71332 Quality Management

ASSIGNMENT 1

TRIMESTER 3, 2020

Prepared by Ansell, Ruth Marie; Student ID 4201600

30 November, 2020
Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................................... 3
a. A brief introduction to quality and quality characteristics
with reference to the organisation in the case study........... 3
2. Analysis ............................................................................... 4
a. Differences between the current and desired approaches
of Quality Management ....................................................... 4
b. Stakeholder effects ......................................................... 4
c. Four aspects of a quality culture ..................................... 5
d. Leadership and teamwork ............................................... 6
3. Issue Overview ................................................................... 7
a. Risks and Costs ................................................................ 7
b. Cost/Benefit analysis ....................................................... 8
4. Recommendation for Quality Management Culture ....... 10
References ............................................................................ 11
 1. Introduction

a. A brief introduction to quality and quality characteristics with reference to the

organisation in the case study.

Quality is about making the customer happy by meeting expectations of business promises.
If the business offers a luxury item, such as a Lamborghini with sleek design and high-tech
engine, and this is what the customer receives, then the product offered has been of a "good
quality". If a company is selling a basic item such as a generic watering cans of plain design
and the customer receives the expected item, again this item has been of "good quality".
This expectation vs. perception phenomenon is based on the quality characteristics of a
product or service
The shoes at Sole Mates Ltd would be considered of a quality that conformed to
expectations, if the company could at first become clear on what they wanted to offer and
then worked to ensure the shoes produced matched that promised offering.
2. Analysis

a. Differences between the current and desired approaches of Quality

Management

First of all, Sole Mates Ltd is having trouble with accessibility of and complexity of their
process manuals. They are cumbersome and confusing for the parties involved. It is
fantastic that there is testing of product taking place, as this shows the company has the
right intentions. However, testing follows a quality inspection approach, not TQM and even
these inspections don't happen. To be serious about quality, it is recommended the
company move away from a quality inspection or even a quality assurance approach and
move into implementing TQM.

Quality inspection aims to catch problems that have already occurred and quality assurance
urges management and staff to get it right the first time. TQM, however, acknowledges the
contribution of systems and processes to error and fault. It seeks continual improvement
across the whole business and does not flinch at the cost of preventing quality-errors,
understanding that the cost of poor quality is greater, through rework requirements, loss of
customers and halting of the production pipeline due to errors discovered too late (Open
Polytechnic, n.d.-b).

Secondly, it appears there is confusion about the cost of quality. The business must
ascertain what level of specification it aims to offer the market segments it provides its
offering to. Once the specifications of the offering are clear and are marketed correctly to the
customer so the customer knows what to expect, the design will be considered to be quality.
Then, in terms of production, quality will be the conformance of the product to the design. So
before Sole Mates Ltd considers "improving quality" it needs to be clear on its market
position, strategic offering, product design and finally quality focus can centre around
production conformance to design.

Thirdly, the company is struggling with both quality culture & change management.
Acknowledgement and consultation may be used to hear the voices of the people, gather
feedback and improve buy-in. Additional high-level management comms, rewards, and
storytelling can be used to improve this.

Finally, suppliers require additional clarity to guide their production activity. The suppliers are
keen to please. Requiring ISO 9000 certification can be one way to guarantee supplier
production quality, but this will depend on Sole Mates' price point as an ISO certified factory
will inevitably charge a higher price per unit.

b. Stakeholder effects

In quality management a variety of stakeholders have an interest in quality outcomes and

will certainly be impacted by changes to quality management systems. Therefore, it is
important to understand how these changes will affect them. In this report, we look at
impacts on customers, suppliers & staff.

To begin with customers, this stakeholder group will see a tremendous benefit, if the
transition is done correctly. A TQM operating model actively seeks to answer the question,
"What does the customer expect?" Sole Mates Ltd, must clarify its strategic and profitable
offering and ensure there is clear messaging so the customer knows exactly what they are
buying. Once this step is complete, the company needs to focus on conformance of
production to the design specified. When customers receive fit for purpose goods, they will
be highly satisfied and the business will have great potential to grow.

