Topic

Strategies in
Quality
Management

LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Define quality, quality control, quality assurance and Total Quality
Management;
2. Explain the meaning of vision and mission;
3. Describe managements responsibilities in implementing quality in an
organisation;
4. Describe workers roles and responsibilities in a quality organisation;
and
5. Distinguish between a quality management plan and an implementation
plan.

INTRODUCTION

Do you know that organisations which place priority on giving quality products
and services to their customers not only survive in the market place but flourish?
There are many examples that emphasise this point. Most, if not all, Japanese
manufacturing companies, from Toyota to Nikon, lead the world in quality. It is
true that quality did not originate in Japan. In fact, the well-known gurus of
quality, namely, Edwards W. Deming and Joseph Juran, came from the United
States. But how did the Japanese end up leading the world in quality?
The answer is very simple. The Japanese worked hard to achieve what Deming
and Juran advocated. They worked hard to understand what quality is, how to

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achieve quality, how to sell with quality, and most importantly, how to maintain
quality so that they could continuously improve the quality of their services and
products.
Early in their quest for quality, the Japanese realised that it was not just about
techniques, but also culture. They realised that unless they accepted that the
introduction and implementation of quality needed a change in culture, they
would never achieve the competitive leadership they currently enjoy.
Quality is a continuing and continuous effort. It is a journey and not a
destination.

1.1

DEFINITIONS

Many people misunderstand what quality, quality control (QC), quality

assurance (QA) and Total Quality Management (TQM) mean. It is important to
have the same understanding of these terms, otherwise we may unnecessarily
speak at cross purposes.
(a)

Quality
Table 1.1 provides an explanation on what is meant by quality.
Table 1.1: Definition of Quality
Terms

Definitions

Fitness for Purpose

This is taken from the ISO 9000 series standard

glossary. Quality is about meeting the purposes of what
a product or service is meant to do.

Fitness for Purpose as

Perceived by the Customer

This is a variation of the ISO 9000 series definition. It

includes the recipients of the purposes the product or
service is to satisfy, namely, the customers.

Meeting Customers
Expectations

This is yet another definition of quality that underlines

the importance of the customers.

Exceeding Customers
Expectations

The Japanese went one step further to define quality as

exceeding customers expectations. The idea here is
that we go one or two steps beyond what customers
want. In so doing, we hope to end up with an
advantage over our competitors who offer the same
products or services. However, we need to be cautious
that the extra costs and efforts expended on going
beyond what the customers want are actually worth it.

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(b)

Quality Control (QC)

Before we define QC, we need to define a system as we need to use a
system to define QC. A system is a collection of three interacting entities,
namely, input, process and output as shown in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1: Definition of a system

Input feeds into process and as a result of what is done to the input within
the process, output is produced at the end of the process. Such a structure
and the interactive combination of these three components is called a
system.
QC is defined as a system in which the outputs of the process are further
subjected to inspection in which defective items are separated from good
ones. The theory here is that in this way, customers are shielded from
receiving defective goods. The question is, can producers afford this system
in relation to the benefits that accrue? The other question is, what happens
to the defective items that could not be passed on to the customers?
As a result, not all outputs are normally inspected and a sampling plan is
used. The sampling plan allows the checking of only a certain percentage of
outputs and depending on the results of the inspection of this percentage,
an extrapolation for the whole batch of products would be made and a
decision to pass or fail the batch would be taken.
Also as a result of the above consideration, defective items are either
reworked or rejected. A typical QC system is shown in Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.2: A typical QC system

(c)

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Quality Assurance (QA)

QA is a system where process outputs are no longer subjected to inspection
in order to separate the good from the bad. Instead, the focus changes from
inspecting products to assessing the capability of the process. The argument
here is that if the process could be made to produce outputs that are always
meeting requirements and standards, then the need for inspecting the
products no longer exists.
However, the outputs would still need to be measured in order to identify
shortfalls in the process and remove any errors that contribute to nonconformances. Figure 1.3 shows the quality assurance system.

Figure 1.3: Quality assurance system

(d)

Total Quality Management (TQM)

TQM is a term used to describe a system consisting of various elements
within and outside the immediate process or processes responsible for the
products or services that determine the quality of the products or services.
These elements may range from the companys or organisations policies
(e.g. on marketing, corporate social responsibility, use of non-chemical
ingredients) to government regulations and even international standards or
requirements (e.g. AFTA, Washington Accord, World Trade Organisation).
It is normally not possible to consider all these externalities or extraneous
conditions as they could become very complex and demanding. Thus, only
variants of TQM are being practised by organisations around the world.

