Quality Management

Quality Management

WHAT IS QUALITY?

Quality is about meeting the minimum standard required to satisfy customer needs. High quality products meet the standards set by customers - for example, a high quality washing-up liquid can claim that one squirt is sufficient to clean a family's dirty plates after a meal. A lesser good quality washing-up liquid might require several squirts.

SIGNIFICANCE OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT TO A BUSINESS

The ideas of Quality Management can be considered across all aspects of a business. For example, the quality of the management team, the quality of processes within the business, the quality of decision making.

Most commonly Quality Management is considered in the context of the quality of products and services that businesses produce.

Ensuring quality means making sure that products are made to a minimum specified standard or better. Quality customer service is also invaluable and can lead to increased sales.

What are benefits and impacts

Benefits of good quality management	Impact on business
Right first time, less rework of defective products	Reduced costs
Higher levels of customer satisfaction leading to more repeat business	Higher sales
More enjoyable working environment where everyone takes a pride in their work	Less staff turnover, attracts higher calibre new talent
Standards of work are clearly defined so everyone knows what is expected of them	Higher levels of job satisfaction
Strong reputation for the brand	Brand will be known for their quality
Can charge premium prices because of reputation	Number sold will not change much if price is increased (inelastic price)

MAIN CAUSES OF QUALITY PROBLEMS

Cause	Outcome
Having poorly motivated or untrained staff	More opportunity for mistakes to be made
No clear responsibility for quality	No-one is checking on output
Lack of consistency	Customer not certain of quality
Outsourcing	Lack of “buy-in” – can lead to substandard products
Inspection costs	Businesses do not want to employ extra staff to ensure that their products are of required quality
Cut corners to make cost of production cheaper	poor quality work which leads to a decrease in consumer confidence in the brand

SIGNIFICANCE OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT TO A BUSINESS

Customers compare the price they pay for a good or service with the quality of that good or service and with customer services that go along with it.

Few customers expect a very high quality service when buying low priced items. 

QUALITY CONTROL VS QUALITY ASSURANCE VS TQM (stage, checker, rework)

Method	Stage	Checker	Rework
Quality Control	End	Inspector	High
Quality Assurance	Production process	Assembly line worker	Low
TQM	Every stage	Everyone	Low

Quality control

Where finished products are checked by inspectors to see if they meet the set standard.

Quality assurance 

Where quality is built into the production process. For example, all staff check all items at all stages of the production process for faults. In this way everyone takes responsibility for delivering quality. Successful quality assurance results in zero defect production.

COSTS AND BENEFITS OF QUALITY CONTROL 

Benefits to businesses	Costs to businesses
Increased customer satisfaction leading to repeat purchases/Brand reputation.	It does not prevent waste of resources when products are faulty.
Higher productivity – less time fixing errors	The process of inspecting the goods or service costs money, e.g. the wages paid to the inspectors, the cost of testing goods in the laboratory.
Higher team morale	Doesn’t encourage all workers to be responsible for quality.

ADVANTAGES/COSTS OF QUALITY ASSURANCE OVER QUALITY CONTROL

ADVANTAGES:

• Everyone is responsible for quality (not just the checker at the end)

• Efforts to improving quality (self-checking) will increase motivation

• Can “trace-back” problems to the stage of production where the problem occurred – which can lead to faster fix

• Reduces the need for final inspection and correction (so can save money on inspection staff)

COSTS:

• High initial investment in setting it up (e.g. training staff)

• It might be time-consuming

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM)

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a comprehensive approach to the way a business is organised which seeks to improve the quality of products and services through ongoing refinements in response to continuous feedback.

TQM is mainly concerned with continuous improvement in all work, from high level strategic planning and decision-making, to detailed operations on the shop floor. It stems from the belief that mistakes can be avoided and defects can be prevented. It leads to continuously improving results, in all aspects of work, as a result of continuously improving capabilities, people, processes, technology and machine capabilities.

Underpinning the approach is a belief that everyone is the business needs to embrace Quality and that everyone has a part to play in ensuring quality is delivered in all aspects of the business.

Features of TQM

• Management commitment – needs to be supported and funded at the top of the business

• Employee empowerment – employees are considered to have the right insights to identify and manage Quality improvement initiatives

• Decision making based on fact not gut instinct – data and reporting to support and justify what changes to quality need to be made 

• Continuous improvement – achieving quality excellence is about ongoing continuous incremental changes (often not just a ‘one off’ change)

• Customer Focus – good quality improvement outcomes improve customer expectations and creates value for the business

Total quality management is…

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a process where a business has every employee concerned with quality. One method is to consider whoever you work for as a customer, including other employees. In this case, you ensure quality is at 100% as the product leaves your station to go to the next (your co-worker's) station/stage of production.

