Key Strategies for the EQ program, Central Engineering, and Research Group - Essay Example

Key Strategies Successful performance and profitability of the organizations depends upon quality of products and services it delivers. Many organizations, like Canbide, employ quality management approaches in order to ensure high quality standards and company image. For Canbide, it means the gradual improvement, and thus the setting and achieving of ever-higher standards. There are two prerequisites for the effective use of this type of approach, i.e. setting demanding but achievable objectives; feedback of achievements against these objectives. The main philosophical principles of quality management involve ethical and social corporate rules which determine organizational goals and strategies. The simple logic supporting the need for ethical guidelines is that actions in business are the result of decisions by human beings, and human beings tend to seek justification for their actions beyond the rule of value for money. As Hill writes, "top management determines quality priorities, establishes the systems of quality, management and the procedures to be followed, provides resources and leads by example" (Hill 1991, 23). The quality guidelines are crucial to ensure that the service is provided using a consistent process which is described in the quality documents. ISO standards followed by Canbide provide a standard of quality assurance for firms only involved in final inspection and testing of products. Firms using this standard are basically performing the inspection function of the product that would normally be done by the customer when the product is received. For Canbide, Total Quality Management is a strategic approach to quality which permeates the entire organization (Slack 2003). The key strategies for the EQ program, Central Engineering and Research Group (CERG) include: (1) CRM (customer relationship management) or customer focus; (2) employees support; (3) high standards and service (ISO standards); (4) quality circles; (5) the use of control charts; (6) output and process quality control. Basic behavioral science principles and practices are the foundation of excellence through quality programs. The rational for these programs is to motivate workers and increase service quality, e.g. providing clear objectives, participation in decision-making and positive feedback on performance, are established principles which have widespread use in different applications. Thus, the development of these programs demonstrates a sensible application of established theories in a relatively new field. Within CERG, quality control during the process should involve the use of control charts, which will be discussed in some detail shortly. The number and location of inspections should reflect both the probability of faults or defectives occurring and the consequences of such occurrences, as well as the cost of conducting inspection. Frequently, technical considerations determine the position and number of inspection operations, but nevertheless, within certain limitations, operations management is usually able to design the inspection procedure (Eboch, 1998). Having looked at the way in which customer relationship management and employee relationship management (ERM) has evolved, it is clear that there is a role assumed by people responsible for projects at various stages of development, connected with business units, as part of defining and producing a project plan. ERM involved in the business to the point at which the project manager and the team take over responsibility for the implementation phases leading to the hand-over of the finished project. Taking into account the nature of CERG, output and process quality control will be integral part of TQM. Inspection of items between operations should be undertaken, not only to ensure that faulty or defective items do not proceed to the subsequent operations, but also in order to predict when the process is likely to produce defective items so that necessary preventive adjustments can be made. Well-defined procedures should be established for the selection and inspection of the items, for the recording and analysis of data, for reprocessing, rectifying or scrapping of defectives, and for the feedback of information (Perry, n.d.). It will be assumed that a group of people attached to a separate department within the organization is involved in these quality control procedures, but two other alternatives exist. For instance, automatic 'on-line' inspection or gauging could be used. Such procedures are increasingly used for automatic inspection and checking of variables (dimensions); often the equipment involves a 'feedback' to the machine, which is self-correcting. The proposed actions and conditions relate to business strategies. In this case, CERG quality objectives must be agreed by all parties, objectives must be relevant to the tasks of employees, or feedback must be frequent and regular; opportunities for examination and analysis of achievements must exist, high achievement will be recognized by awards, operations problem solving procedures are required, so that obstacles to improvements in performance can be removed; there will be a participative process-oriented management style. The aim of the proposed approaches is to deliver customer value which is intrinsic to marketing's role within the business. It can be seen to encompass both the value delivered to the customer by the supplying organization (the 'package' of benefits), and the value received by the supplying organization from the customer (the return on investment). To improve the present day situation Canbide should implement the following TQM strategies: customer response, improved control, better discipline, reduced costs, greater awareness and commitment, improved working environment; third party' relationships: e.g. less need for external audits and monitoring. However to achieve such benefits implementation must be comprehensive and effective (Perry, n.d.). The primary strategies used for implementing quality approaches included hiring a senior analyst and new ISO standards, new distribution facility in New York and corporate wide excellence through quality. Most of these strategies have not been successful because of ineffective use of resources and poor planning process. Effective communication techniques should be the core of change management and TQM. Without support and cooperation of team members and top management, Canbide will not be able to introduce new strategies and increase productivity. Employees can be brought together on the basis of defined roles within the structure of the organization. The nature of the tasks to be undertaken is a predominant feature of CERG. Goals are identified by management, and certain rules, relationships and norms of behavior established. Line communication can be an effective tool which supports changes and the EQ program. It means authority flows vertically down through the structure, for example from the managing director to managers, section leaders, supervisors and other staff. There is a direct relationship between superior and subordinate, with each subordinate responsible to only one person. Line relationships are associated with functional or departmental division of work and organizational control (Dow, 1999). In sum, central to the quality approach is a need for a change in the attitude and culture prevailing within Carbide. Divisional, competitive structures within organizations need to be broken down and replaced with committed, co-operative relationships between all employees, who should see themselves as working towards the same goal. Linked with attitude change is the need to create a climate of continuous improvement within CREG. Employees need to ensure that they have information about quality at all times, so that they understand what is happening within any particular process. This moves the culture of the industry away from checking whether a particular product or process is working effectively, after the event, to ensuring that one understands and identifies any quality problems early in the process, seeking continuously, to improve performance. References 1. Dow, Douglas, (1999). "Exploding the Myth: Do All Quality Management Practices Contribute to Superior Quality Performance" Production and Operations Management, 8 (1), Spring pp. 1-25. 2. Eboch, K. (1998). "The TQM Paradox: Relations among TQM Practices, Plant Performance, and Customer Satisfaction." Journal Of Operations Management, pp. 59-75. 3. Perry, J. (n.d.). Excellence throughquality. www.managementmag.com/index.cfm/ci_id/2127/la_id/1 4. Slack N., Chambers S. Johnston R. (2003). Operations Management.FT Prentice Hall. Read More