domestically and internationally by everyone, within and across all industries.

� To be the success story every Malaysian can be proud of.

(ii) A vvision for a country may be: To have peaceful, prosperous and productive citizens (see Figure 1.4).

Figure 1.4: Example of vision for a country

Source: http://congakone.blogspot.com


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(iii) A vvision for a university may be: To be the leader in international research and development. Open University Malaysia's vision is shown in Figure 1.5.

Figure 1.5: Example of vision for a university

Source: http://www.oum.edu.my

(iv) A vvision for a father may be: To see his children occupy the pinnacle

of their respective professions (see Figure 1.6).

Figure 1.6: A father reading a book to his child

Source: http://blogs.kcls.org


(b) DDeveloping a Vision To help us understand what a vision is so that you can set one for your department or section and to be able to discuss a prepared vision intelligently, the following checklist is helpful (Lewis & Smith, 1994):

Table 1.2: Checklist for Developing a Vision

No. Requirements of a Vision ��

1 Future oriented

2 Not merely derived from current conditions and trends

3 Expresses creativity

4 Based on value principles that reflect respect for people

5 Recognise the history, culture and values of the organisation – even if change is envisioned

6 Set high standards of excellence, ideals and expectations for members of the organisation

7 Clarifies purposes and set direction

8 Likely to inspire enthusiasm and encourage institutional commitment

9 Reflect the uniqueness of the organisation in its competency and image

10 Ambitious and challenging to the organisational members

Some discussion on each of the above 10 points may be useful at this stage.

(i) FFuture Oriented Because a vision is about where you want to be, it must therefore be

about the future and hence, future oriented. Sony looked 400 years down the track. Malaysia as a country looked over 30 years down its track with Vision 2020. Time span is only one aspect of such an orientation.

(ii) NNot Merely Derived from Current Conditions and Trends Because you are future oriented, you will need to consider and

conjecture on things that you have not witnessed to date. The current conditions and trends will certainly be a good and necessary platform to start from. Books by Alvin Toffler, John Nesbitt, Stephen Covey and Bill Gates may help you peek at what the future holds, perhaps


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not necessarily for your department or section directly, but for things in the future so that you can predict what your type of department and section may have to be in order to survive. Remember that the impact of computer and e-technology are so pervasive that you will need to consider these if you want to survive in the future.

In order to satisfy this requirement of a vision, you must also be bold enough to venture beyond your comfort zone.

(iii) EExpresses Creativity In simple terms, creativity makes something out of nothing. A vision

that expresses creativity is one that plans to make something out of nothing, or in other words, to make something new or something that has not been created before. This is necessary although it is not sufficient to ensure survival in the future.

(iv) BBased on Value Principles that Reflect Respect for People

This ensures that your vision is morally and ethically sustainable. As you have witnessed time and again, unethical and immoral actions eventually catch up with their perpetrators, bringing their own consequences.

(v) RRecognise the History, Culture and Values of the Organisation – Even

if Change is Envisioned Certain things must have happened to bring you to where you are

now. For these to happen, there must have been reasons, some of which could have been caused by the culture of the organisation, people and values related to them. Like kaizen, things normally happen incrementally. And while there were things that were negative, there would also be a lot of things that were positive and helpful in bringing the organisation to where it is now. You have to be grateful for these and one way of showing your gratitude is to recognise them.

By recognising the past, it does not mean that you cannot bring the organisation to a new direction or change it totally. By recognising them, you are thanking those who had brought it to where it is now. Some of those people may still be working for you and if they feel their efforts are recognised, then they would be more willing to accept the changes you propose. This will make your plans work better and help you to achieve your targets with fewer problems.


(vi) SSet High Standards of Excellence, Ideals and Expectations for Members of the Organisation

People normally expect good things with changes. Given the improvement in and increasing access to education and technology, people also expect more from the future. Your vision, therefore, has to impart or at least indicate an increase in the standards, excellence and ideals expected of them.

