Principles of Quality Control Relating To Business Management - Research Paper Example

Principles of Quality Control Relating To Business Management Table of Contents Overview 1 Quality 2 Quality Control 3 Quality Control in Modern Business 3 Role of Managers in Quality Control 4 Contribution of Quality Gurus 4 Fourteen Principles of William Edwards Deming 5 References 8 Overview Quality Control is one of the most considerable aspects in the modern day business in order to sustain and tackle stiff competitive business environment. Quality maintenance is of paramount importance, as lack of quality in products or services provided by a company can wither away their consumers and can create a bad image upon the company as well. The problem related to poor quality generally is likely to happen when the employees of an organization are not allowed to correct the inadequacies of the quality or they don’t want to correct the inadequacies. There are many employees who at times do not take adequate measures in order to maintain proper quality. Therefore, in this regard, it can be demonstrated that such an attitude may lead to loss of the customers. On the flip side, the competitors may take the advantage of the market needs. It has been viewed that most of flourishing companies have identified the role of the customers-defined quality on the business. As a consequence of this, most of the companies have focused their attention towards the quality standards. The two successful companies that have identified the customer satisfaction as their top most priorities are Honda Motor Company and Ford Motors. Quality Quality is one of the primary aspects that each and every organization aspires to maintain upon their products and offerings. Quality in their offerings can offer an organization with the added competitive advantage. The definition of the factor quality in business management context generally relies upon the position of the people defining it. There isn’t any single description of quality. However, according to certain people, the term quality can be understood as “Performance to Standards”. In short, the term quality can be comprehended as the degree of excellence (John Wiley & Sons, “Total Quality Management”). It can be revealed that the term quality tends to have an impact upon all the aspects of the organization and it also has cost implications. It has gained importance as in due course of time organizations have realized that poor quality might result to high costs. The greatest loss to the company can result when the poor standards of quality transpires to discontented customers. This can ultimately result in loss of consumer as well as business. The term quality can be associated to a few other costs. One group of cost is referred to as the cost of quality control whereas the other group of cost can be referred as the prevention and appraisal cost (John Wiley & Sons, “Total Quality Management”). Quality Control The term quality control can be defined as sequence of the analytical measurements that can be taken for the purpose of judging the quality of the analytical data (SlideShare, “Quality Assurance vs. Quality Control”). The concepts of quality as well as productivity run side by side to each other. Thus, it is important to comprehend how the consumers measure the quality. It is generally done by recognizing how efficiently the product serves its own purpose. According to the views of the manufacturers, quality can be measured by the extent to which the product executes as per the predefined standards. The task of creation of the quality standards, the production of the goods that meet those standards and the measurement of the finished goods is the task of the quality control. In order to control the quality, the companies must be highly dedicated so as to manage and work in a manner that can assist in building excellence in every aspects of the operation of the organization (Gitman, L. J. & McDaniel, C., “The Future of Business: The Essentials”). Quality Control in Modern Business The modern business environment can be characterized as highly complex where the probabilities of errors tend to be higher. With the advancement in the technology and the products consisting of many difficult components there are opportunities for failure or likelihood of defects to occur. Therefore, six-sigma program has been introduced that tends to minimize the changes in the product quality characteristics to a certain level where the defects and failures tend to be lower. This has led to the improvement in the performance of the overall business since the quality can be improved and cost can be brought to the minimum. In addition to this, in order to manage the quality in the modern business various statistical tools are used (Montgomery, D. C., “Introduction to Statistical Quality Control, 4Th Ed”). Role of Managers in Quality Control The manager has a significant role to play in maintaining the quality according to the pre-determined standards. He tends to ensure that the product meets the needs and wants of the consumers. It can be revealed that if the products are found to be of superior quality, then it can be comprehended that the quality control manager is putting his due effort to maintain the standard of the product. It is quite important for the quality control manager to execute his duties well so that the quality of the product doesn’t get hampered. Contribution of Quality Gurus It is important to have an understanding of the various quality gurus’ contributions that have been magnificent. The few of the major contributors in the domain of quality have been Walter A. Shewhart, W. Edwards Deming, Armand V. Feigenbaum, Joseph M. Juran, Philip B. Crosby, Kaora Isikawa and Genichi Taguchi. Each of the Quality Gurus’ contribution to quality has assisted in augmenting knowledge and comprehension of the quality at present. Among the several renowned people, William Edwards Deming’s contribution has been marvelous. It has been William Edwards Deming, who observed that quality control can be the company-wide goal. He was an American statistician, consultant, lecturer, author and professor. He was the person who provided training to the top management regarding the methods to develop the design and improve upon the quality of the product. He also focused upon improvement in sales, testing via methods such as statistical methods. He had been successful at identifying fourteen principles of the quality control. It has been evident that most of the flourishing companies such as the Toyota, Honda and others applied the methods suggested by William Edwards Deming in order to develop their quality with the help of the statistical methods (Patty, R. M. & Denton, M. A., “The End of Project Overruns: Lean and Beyond for Engineering, Procurement and Construction”). Fourteen Principles of William Edwards Deming Fourteen principles for the management provided by William Edwards Deming assist an organization to increase its effectiveness and productivity. The fourteen points can be illustrated below: 1. The management needs to be constant in creating the purpose for improving the products as well as the services with a proper plan that will assist the management in becoming competitive and to survive in business. 2. It is important to adapt to the new philosophies since it is a new economic age. The companies can’t survive if it continues to work with the mistakes and defects. 3. It is important to stop depending upon the mass assessment and focus more upon the statistical evidences. 4. The businesses must not be awarded based upon the price tags. The quality needs to be measured along with the price. 5. The management must work on a continuous basis on the systems and try to point out the problems. 6. Modern methods need to be implemented to train the workers. 7. It is quite important to change the responsibility of the foreman from just focusing upon the quantity rather than quality. In this regard, the management needs to give attention to what the foreman reports regarding the barriers concerned. 8. The fear needs to be taken out so that the work in the organization can be carried out more efficiently. 9. The barriers among the departments must be removed and all the members from all the departments need to work in group so that the problems can be encountered. 10. The companies must not impose any kind of numerical goals for the workers or ask for any new level of the output without providing them the methods to do so. 11. The work standards that set down numerical quotas need to be eliminated. 12. It is important to remove any obstacles that come in between the ‘hourly workers’ and workers’ rights of self-importance that is related to the workmanship. 13. Vigorous training as well as education needs to be provided to the workers. 14. It is important to clearly describe the permanent dedication of the top management towards the quality and the productivity as well as its accountability to apply all the above principles (Bose, T. K., “Total Quality of Management”). References Bose, Tapan K. Total Quality of Management Pearson Education India, 2011. Gitman, Lawrence J. & McDaniel, Carl. The Future of Business: The Essentials Cengage Learning, 2008. John Wiley & Sons. “Total Quality Management”. May 17, 2011. Defining Quality, 2011. Montgomery, Douglas C. Introduction to Statistical Quality Control, 4Th Ed Wiley-India, 2007 Patty, Robert M. & Denton, Michael. A. The End of Project Overruns: Lean and Beyond for Engineering, Procurement and Construction Universal-Publishers, 2009. SlideShare. “Quality Assurance vs. Quality Control”. May 17, 2011. Quality Control, 2010. Read More