Evaluation of Quality Improvement Processes - Research Paper Example

? EVALUATION OF QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROCESSES Executive summary This report is to enable the company review among the available quality improvement processes and inform their decision to settle on the one that will enable the company produce competitive products at affordable costs. This is propagated by the recent happening where the firm’s products have not been in the position of competing favorably in the competitive market. The aim is to choose a production technique that will result into cheap production to maximize the profits of the company. The report therefore compares and contrasts three forms of quality improvement processes and among the discussed process, one favorable for the company is recommended to improve the performance of the company. Introduction The Baldrige criteria for performance excellence, ISO 9000 and the Six Sigma are three quality improvement processes that provide a completely new way of helping organizations improve in their performances. The first process focuses on the estimation of performance excellence of the organization as a whole starting from the management tracking all the results as exhibited by the organization. ISO 9000 on the other hand is a model that gives much weight on the product or the service and how it performs in the market. The inefficiencies of the products or the service are then fixed for better performance (Harrington, 2001). In this category, we have the six sigma; this constantly measures the quality of the product while improving the engineering process to result into an improvement of the process and saves the costs of the organization. In an effort to know which will be applicable to improving the performance of this company in terms of saving cots and realizing profitability, we have to analyze the three intensively (Dew & Nearing, 2004). a. Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence as a measure that has helped many organizations achieve their goals is today not only acceptable in the US but also worldwide. This is due to its ability to steer organizations through stiff competitive environment through the improvement of their performances. The criterion cuts across all organizations right from healthcare to education of profit and nonprofit organizations by responding swiftly to current challenges (Brown, 2001). They do this by being open and transparent in the governance of the organizations as well as the ethics involved. The criterion is aimed at creating value for the customers of the business. Irrespective of the form of organization the criteria gives a valuable framework that is able to help in the planning and achieving under any environment. This is because it is able to assess organizational performance on a wide range of key business indicators, align the resources available, and improve communication, productivity and effectiveness for the achievement of the organizational goals (Edosomwan & Edosomwan, 2008). The criterion has evolved over time with its characteristics, goals and purposes remaining the same. The criteria lay its focus on all the results of the performances of the organization for balancing all the strategies of the firm. It does not prescribe and is adaptable hence allowing for creativity and flexibility in the organization to enable achievement of the goals. Supports the systems in place and at the same time supporting goals based diagnosis for future improvements (Brown, 2001). The goals of the criteria are delivery, improvement, organizational and personal learning. The purpose of the criteria is to allow for its use by organizations of all categories for the sake of self assessment and training so as to develop performance of the businesses. The system is able to realize an achievement of its purpose by stressing on leadership, strategic planning, measurement, and analysis and knowledge management. Others are, focus on the workforce, management of the process and results (Edosomwan & Edosomwan, 2008). b. ISO 9001:2000 Registration This is another quality improvement process and just as was seen in the introduction stage this process requires that its specifications for quality management are adhered to. In this case the organization should be in the position of demonstrating its ability to constantly provide the product and meet the customer requirements and the external regulations. The measure is aimed at ensuring that the customer is always satisfied by effectively applying the system (Dobb, 2004). In line with this the process exhibits a process for the continued improvement of the organizational system while assuring the stakeholders of conformity to the customer requirements and satisfaction. At the same time the process demands that all the regulatory requirements are adhered to. In line with this it is important to note that the requirements of this international standard are generic and have the likelihood of changing from time to time. In this regard, they are at the same time applicable to all organizations irrespective of the type, size and the products that the organization provides to the consumers (Henderson, 2011). The standard gives room for the areas where its standards cannot be applied for any other reason. This presents one of its weak points in ensuring quality in products and service provision. This is because the exclusions made cannot purport to meet the standards of conformity and are therefore non-acceptable unless they are limited to the requirements of the clause seven of the process requirements (Henderson, 2011). In such cases the exclusions are not treated to be substantial in ensuring that the organization