Quality management
The next step forward was promoted by several people, including Frederick Winslow Taylor, a mechanical engineer who sought to improve industrial efficiency.
He was one of the intellectual leaders of the Efficiency Movement and part of his approach laid a further foundation for quality management, including aspects like standardization and adopting improved practices.
Henry Ford was also important in bringing process and quality management practices into operation in his assembly lines.
From this period onward, North American companies focused predominantly on production against lower cost with increased efficiency.
After the World War II, Japan decided to make quality improvement a national imperative as part of rebuilding their economy, and sought the help of Shewhart, Deming and Juran, among others.
In the 1980s, Deming was asked by Ford Motor Company to start a quality initiative after they realized that they were falling behind Japanese manufacturers.
A number of highly successful quality initiatives have been invented by the Japanese (see for example on these pages: Genichi Taguchi, QFD, Toyota Production System).
This is partly due to the contracting (also called outsourcing) of manufacture to countries like China and India, as well internationalization of trade and competition.
[11] Statistical evidence collected in the banking sector shows a strong correlation between quality culture and competitive advantage.
Rationale Sustained success is achieved when an organization attracts and retains the confidence of customers and other interested parties on whom it depends.
Consequently, Quality Management (QM) plays a significant role in shaping company performance and satisfaction among customers and other stakeholders.
[16] Leaders at all levels establish unity of purpose and direction and create conditions in which people are engaged in achieving the organization's quality objectives.
Rationale Creation of unity of purpose and direction and engagement of people enable an organization to align its strategies, policies, processes, and resources to achieve its objectives.
[17] Competent, empowered and engaged people at all levels throughout the organization are essential to enhance its capability to create and deliver value.
Rationale To manage an organization effectively and efficiently, it is important to involve all people at all levels and to respect them as individuals.
Recognition, empowerment, and enhancement of competence facilitate the engagement of people in achieving the organization's quality objectives.
[18] Consistent and predictable results are achieved more effectively and efficiently when activities are understood and managed as interrelated processes that function as a coherent system.
Rationale Improvement is essential for an organization to maintain current levels of performance, to react to changes in its internal and external conditions and to create new opportunities.
[22] The social scientist Bettina Warzecha (2017)[23] describes the central concepts of Quality Management (QM), such as e.g. process orientation, controllability, and zero defects as modern myths.
In Japan, the land of Kaizen, Carlos Ghosn led a transformational change at Nissan Motor Company, which was in a financial and operational crisis.
ISO brings together experts to share knowledge and develop voluntary, consensus-based international commercial, industrial and technical standards.
ISO 9001 states that the Quality Management System requirements of the standard are generic and are intended to be applicable to any organization, regardless of its type or size, or the products and services it provides, however, ISO has also published separate standards which specify Quality Management System requirements for specific industries.
These included those related to the production or processing of goods typically regulated by nations and other global jurisdictions, to ensure that unique elements pertaining to public health and safety are integrated into these Quality Management Systems.
ISO 13485 can also be used by suppliers or external parties that provide products, including quality management system-related services, to such organizations.
The Software Engineering Institute has its process assessment and improvement methods, called CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) and IDEAL respectively.
Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is a process improvement training and appraisal program and service administered and marketed by Carnegie Mellon University and required by many DOD and U.S. Government contracts, especially in software development.
Carnegie Mellon University claims CMMI can be used to guide process improvement across a project, division, or an entire organization.
Solutions range in functionality, however, with the use of automation capabilities they typically have components for managing internal and external risk, compliance, and the quality of processes and products.
Pre-configured and industry-specific solutions are available and generally require integration with existing IT architecture applications such as ERP, SCM, CRM, and PLM.
EQMS is a platform for cross-functional communication and collaboration that centralizes, standardizes, and streamlines quality management data from across the value chain.