Then we move on to the supplier stakeholder group. Suppliers will be expected to integrate
into the TQM system as they produce the products that will need to conform to customer
expectations. If suppliers cannot change their operations to prioritise quality, then Sole
Mates Ltd may consider changing to selecting only ISO 9000 manufacturers. This will clearly
impact existing supplier relationships. If current suppliers can be brought up to standard, this
will improve their marketability to other customers and could increase the amount of other
business received by the suppliers.

Lastly we examine the staff. The staff will be the key to making the new quality system a
reality and as such, need to be highly involved from the beginning, in order to fire up the
manpower required for the changes to be made. If there is no staff-buy in or there is great
resistance to changes, the whole endeavour will fall flat. Besides this, the staff will have to
struggle through the cultural changes within the company, required to support the new
quality focus. In order to get staff on board, they should be frequently engaged in
consultation and discussion and they should see management showing a good example of
commitment to quality-issue-prevention.

c. Four aspects of a quality culture

The issue of changing the minds & hearts of the people is much harder than simply writing
down the intention to address quality as a company. This is just as much a challenge for
Sole Mates Ltd as it is for any company. The first aspect to consider is more than writing
down the intention. It entails having a full written plan as this can bring clarity to what needs
to be achieved in order for the culture to have been successfully changed (Goetsch, D., &
Davis, S., 2013). For example, it should be clearly assessed and documented where the
current company culture is at, what aspects of it need to be overhauled and how it can be
measured that successful change has taken place.

Another key is to identify staff and managers who may be key people who can be advocates
who champion the TQM approach at work (Goetsch, D., & Davis, S., 2013). These people
can be shoulder-tapped and conversation which can generate their buy-in must be carried
out first. Once the advocates are on-board, they can be encouraged to "lead the way"
through carrying out both social and formal peer-pressure activities. This could be in the
form of casual conversations to arranged workshops or Q&A competitions, etc. The
advocates could be asked to submit bimonthly reports or to submit stories for company-wide
publishing to boost change acceptance across the organisation.

Furthermore, advocates should be advised to take an approach which connects to the

emotions as this is the first point-of-call from which people will respond (Goetsch, D., &
Davis, S., 2013). Advocates can be supported with guidance to listen to and hear the voicing
of negative opponents to change so these can be responded to (Goetsch, D., & Davis, S.,
2013).

Finally, there is a recommendation to apply courtship strategies which can be summarized

as being patient, listening, keeping the dialogue cordial and genuinely seeking to win over
resisters as would be attempted during a courtship (Goetsch, D., & Davis, S., 2013). When
seeking to win someone over, every effort should be made to secure a better chance of
keeping dialogue civil and productive, warding off toxicity and neutralization of efforts.
 d. Leadership and teamwork

Leadership is a critical piece to the quality culture change puzzle. Without investment and
drive from the top, the new culture will have a terrible chance of sticking. If Sole Mates Ltd
wishes to revamp their approach to culture, it is strongly recommended to start with the
partners. Communication of the organization's commitment should be clearly rolled out to all
company staff. Examples of suitable communication methods would be road shows,
company-wide emails, coffee and chat sessions with team representatives, workshops, or
other internal media such as videos, audio comms, etc. These could be rolled out as a series
or kick-off communication followed by other forms of update.

Following the announcement from upper management, middle & lower management must
follow suit as appropriate to their levels. Workshops or some other company-wide
communication to management will be needed to bring middle and lower management up to
speed so they can stay in-step with the direction of the organisation and lead their people in
a conducive manner. Because there may be some resistance amongst management of
varying levels, it is recommended that reporting and incentives be put in place for
management to ensure that change can be brought about in these tranches. Once
managers are with the program, their people will gradually be brought along. It is imperative
that vision, unity and conviction are a part of quality leadership (Evans, J., 2011).

