Quality and IT Management - Essay Example

?Quality and IT Management Introduction Quality is a key towards the success of a company. A company can achieve satisfaction by providing the customers with reliable and quality products. High quality also plays its role in improving Return-On-Investment (ROI) and value-On-investment (VOI). Quality means to seek continuous improvement in the products and services provided by any organization. The role played by the quality gurus is very important in this regard. In this paper, we will discuss the importance of the teachings of quality gurus in ensuring quality in the products and services delivered by a company to the customers. 2. Role of Quality Gurus Some of the most famous quality gurus include Armand Feigenbaum, Edwards Deming, Philip Crosby, Kaoru Ishikawa, Genichi Taguchi, and Shigeo Shingo (Beckford 2002, p. 54). All of these gurus brought different concepts of quality which not only helped the companies achieve competitive advantage in the past but also provide appropriate directions towards success to the companies belonging to the present world. We can take example of Masaaki Imai who came up with the concept of Kaizen in 1986, which led Japan’s way to huge success in the field of technological development. Kaizen is an umbrella, which includes all Japanese practices related to quality management. Imai focused on continuous improvement in all departments of a company. Shigeo Shingo was a Japanese quality guru who focused on zero quality control and brought the concept of Poka-Yoke which means to identify the errors before they become some real defects. Kaoru Ishikawa was another Japanese quality guru who also believed in some other concepts other than just provision of quality products to the customers. He focused on after sales service, company and the customers, and quality of the management. One of the main teachings of all quality gurus was quality control, which means to ensure quality in all stages of a product development. In the engineering domain, quality control results in accepting or rejecting a manufactured product (Unhelkar 2003, p. 303). In the view of quality gurus, the process of quality control includes certain actions which are necessary for the control and verification of required characteristics of any product or services provided by a company. Fryman (2002, p. 6) found that the main purpose of quality control is to eliminate all factors which can result in unsatisfactory product performance. Along with quality control, some American quality gurus, such as, Dr. Joseph Juran and Dr. W. Edwards Deming also focused on quality management that leads a company’s way towards success. The primary objective of quality management is to increase customer satisfaction with the company’s products and services. Deming’s quality cycle comprised of some key steps, which included Plan, Do, Study, and Act. Deming focused on bringing improvements in quality of products and services by reducing the elements of variability and uncertainty in design and features of the products and services. On the other hand, Juran believed in the philosophy of ‘fitness for use’ and advocated the use of ‘quality cost measurement’. Philip Crosby was a Western American quality guru who believed in the concept of ‘conformance to requirements’. Crosby came up with four main concepts related to quality management. The first one was that quality is not goodness or elegance rather it is conformance to the requirements of the customers. The second concept was that the system for creating quality has nothing to do with appraisal rather it is concerned with prevention. Third concept was the zero defects standard of quality whereas the fourth concept was that measurement of quality should be the price of nonconformance. Crosby focused on reducing the manufacturing expenses by doping things right at the first time instead of correcting them. In the past, the teachings of quality gurus really helped companies become more competitive in nature, lower the product manufacturing costs, improve customer satisfaction, and increase productivity and profitability of the companies. Even today, their philosophies and teachings play the role of foundations for the success of the companies. Therefore, we can say that the teachings of quality gurus are extremely important for the success of the companies in the today’s world of competition. Having discussed the teachings and philosophies of some of the most famous quality gurus, let us now discuss the relationship between modern day total quality management practices and the historical concept of quality. Today, companies focus on the implementation of a total quality management system for bringing continuous improvement in the services. TQM is an approach towards improving the performance and quality of products and services so that they meet the expectations of the consumers. According to Rawlins (2008, p. 19), total quality management is a way to improve the effectiveness and competitiveness of an organization as a whole. The focus of the total quality management is the customers and products of a company. According to Schlickman (2003, p. 4), a quality management system is effective only when it is transparent to the company’s strategic goals and objectives. Total quality management requires continuous improvement in all departments of a company related to manufacturing of the products, such as, quality design and development, quality control, and quality assurance. American Quality gurus also believed that quality management not only increases customer satisfaction but also results in increasing the productivity of a company. Today, companies make great use of ISO9001 quality management system as a model for the products (Muchemu 2008, p. 4). Companies also use ISO9001 quality management systems. Marcus and Naveh (2005) found