Quality Systems For Business

Excellence Management Essay

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The business environment today is going on is supposed to be perfectly competitive,
so unpredictable, competitive and variable, and has made customer satisfaction the
ultimate goal of any company wishing to gain a foothold in the increasingly
aggressive market.
Basically, there are three pillars that are strategic and which always support: price,
quality and time. The anticipation in time to the needs of customers was the
commitment of companies with sophisticated technology in the past but no longer is
a differential for all companies, whatever their sector, are on that criterion.
Today, a competitive pricing is necessary but not enough. Therefore, the quality rises
increasingly strategic objective to achieve customer loyalty and expand market share
on the basis of satisfaction. And this is achieved through innovation within the
organization and therefore in the final result of our product or service that
implementing a quality system entails.
This coursework describes and critically evaluates the models of quality systems.

Theoretical Background and Task

Models of quality systems
When a company decides to implement a quality system model is a sign that the
company intends to remain and grow in the market, be competitive, protect the
interests of shareholders, caring labor supply and improve the quality of his personal
life. To implement a quality system method has as main objective for companies: to
develop systematically, products, goods and services of better quality and meet the
needs and desires of customers.

It requires a model that the company's mission and efforts of each area on a synergy
of results towards competitiveness and world-class quality. Some of the most
important models are EFQM, TQM, Baldrige, Deming, BSC or ISO and others.
BSC:
The BSC is a new framework created to integrate indicators derived from the
strategy. It was presented by Kaplan, R. and Norton, D. in 1992 in the Harvard
Business Review. While it retains financial indicators of the past performance, the
BSC enters inductors for the future financial performance.
The BSC's objectives and indicators derived from the vision and strategy of the
company, and provide for the conduct of the company from four perspectives:
financial, customer, the internal process and the formation and growth. These four
structures provide the necessary structure for the balanced scorecard. (See the figure
below). The real value of the BSC appears when it becomes a management system
from a system of indicators.
The BSC is primarily a mechanism for the implementation of a strategy, not to
formulate it. For any approach that senior management of a company uses to
formulate its strategy, the BSC will provide an invaluable mechanism for transform
that strategy into objectives, measures and specific purposes, and to control and
monitor the implementation of this strategy during the subsequent periods.
EFQM:
The EFQM Excellence Model(1991, European Foundation for Quality Management)
helps organizations establish a performance management model that allows them to
know themselves better to evolve continuously towards business excellence.
The EFQM Model is a flexible and dynamic model where innovation and learning
enhance the work of the enablers, which analyze how the organization carries out key
activities, leading to improved results are being achieved.
Source: http://www.palpolice.ps/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/EFQM-Model1.jpg
This is a non-regulatory model, whose basic concept is the self-evaluation based on a
detailed analysis of the functioning of the management of the organization. Selfevaluation enables organizations to clearly identify their strengths and areas for

improvement. The management team can recognize the most significant

shortcomings, so they are able to suggest the plans of action to be strengthened.
The systematic and periodic model for the management team allows it to establish
plans for improvement based on objective facts and the achievement of a common
vision about the goals to be achieved and the tools to use
It is based on the following premise:
"The excellence results regarding the performance of the organization to Customers,
People and Society are achieved through leadership and drive to lead the Policy and
Strategy, People Organization, Partnerships and Resources, and Processes."
ISO9000:
ISO 9000 refers to a set of quality standards established by the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO). Can be applied in any organization or
activity aimed at producing goods or services. The ISO 9000 specifies how an
organization operates, its standards of quality, delivery times and service levels.
Criticism
Despite the success of ISO standardization, the concept has generated much
controversy among some authors (Reedy, 1994, Avery, 1995) which state that the ISO
is not a real improvement for the company on quality and safety. According to them,
this concept does not affect its introduction in management, being a mere insurer
based quality standards. Some companies go further and believe that without
implementing the ISO-9000 standard, quality would be maintained as pointed Liker
(2004). On the other hand, some authors like Gerner and Lucore (1994) and Taylor
(1995) consider that the rule is necessary for the organization.
"The competitiveness of a nation depends on the ability of its industry to innovate
and improve. Companies achieve competitive advantage if they can innovate"
Porter, M. (1985) Competitive Advantage

Contribution of the learning organization and

knowledge management as indicators of
innovation

Molina (1995) points out that innovation is the result of a business process that ends
with the successful implementation of an invention or idea, allowing something that
was previously not possible or at least not as efficiently, and involving, therefore, a
genuine technological progress, social and economic development. From a general
perspective, innovation ranges from the development of new products and new
production processes to changes in marketing approaches, new forms of distribution,
or new management or organizational forms.