Teamwork is also a big key to building a quality-focused vision, permeating every level of the
organization. When staff members are pitted against each other, this can create a toxic
culture which is absolutely not conducive to building up quality efforts. How can a team, work
to identify areas where a process is falling over, if certain individuals are happy with their
nuclear performance? Quality teams can be developed when each personality and individual
psychological needs are understood by leaders who can balance members with one
another, teach team members to deal effectively with one another, facilitate open
communication, synergy and interdependence (Oakland, J., 2007).
 3. Issue Overview

a. Risks and Costs

In order for Sole Mates Ltd to take a TQM approach, SOP’s (standard operating procedures) will have
to move away from static documents towards a “living” CQI (continuous quality improvement)
model. This will entail removing current manuals and implementing a reflective, iterative system.

There are certainly risks to doing this as if carried out with poor control and incompetence, the
manoeuvre could become a debacle. The following risks must be watched for and mitigated against:

• Stakeholders become confused and make up their processes on the fly.

• Common language amongst departments and suppliers is lost so collaborative
communications get messy.
• Quality—the one thing the endeavour seeks to improve—falls wildly out of control and
management loses visibility or data to understand quality status.
• The removal of regimented standardised procedures is not adequately nor properly replaced
with the intended superior quality system (TQM), meaning even less conformance to quality.

The cost of overhauling the current system and revamping it into a structure aligned with the TQM
approach will see costs at first. These can be weighed up against the cost of suffering the loss of
business and productivity due to a gap between expectations & offering and poor design
conformance.

Quality costs are commonly viewed through the lens of the P-A-F model which emerged from early
work by Juran, Feigenbaum, and Masser, etc. (Keogh & Dalrymple, 1995). P-A-F stands for
Prevention, Appraisal & Failure: Internal/External. This context can assist the organization to weigh
up the cost of getting it right the first time vs. the cost of frequent quality issues.

We can understand these costs for Sole Mates Ltd through such a tailored visual aid as below (Open
Polytechnic, n.d.-c):

Quality cost Description Examples

Prevention Costs of removing current
broken system and
replacing with new
system.
Appraisal Cost of actually
maintaining new
standards.
Failure: internal Costs due to internal
waste or losses before
product reaches the
customer
Failure: external Costs due to defective
products or services after
reaching the
distributor/end-customer.
Resources required for review of current
system (includes investment in this report),
comms to all staff, transition phase for
adoption of new ways of doing things, time
spent on CQI
Resources for retraining, ongoing review,
data collection, analysis, iterative
improvement process
Cost of rework, rejection of product as unfit
for market, downtime during investigation of
material or product rejection, time spent
enquiring into internal quality issues
Rejection of shoe products by distributors,
loss of long-term contracts, poor reputation,
loss of market share
 b. Cost/Benefit analysis

If we examine the cost of investing in quality in this way vs. the benefits reaped from running a TQM
system, we may understand the potential outcome for Sole Mates Ltd as below.

(Slack, N., Brandon-Jones, A. , Johnston, R. & Betts, A., 2012).

Of course, at first there will be investment required to prevent the cost of poor quality. However, as
seen above, prevention costs are far lower than the cost of failure, both internal and external.
Another way of viewing this is through a tabular structure.

Cost Benefit Benefit

Prevention • Resources required for Prevention of Internal Prevention of External
review of current system Failure--Save on the Failure-- Save on the
(includes investment in below: below:
this report)
• comms to all staff • Cost of rework • Rejection of
• transition phase for • rejection of shoe products
adoption of new ways of product as by distributors
doing things unfit for • loss of long-
• time spent on CQI market term contracts
• downtime • poor
during reputation
investigation of • loss of market
material or share
product
rejection
• time spent
enquiring into
internal quality
 issues
Appraisal • Resources for retraining
• ongoing review
• data collection
• Analysis
• iterative improvement
process