There will be individuals who do not want to change and are happy

with the way things are. Florence Littauer in her book Personality Plus (1992) called them „peaceful phlegmatics‰. But she said that even they would change given the right conditions and encouragement and normally for their own good as well. You, therefore, need to know how to deal with different people who are normally motivated by the challenge of high standards, ideals and expectations.

(vii) CClarifies Purposes and Sets Direction A vision has to be able to tell people its purposes clearly and which

way it is going. People are normally not attracted to confusing and verbose statements or thoughts. People are also usually not attracted to statements or thoughts that do not tell them which way to go.

(viii) LLikely to Inspire Enthusiasm and Encourage Institutional Commitment While you have to be truthful and sincere about your vision, it has to

be stated in such a way that it will enthuse people to action and people will accept and commit themselves to it. A vision should be inspirational, enliven interest and the spirit, as well as exhilarate people. People should say that they are enthused and encouraged by it to the extent that they will commit themselves to that vision. This is a necessary condition for a successful vision.

ACTIVITY 1.2

Do you know which personality type you are? For more information ondifferent types of personalities, you can visit:

http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/tt/t-articl/mb-simpl.htm


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(ix) RReflects the Uniqueness of the Organisation in its Competency and Image While it is true that a vision should be about the big picture, it must

relate to something, for example, your department or section or curriculum. Matsushita, who founded the National Panasonic electrical/electronics company, had a vision which may not seem related to the business directly, that of reticulating water to peopleÊs houses rather than them coming to a central village water pond to collect clean water for use in their houses. He transformed this vision into one that was very much related to his business. By having the larger and broader vision in the first place, he initiated the miniaturisation of cumbersome and fragile radio parts which would otherwise have precluded his vision for his business. Water reticulation in this case became the catalyst of MatsushitaÊs vision which he turned into areas that he and his company were good at or competent in.

In the same way, your vision has to refer back to you or your

competence. For example, if you are an engineer, to go from engineering to history is going out of your competence. On the other hand, to go into computer simulation programming, for example, may enhance your engineering competence.

(x) AAmbitious and Challenging to Organisational Members As mentioned earlier, we normally get peopleÊs attention when it is

about something that is new to them, when it makes them think of conquering and when it creates aspirations in them, motivating them to be involved in a new venture of sorts.

By being ambitious, your vision indicates change for the better

although no guarantee is given. The adventure that these sorts of challenges provide attracts the human instinct.

1. Write a vision for your family. Use the checklist in Table 1.2. 2. Take a vision you know (it could be that of your organisation,

department or section) and check it against the checklist in Table 1.2. Improve the vision if it does not meet the criteria in the checklist.

ACTIVITY 1.3


1.2.2 What is a Mission or Mission Statement?

If a vision is the end point of your dream for your department or section, a mission refers to what to do and how to do it. If we go back to MatsushitaÊs vision for reticulated clean water to houses and a radio in every house, his mission was making the radios affordable, reliable, portable and efficiently and effectively manufactured, which led to the use and manufacture of transistors and miniaturisation. (a) EExample of Mission A mission statement is therefore an expression of „what‰ and „how to‰. An

interesting example is that of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) which is quoted in full here:

(b) DDeveloping a Mission Statement How do you write a mission statement which reflects what you have to do

and how you have decided to do it? As mentioned previously, knowing

Mission The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is a national social security organisation operating through a provident fund scheme in Malaysia. Our principal members are the private and non-pensionable public sector employees.

We have a four-fold mission as follows:

For the members Our primary mission is to provide retirement benefits to our members through the management of their savings in an efficient and reliable manner.

For the employers We are committed to provide an efficient and convenient system to ensure that they meet their responsibility and moral obligations of contributing to the EPF for their employees.

For the nation We are also committed towards our nationÊs socio-economic development through our prudent investments.

For the employees To all our employees we will provide a motivating, participating and challenging working environment which can propel them to peak performance.


