In a world where competitiveness among nations, companies and individuals increases day after day, the effectiveness and efficiency in the actions take on fundamental importance, especially before the serious ecological problems that require a better use of all resources.
Companies in search of global competitiveness have the need to achieve products and services at the lowest cost, with the best level of quality and with the ability to respond to demand both in time and quantity (CQD - quality, cost, delivery). In this incessant search for optimal use of all resources, they resort to various methodologies and systems, and there are none among the latest and most modern management techniques that do not emphasize the fundamental need to achieve high levels of quality, both for quality In itself and the satisfaction that this implies for consumers, but also to achieve higher levels of productivity and lower production costs, thereby achieving higher levels of profitability for the company.
This implies giving quality the central place within business strategies, but it also means having to make clear a series of distorted concepts that proliferate as a result of sectoral interests, such as the lack of strategic vision on the part of businessmen.
quality-management-for-excellence-gceIn a constantly changing world, management techniques and methods must be updated to respond to new concerns and needs. Creativity is the greatest existing resource and must be conveniently used to generate powerful new management tools and instruments.
As a result of this need to generate new structures of thought in the area of management, and what is even more so the urgent need to produce ideas from the Latin American culture and economy, is the emergence of this new way of seeing and generating quality projects for the excellence. Quality Management for Excellence aims to take this step, ceasing to use only the tools generated by the central countries, to start producing our own powerful management methodologies. This does not imply leaving aside the important contributions made by the great teachers and quality consultants, call these Deming, Juran, Ishikawa, Feigenbaum, Oakland, Taguchi and Mizuno, among others, but based on their contributions and experience in the field factual,try to generate a qualitative leap in terms of quality and its management.
Given the ideas coming from the Center, we must generate new ideas that not only allow satisfying the needs of the Latin American businessman and consumer, but also begin to generate the bases for the competitive increase of our companies.
2. Definitions and concepts
We must define quality as "doing the product or service that fully satisfies the consumer's requirements in the first attempt".
Let us briefly analyze this definition. Getting the product or service right on the first try means that quality not only implies a defect-free product in a position to be delivered to the consumer, but also defect-free internal processes that satisfy not only the requirements of external customers, but also of the interns. All reworking due to failed internal processes lead to higher costs and productivity losses, that is, a decrease in the ability to compete. Producing a product correctly for its subsequent assembly implies not having to make corrections or adjustments, which generate higher costs, lower production levels, longer waiting times and less reliable products.
Fully satisfying the customer is imperative for generating greater value that encourages consumers to repeat their purchases. But to fully satisfy these, it is necessary to know reliably what their requirements and needs are. Neither the employer nor the manager can claim to know by their presumptions what those requirements are. Therefore, the study and market research constitute a fundamental weapon when it comes to generating high quality products.
This full satisfaction includes not only the products and services that the company sells, but all the contact points and other aspects that make up the satisfactory level of services. Thus, a company can manufacture products of excellent design and first quality, but it will have serious problems with its customers if there is poor customer service, if the invoicing is wrong, if the products are not delivered within the stipulated period and if it is neglected. the quality of the packaging, which is why many items become damaged by the customer.
For the reasons mentioned above, it is necessary to implement Quality Management for Excellence. Now, what should we understand par excellence? Excellence is to set a goal of reaching zero defect for thousands or millions of units produced, considering for this purpose and for the purposes of its measurement the critical factors of both internal and external customers. Zero defect is an objective, and for this it is necessary to establish a clear policy of continuous improvement in order to constantly approach this objective. The fact of thinking about the material impossibility of achieving it does not imply not trying to minimize defects, nor should it be a reason to evict staff because they cannot generate the absolute maximum in quality. The objective is clear,Starting from a benchmark in terms of defects or failures of global competitors, the company must generate goals for equalization and subsequent improvement, then trying to continually exceed its own brands.
