Quality Management Tools

Questions to consider when implementing Quality Management Tools

• How do we measure quality?
• Are senior management fully committed to the quality concept?
• Can we ensure buy-in across the organization?
• What training will staff require?

Actions to take / Dos

Communicate the benefits of quality management across the organization. Quality management techniques require buy-in and engagement at all levels in order to work effectively Encourage a culture of teamwork, ensuring that managers work as part of their teams, rather than as overseers Encourage a culture of ownership and responsibility among employees Be aware that existing rewards may conflict with quality management by encouraging individualism over teamwork

 

Actions to Avoid / Don'ts
Don’t be complacent – quality management is a long-term process seeking to make continual, small improvements over time Avoid the use of too many quality measures – be selective and recognize that some may conflict with others

 

 

 

Quality Management Tools

What benefits do Quality Management Tools provide?

An effective quality management program leads to higher quality processes and outputs. These in turn lead to greater customer satisfaction and improved profitability.

 Quality management encourages a culture of team working at all levels of the organization, which in turn improves productivity. Human resources are recognized as a key organizational asset. Lower costs of failure, combined with shorter processing times, will result in cost savings.

Quality Management Tools

EFQM Excellence Model

The EFQM model is a framework for management systems, developed by the European Foundation for Quality Management. It aims to assess performance; integrate and align existing tools, procedures and processes; introduce a way of thinking that encourages reflection and stimulates continuous improvement; and identify the key actions that are driving results.

A key feature of the model is a diagnostic framework that allows organisations to grade themselves against nine key criteria. These focus on the cause and effect relationship between how an organisation carries out its actions (enablers), and what these achieve (results).

Enablers	Results
Leadership  Strategy  People  Partnerships and resources  Processes, products and services	Customer results  People results  Society results  Business results

 

Quality Management Tools

Six Sigma

CIMA Official Terminology describes Six Sigma as a methodology based on TQM to achieve very low defect rates. The ‘sigma’ refers to the Greek letter used to denote standard deviation, so ‘six sigma’ means that the error rate lies beyond six standard deviations from the mean. To achieve six sigma, an organization must therefore produce not more than 3.4 defects per million products.

In practice, businesses use techniques such as statistical process control to monitor and chart processes, identifying exceptions to the upper and lower limits and aiming to reduce the number of faults.

Quality Management Tools

Kaizen

CIMA Official Terminology describes Kaizen as a Japanese term for continuous improvement in all aspects of an entity’s performance, at every level.

The philosophy of Kaizen seeks to involve all levels of employees, encouraging suggestions for small incremental improvements across all areas of the business, which over time have a major impact. In a manufacturing context, processes are standardized, assessed and then improved, with the ultimate result being decreased waste and increased productivity.

Quality Management Tools – including TQM, Six Sigma, Cost of Quality and EFQM

Total Quality Management (TQM)

CIMA Official Terminology describes TQM as the integrated and comprehensive system of planning and controlling all business functions so that products or services are produced which meet or exceed customer expectations. TQM is a philosophy of business behavior, embracing principles such as employee involvement, continuous improvement at all levels and customer focus. It is also a collection of related techniques aimed at improving quality – such as full documentation of activities, clear goal setting and performance measures from the customer perspective.

Originally developed in Japan in the 1950s, the aim of TQM is to get things ‘right first time’, an approach that increases prevention costs, such as system design, but helps to prevent internal and external failure costs. There is an emphasis on participation throughout the value chain, and a commitment to continuous improvement through constant reassessment of processes.

 Quality Management Tools – including TQM, Six Sigma, Cost of Quality and EFQM

Cost of Quality (CoQ)

According to CIMA Official Terminology, CoQ is the difference between the actual cost of producing, selling and supporting products or services and the equivalent costs if there were no failures during production or usage. The cost of quality can be analysed into:

Cost of conformance – cost of achieving specified quality standards

Cost of prevention – costs incurred prior to or during production in order to prevent substandard or defective products or services from being produced

Cost of appraisal – costs incurred in order to ensure that outputs produced meet required quality standards

Cost of non-conformance - cost of failure to deliver the required standard of quality

Cost of internal failure – costs arising from inadequate quality which are identified before the transfer of ownership from supplier to purchaser

Cost of external failure – costs arising from inadequate quality discovered after the transfer of ownership from supplier to purchaser.