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how a vision and mission statement should be developed will help everyone involved in or affected by them to ably assist those who are drafting them. Table 1.3, which is from Lewis and Smith (1994), provides some guidelines.

Table 1.3: Guidelines for Developing a Mission Statement

No. Question Your Answer

1 What does my institution (or department or section)* do?

2 What is distinctive or unique about my institution?

3 What are the primary products and services of my institution?

4 Who are my primary customers?

5 Why are they my primary customers?

6 Who else has vested interest in my institution? Why?

7 What are my institutionÊs core values?

8 How is my institution different from five years ago?

9 Why is it different?

10 What is likely to be different with my institution five years from now?

11 Why will it be different?

12 What new products/services will my institution provide in the future?

13 What must be done by my institution in order to provide these new products and services?

It goes without saying that you have to consider your answers carefully in order to arrive at the most appropriate and accurate mission statement.

Based on your understanding so far, what is the difference between vision and mission? How do you distinguish between the two?

SELF-CHECK 1.2


1.2.3 Importance of Vision and Mission of an Organisation

Before detailed discussions, let us ponder this question: Who do you think is responsible for developing the vision and mission of an organisation and how do they go about doing it? While it is true that some visions originate from the founder of an organisation or a company, like in the case of Matsushita, nowadays a group of top management from a company is tasked with formulating this. The process may involve brainstorming, strategic planning, environmental scanning or a combination of all these. There could be many reasons to formulate a company vision. Some organisations may be forced to relook their vision and mission because they are losing customers and competitiveness. Others may have decided to change business direction. Yet others may see new opportunities and decide to try their luck. As a general rule, it is advisable to involve a number of people in formulating your vision and mission, particularly given the multi-faceted nature of products and services these days. The more dimensions a vision takes into account, the more meaningful it would be in creating a future for the organisation. However, there is no hard and fast rule about this. As shown in Figure 1.7, organisational vision and mission can only work when these are translated into the visions and missions of the elemental units. That is, each department or section making up the organisation must also develop its own vision and mission that cascade down from the organisational vision and mission and are aligned with them. This is why formulating the vision and mission statement is only the first in a number of steps in inculcating the overall vision to everyone in the organisation.

1. Write a mission statement based on the vision for your family. Use the checklist given in Table 1.3.

2. Take a mission statement you know (it could be that of your

organisation, department or section) and check it against the checklist in Table 1.3. Improve the mission statement if it does not meet the criteria in the checklist.

ACTIVITY 1.4


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Figure 1.7: Organisational and departmental visions and missions

Departmental visions and missions support the overall organisational vision and mission as shown by the directions of arrows in Figure 1.7. The same checklists as shown in the previous sections could be used in developing departmental visions and missions. In order for all these to work, a communication and dissemination or awareness plan needs to be established. The success of any quality endeavour lies in the ability of top management to disseminate their vision and mission to everyone in the organisation.

QUALITY POLICY

Like a lot of things we buy and consume, quality also needs to be planned. Quality does not happen by itself. We all want quality but seldom want to spend the time or effort to plan for it. In order to fully understand and achieve quality, we must accept that quality must be built into the product or service. For example, it is like wanting a spicy dish. You will not get it unless the cook puts some chillies, pepper or other spices into your

1.3

Let us pause again here and check if we are clear about vision and mission and how to write one. You should already have done that in Activity 1.4. Just to add a little to that exercise on writing your family vision and mission, one simple question you could use is, „Where do I want to be five or 10 or 15 years from now?‰ Envisioning is more critical for your career. So, see yourself five, 10 or 15 years from now and then write down what you have to do to get there.... which is the mission statement.