Reaching and surpassing other brands, and subsequently continually surpassing your own brand requires discipline, work ethic, leadership, strong motivation and a lot of mettle. This should not be conceived as an exhausting task but rather as a form of personal growth for all the members of the company, because to beat the brands it is not only a matter of working more, but above all else, more creatively, and on the other hand, it is the need to always remain competitive to achieve the survival of the company and all those who depend on it.
Achieving to build a highly competitive company implies knowing very well how the internal processes work in companies, in terms of human relations, problem solving systems and decision making, internal political levels, emotional intelligence at work, but it also means understanding the way of being and acting of consumers. Therefore, to build quality, the use of management tools, the understanding of production processes and the measurement of quality levels are no longer enough. Today it is also very important to know the organizational behaviors, as well as consumer behavior. It was the neglect of these profiles, which caused the lack of success of many total quality projects.
Achieving success in terms of quality requires strong leadership as mentioned above, but also makes use of very lucid strategic thinking that makes it possible to achieve excellence not as a goal to be achieved, but as a path to travel.
3. Let's start with human relations in the company
Many, if not all, technicians and quality specialists, and entrepreneurs, believe that quality passes only through statistical techniques, management tools, ISO standards and participation systems, leaving aside a crucial issue such as human relations in the company, and the importance it has both for productivity and quality, and for the highest level of consumer satisfaction.
On the one hand we have the work teams, whether they are the ones corresponding to the various production processes, activities or areas of the company, on the other hand we have the special teams, call these Improvement Teams or Quality Control Circles, but we must also consider the company as a whole as a team. This is directly related to the need to tear down the walls that separate the sectors and lead them to focus their energy on achieving their own objectives instead of the superior objectives of the company as such. Working as a team must be the fundamental slogan of any company, and for optimal teamwork achieving maximum competitiveness it is necessary to achieve "chemistry", that chemistry that is talked about so much in sports teams,for which good human relations among its members is clearly essential.
Let's think that it would be from any sports team in which each member would only care about bringing out their own talents and achieving only the individual brilliance, that it serves for a center-forward to worry only about scoring goals if his team does not succeed. What good is it to the team to have the top scorer in the championship if the team fails to emerge as champion. The same happens with a company, the best design of a product is useless, if its manufacture is difficult and expensive, which makes it difficult to market it. What good is it that a seller only thinks about selling without taking into account the production capacity of the company, or thinking only about his commissions, he sells products to customers, generating in the future a bad relationship between him and the company.
In this way, the need to think of the company as a team becomes clear, because only in this way is it feasible for the company to become competitive and allow its members to keep their sources of work. But the next step is how to create a high-performance work team, for which the first and fundamental thing is to start by achieving excellence in human relations. Only starting from that excellence in relationships is how it will be feasible to build a common vision that will serve as a guide in the strategy of continuous improvement in quality levels.
A company may pay high salaries, have cozy facilities for its employees, count or have sophisticated technological components, but if the relations between its members are not good, the operating results will be poor. An environment where lack of respect, mistreatment, lack of support and mutual aid reigns, creates enmities, deconcentrations, decline, and a drop in motivation. These events will result in greater distractions, absence from work, lower productivity rates, a greater number of failures and errors, dissatisfaction on the part of customers and a lower commitment to the company.
Making such a change in behavior feasible for company members involves both a decision by senior managers who, by example, should serve as the basis for teaching and action, and second, active learning in emotional intelligence and group dynamics.
4. Emotional intelligence
Daniel Goleman is clear about it when he says: “The rules of work are changing. Now we are judged according to new norms: it is no longer just sagacity, preparation and experience that matters, but how we deal with ourselves and with others ", and then he says" The new measure assumes that we have sufficient intellectual capacity and technical preparation to perform on the job; instead, it focuses on certain personal qualities, such as initiative and empathy, adaptability and persuasion. "
It is therefore necessary to analyze whether the organization fosters or discourages these skills. To the extent that the organizational climate fuels these powers, the company will be more efficient and productive. The intelligence of the group will be maximized, the synergistic interaction of the best talents of each one.
