WEEK 7

QUALITY MANAGEMENT AND

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Quality: all the features or characteristics of a product or service that allow it to
satisfy stated or implied needs

Quality

















Quality Gurus:
Phillip Crosby quality is free, optimum is zero defects
W. Edwards Derning 14 Points for good quality
Armand Feigenbaum total quality control
Kaoru Ishikawa quality circles and cause-and-effect diagrams
Joseph Juran quality as fitness for use, rather than conformance to specification
Yogi Akao quality function development (QFD)
Genichi Taguchi quality loss function, quality robustness

Dernings 14 points for good quality
1. Create consistency of purpose
2. Lead to promote change
3. Build quality into product, instead
of depending on inspection
4. Build long term relationships
based on performance
5. Continuously improve product,
quality, service
6. Start training
7. Emphasise leadership


Reliablility
ability to continue working at
accepted quality level
Quality
fitness for purpose
Quality of conformance
degree to which the
product/service agrees with
design
Quality of design
degree to which design
achieves its purpose
Attributes
things you can asses and
accept or reject
Variables
things you can measure
8. Drive out fear
9. Break down barriers between
departments
10. Stop haranguing workers
11. Support, help, improve
12. Remove barriers to pride in
work
13. Institute a vigourous program
of education and self improvement
14. Put everybody in the company
to work on the transformation
Quality Characteristics:
Functionality: how well the product/service does its job
Appearance: the sensory characteristics of the product/service
Reliability: the consistency of performance over time
Durability: total useful life of the product/service over time
Recovery: ease to which problems can be resolved
Contact: the nature of the person to person contact that may take place










Quality Gap Model
Gap 1: Positioning
Between management
perceptions of customer
expectations and the
expectations themselves.
Gap 2: Specification
Between management
perceptions of customer
expectations and the
product/service specified.
Gap 3: Delivery
Between product/service
promised and whats
actually delivered.
Gap 4: Communication
Between the product or
service delivered and that
communicated to
customers (advertising)
Gap 5: Perception
Between the
product/service quality
perceived and that
expected by the customer.

Measured with regard to
materials processing (car),
customer processing (air
journey) and information
processing (bank loan)
Measured with regard to
variables and attributes (see
graph on first page)
Strategies for Managing Quality:

Quality Inspection (QI)
simplest way to manage quality is to inspect the product before it is sold
shop floor activity, involving only employees directly concerned with the
making of the product or delivery of the service and their superiors
QI takes place after the product has been produced
in MPOs it is too late once a fault/error is detected
not workable in CPOs as production and consumption happen
simultaneously
does little for staff motivation as in tends to accentuate negative feedback
in terms of performance
can only be improved by increased inspection, thus increasing cost

Quality Control (QC)
after designing the quality level and setting standards, the principle role
of the manager is checking on conformance, at several stages in the total
process
Can be measured by
o internal inspection by quality inspectors
o Statistical Process Controls (SPC) at key points
o Quality audits by management
o Mystery Shoppers
System still has some of problems associated with QI
Errors and faults are likely to be detected earlier in the process, still going
to be scrap and rework costs

Quality Assurance (QA)
aligning quality systems to a standard
requires extensive training and auditing and agreed procedures
Examples of Quality Standards:
o ISO 9000 series (quality systems)
o ISO 14000 serious (environment)
o Industry specific standards (Ford Q1)
o Investors in people
o European Foundation for Quality Management (EQFM)
Uses tools and techniques such as poka-yoke (Japanese term for fail safe
device), quality circles (employees who meet), quality audits, mystery
shoppers, surveys, SPC


Total Quality Management (TQM)
includes all parts of the organization, all staff, consideration of all costs, all
systems that affect quality
Prevention rather than appraisal and never stops
Elements: leadership, employee involvement, product/process excellence,
customer focus
Obstacles include:
o lack of companywide definition of quality
o lack of customer focus, poor inter-organizational communication
o lack of employee empowerment
o lack of trust in senior management
o drive for short term financial results
o politics and internal issues

Continuous Improvement
1 Process driven across all
organisational functions
2 Total employee involvement
3 Good labour management relations
4 Effective leadership and cross
communication
5 Adaptability to changing environment


Improvement can be:
1. Radical step change
2. Incremental continuous improvement
3. Combination of the two























6 Visibility and control of all
processes
7 Reducing waste
8 Customer orientation
9 Standardisation
10 Quality awareness and quality
control
Tools of continuous improvement:
Performance measurement and
analysis
Deming Improvement Cycle
Six Sigma Quality Improvement
Benchmarking
Total Productive Maintenance
Balanced Scorecard
Deming Improvement Cycle (PDCA):
PLAN analyse the current situation, gathering data, developing ways to make
improvements
DO involved testing alternatives experimentally, establishing a pilot process
or trying it out with a small number of customers
CHECK determining whether trial or process is working as intended, whether
any revisions are needed, or should it be scrapped
ACT implementing the process within the organisation or with its customers
and suppliers

Six Sigma Quality Improvement: a philosophy to reduce variablility and eliminate
defects, much more reproducible and therefore less variable, producing fewer defects






















The Balanced Scorecard














Cost of Quality
Prevention Costs: cost of identifying potential problems and putting in place the
necessary steps to stop them from happening eg. training staff,
preparing purchase specifications, developing standards,
monitoring and documenting procedures
Assurance Costs: cost of maintaining these standards eg. recources required for
managing inspection, documentation costs of quality surveys and
audits
Internal Failure Costs: costs due to waste or losses before the product reaches the
consumer eg. rejection of raw materials, losses due to faulty
storage, down time, scrap
External Failure Costs: costs due to defective items reaching the customer eg
warranty costs, word of mouth, marketing costs and loss of repeat
business

Benefits of managing quality