Strategic Thought Transformation - The IIPM Think Tank

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