Emotional intelligence is made up of four basic components, these being the following:
- The ability to accurately perceive, value and express emotions. The ability to experience, or generate at will, certain feelings, to the extent that they facilitate the understanding of oneself or another person. The ability to understand emotions and the knowledge derived from them. The ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth.
Important business advisers recognize that it is not technical expertise or academic studies, but emotional intelligence that most helps achieve excellence.
Research reveals deep weaknesses in the way companies prepare their staff in certain aspects, from listening and leadership to organizing teams and managing change.
On the other hand, more and more employers are complaining about the lack of social skills in employees. There are many who cannot accept criticism; When constructive comments are made about what they are doing, they become defensive or hostile. They react to feedback as if it were a personal attack.
The development of emotional intelligence in all the members of the company requires a skills development plan that includes, on the one hand, personal skills (which determine self-control) and on the other hand, social skills (the which determine the management of relationships).
Among the personal skills we have:
Systemic thinking makes a great contribution to this objective, since it leads to reasoning in what way the processes, activities, individuals, norms, and parts interrelate, and in what way changes or defects in a part of the system generate effects or problems in the rest of it. For this reason we could also call the methodology as Systemic Quality.
Among the prevention activities, which as stated above are intended to prevent mistakes from being made, we have as examples:
- Quality Planning Training and Design Design Specification Reviews Product Assessment Contacting Customers to Expect Their Expectations Technical Manuals Pre-Production Reviews Defect Prevention Activities Preparation of Standards (Standards) of Process Failure Analysis Quality Systems, Procedures, and Standards Process Reviews Statistical Process Control Suppliers Selection of personnel Security controls Preventive maintenance Cleaning and order (5 “S”) Automation to improve quality
All these activities generate costs, but their increase leads to a much more than proportional decrease in the costs corresponding to external and internal failures, as well as evaluation.
Prevention costs are those spent on preventing mistakes from being made by all company functions, including development engineering, sales, product engineering, manufacturing, quality assurance, programming, personnel, etc.
Evaluation costs are all those related to the evaluation of finished production and audits to measure the conformity of all functions with established criteria and procedures. They are all the costs spent to determine if an activity was done well every time.
The costs of internal errors are all that the company has related to the errors detected before the production is accepted by a client because all the activities were not done well every time.
And the costs of external errors are all those incurred by the producer because unacceptable products or services are supplied to the external customer.
A correlation between costs before and after applying a greater increase in preventive activities are shown in the following graph.
- Quality economic models
Traditional model
Quality costs are incurred for each activity aimed at ensuring compliance with the specifications in a production system. This includes both Evaluation and Prevention costs, calling them globally as costs for guaranteeing quality. On the other hand, if the specifications are not met, there will be losses due to poor quality, such as waste, reprocessing and warranty adjustments. These costs are called costs generated by not complying with the regulations.
The following figure shows the classic relationship between costs for guaranteeing quality and those generated by not complying with standards. As compliance with standards improves as a result of better quality assurance or assurance, the costs that guarantee quality increase, and the costs generated by not meeting specifications decrease. From a strictly economic point of view, the optimum level of compliance is sought that minimizes the total costs of the company. This is reflected in the minimum point of total cost. To the left of the sweet spot, there are plenty of opportunities to improve quality through better prevention and better evaluations. However, on the right, the cost of control is greater than the savings that are generated.
Modern Model - Hsiang / Lee Model
In the traditional model, operations at a quality level of less than 100% are justified. Hsiang and Lee express that the traditional quality cost model seen above overlooks some important realities. In this (traditional) model, it is assumed that the sales of the product or service are constant. However, there is evidence that by improving or worsening quality, the demand for the product or service is appreciably modified. Dissatisfied customers are less likely to repeat as buyers than satisfied customers. Oral reputation is important to maintain market share.
