Management of Quality Issues - Essay Example

?Management of Quality Table of Contents Answer 3 Answer 2: 5 Answer 3: 8 Reference List 12 Answer Cooke and Lewis Laboratory is an organization that provides calibration and analytical testing for the manufacturing and pharmaceutical industry. The organization owns a reputation of quality services and equipments, which makes a market leader in the testing sector. In recent years the organization has expanded their business operations in other countries, which has transformed the business into a bigger and complex one. The company eventually found that the amenity packaging can be copied by the competitors and attract the premium customers. This compelled the organization to reinforce the quality of the process that every step. A consultant was hired who recommended the use of bespoke quality management in the organization that will facilitate in incorporating major quality improvement programs (Nobel 2011; Kuballa 2007; Kanji 1995). This was a top down approach in which the significant projects were identified and were controlled by trained team. It is quite significant for the senior management to implement bespoke quality management system with instructive and constructive quality management that allows the employees to contribute towards the improvement of the organizational functions. Quality management should not be procedural like for instance the ideas that are brought by the employees should be turned down by the managers. In the top down approach of quality management, the effort made towards the quality development is cascaded down to other levels of the organization. In the top down approach of quality management the senior level managers are only involved. The top down approach has certain advantages that are discussed below: In the top down approach the senior management is involved, which signifies quality management is a time taking process and senior management will be aware of it. This will make the availability of time and financial resources for the process. Any changes in the organization require proper mentoring from the senior officials. In this method the employees will get proper monitoring from the higher officials. Figure 1: Top down Approach Sources: (Author’s Creation) However, this method is not free from limitations. The primary limitation in this method is: Unnecessary delay is caused if the senior officials are not fully operational related to the changes in the quality management required. Enhancing the quality process requires use of different techniques and tools. It also requires interaction of the top management with the middle management on an everyday basis, which is unrealistic, and counterproductive (Schiller, Kovach and Miller 1994). The employees who are directly dealing with the process are seen to possess better knowledge as compared to the members of the top management. Thus, they can implement the quality changes better. Quality management system was implemented by the organization in the second stage. It is the system in which both the quality objectives and policies required to achieve those objectives are decided (Williams and Buswell 2003). The main advantage of this system is that it involves the officials of the top management and the employees from every level. This signifies the involvement of all the people from different levels of the organization. The problems in this system is that it requires a high amount of effort and documentation, often focuses on third party certification rather than business improvement and hinders business if it is self-fulfilling (OECD 2001). Figure 2: Quality Management system Source: (Author’s Creation) Answer 2: A Quality management system (QMS) is a management technique that is used to communicate with the employees regarding how they can produce the desired quality of services and products. Along with this, it also looks at influencing the employee action related to the quality specification in completion of the task. There are two types of quality management system such as accredited and the non-accredited (Williams and Buswell 2003). Figure 3: Quality Management System Source: (Westinghouse 2013) The non-accredited quality management system is designed by the organization and also monitored by them. The whole process is in-house that signifies within the organization. On the other hand the accredited quality management are the system that has third party certification. The original system does not say how the individual organizations should design their processes and procedures but instead limits how the designed procedure should be implemented within the organization such that they are in accordance to the clause. ISO 9000 is a good example of accredited quality management system that is recognised internationally and required that the organization renews the certification every year. Business Excellence Model is the basis on which many of the quality awards are given can be used either as non-accredited self-assessment system or to assess externally and enter into the competition for quality awards. In case of Cooke and Lewis, non-accredited quality management system should be used. This system has the following advantages: This system is tailor-made according to the objectives of the organization. This type of tailor-made quality enhancement system is required for the organization. This system will exactly cater to the requirements of the organization. Presently, the older processes are seen to be worst affected and not meeting the quality requirement. Thus, this type of quality management system will be the most appropriate. Low cost is another advantage that the system has over the other. As in a in-house system and will be developed by the management of the organization after considering the requirement so the system will incur low