ACTIVITY 1.5


dish. He/she needs to know how much chillies or spices are required for the dish. Too much and you will not be able to enjoy the dish. Too little and it would not be tasty. Put in the wrong spices or bad chillies, and the whole dish would be destroyed. So the chef will need to pplan when, where, how and how much of the ingredients he/she needs to put into the dish to make sure that you, as their customer, would enjoy the dish. Only then would you get a quality product. In similar ways, quality needs to be built into a product or service so that customers would be happy with it. To do so, you have to plan how to build quality into the product or service. As has already been shown, we first need to have a vision and mission. These give us direction as to what business we are in and what end point we are attempting to reach. Then, we need rrules of the game to guide us in our endeavour. These are our quality policies. An organisation that wishes to become a quality organisation must have a quality policy. This will contain the rules that everyone in the organisation will abide by. Different organisations may express their quality policies differently. As an example, Open University MalaysiaÊs quality policy reads as follows:

This statement recognises that quality is a culture that underpins all OUM activities, namely, its operations to deliver its programmes in the most effective and cost-efficient way. What is not stated is that all these are done so that OUMÊs customers will be satisfied and happy with all aspects of OUM. This statement is pervasive in its ramifications. All sections and departments of the organisation will need to ensure that their individual and separate work are effective and efficient and contribute to the quality success of the whole organisation. In turn, this means that each department and section must implement quality culture, quality workmanship, quality thinking, quality operations and quality processes in order to satisfy the overall customers.

„It is the policy of OUM to implement total quality measures in its operations to ensure quality programmes are effectively delivered at reasonable costs through quality work culture.‰


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It is, therefore, important that the organisation develops a quality policy in conjunction with those who would have both contributions or inputs as well as those who are pivotal in implementing the policy.

THE SCOPING OF QUALITY WORK

Doing quality work involves a lot of work in many areas, using many methods, resulting in many actions. It is important therefore that work in or about quality be more specifically or narrowly defined so that proper control and development of the work can be carried out. Figure 1.8 shows the cascading action of the work from the organisation as a whole to the smallest division or section of the organisation. So that every piece of work is not only related to the one above it but also contributes to it, the scope of work for each individual work area must be established.

Figure 1.8: Cascading of scope of work

1.4


(a) OOrganisational Scope of Work The organisational scope of work may be stated as follows:

(b) DDepartmental Scope of Work The departmental scope of work may be stated as follows:

(c) SSectional Scope of Work The sectional scope of work may be stated as follows:

It is therefore important to know where you are in the scheme of things so

that you can set up the appropriate scope of work that does not impinge on other levels of the organisation. You should also take into account all quality parameters defined by the organisation and other organisational levels.

All departments of the company wherever they are located. All the organisationÊs stakeholders and suppliers, subsidiaries, field officers, officers at points of sales/service, joint venturers within and outside the country. All those named are to take on board the quality initiatives and policies of the organisation, apply them in each of their areas of influence in order to ensure that quality products and services are delivered to the customers and to the satisfaction of the customers.

All functions of the department and sections within the department shall adhere to the quality policies of the department and carry out all the quality practices required to ensure that quality products and services are produced for consumption by subsequent departments and their sections in completing the product or services for the customers.

All functions within this section and subsections under it shall implement the quality policies of the department in alignment with the quality policies of the organisation so that all work done by the section is of a standard and quality that contributes to the overall quality of the product and/or services delivered to the customers.


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MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITIES

Before going into detailed discussions, how important do you think the role of the management is in ensuring the production of quality products and services? As has been mentioned earlier, quality does not happen by itself nor can it exist in isolation if we want to ensure that our products and services meet or exceed customersÊ satisfaction and requirements. Everyone is therefore responsible for ensuring quality in the organisation. However, management in particular has a fundamental role as all actions emanate from the management. All reactions and proactivities of staff also emanate from the managementÊs actions and inactions, for example:

(a) From the managementÊs ability to motivate staff;

(b) To get staff to understand most if not all aspects of quality;

(c) To understand customersÊ satisfaction and requirements; and

(d) To understand the staffÊs own roles in the organisation and their pivotal roles in ensuring quality of products and services.