For this reason it has become increasingly important how to avoid poor quality, the inherent frequencies of failure of materials and products have been reduced by new technologies, and improvements in automation have reduced human error during production and evaluation. With this, we now have the possibility of achieving quality perfection at a finite cost, and the costs of guaranteeing quality do not increase infinitely when reaching 100% compliance. This makes the total cost curve reach its minimum when reaching 100% compliance, which justifies the philosophy of continuous improvement from an economic point of view.
Hsiang and Lee point out that this model does not necessarily apply in all cases, for example, when automation cannot be justified or used.
However, we must consider that quality management based on methods intended to prevent the succession of errors or failures, through mechanisms and standards resulting from continuous training in systemic thinking allows, in an economic way, to achieve 100% effectiveness in matters quality at a cost but the lowest, very close to it.
Even with a higher total cost of quality to reach a quality level close to 100%, the overall total cost decreases and reaches a minimum. This is the product of a higher level of customer satisfaction achieved through higher quality, which results in greater value for them. This entails a greater sale of products, and in this way both lower production costs and both the learning curve and economies of scale are achieved.
As quality increases, it leads to an increase in productivity, which results in lower costs, and in this way you can compete via prices. Products and services with low prices and high quality (high levels of satisfaction) result in the products or services being located in the High Value Zone, for which reason they are more in demand. Having products or services in the High Value Zone also gives the possibility of increasing the price without loss of sales and therefore generating greater benefits.
Types of preventive actions
Preventive Control
It consists of any practice that helps ensure that there are no deviations in the quality and quantity of the inputs used in a process. Preventive control activities include: ensuring that people are adequately trained to do their jobs, that they have access to the tools and equipment necessary to perform their tasks, and that process inputs meet specifications. Preventive control also includes having evidence that the actions taken will result in products that satisfy customers. No matter how well a process works, if it doesn't meet customer needs in the end, it will be a waste of time and resources.
Concurrent control
Concurrent control refers to any action that employees constantly take to ensure that standards are met. Concurrent control is also known as operational control or direction control. A good analogy is to drive a car. When driving, the person behind the wheel carefully watches the road and traffic conditions and makes adjustments to ensure a safe arrival at their destination. Similarly, concurrent control in organizations is the responsibility of the employees and supervisors who perform daily tasks.
Consistent designs
One reason products fail is because the designs are too complex and the parts are out of service by subjecting them to extreme or out-of-control circumstances. To address this, product developers have a goal of presenting consistent designs, which are plans that reduce the possibility of product failure and optimize product reliability. Consistent designs privilege simplicity over complexity, without sacrificing the functionality customers seek; they reduce the opportunities for defects to occur in production processes and increase the chance that a product will operate as it is supposed to in a wide variety of uses and environmental conditions.
Poka Yoke
It means "avoid mistakes" (poka = mistake, and yoke = avoid). Its conceptualization is to carry out tests to determine errors in a process. There are several techniques among which are:
- Guide bits - serves to identify missing perforations in parts (if part does not enter points, not all perforations are there) Photocells - to indicate proper location, existence of perforations and fittings, and presence or absence of parts.Checklists - to ensure operator attention to procedural steps. Stop switches - to stop equipment when a machine detects an error condition. Counters - to ensure all parts have been used or all actions have been completed. Automatic systems prevention system - which prevents a process from being completed until all the required data is entered.
The methodology can be used both for the production of goods and services and in administrative processes and activities.
Total productive maintenance (TPM)
System that aims to prevent equipment stoppages. The TPM approach identifies five causes of failure that supervisors can address:
- Neglected basic equipment conditions Conditions of use not observed Parts deterioration ignored Inherently weak equipment design Insufficient operation and maintenance skills
Techniques designed to overcome these causes of interruptions include:
- Clean, tighten, and lubricate. Learn how to use equipment properly. Check all parts regularly. Work with suppliers and engineers to improve designs. Establish systematic training and certification programs.
Other techniques to avoid mistakes
Use of reminders. They include checklists, manuals, charts, special forms, and anything that helps employees remember what to do.