Various aspects highlight the competitive significance of innovation. Porter (1991)

notes that the current competition is dynamic and evolutionary, that is, is a
constantly changing landscape in which new products continually emerge, new ways
to market, new manufacturing processes and entirely new market segments. In this
context it should be recognized the ability of innovation as a central element in the
competitiveness of the company.
The company must perform two key tasks in relation to their resources and
capabilities: to exploit the current allocation of resources to take advantage of the
current opportunities; and from a dynamic point of view, to build or develop new
resources to take advantage of future opportunities. In this sense, as pointed out by
Sanchez, Heene and Thomas (1996), learning and knowledge must be considered as
strategic variables, because they play a key role in the accumulation and development
of new capabilities. Also, we should keep in mind that the improvement of existing
capabilities will also be the result of the lifelong learning aimed at creating new
knowledge. Thus, the study of the processes of organizational learning and
knowledge management appear as fundamental concept.
The accumulation and development of technological innovation ability of the
company is no stranger to this reality. Thus, Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) indicate
that the company's continuous innovation will depend on the new knowledge that
the company is able to create. This relationship is expressed through the following
figure:

KNOWLEDGE CREATION
CONTINUOUS INNOVATION
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Relationship between knowledge and innovation

Source: Nonaka y Takeuchl (1 995)
Certainly the improvement and development of innovation ability will involve
increasing the knowledge base of the company. In addition to this knowledge of the
market, the company must know the available technologies that can improve their
innovation ability.
The new knowledge to develop the ability for technological innovation of the
company may be generated internally through the experience, but can also be
obtained from external sources, mainly from other firms (Huber, 1991). This
information can be obtained by imitation, but also through cooperation with other
companies.
In any case, this knowledge base of the company will increase thanks to an
organizational learning process that starts from the individuals knowledge who are
learning and those who possess knowledge. This individual knowledge generates,
through integration and management in the company, a real base of organizational
knowledge.
Besides the above two types that distinguish between internal and external
knowledge, and individual and organizational knowledge, some of the most
commonly used classifications is the difference between explicit and tacit knowledge.
The first can encode and formalize, being therefore easier to transmit or share. Tacit
knowledge, on the other hand, it is difficult to codify and transmit, as it is inserted
into the personal beliefs and experience.
It is important to note some organizational aspects that can facilitate knowledge
management. In particular, we will focus on the important role they can play the
organizational structure and culture of the company.
In relation to the structure, is indicated that the creation and use of knowledge
becomes a priority. In general, we can state that the organizational structure
becomes a key element for the integration and coordination of all individual learning
processes that exist in the enterprise in order to set up organizational learning.
In this sense, says Grant (1996) to assert that knowledge has become probably the
most significant strategic resource. The essential role of the organizational structure
will be to integrate individual knowledge of members of the company. In the same

line expresses Nadler (1994) when he points that the competitive efficiency requires
companies to invest in developing their ability to learn, being one of the key
ingredients of the organizational structure that allows and encourages this learning.
at the same time has to enable people to transform learning into action, namely, into
innovation.
Trying to realize the organizational requirements needed by the successful
development of learning through information and knowledge transfer, we note the
work of Fiol and Lyles (1985), which indicate that the mechanical structures tend to
reinforce past behaviors, and their centralized and formalized structures tend to slow
that learning. For its part, organizational structures are more decentralized, allowing
a faster adaptation to changes and presenting a better structure to facilitate that
learning.

Werther and Kerr (1995) indicate the need for any company to operate as a learning
organization in order to constantly improve, create innovations and build capacity
and skills to obtain new competitive advantages. These authors influence that to
achieve this type of enterprise needs replacing traditional hierarchy for adhoc
structures (concept of Mintzberg, H.) that increase the flexibility of the company and
the acceptance of change by individuals. They note the need to give more power to all
employees through increased participation and autonomy.
In conclusion companies that opt for knowledge should be open to the
environment, and formulate their goals in a changing context. In this sense, some
values for a company, must permeate a corporate culture of learning must be
flexibility, adaptability, be open to experimentation, and have a strong will to face
failure and learn from them, questions will also be needed in an innovative company.

Conclusions
In conclusion we must remember the importance of business innovation, the
knowledge management and its relationship with competitive advantage. The time
period during which you can hold a certain competitive advantage is shrinking, given
the rapid changes in technology and customer requirements faced by companies, and
the speed with which competitors copy those advantages. In this sense, the ability to
compete in a company depends on the rate at which incorporates new advantages
within their organization, not its wealth of advantages at a given time. Specifically, to

address the imitation, the company must create faster competitive advantages than
competitors imitate that currently owns, which will depend on its ability to innovate.
The implementation of quality systems in the organization will be the tool to achieve
this goal.