Quality Management

In this week of the course we will understand total quality management, the quality management philosophy that most organisations profess to support today. We will look at how quality is measured and understand the different dimensions of quality. Six Sigma will be explored, including the DMAIC process (define, measure, analyse, improve and control). ISO certification will be outlined and Poka Yoke introduced. Finally Benchmarking will be considered.

W. Edwards Deming and the Modern Quality Movement

The modern quality movement originated after the second world war. W. Edwards Deming is often credited with originating much of the philosophy that underlies it. He went to Japan after the war to help the country rebuild its manufacturing industry. The following video, the first part of a series of three that are available on YouTube, introduces Deming and his ideas:

While Deming is often seen as the ‘father’ of the modern quality movement, Phillip Crosby and Joseph Juran also were prominent proponents of it and deserve credit here. Their ideas were pretty similar to Deming’s and they are often referred to in the literature on this topic.

Deming’s book, Out of the Crisis, outlined his ideas.

Deming’s 14 Points lie at the heart of his philosophy and stress the values that he thought were important:

Deming’s 14 points are also outlined in the following video:

The 14 points marked a distinct departure from approaches to quality and to operations management generally when they were introduced and are still controversial for many people today.

Total Quality Management

Total Quality Management is defined in the course textbook as:

“Managing the entire organisation so that it excels on all dimensions of products and services that are important to the customer.”

There are two aspects, the design of the product or service so that it can do this and  the consistent achievement of this design by the organisation’s systems. The following video introduces the new philosophy:

 

Quality Specifications and Quality Costs

It is important to understand the issues related to quality specifications and product cost.  Product quality specifications have a number of aspects. Design quality is the design of the product as required by the marketplace. It is focused on the needs of the user. Conformance quality is the extent to which these design specifications are met in production, while quality at the source is the concept that quality is the responsibility of the person who does the work.

There are a number of dimensions of design quality:

Performance: The main product or service characteristics

Features: Added elements or secondary characteristics

Reliability/durability: The extent to which the product or service is reliable over time

Serviceability: How easy it is to service or repair the product or service.

Aesthetics: Characteristics of a sensory nature

Perceived quality: How people perceive the reputation of the product or service

In considering the cost of quality there are three basic assumptions. First that failures are caused, there are reasons for failure that we can identify and solve to improve quality. Second, that prevention is cheaper than solving quality issues after they occur. Third, it is possible to measure quality performance so that we can understand the impact of changes that we make.

While there is a clear cost of quality when failures occur, we do not always recognise all of the elements that are impacted when  a failure occurs:

Appraisal cost: Costs to test, inspect etc. to ensure that the product or service is achieving appropriate quality.

Prevention costs: The costs that are necessary to solve issues once they occur and to prevent them happening again. This can include problem solving activity, new equipment, employee training etc.

Internal failure costs: Costs for issues where defects are detected within the system (scrap, rectification etc.).

External failure costs: Costs for issues where they are discovered once the product has been shipped (compensation to customers, investigation costs, shipping bad product back etc.).

Six Sigma Quality

Six Sigma is a TQM programme that is used by many companies. It is a philosophy that focuses on identifying and reducing variation in processes and it normally uses a metric known as defects per million opportunities (DPMO). Six Sigma originated at General Electric. In the following video their CEO, Jack Welch, talks about Six Sigma and emphasises the importance of a culture that supports it:

The key Six Sigma concepts are:

Critical to quality: The elements that are the most important to the customer

Defect: Not providing what the customer wants

Process capability: What a process is able to deliver

Variation: What a customer can see and feel

Stable operations: Making sure that your processes are stable and predictable, reducing variation and improving the customer experience.

Design for Six Sigma: Product design in Six Sigma is focused on meeting customer needs and being within the capability of your processes.

Six Sigma is constructed on the foundation of earlier Total Quality Management approaches. It uses a systematic approach to quality improvement known as DMAIC, which is an extension of Deming’s Plan, Do, Check, Act. It features continuous improvement which is focused on all aspects of an organisation’s operations. The following video from the Juran Institute features advocates of Six Sigma:

The DMAIC Methodology

The DMAIC methodology is used within Six Sigma to undertake quality improvement. It has the following elements:

1. Define: Understand what is important to the customer, select an improvement project and identify the critical to quality characteristics.

2. Measure: Identify how the process being improved will be measured and what the key internal processes are.

3. Analyse: Find the likely causes of the defects and why they are generated.

4. Improve: Find ways to remove the causes of defects by reducing the key elements of variability, set the range for acceptable variation and modify the processes to enable them to stay within this acceptable range.

5. Control: Establish how the improvements will be maintained and implement measurement to monitor key variables.

Six Sigma uses the common process improvement analytical tools: flowcharts, run charts, Pareto charts, checksheets, fishbone diagrams, control charts etc. The following video looks at how Toyota engage in quality improvement:

Six Sigma also involves principles in terms of the roles and responsibilities of the organisation. As Deming argued, the Six Sigma philosophy says that senior management need to demonstrate commitment to quality improvement, there should be training of people throughout the organisation in Six Sigma concepts and tools, stretch objectives should be set for improvement and Six Sigma should be reinforced by the organisation’s reward structure.

ISO 9000 and ISO 14000

The ISO standards are a set of quality standards that have been agreed on internationally by the International Organisation for Standardisation. The standards were adopted in 1987 and are now in use in over 160 countries. Many companies insist on their suppliers having the standard. The ISO 9000 series is focused on organisational quality, while the ISO 14000 standard is focused on the environment. The following video describes the ISO standards:

Poka Yoke

Poka Yoke is the term used for error proofing in Japanese manufacturing. It is based on the principal that people will always make errors, mo matter how hard they try not to – to err is human. Shigeo Shingo, who is credited with inventing Poka Yoke argued that quality improvement efforts should be focused on preventing errors by making it physically impossible to create defects. This video illustrates Poka Yoke.

Benchmarking

Another technique that is often used to improve quality is benchmarking – looking at what others are doing to see how it compares with what you do, to identify opportunities for improvement. In the following video the value of comparing outside your own industry is stressed:

Summary

This week we looked at the management of quality. Total Quality Management as a philosophy was introduced first with reference to the work of W. Edwards Deming. Six Sigma was outlined along with a process for quality improvement. The ISO standards were described as well as Poke Yoke and Benchmarking.