Quality Improvement

One of the most important aspects of any quality improvement program is clearly signaling to everyone in the organization that quality is important. What are some of the ways that management can emphasize the importance of quality improvement?

Quality improvement is defined as a systematic approach to reduction or elimination of waste, work-back flow, rework, and losses in production process. Some ways in which management can relay its importance is by following these steps found on www.1000ventures.com:

1. Define what quality means to you and your customers, and how it can help to achieve your business goals and compete more effectively for market share.

2. Develop a strategy that defines a specific aspect of quality designed to provide a competitive advantage. Think outside the box; as you think about quality in your division, look at the bigger picture to address the strategy that will best guide your organization in the marketplace.

3. Focus all functions and levels of your organization on quality and continuous improvement. Build a companywide lasting commitment to the process of continuous improvement. Involve multiple departments in cross-functional quality improvements processes.

4. Use an integrated approach: leverage your service-profit chain; stress attention to details, but incorporate also competitive benchmarking, evaluation and continuous improvement – all combined in an interactive process with your team members and customers.

5. Build a measurement and benchmarking methodology that will rank you against the competition and provide a mechanism for tracking your progress both independently and in comparison to industry-wide best practices. Measure quality improvements both in quality-specific terms and in terms of the impact it has on your short- and long-term business goals. Assess individual contributions to the quality process as part of every employee's periodic review.

6. Top Management must be completely involved in the quality...