It may seem that a 99% rate of no defects attributed to a given process is good enough. But even a 99.9% quality level is disastrous because it may mean 20,000 wrong drug prescriptions per year, or 15,000 new-born babies accidentally dropped from hospitals each year, or 500 incorrect surgical operations every week, or the [...]

When a business organization conducts a massive quality transformation among its employees, the basic requirement is continuous leadership and a firm commitment at all levels of management. Quality improvement does not come from slogans, banners, exhortations or from publications. What you needed is a mechanism to foster change and drive continuous quality improvement – now [...]

Achieving the best quality involves never ending perseverance by everyone involved. Doing things right the first time requires that all employees of the organization must do their best in everything that they do. But despite the conscious effort to produce quality products or services, the quality of work output may remains inconsistent and difficult to [...]

Over the years, the role of those running an organization has undergone a major change – from dependence to independence and now interdependence. In the past, people were dependent on their boss for directions and instructions on how to carry out their respective jobs. Because of the one-way management system, the organization was deprived of [...]

Each and every business organization today is faced with the challenge to continue to do better in order to provide increasing value that will heighten customer satisfaction. If you ever have the opportunity to be in a thriving manufacturing facility, the key to business success is obvious. It is the workers – the people – [...]

Nothing lasts forever. Company programs come and go and management has to move on. So, how should quality professionals react when quality seems to be no longer a priority? How will you continue quality improvements during times of organizational malaise? Let us face it. There are many crucial pressures at the top. Management must meet [...]

A major cause of failure in Total Quality implementation is often top management’s refusal to drop and dismantle anti-quality corporate, policies, procedures and practices. Usually, time-honored and taken for granted, these anti-quality policies hinder managers and employees in improving quality throughout the organization. The most subtle company policy that affects quality is gauging corporate performance [...]

We all know that continuous improvement means people and process performance is constantly measured and monitored with a view to improvement over time. How about sustaining continuous improvement? What does this mean? There is no clear-cut way to sustain continuous improvement but most quality engineers will agree that it involves a continuous increase in the [...]

Leadership is fundamental to quality management and it plays a crucial role in making quality an organizational success. Everything that an organization needs to successfully meet customer expectations can either be reinforced or damaged by your leadership approach to quality. Quality leadership is important because leaders establish plans and targets for the organization. If the [...]