(e)

Kaizen
Kaizen is a Japanese word that is commonly used in quality practices to
mean small incremental steps of improvement. Importantly, these small
incremental steps are ratchet steps (i.e. only moving in one way) to ensure
that the improvements will not be lost.
To get more information on Kaizen, you can surf the following websites:

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-kaizen.htm
http://www.graphicproducts.com/tutorials/kaizen/index.php

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(f)

Other Definitions
Specific definitions used in quality practices are available in the Glossary
document of the ISO 9000 standard series.

SELF-CHECK 1.1
Let us pause here to make sure that we have understood most if not all
of the definitions you have encountered so far.
Use diagrams to explain QC, QA and TQM. As you know, it is
common in the engineering field to use diagrams and drawings to
explain concepts. It is no different in this case as well. What is the
major difference between QC and QA?

1.2

VISION AND MISSION

One of the first things that we must do in putting together a strategy in quality is
to know where we are going. This is easily known if we have a vision for our
organisation which is complemented by a number of missions or more
commonly known as mission statements.

ACTIVITY 1.1
What is the vision and mission of your workplace? Share this with your
coursemates.

1.2.1

What is a Vision?

In simple words, a vision is a dream, wish or something we would like to see

happen in the future that is normally good for ourselves as well as for others. The
following are different examples of vision.
(a)

Examples of Vision
Let us look at the following samples of vision.

(i)

(ii)

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A vision of an organisation or a company may be to be profitable,

competitive, efficient, effective and big such as the following:
x

To be the communications company every customer prefers above

all others.

To be the organisation every employee aspires to work for, where

they can maximise their full potential.

To be the corporation every shareholder seeks to invest in.

To be the partner every company wants to do business with.

To be recognised domestically and internationally by everyone,

within and across all industries.

To be the success story every Malaysian can be proud of.

A vision for a country may be: To have peaceful, prosperous and

productive citizens (see Figure 1.4).

Figure 1.4: Example of vision for a country

Source: http://congakone.blogspot.com

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(iii) A vision for a university may be: To be the leader in international

research and development. Open University Malaysia's vision is
shown in Figure 1.5.

Figure 1.5: Example of vision for a university

Source: http://www.oum.edu.my

(iv) A vision for a father may be: To see his children occupy the pinnacle
of their respective professions (see Figure 1.6).

Figure 1.6: A father reading a book to his child

Source: http://blogs.kcls.org

(b)

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Developing a Vision
To help us understand what a vision is so that you can set one for your
department or section and to be able to discuss a prepared vision
intelligently, the following checklist is helpful (Lewis & Smith, 1994):
Table 1.2: Checklist for Developing a Vision

No.

Requirements of a Vision

Future oriented

Not merely derived from current conditions and trends

Expresses creativity

Based on value principles that reflect respect for people

Recognise the history, culture and values of the organisation even if

change is envisioned

Set high standards of excellence, ideals and expectations for members of

the organisation

Clarifies purposes and set direction

Likely to inspire enthusiasm and encourage institutional commitment

Reflect the uniqueness of the organisation in its competency and image

10

Ambitious and challenging to the organisational members

Some discussion on each of the above 10 points may be useful at this stage.
(i)

Future Oriented
Because a vision is about where you want to be, it must therefore be
about the future and hence, future oriented. Sony looked 400 years
down the track. Malaysia as a country looked over 30 years down its
track with Vision 2020. Time span is only one aspect of such an
orientation.

(ii)

Not Merely Derived from Current Conditions and Trends

Because you are future oriented, you will need to consider and
conjecture on things that you have not witnessed to date. The current
conditions and trends will certainly be a good and necessary platform
to start from. Books by Alvin Toffler, John Nesbitt, Stephen Covey
and Bill Gates may help you peek at what the future holds, perhaps