cost. On the other hand, the accredited one is internationally recognised and will incur much higher cost. Since the cost involved in this process is much lower so the organization has the scope to incorporate some type of monitoring system which will check the efficiency of the quality management system on a regular basis. They can conduct this monitoring on a weekly or monthly basis (Williams and Buswell 2003). The Cooke and Lewis is as such that they are eager to adopt some quality management measure that is not easily copied by their competitors. They wanted to reinforce the quality in every step of their processes. If the organization goes for accredited quality management system them the competitors will be aware of the measures and they will incorporate the same in their organization. This will stop Cooke and Lewis from creating competitive advantage. Moreover, if they go for incorporating and implementing non-accredited quality management system then they will not only have the flexibility of designing their own measures as per the requirement of the processes but will also prevent the steps being adopted by the competitors. Thus, non-accredited one is most appropriate. Answer 3: The implementation of quality management system can be done by the following steps: Step 1: The commitment from the top management of the organization is very important while designing and implementing quality management system because without them the system will not work properly. The top management can help the organization by making their clients aware of this whole system and at the same time assists in improving the efficiency of the overall business. Step 2: The implementation team should be decided and people responsible for the implementation should be explained about their responsibilities. There should be members chosen who will be responsible for planning and overseeing the whole implementation process. The implementation team must contain one from each department where the quality measures will be implemented. Step 3: The management and the implementation team should conduct a survey to identify the areas where quality is lagging and steps should be taken to enhance the quality. Step 4: After the area of concern has been identified the team should plan and document the measures that should be implemented. The plan identifies and describes the process that need to be implemented. Step 5: After designing the plan and the measures that will be implemented in the department. The team should ensure that the quality management system should be implemented properly as per the documented plan. Step 6: The members who are involved in the quality management process should be trained so that they understand their responsibility. The staff should be well aware of the end result. They should perform as per their duties and responsibilities. Step 7: A regular check about the effectiveness of the installed system should be conducted. This can be dove weekly or monthly. A separate team should be designated to conduct this job. This monitoring should see that the quality management system is enhancing the quality of the process. It should also see that it is maintained properly and effectively by the manager. Step 8: A yearly review should be conducted by the management. They should properly review the whole system and if any changes are required then that should be incorporated. The aim main of this review should be adequacy, suitability and effectiveness if the quality management system (Nanda 2005; Purushothama 2011; Pardy and Andrews 2009; Smith 2002). Figure 4: Implementation of Quality Management System Source: (Author’s Creation) The process of implementation of the quality management system is not an easy one. It requires the approval of the management and at the same time the employees who are involved the process should also understand the importance and the main motto. The main issue in this matter is firstly the approval of the management. The planning and the requirement should be framed as such that the management is convinced regarding the requirement of the changes. There might be conflict between the lower level employees, the manager and the quality management team, which is an issue that requires immediate attention. When the implementation process is being developed there should be proper coordination from all the levels of the organization, so that various ideas from the employees can be considered. Reference List Kanji, G.K., (1995). Total quality management: Proceedings of the first world congress. Berlin: Springer. Kuballa, J., (2007). Aspects and implementation of effective quality management systems. Munich: GRIN Verlag. Nanda, V., (2005). Quality management system handbook for product development companies. Florida: CRC Press. Nobel, A., (2011). The empowerment paradigm. New York: Xlibris Corporation. OECD, (2001). Performance indicators for the road sector: Summary of the field tests. Paris: OECD Publishing. Pardy, W. and Andrews, T., (2009). Integrated management systems: Leading strategies and solutions. Maryland: Government Institutes. Purushothama, B., (2011). Effective Implementation of Quality Management Systems. Woodhead Publishing Limited. Schiller, M.R., Kovach, K.M. and Miller, M.A., (1994). Total quality management for hospital nutrition services. Maryland: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Smith, D., (2002). Integrated management systems series: Implementing and operating. London: BSI British Standards Institution. Westinghouse, (2013). Quality Management System [pdf] Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. Available from http://www.westinghousenuclear.com/our_company/quality_management_system/docs/e6_qms.pdf [25 November 2013]. Williams, C. and Buswell, J., (2003). Service quality in leisure and tourism. Oxon: CABI. Read More