The roles of the top management cannot be overemphasised. The top management should be advised that before they blame their subordinates, they ought to instrospect and ascertain that they have done everything within their jurisdiction to ensure subordinates are able to do their jobs at peak capacity. The top management should also provide both the tools and wherewithal to ensure that subordinates are able to do their jobs satisfactorily. It is also important for top management to ensure that they have provided appropriate motivation, training, encouragement and empowerment to their subordinates in order for them to achieve the required quality jobs and results. The roles and responsibilities of the management are so pivotal and sensitive that management must tread very carefully. It must be circumspect and extra careful as whatever it does or does not do becomes a guide to everybody else in the organisation. Most importantly, the management should not give lip service, particularly to quality. Subordinates quickly see the difference between what the management says and what the management does. It is part of the managementÊs responsibilities to ensure that what it does is consistent with what it says. When it makes rules and regulations, these should also apply to it. The management should not only adhere to the rules and regulations but must also be seen to do so.

1.5


The ISO 9001:2000 standard prescribes the roles and responsibilities of the management. We will cover this in Topic 2 when we discuss the standard. It suffices here to underline the importance of the management in carrying out their responsibilities in the most appropriate way. This is in order for everyone else in the organisation to do their utmost in producing the required quality products or services.

WORKERS’ INVOLVEMENT IN QUALITY

As has been reiterated many times, qquality is everybodyÊs job. This means that everyone in the organisation is responsible for quality. Everyone in the organisation has important roles to play in realising and actualising quality in the organisation. As a result, no one person should and could claim to be fully responsible for quality in the organisation. Quality can only be achieved when everyone has fulfilled the following criteria, as shown in Figure 1.9.

Figure 1.9: Criteria for achieving quality

1.6


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In return, workers involved in a quality organisation must be concerned about:

(a) Their jobs;

(b) The quality of the products or services they produce;

(c) A better way of doing their jobs that help to make their products or services satisfy customersÊ requirements better;

(d) Being more proactive; and

(e) Being committed enough to be able to tell their superiors of problems and challenges in doing their jobs, as well as those that hinder the organisation in producing quality products and services.

However, pride of workmanship, one of DemingÊs 14 Points, can only be gained when the management proactively encourages this by acting in the appropriate way itself. Provided the environment is conducive to quality worklife (that is, a work environment that practises and promotes quality), workersÊ involvement in quality could be classified into primary and secondary tasks, which are elaborated as follows.

1.6.1 Primary Tasks

Primary tasks are about:

(a) Understanding work instructions.

(b) Proactively improving work instructions along the lines of improving the quality of the products or services that is directly under the control of the worker. A number of techniques may be employed in doing this. The PDCA cycle (Plan, Do, Check and Act) is an effective technique to improve quality and this will be discussed later.

(c) Reporting the improvements made so that these can be properly recorded and future work instructions and other related documentation updated accordingly.

(d) Repeating the above in a perpetual manner and thus creating a ccontinuous improvement that is so fundamental to quality.

(e) Creating teams to resolve problems in the area of work, if necessary. Such teams have come to be known as quality control circle, quality circle, problem-solving teams/groups, quality improvement circles/teams/ groups, and continuous improvement circles/teams/groups. In some organisations, these are recognised as an integral part of workersÊ jobs


during working hours. When it was first introduced in Japan, workers performed these functions outside their working hours.

(f) Proactively improving the design of products or services that workers are involved in, again in order to improve the overall products or services.

1.6.2 Secondary Tasks

Secondary tasks are about:

(a) Assisting in improving the vision and mission of the organisation, either by directly being involved in developing, modifying and redeveloping these or by identifying areas where the vision and mission of the organisation are proven ineffectual by virtue of the lack of awareness by the management or other reasons.

(b) Assisting in improving the operating procedures of the organisation.

(c) Assisting in identifying areas for general improvement in the organisation.

(d) Assisting in disseminating concepts of quality and techniques that have been proven to be beneficial in one area, for application in other areas.

(e) Assisting in guiding and training other workers on both the concepts of quality and practices leading to producing quality goods and practices.