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not necessarily for your department or section directly, but for things
in the future so that you can predict what your type of department
and section may have to be in order to survive. Remember that the
impact of computer and e-technology are so pervasive that you will
need to consider these if you want to survive in the future.
In order to satisfy this requirement of a vision, you must also be bold
enough to venture beyond your comfort zone.
(iii) Expresses Creativity
In simple terms, creativity makes something out of nothing. A vision
that expresses creativity is one that plans to make something out of
nothing, or in other words, to make something new or something that
has not been created before. This is necessary although it is not
sufficient to ensure survival in the future.
(iv) Based on Value Principles that Reflect Respect for People
This ensures that your vision is morally and ethically sustainable. As
you have witnessed time and again, unethical and immoral actions
eventually catch up with their perpetrators, bringing their own
consequences.
(v)

Recognise the History, Culture and Values of the Organisation Even

if Change is Envisioned
Certain things must have happened to bring you to where you are
now. For these to happen, there must have been reasons, some of
which could have been caused by the culture of the organisation,
people and values related to them. Like kaizen, things normally
happen incrementally. And while there were things that were
negative, there would also be a lot of things that were positive and
helpful in bringing the organisation to where it is now. You have to be
grateful for these and one way of showing your gratitude is to
recognise them.
By recognising the past, it does not mean that you cannot bring the
organisation to a new direction or change it totally. By recognising
them, you are thanking those who had brought it to where it is now.
Some of those people may still be working for you and if they feel
their efforts are recognised, then they would be more willing to accept
the changes you propose. This will make your plans work better and
help you to achieve your targets with fewer problems.

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(vi) Set High Standards of Excellence, Ideals and Expectations for

Members of the Organisation
People normally expect good things with changes. Given the
improvement in and increasing access to education and technology,
people also expect more from the future. Your vision, therefore, has to
impart or at least indicate an increase in the standards, excellence and
ideals expected of them.
There will be individuals who do not want to change and are happy
with the way things are. Florence Littauer in her book Personality
Plus (1992) called them peaceful phlegmatics. But she said that even
they would change given the right conditions and encouragement and
normally for their own good as well. You, therefore, need to know
how to deal with different people who are normally motivated by the
challenge of high standards, ideals and expectations.

ACTIVITY 1.2
Do you know which personality type you are? For more information on
different types of personalities, you can visit:
http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/tt/t-articl/mb-simpl.htm

(vii) Clarifies Purposes and Sets Direction

A vision has to be able to tell people its purposes clearly and which
way it is going. People are normally not attracted to confusing and
verbose statements or thoughts. People are also usually not attracted
to statements or thoughts that do not tell them which way to go.
(viii) Likely to Inspire Enthusiasm and Encourage Institutional Commitment
While you have to be truthful and sincere about your vision, it has to
be stated in such a way that it will enthuse people to action and
people will accept and commit themselves to it. A vision should be
inspirational, enliven interest and the spirit, as well as exhilarate
people. People should say that they are enthused and encouraged by
it to the extent that they will commit themselves to that vision. This is
a necessary condition for a successful vision.

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(ix)

11

Reflects the Uniqueness of the Organisation in its Competency and Image

While it is true that a vision should be about the big picture, it must
relate to something, for example, your department or section or
curriculum. Matsushita, who founded the National Panasonic
electrical/electronics company, had a vision which may not seem
related to the business directly, that of reticulating water to peoples
houses rather than them coming to a central village water pond to
collect clean water for use in their houses. He transformed this vision
into one that was very much related to his business. By having the
larger and broader vision in the first place, he initiated the
miniaturisation of cumbersome and fragile radio parts which would
otherwise have precluded his vision for his business. Water
reticulation in this case became the catalyst of Matsushitas vision
which he turned into areas that he and his company were good at or
competent in.
In the same way, your vision has to refer back to you or your
competence. For example, if you are an engineer, to go from
engineering to history is going out of your competence. On the other
hand, to go into computer simulation programming, for example,
may enhance your engineering competence.

(x)

Ambitious and Challenging to Organisational Members

As mentioned earlier, we normally get peoples attention when it is
about something that is new to them, when it makes them think of
conquering and when it creates aspirations in them, motivating them
to be involved in a new venture of sorts.
By being ambitious, your vision indicates change for the better
although no guarantee is given. The adventure that these sorts of
challenges provide attracts the human instinct.

ACTIVITY 1.3
1.

Write a vision for your family. Use the checklist in Table 1.2.

2.

Take a vision you know (it could be that of your organisation,

department or section) and check it against the checklist in Table
1.2. Improve the vision if it does not meet the criteria in the
checklist.

