Quality Management within the Workplace - Assignment Example

Quality Management within the Workplace Assessment criteria Question The quality of both internal and external management is the main distinguisher of good and bad companies. Good quality internal and external customer services are important since it enables a company to attract and retain many customers. On the contrary, bad customer management drives away almost all customers, influencing their friends, colleagues, and family members to shift to other companies, which offer quality customer services (Keup, 2007). Question 2: Total Quality Management (TQM) refers to a structured and comprehensive approach that is used by a management team in an organization to find means of improving the quality of the organization’s products and services based on constant refinements in reaction to customer feedback (Sakthivel et al, 2007). The requirements of TQM may be different depending on the type of organization or International Organization Standardization (ISO) series. TQM is applicable to all types of organizations. TQM originated from the manufacturing sector and is currently applied in any form of imaginable organization such as hospital, schools, churches, hotel industry, and highway maintenance. TQM, which is a current focus in e-commerce, it is part of quality management depending on the views of customers (Choisne, de Grosbois, & Kumar, 2009). Question 3: Quality management refers to a function used by companies to make sure that the quality of their operations and goods meets a certain level of standards. Organizational managers and owners are the individuals who typically play the role of setting quality standards for their organizations (Ōno, 2013). The two major parts of quality standards in an organization are design and process quality. Design quality standards define the requirements that goods and services must reach in order to be sold. Therefore, if the goods and services, lack some of these requirements, the company must make corrections to the goods before selling them. On the other hand, the purpose of process quality standards is to design the owner of a business from unnecessary costs that may result from manufacturing rejects or repairs. Process quality standards ensure that the production department follows set procedures in order to achieve the design quality standards. Question 4: In general, quality refers to a definite level or degree of excellence. Therefore, the cost of quality in the workplace refers to the costs incurred while preventing defects’ occurrence and the costs that a firm incurs due to evaluation of its progress towards achievement of zero defects. Cost of quality in the workplace also includes the cost a firm incurs to control the quality of technology, inspection, process, and materials (Tanninen, Puumalainen & Sandström, 2010). It is essential to acknowledge that the cost of quality in the workplace is not the price of producing high quality products and services, but the costs that a firm suffers when it creates goods and services of low quality. Assessment criteria 2 Question 1: One of the commonly used type of quality system in workplace if computer monitoring. Currently, electronic mails are becoming common like telephones and most organizations are using electronic mails as a communication tool in the workplace. Managers use computerized systems to collect data about performance of employees. For instance, there are advanced sites that track internet activities performed by employees and the amount of time that an employee spent on the site. Currently, employees are widely using electronic mails to send messages and each time an employee sends a mail, the name of the company he or she is working for is embedded (Angell & Corbett, 2009). Therefore, in order for the employer to ensure the quality of the good name of company lasts, he or she should always monitor all the send and received mails. Question 2: There are varying types of standards in the workplace. These standards depend on the type of goods and services being described. Some firms set up their own quality standards and name them using trademarked names. For instance, if you purchase a product that is marked, for example, “Y grade”, you will be expecting the product to comply with the quality standards of company Y. This class of quality standard is referred to as enterprise standard, since such standard only applies to a specific company (Sakthivel et al, 2007). The other types of standards are those standards that apply to all companies and end users. Government agencies and firm associations create such standards. Question 3: Quality is one of the vital things in an organization that customers consider. The main challenge affecting many organizations is to define what quality is and once this is defined, there is need to monitor it. Various tools exist that organizational managers use to monitor quality in the workplace. Such tools include control charts, flowcharts, Pareto charts, balanced scorecard, and employees. Control charts are monitoring tools applied in Six Sigma, which is a monitoring program that minimizes the defects of products and process. Flowcharts are the actual representations of production processes used to monitor the production process. Pareto charts are tools used to determine the reason why a certain problem has occurred. Balance scorecard provides an organizational view of learning, customer, process, financial and growth perspective. Lastly, managers make use of employees as quality monitoring tools (Pelgrim et al, 2013). This is because employees are always in the Frontline to talk directly with the customers and let the managers know the customers issues about the quality of goods and services. Question 4: There are several records used to maintain quality in the workplace. However, some of these records are supposed to be kept according to law. Such records include; (i) minutes- it is essential to record the minutes of every meeting. These minutes should clearly state the decisions made during the meeting, those responsible to implement the decisions, and the time of implementation. (ii) Employment record-in order to ensure quality management it is good to have a record of job description, related agreements, selection criterion, and job evaluations. (iii) Safety records- occupational safety and health records should be kept to show an organization’s legal responsibility of providing a safe work environment (Kettunen & Kantola, 2007). Question 5: The need of improving the quality of management in an organization arises from the competition. The following are the steps that business owners and managers should use to improve the quality of management in the workplace. (i) Review of the documentation that suggests the needs of the organization to improve the firm’s productivity. (ii) Establishment of assurance committee that is comprised of workers from all departments of the organization. (iii) Scheduling a meeting with all supervisors to obtain feedback about the performance of employees in all departments. (iv) Addressing concerns with workers from all departments to come up with solutions for those concerns. (v) Conferring with the development and training specialists to ensure a leadership program that complies with management-employee relationship (Edwards & Petra, 2013). References Angell, L. C., & Corbett, L. M. (2009). The quest for business excellence: evidence from New Zealands award winners. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 29 (2), 170-199. Edwards, J., & Petra, H. (2013). The effects of external quality management on workplace-based assessment. Education for Primary Care, 24 (2), 105-110. Kettunen, J., & Kantola, M. (2007). Strategic planning and quality assurance in the Bologna Process. Perspectives, 11(3), 67-73. Keup, M. (2007). Quality management in workplace health promotion: Workshop, November 27 - 29, 1996, Berlin/Erkner. Bremerhaven: Wirtschaftsverl. NW, Verl. für Neue Wiss. Kumar, V., Choisne, F., de Grosbois, D., & Kumar, U. (2009). Impact of TQM on companys performance. International journal of quality & reliability management, 26(1), 23-37. Ōno, T. (2013). Taiichi Ohnos workplace management: Special 100th birthday edition. New York: McGraw-Hill. Pelgrim, E. A., Kramer, A. W., Mokkink, H. G., & van der Vleuten, C. P. (2013). Written narrative feedback, reflections and action plans in single-encounter observations: an observational study. Perspectives on medical education, 2(2), 106. Sakthivel, M., Devadasan, S. R., Vinodh, S., & Ramesh, A. (2007). ISO 9001: 2000 based quality information management responsibility system. International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2(2), 217-237. Tanninen, K., Puumalainen, K., & Sandström, J. (2010). The power of TQM: analysis of its effects on profitability, productivity and customer satisfaction. Total Quality Management, 21(2), 171-184. van der Vleuten, C. (1990). Assessment in the Workplace. Assessment and Training of Tomorrows Doctors, 65, 52. Read More