that one of the basic purposes of adopting ISO 9000 is to bring international trade to the business. ISO 9000: 2000 standards guide companies about the requirements for implementation of quality management systems (Dale et al. 2005). Uzumeri (1997) found that quality management system based on ISO 9000 series represents an international agreement on the quality management practices of a company. Three of the most important principles of quality management include customer focus, continuous improvement, and employee involvement. Customer focus is one of the primary principles of quality management. According to Kanji (1995, p. 591), TQM believes in total customer focus. A company needs to focus the needs and demands of the customers while developing the products. Today, companies firmly believe that customers are the main drivers that ensure success of a company. If a company does not consider the needs and demands of the customers during the phases of product development, it can never produce profitable products. Therefore, companies need to give importance to the needs of the customers in order to ensue success in any competitive market. Next major principle of a quality management system is continuous improvement, which is also one of the major focus areas of the Japanese quality gurus. A company needs to bring continuous improvement in the products by integrating quality in all phases of the product development process. Customers are satisfied only if a company delivers quality in all of its products and services. If a company neglects the integration of quality aspects in a single phase of a product development process, it affects the overall quality of the product resulting in development of a compromising quality product. Therefore, in the present world, a company needs to work towards continuous improvement in manufacturing and quality procedures in order to bring a high quality product in the market. Third important principle, employee involvement, requires continuous involvement and motivation of the top management of a company. Employee involvement is the concept which differentiates current practices with the old ones. Today, top management motivates the employees towards ensuring quality in all aspects of their job responsibilities. The involvement of employees is important in ensuring the implementation of total quality management system in a company. Therefore, companies need to encourage their employees to bring improvement in their job related activities in order to ensure success of the company. Let us now discuss how quality puts an impact on Return-On-Investment (ROI) and Value-On-Investment (VOI). ROI is a measure that is used to assess the appropriateness of an investment or to compare the value with other similar investments. Quality has a direct impact on overall return on investment. Customers like to use such product or services which are able to provide them with highest level of quality and reliability. If the quality of a product or a service will be high, it will definitely earn high profits for the investors. It is a fact that ROI is positive when gain from the investment is more than the cost of the investment. The gain from investment can only be high when a large number of customers are attracted towards the products or services of a company, and this goal can only be achieved through quality. If the quality of a product or a service will be good, customers will like to buy that product or use that service which will result in improving the Return-On-Investment. If we talk about the impact of quality on Value-On-Investment, we can say that quality improves the value of intangible benefits for a company. If the quality of a company’s products and services is high, a positive image of the company is created in the minds of the customers which results in improving the overall VOI. Conclusion Summing it up, quality is a key to organizational success as it leads the organization towards market domination through delivering quality products and services to the customers. Quality means to seek continuous improvement in the products and services provided by any organization. The teachings of quality gurus are the foundations of today’s quality management systems. It is true that modern day practices of delivering quality in a service management environment are the continuation of the teachings of quality gurus. High quality also plays its role in improving Return-On-Investment (ROI) and value-On-investment (VOI). References Beckford, J 2002, Quality: A Critical Introduction, 2nd edn, Routledge, New York, NY. Dale, B, Iwaarden, J, Wiele, T & Williams, R 2005, ‘Perceptions about the ISO 9000 (2000) quality standard system revision and its value: The Dutch Experience’, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 101-119. Fryman, M 2002, Quality and Process Improvement, Thomson Learning, Albany, NY. Kanji, G 1995, Total Quality Management: Proceedings of the First World Congress, Chapman & Hall, London. Marcus, A & Naveh, E 2005, ‘Achieving competitive advantage through implementing a replicable management standard: Installing and using ISO 9000’, Journal of Operations Management, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1-26. Muchemu, D 2008, Designing A World-Class Quality Management System for FDA Regulated Industries, AuthorHouse, Bloomington, IN. Rawlins, R 2008, Total Quality Management (TQM), AuthorHouse, Indiana. Schlickman, J 2003, ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management System Design, ARTECH HOUSE, INC., Norwood, MA. Unhelkar, B 2003, Process Quality Assurance for UML-Based Projects, Pearson Education, Inc., Boston, MA. Uzumeri, M 1997, ‘ISO 9000 and other meta standards: Principles for Management Practice?’, The Academy of Management Executive, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 21-36. Read More