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STRATEGIES IN QUALITY MANAGEMENT

What is a Mission or Mission Statement?

If a vision is the end point of your dream for your department or section, a
mission refers to what to do and how to do it. If we go back to Matsushitas
vision for reticulated clean water to houses and a radio in every house, his
mission was making the radios affordable, reliable, portable and efficiently and
effectively manufactured, which led to the use and manufacture of transistors
and miniaturisation.
(a)

Example of Mission
A mission statement is therefore an expression of what and how to. An
interesting example is that of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) which is
quoted in full here:
Mission
The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is a national social security
organisation operating through a provident fund scheme in Malaysia.
Our principal members are the private and non-pensionable public
sector employees.
We have a four-fold mission as follows:
For the members
Our primary mission is to provide retirement benefits to our members
through the management of their savings in an efficient and reliable
manner.
For the employers
We are committed to provide an efficient and convenient system to
ensure that they meet their responsibility and moral obligations of
contributing to the EPF for their employees.
For the nation
We are also committed towards our nations socio-economic
development through our prudent investments.
For the employees
To all our employees we will provide a motivating, participating and
challenging working environment which can propel them to peak
performance.

(b)

Developing a Mission Statement

How do you write a mission statement which reflects what you have to do
and how you have decided to do it? As mentioned previously, knowing

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13

how a vision and mission statement should be developed will help

everyone involved in or affected by them to ably assist those who are
drafting them. Table 1.3, which is from Lewis and Smith (1994), provides
some guidelines.
Table 1.3: Guidelines for Developing a Mission Statement
No.

Question

What does my institution (or department or section)* do?

What is distinctive or unique about my institution?

What are the primary products and services of my

institution?

Who are my primary customers?

Why are they my primary customers?

Who else has vested interest in my institution? Why?

What are my institutions core values?

How is my institution different from five years ago?

Why is it different?

10

What is likely to be different with my institution five years

from now?

11

Why will it be different?

12

What new products/services will my institution provide in

the future?

13

What must be done by my institution in order to provide

these new products and services?

Your Answer

It goes without saying that you have to consider your answers carefully in
order to arrive at the most appropriate and accurate mission statement.

SELF-CHECK 1.2
Based on your understanding so far, what is the difference between
vision and mission?
How do you distinguish between the two?

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ACTIVITY 1.4
1. Write a mission statement based on the vision for your family. Use
the checklist given in Table 1.3.
2. Take a mission statement you know (it could be that of your
organisation, department or section) and check it against the
checklist in Table 1.3. Improve the mission statement if it does not
meet the criteria in the checklist.

1.2.3

Importance of Vision and Mission of an

Organisation

Before detailed discussions, let us ponder this question: Who do you think is
responsible for developing the vision and mission of an organisation and how do
they go about doing it?
While it is true that some visions originate from the founder of an organisation or
a company, like in the case of Matsushita, nowadays a group of top management
from a company is tasked with formulating this. The process may involve
brainstorming, strategic planning, environmental scanning or a combination of
all these.
There could be many reasons to formulate a company vision. Some organisations
may be forced to relook their vision and mission because they are losing
customers and competitiveness. Others may have decided to change business
direction. Yet others may see new opportunities and decide to try their luck.
As a general rule, it is advisable to involve a number of people in formulating
your vision and mission, particularly given the multi-faceted nature of products
and services these days. The more dimensions a vision takes into account, the
more meaningful it would be in creating a future for the organisation. However,
there is no hard and fast rule about this.
As shown in Figure 1.7, organisational vision and mission can only work when
these are translated into the visions and missions of the elemental units. That is,
each department or section making up the organisation must also develop its
own vision and mission that cascade down from the organisational vision and
mission and are aligned with them. This is why formulating the vision and
mission statement is only the first in a number of steps in inculcating the overall
vision to everyone in the organisation.

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15

Figure 1.7: Organisational and departmental visions and missions

Departmental visions and missions support the overall organisational vision and
mission as shown by the directions of arrows in Figure 1.7. The same checklists
as shown in the previous sections could be used in developing departmental
visions and missions.
In order for all these to work, a communication and dissemination or awareness
plan needs to be established. The success of any quality endeavour lies in the
ability of top management to disseminate their vision and mission to everyone in
the organisation.