Quality circles play a key role…

Quality circles play a key role, as employees will look at suggestions to improve quality as a positive rather than a criticism in a focus on producing a product right the first time every time. Hence the importance of organisational culture within a business — is it quality focused or profit focused?

Two criticisms of TQM…

Two criticisms of TQM are how long the process may take to convince every employee of the importance of quality, and for management to initiate the changes suggested by employees in a timely manner. When the suggested changes from employees are not carried out, employees will lose faith in the system and cease contributing improvement ideas, which eventually results in a loss of quality

KAIZEN (CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT)

Kaizen is the practice of continuous improvement – an ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes 

Recognised as an important pillar of an organisation’s long-term competitive strategy.  

• Introducing small incremental changes in order to improve quality / efficiency

• Kaizen is continuous improvement that is based on certain guiding principles:

• Good processes bring good results

• Go see for yourself to grasp the current situation

• Speak with data, manage by facts

• Take action to contain and correct root causes of problems

• Work as a team

• Kaizen is everybody’s business

Notable features of Kaizen: big results come from many small changes accumulated over time

Often misunderstood to mean that Kaizen equals small changes – in fact, Kaizen means everyone involved in making improvements.

KEY FEATURES OF KAIZEN

• As the ideas come from the workers themselves, they are less likely to be radically different, and therefore easier to implement

• As the ideas come from the workers themselves, they are less likely to be radically different, and therefore easier to implement 

• Small improvements are less likely to require major capital investment than major process changes

• The ideas come from the talents of the existing workforce, as opposed to using R&D, consultants or equipment – any of which could be very expensive 

• All employees should continually be seeking ways to improve their own performance – “buy in” to organisation

• It helps encourage workers to take ownership for their work, and can help reinforce team working, thereby improving worker motivation

QUALITY CIRCLES

• The main aim of the group is to involve workers in the problem solving

  • This helps to motivate staff

  • It uses the expertise of those who are nearest to the production process, the production workers themselves

• Quality Circles are not a means of quality control – they
  are actually a means of quality and productivity improvements.

• They are often employed as an integral part of a
  Kaizen programme

Case study - Sanford - Quality circles - Timaru

Timaru’s CCI programme has generated over 50 ideas in the past year, with the majority of them being successfully implemented. One improvement that stood out was the change in the method of loading ice onto one of the inshore vessels. Previously it had taken five hours, five staff and two forklifts to load up to 15 tonnes of ice onto the San Tongariro, but thanks to Dave Shand’s idea, it is now much more efficient. Dave’s concept utilises a conveyor belt and turbulator to mechanically load the ice into the fish hold. With the new system in place, it now takes two men and only one and a half hours to complete the task.

Case study - Sanford - Quality circles - Tauranga

A problem in Tauranga was that they had tipping bins of fish into hoppers at one time. This was done to ensure the hopper was constantly full so that the packing line always had fish. Unfortunately, when the two bins were tipped simultaneously, there was occasionally damage to the fish from the bins falling into the hopper; they needed a solution. Using the CCI programme, a team got together to brainstorm potential solutions. Although many ideas arose, it was Jason Wihapi, Chiller Coordinator, who came up with the most viable suggestion. Jason designed a simple ‘rack’ for the bins to sit in when the tipper was used; This prevents the bins from falling into the hopper and damaging the fish. It also has the added advantage of self-stacking the empty bins when finished to further simplify the job. The track has been dubbed the “JW”1 and is now being used on all of Tauranga’s packing line hoppers.

Quality assurance - Why Was Hopt Made? - LION

Hopt was developed by Lion due to changing consumer preferences (decrease in consumption of alcoholic beverages in New Zealand over the last decade) and as part of Lion’s strategic goal of increasing the development of new markets and products for non-alcoholic beverages (e.g. Hopt)

Quality assurance - Hopt Labelling Issue - LION

Quality Issue: Bottle labels puckering during the bottling process of the new Hopt beverages

During the bottling process, the labels for Hopt were sometimes puckering. Due to quality assurance, they were able to identify that the issue was occurring in the labelling machine. They tried different bottles and labels and were able to identify that the issue lay with the bottle. Working with the glass manufacturer, Lion was able to ascertain that a microscopic seam in the glass was causing some labels to pucker during the labelling process. The glass manufacturer was able to work on their production process and decrease the seam so that the issue was resolved.

Advantages of quality assurance

• Everyone is responsible for quality (not just the checker at the end)

• Efforts to improving quality (self-checking) will increase motivation

• Can “trace back” problems to the stage of production where the problem occurred - which can lead to a faster fix

• Reduces the need for final inspection and correction (so can save money on inspection staff)

Costs of quality assurance

High initial investment in setting it up (e.g. training staff)

It might be time-consuming