(f) Assisting in becoming an internal quality auditor for the organisation. We will discuss these in more detail in Topic 2 when we deal with ISO 9001:2000 standards.

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

We have mentioned earlier that training is an integral part of implementing quality in any organisation and its parts. It is a fundamental requirement that everyone involved has the same understanding of the concepts of quality and the desires of the organisation in respect of quality.

1.7

Earlier on, it was mentioned that „Quality is everybodyÊs job‰. What do you understand by this statement? Please elaborate in your own words.

SELF-CHECK 1.3


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In addition, in support of continuous improvement, and the implementation of those improvements, everyone must be informed and trained on the new techniques, methods and ways of doing things. A supportive sequence of „training‰ events could be as shown in Figure 1.10.

Figure 1.10: Sequence of „training‰ events

(a) AAwareness of the OrganisationÊs Vision, Mission and Values All staff should be aware of the organisationÊs vision, mission and values.

This awareness may be in the form of a single burst of information from somebody in the quality department or section, for example. This is best given by the chief executive officer (CEO), together with the top management. A lot of time should be provided for questions and answers, and the CEO and top management should be able to answer the questions directly. The way questions are answered and the acceptance of what is


said would help form either a positive or negative opinion in the minds of staff. This is why it is a very important first step for the top management and for the organisation.

(b) AAnalysis of Staff Training Needs Ideally, this should be followed by an analysis of staff training needs in the area

of quality in general and quality assurance in particular. A number of common tools, such as surveys, may be used to find out where the staffÊs expertise and experiences lie with respect to these two areas. Based on this analysis, a training programme should be planned.

(c) EEvaluate and Support Training Programme Top management should then evaluate the training needs and support the

running of the training programme to raise the staffÊs knowledge and skills in the area of quality and quality assurance. The support could be in either providing funds for outside consultants to execute training programmes or providing internal people to help run the programme or both. It goes without saying that the organisation must also provide support in allowing staff to attend the training in the first place and then be involved in what may initially seem to be tasks non-essential to the staffÊs jobs, for example, becoming an internal auditor and getting involved in auditing, for which obviously time away from work has to be given to the staff.

(d) IInternship Programme The top management, perhaps through the Human Resources Department

(HR), should develop an internship programme that would provide the staff with continual hands-on practice in quality auditing, for example.

(e) TTrain the Trainees Lastly, the staff who have been trained should be „re-cycled‰ through the

system but this time around, be the „trainers‰ of new trainees. (f) RReinforcement Repeat the above actions.

QUALITY MANAGEMENT PLAN

By definition, a Quality Management Plan (QMP) is a series of steps for the efficient and effective management of quality in the organisation. Being efficient means carrying out what needs to be implemented in the cheapest and best way. In Topic 2, we will discuss a number of quality tools that will help in doing this.

1.8


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We will also discuss a technique called value analysis which has been proven to do this well. Being effective means that what you do actually achieves what is desired. This can only happen when you have a good, well-researched, informed and practicable plan. A QMP, however, is not easy to develop. Time and patience are necessary to produce the plan.

1.8.1 Starting Point of a QMP

Any plan will need to start with the questions shown in Figure 1.11.

Figure 1.11: Questions to ask at the starting point of a QMP

This list is not exhaustive and will depend on the creativity of the top management in seeing the organisational needs.


The output of this brainstorming may be a flow-chart, a list of statements and detailed documents. An organisation should not go overboard with the format of the output as this costs money. Whatever the output is, it must be clear, understandable by most, if not all, staff and would-be staff, and shows the inter-relationships between various subsystems.

1.8.2 Guidelines for Developing a QMP

Table 1.4 provides the guidelines for developing a QMP.

Table 1.4: Guidelines for Developing a QMP

Guidelines Description

(a) Involvement of departments and sections in developing a QMP.

� It is important that all departments and sections are involved in developing a QMP.

� It is only when the exercise involves them that you get a comprehensive and all-enveloping view of processes needed, of problems that may arise and of any interactive issues between subsystems.