ACTIVITY 1.5
Let us pause again here and check if we are clear about vision and
mission and how to write one. You should already have done that in
Activity 1.4. Just to add a little to that exercise on writing your family
vision and mission, one simple question you could use is, Where do I
want to be five or 10 or 15 years from now?
Envisioning is more critical for your career. So, see yourself five, 10 or
15 years from now and then write down what you have to do to get
there.... which is the mission statement.

1.3

QUALITY POLICY

Like a lot of things we buy and consume, quality also needs to be planned.
Quality does not happen by itself. We all want quality but seldom want to spend
the time or effort to plan for it.
In order to fully understand and achieve quality, we must accept that quality must
be built into the product or service. For example, it is like wanting a spicy dish. You
will not get it unless the cook puts some chillies, pepper or other spices into your

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dish. He/she needs to know how much chillies or spices are required for the dish.
Too much and you will not be able to enjoy the dish. Too little and it would not be
tasty. Put in the wrong spices or bad chillies, and the whole dish would be
destroyed. So the chef will need to plan when, where, how and how much of the
ingredients he/she needs to put into the dish to make sure that you, as their
customer, would enjoy the dish. Only then would you get a quality product.
In similar ways, quality needs to be built into a product or service so that
customers would be happy with it. To do so, you have to plan how to build
quality into the product or service.
As has already been shown, we first need to have a vision and mission. These
give us direction as to what business we are in and what end point we are
attempting to reach.
Then, we need rules of the game to guide us in our endeavour. These are our
quality policies. An organisation that wishes to become a quality organisation
must have a quality policy. This will contain the rules that everyone in the
organisation will abide by.
Different organisations may express their quality policies differently. As an
example, Open University Malaysias quality policy reads as follows:

It is the policy of OUM to implement total quality measures in its

operations to ensure quality programmes are effectively delivered at
reasonable costs through quality work culture.
This statement recognises that quality is a culture that underpins all OUM
activities, namely, its operations to deliver its programmes in the most effective
and cost-efficient way. What is not stated is that all these are done so that OUMs
customers will be satisfied and happy with all aspects of OUM.
This statement is pervasive in its ramifications. All sections and departments of the
organisation will need to ensure that their individual and separate work are effective
and efficient and contribute to the quality success of the whole organisation. In turn,
this means that each department and section must implement quality culture,
quality workmanship, quality thinking, quality operations and quality processes in
order to satisfy the overall customers.

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17

It is, therefore, important that the organisation develops a quality policy in

conjunction with those who would have both contributions or inputs as well as
those who are pivotal in implementing the policy.

1.4

THE SCOPING OF QUALITY WORK

Doing quality work involves a lot of work in many areas, using many methods,
resulting in many actions. It is important therefore that work in or about quality
be more specifically or narrowly defined so that proper control and development
of the work can be carried out.
Figure 1.8 shows the cascading action of the work from the organisation as a
whole to the smallest division or section of the organisation. So that every piece
of work is not only related to the one above it but also contributes to it, the scope
of work for each individual work area must be established.

Figure 1.8: Cascading of scope of work

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Organisational Scope of Work

The organisational scope of work may be stated as follows:
All departments of the company wherever they are located. All the
organisations stakeholders and suppliers, subsidiaries, field officers,
officers at points of sales/service, joint venturers within and outside the
country.
All those named are to take on board the quality initiatives and policies
of the organisation, apply them in each of their areas of influence in
order to ensure that quality products and services are delivered to the
customers and to the satisfaction of the customers.

(b)

Departmental Scope of Work

The departmental scope of work may be stated as follows:
All functions of the department and sections within the department shall
adhere to the quality policies of the department and carry out all the
quality practices required to ensure that quality products and services are
produced for consumption by subsequent departments and their sections
in completing the product or services for the customers.

(c)

Sectional Scope of Work

The sectional scope of work may be stated as follows:
All functions within this section and subsections under it shall
implement the quality policies of the department in alignment with the
quality policies of the organisation so that all work done by the section is
of a standard and quality that contributes to the overall quality of the
product and/or services delivered to the customers.
It is therefore important to know where you are in the scheme of things so
that you can set up the appropriate scope of work that does not impinge on
other levels of the organisation. You should also take into account all
quality parameters defined by the organisation and other organisational
levels.