meets its obligations, responsibilities in provision to its client’s quality as stipulated in the regulatory requirements of the quality improvement process. As opposed to the former criteria, this system is quite rigid as it requires organizations to follow their requirements strictly. This is not quite possible unless the organization is operating in ideal environment (Dobb, 2004). c. Six Sigma The Six sigma model is a quality improvement models that stresses on performance improvement measures for the sake of cost savings in organizations. This measure strives to achieve perfection in the performance of many organizations. It is a focused, disciplined, data driven process that aims at eliminating any form of defects which are realizable in the manufacturing, transactional or even to the product service (Henderson, 2011). The system uses statistics to determine how a process is functioning and it has standards to ensure compliance. A defect is therefore anything outside the customers’ expectation as shown by the sigma six models. This system has one sole objective that is to implement the measurement based strategy for the sake of process improvement and the model exists in form of two major methodologies. The DMAIC and the DMADV; while the former is a system for existing processes, the latter is applied on systems yet to be put in place (Pande, Neuman & Cavanagh, 2000). The method encourages the use of teams and team leaders to implement a strategy. Training has to be done for the teams on the six sigma models and this runs specifically on the field of measurements and improvement tools (Pande, Neuman & Cavanagh, 2000). Other skills to be learnt during such trainings are communication and relationship skills, skill which are much needed for the involvement and service to the internal and external stakeholders of the firm. For the effectiveness of this system sin any organization, the executive will form the strategy which is improvement oriented in nature and includes all the essential components of the organization (Henderson, 2011). This should also posses the ability of meeting the customer’s expectations. Recommendations After careful analysis of the three quality improvement processes, for my organization which needs to withstand competition and provide products with the required quality to attain high profitability. At the same time this organization will need to satisfy all the customer requirements for continued operations. Considering that the company cannot effort to adopt all the three at ago, I would recommend the company to use the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence model to improve in its process (Dew & Nearing, 2004). This is because the model has the ability of focusing on the performance excellence of the entire organization through a proactive approach. This approach involves the involvement of the top management in the formulation and adoption of strategies as well as their implementation (Harrington, 2001). Most of all, the model will place the organization in a situation in which the ability to identify and track all the important organizational results is possible. This entails the control of the costs of the organization while creating a competitive environment to help the organization realize profitability (Harrington, 2001). There will be an improved value for the customers and al the stakeholders as they contribute towards the sustainability of the organization. Towards the realization of profitability, the organization effectiveness and capability will be enhanced as all the aspects get improved. Through the seven critical aspects of management as portrayed by this model, the organization will benefit from effective leadership, that is able to establish clear strategies and are customer focused (Dew & Nearing, 2004). In addition, the level of analysis, care for the workforce and focus on operations are what this organization needs to realize its objectives of withstanding competition and making profits. Conclusion In as much as the organization would have gone for six sigma due to its ability to concentrate in measuring product quality and process improvement. It would as well go for ISO due to its product or service conformity and fixing of defects. The organization needed Baldrige criteria since it is the only sure way that the organization will face stiff competition, reduce costs through good strategies and maximize on profitability as a result. References Brown, M. G. (2001). Baldrige award winning quality: how to interpret the Baldrige criteria for performance excellence (11th ed.). Portland, or: Productivity Inc. Dew, J. R., & Nearing, M. M. (2004). Continuous quality improvement in higher education. Westport, Conn.: American Council on Education/Praeger. Dobb, F. P. (2004). ISO 9001:2000 quality registration step-by-step (3rd ed.). Amsterdam: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann. Edosomwan, J. A., & Edosomwan, J. A. (2008). Performance excellence criteria: a customized performance excellence criterion for PennDOT, based on the Edosomwan-Baldrige-based assessment tool (EBAT-II). Fairfax, VA: Continuous Improvement Co. Harrington, H. J. (2001). Business process improvement: the breakthrough strategy for total quality, productivity, and competitiveness. New York: McGraw-Hill. Henderson, G. R. (2011). Six Sigma quality improvement with Minitab (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Pande, P. S., Neuman, R. P., & Cavanagh, R. R. (2000). The Six Sigma way: how GE, Motorola, and other top companies are honing their performance. New York: McGraw-Hill. Tricker, R. (2006). ISO 9001 2000 - The Quality Management Process. (2nd ed.). Zaltbommel: Van Haren Pub. Read More