Developing a quality-driven culture

By Pradeepa Kekulawala

“The cost is long forgotten – but the quality is remembered forever” is a favourite quote amongst quality pundits and organisations. Total Quality Management (TQM) and Quality Culture (QC) are corporate philosophies which have become buzz words and clichés preached rather than practiced.

Quality is a term which is used to describe an attribute or a feature of any product or service; even in a living being or an entity. It speaks of certain traits – good or bad – and gives a positive or negative value to the subject of its focus.

A “quality product or service” or a product/service of “high quality” is one which is “fit for the intended use and one which delivers the promised and perceived value to the end user/consumer. Non quality or “low quality” therefore refers obviously to the opposite.

In business in the process of delivering a benefit to the consumer through a product or service, quality plays a pivotal role. In that it is established by law, norms and also ethics that business organisations must deliver quality products and services to the end users. Survival in the market depends on this.

It is in this light that the concept of ‘TQM’ came into being where the core philosophy is, “For the end product to be of high quality, the entire process chain which creates the product or service including the internal business processes must deliver a quality output” to the next link in the value chain/supply chain.

This essentially requires a quality conscious and quality driven culture – thus a human problem or a matter in the hands of people in organisations. Therefore it becomes incumbent on the HR professionals and operational experts in organisations to work in tandem and “set the stage” or create the necessary climate to inculcate a quality culture. Discussed below are few points of vital importance to practitioners.

nFocus on the beneficiary – internal and/or external customer – and align internal processes with their satisfaction

Most of the time companies are in-fighting in addition to fire-fighting on being reactive to quality and operational issues, engaging in crisis management all the time. They are not getting things right the first time. Therefore one needs to carry out a ‘needs and expectations exercise’ to determine at each departmental level ‘who receives what benefits from the work of our department and are we really supporting their needs and wants?” This will allow you to identify what is critical in each process and task.

nAssign everybody in the company to work on shared goals

Quality management issues and priorities should not be assigned or isolated with the directors or top management only; but made part of everybody’s concern and responsibility thereby creating a quality culture through-out the organisation. This can be managed through Programme Management Teams (PMT) and cross functional and multi level action teams formed to identify key quality issues.

nAdopt and facilitate a long-term approach to continuous improvement

Forced timetables for implementation would impose unwanted pressure and frustration on the organisation. Rather the implementation has to be in stages, i.e. identifying issues, developing policy, forming action teams, etc. – so that there would be definite progress at each level, easy to monitor and take corrective action to stay on course.

nPromote prevention rather than reaction – fire-fighting

As opposed to fire-fighting and crisis management, elaborate steps such as training on critical team skills, problem solving skills and quality circles will overcome the reactive approach and bring about a shift in thinking positively towards TQM.

nFind ways to be faster and flexible throughout the organisation.

The organisation, after having identified key quality issues, need to embark on finding solutions to same. The company policies and objectives (in terms of people, quality, and productivity) have to be redefined. To facilitate day to day operational efficiency and effectiveness the day to day management functions are to be kept separate whilst the improvement functions are running parallel.

nLook outside the company to learn best practices, obtain expertise and benchmark.

To facilitate the learning of quality management the management from the top downwards need to learn and familiarise themselves, may be even with external help, on best practices in the industry and outside – locally and globally.

If the above can be achieved organisations would immensely benefit by:

nIntegration of quality into the company’s management model

nCommitment to quality

nIdentifying clearly the company’s systems and values

nOverall participation in the company’s quality process

nA quality conscious culture

The organisation thus would be firmly poised for a quality culture with overall commitment to the programme initiatives. Managers would realise that although it requires a lot of work – which sometimes lead to frustration – they have identified that benefits outweigh the initial stumbling blocks. Duplication of work and other inefficiencies would be reduced. Moreover the organisation will realise “that planning is the only worthwhile management function as it eliminates the need for and pitfalls of personal control” which is individual dependant.

What processes are involved in delivering value to internal and external customers and their parameters would be clearly understood with a clear value chain of quality from the supplier and/or originating point. This would enable organisations to redefine quality objectives, through employee involvement identify and define problems better, identify more and better solutions and select best options.

However to ensure an effective quality-driven culture, the management responsibilities are many. In fact they are the catalysts or change agents. Therefore in embarking on a TQM or ‘Quality Culture’ programme an organisation’s management must do the following:

nLead the quality improvement process

Without top and senior management conviction and commitment nothing in an organisation would move. Further lack leadership would result in the team losing direction and objectives not being achieved.

nBecome quality paranoid

The organisation must enter a “quality mode” as a whole. Therefore the management must always think quality, preach quality, show quality and live quality! This is the inspiration that the rest of the organisation would want.

nUnderstand your customer’s needs and expectations

For any business the customer is the lifeblood. Every process and every action internal or external should ultimately result in the value addition to the customer and the customer’s delight. Therefore it is essential that the customer needs, wants and expectations are identified before you embark on a quality building programme. Before you address how, what and why have to be understood.

nEmpower everyone in the company to meet those needs and expectations

Quality has to be seen from every corner and quarter of an organisation. To achieve this every person in the organisation has to be a quality champion with quality output. For this – to think, act and achieve – your people must be given the necessary guidance, teaching, skills and competence. This is human resource development and empowerment.

nManage by fact

Facts are necessary to manage or solve problems. An organisation must not assume; especially on quality and customer related issues as “quality – customer – profit” are interlinked. Facts would form the solid base necessary to plan and perform.

nPromote process improvement and facilitate continuous improvement

Optimise on process efficiency and effectiveness. Thereafter this has to be continuously improved. Continuous improvement philosophy brings about innovation and creativity in an organisation, not to mention cost savings, profitability motivation.

nEngage in strategic planning to keep the company focused

“If you don’t know where you’re going any road will take you there!” Therefore it is very important to know the direction of the company – where do we want to be in ‘X’ number of years. Strategic focus is the key to everything else.

The top most fact to keep in mind is that there is no shortcut or fast-track to quality. It is a progressive and evolving journey. Quality is not simply fit for use or getting right the first time, or even producing defect-free. It is about exceeding the expectations of a receiver of a product or service – it is a way of life!

(The writer is a HRD professional and corporate trainer. He is an Executive Committee Member of the Association of HR Professionals and The Management Club. He leads The Talent Gallery as Program Director/Key Facilitator. He can be reached at [email protected].)