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1.5

19

MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITIES

Before going into detailed discussions, how important do you think the role of
the management is in ensuring the production of quality products and services?
As has been mentioned earlier, quality does not happen by itself nor can it exist
in isolation if we want to ensure that our products and services meet or exceed
customers satisfaction and requirements.
Everyone is therefore responsible for ensuring quality in the organisation.
However, management in particular has a fundamental role as all actions
emanate from the management. All reactions and proactivities of staff also
emanate from the managements actions and inactions, for example:
(a)

From the managements ability to motivate staff;

(b)

To get staff to understand most if not all aspects of quality;

(c)

To understand customers satisfaction and requirements; and

(d)

To understand the staffs own roles in the organisation and their pivotal
roles in ensuring quality of products and services.

The roles of the top management cannot be overemphasised. The top

management should be advised that before they blame their subordinates, they
ought to instrospect and ascertain that they have done everything within their
jurisdiction to ensure subordinates are able to do their jobs at peak capacity. The
top management should also provide both the tools and wherewithal to ensure
that subordinates are able to do their jobs satisfactorily. It is also important for
top management to ensure that they have provided appropriate motivation,
training, encouragement and empowerment to their subordinates in order for
them to achieve the required quality jobs and results.
The roles and responsibilities of the management are so pivotal and sensitive that
management must tread very carefully. It must be circumspect and extra careful
as whatever it does or does not do becomes a guide to everybody else in the
organisation. Most importantly, the management should not give lip service,
particularly to quality. Subordinates quickly see the difference between what the
management says and what the management does. It is part of the managements
responsibilities to ensure that what it does is consistent with what it says. When
it makes rules and regulations, these should also apply to it. The management
should not only adhere to the rules and regulations but must also be seen to do
so.

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The ISO 9001:2000 standard prescribes the roles and responsibilities of the
management. We will cover this in Topic 2 when we discuss the standard.
It suffices here to underline the importance of the management in carrying out
their responsibilities in the most appropriate way. This is in order for everyone
else in the organisation to do their utmost in producing the required quality
products or services.

1.6

WORKERS INVOLVEMENT IN QUALITY

As has been reiterated many times, quality is everybodys job. This means that
everyone in the organisation is responsible for quality. Everyone in the
organisation has important roles to play in realising and actualising quality in the
organisation. As a result, no one person should and could claim to be fully
responsible for quality in the organisation.
Quality can only be achieved when everyone has fulfilled the following criteria,
as shown in Figure 1.9.

Figure 1.9: Criteria for achieving quality

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21

In return, workers involved in a quality organisation must be concerned about:

(a)

Their jobs;

(b)

The quality of the products or services they produce;

(c)

A better way of doing their jobs that help to make their products or services
satisfy customers requirements better;

(d)

Being more proactive; and

(e)

Being committed enough to be able to tell their superiors of problems and

challenges in doing their jobs, as well as those that hinder the organisation
in producing quality products and services.

However, pride of workmanship, one of Demings 14 Points, can only be gained

when the management proactively encourages this by acting in the appropriate
way itself.
Provided the environment is conducive to quality worklife (that is, a work
environment that practises and promotes quality), workers involvement in
quality could be classified into primary and secondary tasks, which are
elaborated as follows.

1.6.1

Primary Tasks

Primary tasks are about:

(a)

Understanding work instructions.

(b)

Proactively improving work instructions along the lines of improving the

quality of the products or services that is directly under the control of the
worker. A number of techniques may be employed in doing this. The
PDCA cycle (Plan, Do, Check and Act) is an effective technique to improve
quality and this will be discussed later.

(c)

Reporting the improvements made so that these can be properly recorded

and future work instructions and other related documentation updated
accordingly.

(d)

Repeating the above in a perpetual manner and thus creating a continuous

improvement that is so fundamental to quality.

(e)

Creating teams to resolve problems in the area of work, if necessary. Such

teams have come to be known as quality control circle, quality circle,
problem-solving teams/groups, quality improvement circles/teams/
groups, and continuous improvement circles/teams/groups. In some
organisations, these are recognised as an integral part of workers jobs

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during working hours. When it was first introduced in Japan, workers

performed these functions outside their working hours.
(f)

Proactively improving the design of products or services that workers are

involved in, again in order to improve the overall products or services.

1.6.2

Secondary Tasks

Secondary tasks are about:

(a)

Assisting in improving the vision and mission of the organisation, either by

directly being involved in developing, modifying and redeveloping these or
by identifying areas where the vision and mission of the organisation are
proven ineffectual by virtue of the lack of awareness by the management or
other reasons.

