Process Management:

Efficiency Improvement

Quality Management

A Prerequisite of Your Market Success

Why Quality Management?

Quality improvement is integral to running a business the smart way. To drive responsibility for the quality process through the ranks of your organization, you should assess individual contributions to the quality process as part of every employee's periodic review.

Be the Best Possible

Quality Is a Must, but Not a Guarantee of Success

Quality is now expected by consumers and is ceasing to be a point of differentiation. When developing your differentiation strategy, keep in mind that quality is no longer is a differentiator in the world of marketing; it is a prerequisite. You cannot build a powerful brand without it. But quality is an expectation, not a tiebreaker. Quality is a given these days, not  difference.⁴

The New Definition of Quality

Past definitions of quality focused on conformance to standards. Such definitions focused exclusively on the customer's perception of quality and didn't take into consideration how these standards are met – through defect prevention or a considerable rework of a specific part or service. In addition, past definitions of quality often overlooked the fact that product or services rarely consist of a single element.

The new definition of quality focuses on achieving "value entitlement."³ It defines quality as a state in which value entitlement is realized for the customer and provider  in every aspect of the business relationship. "Value" represents economic worth, practical utility, and availability for both the customer and the company that creates the product or service.

"Value entitlement" means:

1. For the customer – a rightful level of expectation to buy high-quality products at the lowest possible cost.

2. For the provider – a rightful level of expectation to produce quality products at the highest possible profits.

Customer's Perspective of Quality

Customer expectations are continuously increasing. Brand loyalty is a thing of the past. Customers seek out products and producers that are best able to satisfy their requirements... More

Leveraging Your Service-Profit Chain

Delivering top quality service must be brought to the top of your company's needs hierarchy as one can draw a straight line between superior service and your sustainable profit growth. To achieve success, you must make superior service second nature of your organization... More

 Case in Point  M&M Candies

M&M's chocolate candies were first sold in 1941 and quickly became a household word.

In 1981, M&M's Chocolate Candies were chosen by the first space shuttle astronauts to be included in their food supply. By 2001, M&M's Chocolate Candies were sold in 200 countries.

A CEO of a global consulting company says,⁶ "I've been buying M&M candies for more than 40 years. It's a childhood addiction that has never abated. Through the years, I've probably bought more than 5,000 bags of M&M's. And I never had a bad one. Not one bag that was spoiled or stale or crashed or discolored. You can attribute it to great quality controls, but I've been managing business long enough to know that it takes more than that: The Mars family has made quality a cornerstone of their company. It is woven into everything management and employees do. It is a standard, a religion, and a force that over time has become second nature."

Total Quality Management (TQM)

TQM refers to an integrated approach by management to focus all functions and levels of an organization on quality and continuous improvement. TQM focuses on encouraging a continuous flow of incremental improvements from the bottom of the organization's hierarchy. TQM is not a complete solution formula as viewed by many – formulas can not solve managerial problems, but a lasting commitment to the process of continuous improvement... More

Deming's 14 Point's Plan for TQM

Point 1: Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of the product and service so as to become competitive, stay in business and provide jobs... More

Six Sigma

While traditional quality programs have focused on detecting and correcting defects, Six Sigma encompasses something broader: It provides specific methods to re-create the process itself so that defects are never produced in the first place... More

 Case in Point  Quality Measures at General Electric (GE)

Jack Welch, the former legendary CEO of GE,  made quality the job of every employee. Senior manager's bonuses were tied to Six Sigma results. Welch credits the Six Sigma quality initiative with "changing the DNA of the company", meaning that it has had a greater impact on the productivity of GE than any other program. To help their businesses to track progress in the six sigma program, GE designed five corporate measures: Customer satisfaction; Cost of poor quality; Supplier quality; Internal performance; and Design for manufacturability...

Kaizen & Quality Control Circles

TQC is a management tool for improving total performance. TQC means organized Kaizen activities involving everyone in a company - managers and workers – in a totally systemic and integrated effort toward improving performance at every level. It is to lead to increased customer satisfaction through satisfying such corporate cross-functional goals as quality, cost, scheduling, manpower development, and new product development... More

 Case in Point  Canon

 Case in Point  Benefits of Business Process Management

The payoffs of process mastery can be breathtaking. Costs melt away, quality goes through the roof, and time spans shrink to a fraction of what they were. In 1999 Hammer and Company⁵ surveyed dozens of companies that had adopted the process approach to work and business.

• In order fulfilment, cycle times had typically decreased by 60% to 90%

• "Perfect orders" (those delivered on time, with no mistakes) had increased by 25%

Integrated Environmental & Quality Management System

A market study in the Netherlands concluded that full integration between ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001 was possible and  it was easiest for organizations that had  structured their ISO 9001 Quality Management System together with their business processes and such integration could lead to valuable synergies... More

TPS-Lean Six Sigma

TPS-Lean Six Sigma is like a ‘turbo-charged’ Lean Six Sigma program. TPS-Lean Six Sigma is a revolutionary, holistic concept. It actively has human capital embedded in Lean Six Sigma in a manner that not only stimulates commitment, integrity, work-life balance, passion, enjoyment at work and employee engagement but also stimulates individual and team learning in order to develop a motivated workforce and sustainable performance improvement and quality enhancement for the organization... More