From the two visual aids above, it should be evident that, while upon first approach of the idea of
investing in a TQM system, it would appear that a great deal of work and investment must be put
into establishment and maintenance, the cost of not doing so would be far greater and could even
spell the ruin of the business.
Therefore it is strongly recommended that Sole Mates Ltd put in the work and investment into
establishing such a TQM system. To clarify, when we discuss TQM as opposed to the quality control
measures currently employed by the company, we mean the preventative and wholistic approach
wherein every staff member from the bottom to the top is involved in CQI and the attitude adopted
is one wherein every effort is made to ensure systems and processes are optimum to get things right
the first time, avoiding warranty issues, complaints, rework, confusion and building up the
company's reputation.
In our view, cost of investing in taking the correct approach, far outweighs the inefficiencies and lost
business that will more than likely result from quality issues.
 4. Recommendation for Quality Management Culture
In the pursuit of a quality management culture, our first recommendation to Sole Mates Ltd is to
first take the step to understand the stages of change. When a new quality focus is introduced, your
people may go through wild resistance before coming to a place of acceptance. Psychiatrist Elisabeth
Kubler-Ross spent many years interviewing, analysing and evaluating her patients in their final times
on their deathbeds, out of which we received the 5 stages of transition model, or the Kübler-Ross
Model (Kübler-Ross, E., 1969). The five stages can be described as shock & denial, anger, bargaining,
depression & despair, and finally--acceptance (Mindsforchange.com., 2019, November 21).
These are depicted below:

(Mindsforchange.com., 2019, November 21)

If management can first understand the expected emotional stages their people must likely pass
through, the battle to win over employees to the side of change for improved quality is half won.
The second step recommended towards implementing an effective total quality management
culture goes hand-in-hand with the above-mentioned point. Once the emotional needs of staff are
understood by management, the people need material, moral and emotional support (Goetsch, D.,
& Davis, S., 2013). This is a crucial method of easing them into the "new normal". It is not enough to
simply be aware of the psychological struggle staff will undergo. Providing support is an appropriate
means of managing transition. This support could be in the form of hosting professional change
workshops (easily outsourced), workbooks or audio files shared through the company intranet or
company-wide emails. It could be communication sessions or the offer to cover therapy through an
EAP (Employee Assistance Programme). Pulse-checks or surveys can then be used to track staff along
the transition curve until the new change has stuck.
References

Evans, J. (2011). Quality management, organisation and strategy. 6th ed. (pp. 371-399). South
Western Cengage Learning.

Goetsch, D., & Davis, S. (2013). Quality management for organizational excellence: Introduction to
total quality. (7th ed.). (pp. 82-95). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Keogh, W., & Dalrymple, J. (1995, January 01). Quality costs: PAF and the process model - are they
compatible? Retrieved November 20, 2020, from
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-011-0539-2_49

Kübler-Ross, E. (1969). On Death and Dying. Scribner

Mindsforchange.com. (2019, November 21). 5 Stages on how to personally deal with global changes.
Retrieved November 24, 2020, from
https://www.mindsforchange.com/5_stages_on_how_to_personally_deal_with_global_changes/

Oakland, J. (2007). Total Quality Management: Text with Cases. (3rd ed.). (pp. 288-314). Oxford:
Butterworth-Heinemann.

Open Polytechnic. (n.d.-a). Quality Characteristics. Retrieved November 16, 2020, from
https://openpolytechnic.iqualify.com/course/-MJeFg02jfXUr2sD6JPs/

Open Polytechnic. (n.d.-b). Welcome to Open Polytechnic. Retrieved November 19, 2020, from
https://openpolytechnic.iqualify.com/course/-MJeFg02jfXUr2sD6JPs/

Open Polytechnic. (n.d.-c). The cost of quality. Retrieved November 20, 2020, from
https://openpolytechnic.iqualify.com/course/-MJeFg02jfXUr2sD6JPs/

Slack, N., Brandon-Jones, A. , Johnston, R. & Betts, A. (2012). Operations and Process Management:
Principles and Practice for Strategic Impact. (3rd ed.). (pp. 385-412). Harlow, England: Pearson
Education.