(b)

Assisting in improving the operating procedures of the organisation.

(c)

Assisting in identifying areas for general improvement in the organisation.

(d)

Assisting in disseminating concepts of quality and techniques that have

been proven to be beneficial in one area, for application in other areas.

(e)

Assisting in guiding and training other workers on both the concepts of

quality and practices leading to producing quality goods and practices.

(f)

Assisting in becoming an internal quality auditor for the organisation.

We will discuss these in more detail in Topic 2 when we deal with ISO 9001:2000
standards.

SELF-CHECK 1.3
Earlier on, it was mentioned that Quality is everybodys job. What
do you understand by this statement? Please elaborate in your own
words.

1.7

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

We have mentioned earlier that training is an integral part of implementing

quality in any organisation and its parts. It is a fundamental requirement that
everyone involved has the same understanding of the concepts of quality and the
desires of the organisation in respect of quality.

TOPIC 1 STRATEGIES IN QUALITY MANAGEMENT

23

In addition, in support of continuous improvement, and the implementation of

those improvements, everyone must be informed and trained on the new
techniques, methods and ways of doing things.
A supportive sequence of training events could be as shown in Figure 1.10.

Figure 1.10: Sequence of training events

(a)

Awareness of the Organisations Vision, Mission and Values

All staff should be aware of the organisations vision, mission and values.
This awareness may be in the form of a single burst of information from
somebody in the quality department or section, for example. This is best
given by the chief executive officer (CEO), together with the top
management. A lot of time should be provided for questions and answers,
and the CEO and top management should be able to answer the questions
directly. The way questions are answered and the acceptance of what is

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said would help form either a positive or negative opinion in the minds of
staff. This is why it is a very important first step for the top management
and for the organisation.
(b)

Analysis of Staff Training Needs

Ideally, this should be followed by an analysis of staff training needs in the area
of quality in general and quality assurance in particular. A number of common
tools, such as surveys, may be used to find out where the staffs expertise and
experiences lie with respect to these two areas. Based on this analysis, a training
programme should be planned.

(c)

Evaluate and Support Training Programme

Top management should then evaluate the training needs and support the
running of the training programme to raise the staffs knowledge and skills in
the area of quality and quality assurance. The support could be in either
providing funds for outside consultants to execute training programmes or
providing internal people to help run the programme or both. It goes without
saying that the organisation must also provide support in allowing staff to
attend the training in the first place and then be involved in what may initially
seem to be tasks non-essential to the staffs jobs, for example, becoming an
internal auditor and getting involved in auditing, for which obviously time
away from work has to be given to the staff.

(d)

Internship Programme
The top management, perhaps through the Human Resources Department
(HR), should develop an internship programme that would provide the staff
with continual hands-on practice in quality auditing, for example.

(e)

Train the Trainees

Lastly, the staff who have been trained should be re-cycled through the
system but this time around, be the trainers of new trainees.

(f)

Reinforcement
Repeat the above actions.

1.8

QUALITY MANAGEMENT PLAN

By definition, a Quality Management Plan (QMP) is a series of steps for the

efficient and effective management of quality in the organisation. Being efficient
means carrying out what needs to be implemented in the cheapest and best way.
In Topic 2, we will discuss a number of quality tools that will help in doing this.

TOPIC 1 STRATEGIES IN QUALITY MANAGEMENT

25

We will also discuss a technique called value analysis which has been proven to
do this well.
Being effective means that what you do actually achieves what is desired. This
can only happen when you have a good, well-researched, informed and
practicable plan. A QMP, however, is not easy to develop. Time and patience are
necessary to produce the plan.

1.8.1

Starting Point of a QMP

Any plan will need to start with the questions shown in Figure 1.11.

Figure 1.11: Questions to ask at the starting point of a QMP

This list is not exhaustive and will depend on the creativity of the top
management in seeing the organisational needs.

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The output of this brainstorming may be a flow-chart, a list of statements and

detailed documents. An organisation should not go overboard with the format of
the output as this costs money. Whatever the output is, it must be clear,
understandable by most, if not all, staff and would-be staff, and shows the interrelationships between various subsystems.

1.8.2

Guidelines for Developing a QMP

Table 1.4 provides the guidelines for developing a QMP.

