Sustainability in Business

 Participation by Top Management in Quality Systems - Part 2

In Part 1 of this article, we looked at the first six topics related to the role of top management in Company Wide Quality Management (CWQM).

The topics discussed in Part 1 were:

• Establish a quality council
• Serve on the quality council
• Establish quality policies
• Establish quality goals and objectives
• Deploy the goals and objectives
• Provide resources

In Part 2 we are going to look at the rest of the topics, as discussed in Juran's Quality Control Handbook, Fourth Edition.

Provide problem-orientated training

Training is a great resource that top management is often keen to provide. It can be the solution, or at least part of the solution, to many problems, including our business and quality problems. However, often top management do not personally involve themselves with training, especially not when it comes to receiving training for themselves. This leads to a good deal of imbalance when it comes to training for quality. I am involved in a lot of training on ISO 9001:2015, and it is not often that top management actually attend any of these courses. Lower level personnel receive all the training, and top management virtually nothing.

What type of training should be provided regarding quality? The list is virtually endless, but the following should be considered:

• Training on ISO 9001:2015 for top managers, quality personnel, and all other functions in the organization (the content, level and intensity of the training will differ in accordance with the target audience)
• Training for production supervisors and managers, including basic management training and, when applicable, statistical tools, including statistical process control.
• Training for managers emphasizing the need for continual improvement, and how to go about it
• Training on the use of quality circles and other quality programs and philosophies (Kaizen, Lean Manufacturing, etc.)

Training has been found to be more effective and much better directed if top management participates actively. It leads to top management being able to better understand the quality problems, and then to use this information to ensure that future training is better orientated to the solution of the problems. In this way, training becomes much more practical and effective.

Serve on quality improvement teams

Top management serving on quality improvement teams is a form of leading by example, which is regarded as one of the highest forms of leadership.

It enables managers to understand what they are asking their subordinates to do. The shear magnitude of improvement activities can require much time to be spent on these activities by those who participate. It also requires the use and application of various resources. There is no better way to understand the nature of these demands than to participate personally in some improvement projects.

Sometimes improvement projects by their very nature demand top management involvement.

Review progress

It is essential that progress towards achieving quality objectives and goals are reviewed. It helps to ensure that they will be achieved.

The fact that top management regularly review the progress towards achieving objectives sends a positive message to the lower levels of the organization. "We, as top management, see the achievement of our goals and objectives as a high priority in our organization."

There are two major ways to carry out progress reviews:

• Summary reports on actual quality performance and the achievement of objectives
• Audits of processes being used to attain quality and to achieve objectives

This is why ISO 9001:2015 requires monitoring, measurement, analysis  and evaluation (Clause 9.1) and internal audit (Clause 9.2). The information is then reviewed by top management (Clause 9.3).

It is necessary for top management to maintain a constructive approach. The basic purpose of the reviews are to inform top management of the actual state of all the elements of the quality management system. If actual performance falls short of the goals, there is a need to discover and to remove the causes. It is very risky, and damaging to morale, if top management blame subordinates for non-achievement or under-achievement, especially when the cause is not actually known. Remember that the causes are often found in the system, or even with top management. (Refer to clause 9.3 of ISO 9001:2015).

Stimulate improvement

A major outcome of the review of progress is the identification of opportunities for improvement (See clause 9.3 and clause 10 of ISO 9001:2015). Often the chronic quality problems will be identified and can be acted upon. Unlike sporadic quality problems, chronic problems usually originates in the initial planning phase. The remedy is often to replan, which is a time consuming process which is best done as part of a broad undertaking to improve quality and the quality management system.

Give recognition

The word "recognition" used here relates to ceremonial actions to publicize performance of merit. They usually focus on activities of an improvement nature, or achievements beyond what was expected form individuals or teams. They normally do not focus on the conduct of normal operations. The rewards are normally also of a non-financial nature.

In contrast, the reward system for successful conduct of operations employs devices such as performance appraisals or merit rating and focus on the supervisor / subordinate relationship.

There are two major forces at play as far as quality is concerned (on a global scale):

• The growing impact of quality on society
• The emergence of new levels of competitors, on a global scale (Local industries compete, for instance, with imports for the East, notably China)

It is essential that we respond to these major forces. It requires that we do much more than meeting traditional quality objectives. It requires that we set and meet unconventional goals (ISO 9001:2015 helps us in this regard through clause 4, Context of the organization, and clause 6, Planning). To meet unconventional goals requires extensive revisions in old practices - virtually a change in culture.

Changing culture is dramatically accelerated if top management gives recognition to teams and individuals who make specific contributions to the change. Examples include certificates for people who complete training courses (especially if training is done in-house, external training mostly come with a certificate of some sort). In some cases, top management personally and prominently participates in functions specifically organized to honour teams and individuals for outstanding performance regarding improvement activities and the achievement of goals. Sometimes, similar functions are organized for outstanding suppliers. 

In all cases, these rewards are made known throughout the organization to stimulate the required culture change, and to get buy-in from all personnel.

Revise the reward system

Many organizations employ rewards systems in which reward includes money, and sometimes even job-level promotions. In these cases the extent of the reward depends importantly on the adequacy of performance against operating goals and objectives. These goals will, obviously,  include quality specific goals and objectives, but other goals and objectives are equally important (schedule, cost, etc.).

For these rewards, it is advisable to revise the weight of the quality component, especially if we consider the major forces discussed under the previous topic (Give recognition). An example is where manufacturer of automotive components raised the weight of the quality component regarding customer service to 50%, with other components making up the balance. In other words, quality became the most important component, since quality is what customers want.

One can also add new parameters to existing parameters. Some companies who have undertaken quality improvement on a large scale have added a new parameter "performance on quality improvement", rather than to just measure the quality of outputs against quality requirements.

Conclusion

Company Wide Quality Management is an important top management initiative. It is also known as "strategic quality planning". It is an extension of the company's business planning. The nature of CWQM is understood by looking at the make-up of strategic business planning.

Strategic business planning consists of the following:

• Establish broad business goals (based on context)
• Determine what needs to be done to achieve the goals
• Organize - assign clear responsibilities for carrying out the required activities
• Provide the processes and resources needed to enable persons to carry out the activities
• Provide the necessary training
• Establish means to evaluate actual performance against goals
• Establish a process for periodic review of performance against goals
• Establish a reward system which relates to performance

CWQM applies the same sequence to managing quality (See topics under part 1 of this article, as well as those discussed here in part 2. ISO recognizes this and has applied it clearly in the requirements of ISO 9001:2015.

I hope that this information is helpful and will help with the practical application of top management and leadership activities to quality management, which is a major requirement of ISO 9001:2015.

For more information, or if you have any questions, leave a comment or e-mail me at koosgouws10@gmail.com.