(b) Clear analysis of the organisationÊs Vision, Mission and Values.

� A clear analysis of the vision, mission and values of the organisation must be shared by everyone involved, so that the development of the QMP is continually guided by these fundamental tenets of the organisation.

(c) Building in Quality � At all times, the development of the plan and all aspects of the subsystems must ensure that quality is built into the subsystems and into the system as a whole.

� By building in quality, we mean designing quality into the system, subsystem, products and services. We should not be inspecting the quality after the products or services are manufactured or offered.

(d) Resources and Training

� To do (c), you have to look at both the machines/ facilities/methods/standard operating procedures and people including their expertise, skills, knowledge and experiences in both their expertise areas as well as in quality.

� This should be logically followed by a training programme that should be well supported by the top management.

(e) Information/Data � It is advisable to have more rather than less information and data at this stage in order to ensure comprehensiveness of the plan.


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1.8.3 Implementation Plan

It is one thing to have a plan and another to get that plan implemented, hence the need for an iimplementation plan. The implementation plan should provide in detail hhow the QMP is to be executed and by wwhen. Ideally, this should follow the sequence of the QMP and in a sense is an elaboration of the QMP but particularly in terms of how practically each part of the QMP can be achieved. A simple example is developing a process needed in the QMP. The QMP may simply say „Develop XYZ Process‰. In reality, the implementation plan for this may look like the following:

(a) Decide on HOW the process could be done. Deadline: 3 weeks from now.

(b) Select the machinery to do the above. Deadline: 4 weeks from point (a).

(c) Decide on the types of operators needed. Deadline: .....

(d) Decide whether to advertise or to recruit using another method. Deadline:......

(e) Select operators. Deadline: ..... Too often, organisations stop at developing and writing the QMP and leave the details and the implementation plan to juniors who may not have the experience and broad outlook of seniors. This practice should be avoided and the implementation plan should be treated with as much importance as the more strategic and broader plans.

1. Why do you think a QMP is important?

2. What are the differences between a QMP and an implementation plan?

3. Write an example from your place of work of each of the above.

4. Go back to the beginning of this topic and think what would happen to quality if there is no quality management strategy.

SELF-CHECK 1.4


� Quality is about meeting the purposes of what the product or service is

meant to do.

� Quality control is a system in which the outputs of the process are subjected to an inspection in which defective items are separated from good ones.

� Quality assurance is a system where process outputs are no longer subjected to inspection in order to separate the good from the bad.

� TQM is a system consisting of various elements within and outside the immediate process or processes responsible for the products or services that determine the quality of the products or services.

� A vision is a dream, wish or something we would like to see happen in the future that is normally good for ourselves as well as for others. A mission is your take on what to do and how to do it.

� Quality does not happen by itself. We all want quality but seldom want to spend the time or effort to plan for it. In order to fully understand and achieve quality, we must accept that quality must be built into a product or service.

� Everyone is responsible for ensuring quality in the organisation. However, management has a fundamental role as all actions emanate from the management. All reactions and proactive steps by staff also emanate from the managementÊs actions and inactions.

� The roles and responsibilities of the management are so pivotal and sensitive, that it must tread very carefully. It must be circumspect and extra careful as whatever it does or does not do becomes a guide to everybody else in the organisation.

� Quality is everybodyÊs job. This means everyone in the organisation is responsible for quality. They have important roles to play in realising and actualising quality in the organisation. As a result, no one person should and could claim to be fully responsible for quality in the organisation.

� A Quality Management Plan (QMP) is a series of steps for the efficient and effective management of quality in the organisation. Being efficient means carrying out what needs to be implemented in the cheapest and best way.


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Mission

Primary tasks

Kaizen

Quality

Quality Control (QC)

Quality Assurance (QA)

Quality Management Plan (QMP)

Total Quality Management (TQM)

Secondary tasks

Vision

Topic 1

Documents

Topic 1