Table 1.4: Guidelines for Developing a QMP
Guidelines

Description

Involvement of
departments and
sections in
developing a QMP.

It is important that all departments and sections are

involved in developing a QMP.

It is only when the exercise involves them that you get a

comprehensive and all-enveloping view of processes
needed, of problems that may arise and of any
interactive issues between subsystems.

(b)

Clear analysis of the

organisations
Vision, Mission and
Values.

A clear analysis of the vision, mission and values of the

organisation must be shared by everyone involved, so
that the development of the QMP is continually guided
by these fundamental tenets of the organisation.

(c)

Building in Quality

At all times, the development of the plan and all aspects

of the subsystems must ensure that quality is built into
the subsystems and into the system as a whole.

By building in quality, we mean designing quality into

the system, subsystem, products and services. We
should not be inspecting the quality after the products
or services are manufactured or offered.

To do (c), you have to look at both the machines/

facilities/methods/standard operating procedures and
people including their expertise, skills, knowledge and
experiences in both their expertise areas as well as in
quality.

This should be logically followed by a training

programme that should be well supported by the top
management.

It is advisable to have more rather than less information

and data at this stage in order to ensure
comprehensiveness of the plan.

(a)

(d)

(e)

Resources and
Training

Information/Data

TOPIC 1 STRATEGIES IN QUALITY MANAGEMENT

1.8.3

27

Implementation Plan

It is one thing to have a plan and another to get that plan implemented, hence the
need for an implementation plan.
The implementation plan should provide in detail how the QMP is to be
executed and by when. Ideally, this should follow the sequence of the QMP and
in a sense is an elaboration of the QMP but particularly in terms of how
practically each part of the QMP can be achieved.
A simple example is developing a process needed in the QMP. The QMP may
simply say Develop XYZ Process. In reality, the implementation plan for this
may look like the following:
(a)

Decide on HOW the process could be done. Deadline: 3 weeks from now.

(b)

Select the machinery to do the above. Deadline: 4 weeks from point (a).

(c)

Decide on the types of operators needed. Deadline: .....

(d)

Decide whether to advertise or to recruit using another method.

Deadline:......

(e)

Select operators. Deadline: .....

Too often, organisations stop at developing and writing the QMP and leave the
details and the implementation plan to juniors who may not have the experience
and broad outlook of seniors. This practice should be avoided and the
implementation plan should be treated with as much importance as the more
strategic and broader plans.

SELF-CHECK 1.4
1. Why do you think a QMP is important?
2. What are the differences between a QMP and an implementation
plan?
3. Write an example from your place of work of each of the above.
4. Go back to the beginning of this topic and think what would
happen to quality if there is no quality management strategy.

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Quality is about meeting the purposes of what the product or service is

meant to do.

Quality control is a system in which the outputs of the process are subjected
to an inspection in which defective items are separated from good ones.

Quality assurance is a system where process outputs are no longer

subjected to inspection in order to separate the good from the bad.

TQM is a system consisting of various elements within and outside the

immediate process or processes responsible for the products or services that
determine the quality of the products or services.

A vision is a dream, wish or something we would like to see happen in the

future that is normally good for ourselves as well as for others. A mission is
your take on what to do and how to do it.

Quality does not happen by itself. We all want quality but seldom want to
spend the time or effort to plan for it. In order to fully understand and
achieve quality, we must accept that quality must be built into a product or
service.

Everyone is responsible for ensuring quality in the organisation. However,

management has a fundamental role as all actions emanate from the
management. All reactions and proactive steps by staff also emanate from
the managements actions and inactions.

The roles and responsibilities of the management are so pivotal and

sensitive, that it must tread very carefully. It must be circumspect and extra
careful as whatever it does or does not do becomes a guide to everybody
else in the organisation.

Quality is everybodys job. This means everyone in the organisation is

responsible for quality. They have important roles to play in realising and
actualising quality in the organisation. As a result, no one person should
and could claim to be fully responsible for quality in the organisation.

A Quality Management Plan (QMP) is a series of steps for the efficient and
effective management of quality in the organisation. Being efficient means
carrying out what needs to be implemented in the cheapest and best way.

TOPIC 1 STRATEGIES IN QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Mission

Quality Assurance (QA)

Primary tasks

Quality Management Plan (QMP)

Kaizen

Total Quality Management (TQM)

Quality

Secondary tasks

Quality Control (QC)

Vision

29