Quality Management – Understanding how does it improve firm performance

Quality management is a recent phenomenon but important for an organization. Civilizations that supported the arts and crafts allowed clients to choose goods meeting higher quality standards rather than normal goods. In societies where arts and crafts are the responsibility of master craftsmen or artists, these masters would lead their studios and train and

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What is Quality?

To understand total quality, we must first understand qual­ity. Customers that are businesses will define quality very clearly using specifications, standards, and other measures. This makes the point that quality can be defined and mea­sured. Although few consumers could define quality if asked, all know it when they see it. This makes the critical

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The Total Quality Approach Defined

Just as there are different definitions of quality, there are dif­ferent definitions of total quality. The authors define total quality as follows: An easy way to grasp the concept of total quality is to consider the analogy of a three-legged stool, as shown in Figure 1.1. The seat of the stool is customer focus.

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Two Views of Quality

The total quality philosophy introduced a whole new way of looking at quality. The traditional view of quality mea­sured process performance in defective parts per hundred produced. With total quality, the same measurement is thought of in terms of defective parts per million produced. The traditional view focused on after-the-fact inspections of products. With

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Key Elements of Total Quality

The total quality approach was defined in Figure 1.2. This definition has two components: the what and the how of total quality. What distinguishes total quality from other ap­proaches to doing business is the how component of the defi­nition. This component has several critical elements, each of which is explained in the remainder of

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Total Quality Pioneers

Total quality is not just one individual concept. It is a number of related concepts pulled together to create a comprehen­sive approach to doing business. Many people contributed in meaningful ways to the development of the various concepts that are known collectively as total quality. The three major contributors are W. Edwards Deming, Joseph

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Keys to Total Quality Success

Organizations that succeed never approach total quality as just another management innovation or, even worse, as a quick fix. Rather, they approach total quality as a new way of doing business. What follows are common errors organiza­tions make when implementing total quality. The successful organizations avoid these errors. Senior management delegation and poor leadership.

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The Future of Quality Management in the Twenty-First Century

There are several trends that will shape the future of quality management. These trends are as follows: Increasing global competition. More and better com­petition from emerging industrialized nations will be an ongoing part of life for organizations. Increasing customer expectations. Today’s global cus­tomer is interested in not just the quality of a product provided

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Quality Certifications

In a competitive work environment, one of the ways that quality professionals can distinguish themselves, enhance their credibility, and improve their career potential is to become certified in an appropriate quality discipline. The American Society for Quality (ASQ) offers certifications in a variety of disciplines, including Manager of Quality/ Organizational Excellence, Quality Engineer, Reliability

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Quality and Competitiveness of the firm

1. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN QUALITY AND COMPETITIVENESS The relationship between quality and competitiveness is best illustrated by an example from the world of athlet­ics. Consider track star Juan Arballo. In high school, he was his track team’s best sprinter. Competing at the district level, Juan easily topped the competition in such events as the

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Quality and Global competitiveness

1. CHARACTERISTICS OF WORLD- CLASS ORGANIZATIONS It is often said that only “world-class” organizations can com­pete in the global marketplace. But what is a world-class orga­nization? In an attempt to answer this question, the American Management Association (AMA) conducted a global survey.4 According to this survey, the following are the top 15 areas in

Trust and Total Quality

The total quality approach cannot be successfully imple­mented in an organization that fails to subscribe to high stan­dards of ethical behavior. This is because ethical behavior builds trust, and trust is an essential ingredient in total quality. Consider the various elements of total quality that depend on trust: communication, interpersonal relations, conflict man­agement, problem

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Values and Total Quality

Values are those deeply held beliefs that form the very core of who we are. A person’s conscience or internal barometer is based on his or her values. Our values guide our behavior. This statement also applies to organizations. An organization will not produce a quality product or provide a quality service unless the

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Integrity and Total Quality

Another aspect of ethical behavior is integrity. Integrity, as a personal and organizational characteristic, combines hon­esty and dependability. When an individual or an organiza­tion has integrity, ethical behavior automatically follows. Quality tip Corporate Values Are Not Just for Show—They Must Be Real A mistake frequently made by organizations is adopting a set of corporate

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Responsibility and Total Quality

Part of ethical behavior is accepting responsibility. This is critical in the modern workplace because employees are drawn from a society that, as a rule, shuns responsibility— which is why ours has become such a litigious society. People want to blame others for their own shortcomings and failures. Students graduate from high school unable

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Overview of Ethics

1. DEFINITION AND OVERVIEW OF ETHICS Ethics is about doing the right thing within a moral framework. In other words, it is the practical application of morality. What is ethical in a given situation is decided by applying the values that comprise the prevailing moral framework. The fundamen­tal question that arises in any ethical

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Corporate Social Responsibility Defined

The material presented so far in this chapter has dealt pri­marily with the behavior of individuals in organizations and the ethical ramifications of that behavior. This section deals with the issue of corporate behavior and its attendant ethical ramifications. Business scandals tend to undermine the credibility of businesses in general by eroding public trust

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Understanding What a Quality Culture is

To understand what a quality culture is, one must first un­derstand the concept of organizational culture. Every orga­nization has one. An organization’s culture is the everyday manifestation of its underlying values and traditions. It shows up in how employees behave at work, what their ex­pectations are of the organization and each other, and what

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Quality Culture Versus Traditional Cultures

Organizations that develop and maintain a quality culture will differ significantly from those with a traditional culture. The differences will be most noticeable in the following areas: Operating philosophy Objectives Management approach Attitude toward customers Problem-solving approach Supplier relationships Performance-improvement approach 1. Operating Philosophy In an organization with a traditional culture, the primary focus

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Activating Cultural Change

To attempt the implementation of total quality without creating a quality culture is to invite failure. Organizations in which the prevailing culture is based on traditional management practices are not likely to succeed in the implementation of total qual­ity. Successful total quality requires cultural change. Several primary reasons cultural change must either precede or

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