Strategic Thought Transformation - The IIPM Think Tank
Strategic Thought Transformation - The IIPM Think Tank
Strategic Thought Transformation - The IIPM Think Tank
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B E S T P R A C T I C E S<br />
A guiding<br />
MANTRA<br />
in quality nirvana<br />
PAB ITRA RANJAN, <strong>IIPM</strong> AHM EDAB AD<br />
A subjective commentary on how Total Quality<br />
Management guides the way processes are structured<br />
People define quality in many ways.<br />
Some think of quality as superiority or<br />
excellence, while others view it as lack<br />
of manufacturing or service defects, still there<br />
are others who think of quality as related to<br />
product features or price. With globalization,<br />
managers think quality is something which<br />
is imperative to satisfy customers. Success in<br />
global market demands agility. Flexible, rapid<br />
and customized response is the need of the<br />
hour. Organizations therefore need shorter cycles<br />
for the introduction of new and improved<br />
products & services, as well as for faster and<br />
more flexible response to the customers. Major<br />
improvements in response time often require<br />
simplification of work units & processes and<br />
ability for rapid changeover from one process<br />
to another.<br />
To meet demands of rapidly changing<br />
markets, organizations need to carry out various<br />
techniques like Total Quality Management<br />
(TQM), Just in Time, Concurrent Engineering,<br />
et al, and many other techniques to improve<br />
the quality standards.<br />
One of the basic concepts of TQM philosophy<br />
is Continuous Quality Improvement<br />
(CQI). This concept implies that there is no<br />
acceptable quality level because the customer’s<br />
needs, values & expectations are constantly<br />
changing and becoming more demanding.<br />
Every organization undertakes various improvement<br />
activities, so as to enhance its business<br />
success. In many cases, it is experienced<br />
that in spite of sustained improvement efforts,<br />
its impact on the business results (measured<br />
in terms of financial and non-financial performance,<br />
customer satisfaction and employee<br />
satisfaction) is insignificant.<br />
Continuous Quality Improvement is a process<br />
improvement effort to increase efficiency,<br />
effectiveness and to optimize the final results,<br />
which if converted to monetary terms should<br />
yield profit. <strong>The</strong> techniques of CQI are many<br />
in numbers and each business has to select<br />
suitable techniques that are suitable to the<br />
nature of products or services offered by them<br />
to the customers. However, the word ‘continuous’<br />
is very important because interrupted<br />
or accidental improvements will not result in<br />
sustaining growth in profits of business.<br />
As we move from the environment of<br />
shortages to an environment of surplus the<br />
quality element is extremely crucial. So the<br />
companies which use total quality principles<br />
to understand customer requirements will certainly<br />
dominate the global markets of future.<br />
74 STRATEGIC INNOVATORS<br />
An <strong>IIPM</strong> Intelligence Unit Publication