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Whether
or not you've heard of "Total Quality" concepts or have any thoughts
about it, the fact is that the principles surrounding it make sense. For some
companies it was a fad thing or even a failure. The concept of Total Quality
wasn't the problem, it was the way that it was rolled out (usually as something
that the 'worker bees' should do while management did it's usual thing) or it
was targeted for a small section of the organization, or it was planned to be a
complete overhaul for the company but the business leadership didn't understand
how to
lead an effective change.
Larry
Bossidy and his leadership team at AlliedSignal (now Honeywell) turned business
results (stock value doubled in two years) around by training all 110,000
employees on the principles of Total Quality and by teaching them how to work
effectively in
teams. As stated in the 1991 leadership guide to AlliedSignal's Total
Quality program, "AlliedSignal aspires to be a Total Quality company, where the
pursuit of excellence is a way of life and prevails in everything we
do." According to this guide, the attributes of a total quality company are:
-
Customer Satisfaction
as the first priority
-
Excellent Business Results
as the expected outcome
-
Process
Orientation
stressing continuous
improvement
-
Highly Motivated, Well
Trained Employees
-
Business Planning Process
outlining quality goals, the steps to achieve them, and the means by which
to measure them.
-
Acting on Fact
-
using data and quantitative methods in decision making.
-
Leadership
as role
models and agents for change.
Many
companies have moved beyond Total Quality and its more easily understood tools
and problem solving models to Six Sigma where defects are counted in the
millions and statistical tools are used to measure the defects, evaluate the
improvements opportunities, and control the gains. While not every product
needs to be at Six Sigma (3.4 defects per million opportunities) and every
process change doesn't need a design of experiment before it's implemented,
understanding where there is variation in your processes and where that
variation is costing you money, can help you to improve your business results.
The
principles of "Total Quality" can be foundational principles for your business.
Six Sigma can help you where you need to breakthrough to a new performance
level. The Six Sigma process improvement methodology of
DEFINE, MEASURE, ANALYZE, IMPROVE, and
CONTROL
can be used whenever a change is needed in a process.
Hughes
Consulting
can
assist you in developing your business foundation or in making a major
change. We can teach your organization the tools that will help you to map your
processes, identify and solve your problems, make decisions based on fact, and
improve your business results. Let us help you.
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