Eliminate confusing similarities. When there are similarities between two items, there is a chance that employees will make mistakes. To avoid them, supervisors and employees must first review the type of errors that occur; Then they can make changes to shapes, colors, locations, or whatever features are causing the confusion. In this way, the number of similarity errors can be greatly reduced.
Set restrictions. Constraints are physical obstacles that prevent people from performing a task poorly.
Use the ability to perform. The ability to perform is an environment or circumstance that facilitates doing a job properly.
Internal Control Matrix. Technique consisting of arranging in a matrix on the one hand the legal or quality norms and provisions, and on the other hand the processes, activities, areas or products and services. In this way, compliance with regulatory or legal provisions will be verified for each process, sector or product.
Management tools
They should be used for both prevention and fault detection in processes. Among these tools are the classic ones, made up of:
- Pareto Diagram Ishikawa Diagram Scatter Diagram Histogram Statistical Process Control Stratification / Matrix Diagram Verification Sheet
And the new seven, made up of:
- Affinity Diagram Relations Diagram Tree Diagram Data Analysis Diagram Fluxogram Process Decision Scheduling Graph Arrow Diagram (Critical Path)
- Continuous improvement of processes, products and services
The quality of both processes, and products and services must be improved day after day in the search for lower costs, higher levels of satisfaction and faster response times.
In this incessant need to continuously improve levels of quality, costs and productivity, thereby achieving the highest possible level of competitiveness, it is essential both the ability to measure results, as well as the quality of information, training and staff creativity, teamwork and work discipline, and analytical skills and methods.
No technique will give its most optimal results without first having a consolidated human group in its relationships, which will give rise to a climate of trust and a participatory attitude among all its members.
Today it is inconceivable today not to have as a fundamental objective of the organization the continuous improvement of all its processes, products and services. Not doing so means slowly or quickly abandoning your market share in the hands of your competitors. In this new business perspective, the intellectual capital that the company knows how to accumulate becomes critically important.
- Conclusions
In this Quality Management System, a strong emphasis is placed first on the need to improve human relations in the company as the basis for the implementation of total quality systems, which will allow the achievement of the objectives set.
Secondly, the crucial importance of the implementation of Preventive Systems is underlined, both for achieving the highest level of quality and for reducing costs and achieving an optimal competitive level. The application of said system leads to lower costs for internal and external failures, as well as lower evaluation costs.
Thirdly, a quality management process is described that, starting from the critical factors for customers and consumers, proceeds to establish the major and minor critical failures to which attention must be paid through the corresponding preventive measures.
The strategic objective, which must be monitored through a matrix of quality scores, is to achieve products and services whose critical factors have 100% positive scores, that is, with a level of defects below the acceptable maximums, or whatever same with quality levels above the minimum.
Prevention is not only possible and necessary, but also an obligation for any company that seeks higher levels of: return on investment, added value per employee, customer satisfaction and market share.
In a global market marked in the fight for competitiveness, only those companies with a preventive and proactive approach will survive in the medium and long term. In this framework, the quality and continuous improvement strategy will allow obtaining winning responses to those companies that, through planning and management control, determine and effectively control the company's progress towards achieving its vision.
- Bibliography
- Gibb, Jack R. - Group Dynamics Manual - Lumen Publishing - 1996 Besterfield, Dale - Quality Control - Prentice Hall - 1994 Tawfik - Chauvel - Production Management - McGraw Hill - 1998 Harrington, H. James - The Cost of Poor Quality - Díaz de Santos - 1990 Senlle, Andrés - ISO 9000 in practice / Human Reengineering - Management 2000 - 1996 Lefcovich, Mauricio - Internal Control Matrix - www.monografias.com - 2003 Bounds - Woods - Supervision - Thomson Editores - 1999Weisinger, Hendrie - Emotional intelligence at work - Edit. Javier Vergara - 2001Goleman, Daniel - Emotional intelligence in the company - Edit. Javier Vergara - 1999
