Think ahead

1. Do you try to continuously improve you own work? If so, in what ways?

2. In what ways does you company or the place where you study improve its efficiency? What should be done for this purpose?

3. Give examples of high-quality products or services. Explain your choice.

Text 2.5 Skim the text below and suggest headings for each paragraph. Then read the text once more for detailed understanding.

1. ______________________________________

In production and operations management, over the past few decades, there has been emphasis on quality. The specifications or specs of a product are exact instructions about design, including its dimensions (size), how it is to be made, the materials to be used, etc. The objective of quality control is conformity to specifications, the idea that the product should be made exactly as it was intended, with zero defects: no faults at all.

This concept is called Total Quality Management (TQM), according to which management should ensure that quality extends in all features of products and services that are important to the customer. The company should aim at the highest quality level possible, because a lack of quality can be more expensive than achieving high quality. It means that there are many costs that result from not 100% perfect production: inspecting, testing, identifying the causes of defects, implementing corrective action, training personnel, redesigning a product, scrapping, repairing defective products, replacing products in accordance with a warranty, dealing with complaints, losing customers and so on. It appears that prevention is usually much cheaper than failures. Everyone in the entire supplier-producer-customer chain should be responsible for quality. Every worker is a quality inspector for his/her own results aiming at zero defects and attaining high quality. Things should be made right from the first time in order not to correct mistakes later in the process of reworking. This approach is often described as ‘quality at the source’. It removes the need for ‘over the shoulder’ inspection. This often requires training and motivation of the staff.

2. ___________________________________

A quality circle (QC) is a task voluntary groups of six to twelve employees in the same work area who meet on a regular basis to study quality control and productivity improvement techniques, and discuss the problems their department encounters. If there are problems with quality, the group will try to indentify their sources, find solutions to eliminate them and improvements to management. Managers review the proposed solution and make a decision on whether or not to implement it. Then the solution is implemented and evaluated for the success by the quality circle and the organisation. Some specific features of quality circles are the following:

1) Small groups range in size from 4 to 15 members. Eight or nine is the most popular size

2) A work area supervisor is usually, though not always, the leader of the circle.

3) Meetings are held once every week during paid hours.

4) Members are usually given training in the techniques of problem-solving, analysis and reporting methods (e.g., brainstorming).

5) Circles exist as long as the members wish to meet.

3. ____________________________________

Continuous improvement process (CIP or CI) is an ongoing effort to improve products, services or processes. It is always making small improvements and is often referred to by its Japanese name – kaizen. It is a Japanese philosophy that underlies total quality management and just-in-time business techniques. By the 1980s the Japanese had achieved manufacturing greatness by practicing continuous improvement; firms were constantly working to improve all aspects of a business. To do this a firm must always increase quality, look for innovative ways to solve problems and focus on the quality of its suppliers. All of these are cornerstones of a modern JIT system. The stress is made on feedback (reflection of process), efficiency (identification, reduction and elimination of excess processes) and evolution (continuous steps rather than giant leaps).

4.____________________________________

Companies should always be engaged in the process of comparing their business performance to best practices from other industries, analysing the performance of their competitors in terms of quality, time and cost, seeing how the best companies operate and trying to copy it. In the process of benchmarking, management identifies the best firm in their industry or in another industry and compare the results trying to understand and explain why these firms are successful. There are different types of benchmarking: process, financial, performance, product, functional, operational, etc.

5. ___________________________________

Business process reengineering, or BRP, is the analysis and design of workflows and processes within the organisation aiming at the gains in productivity. Re-engineering is the basis for many recent developments in management. Four major business areas are subjected to change in BRP – organisation, technology, strategy and people. It applies both in service industries and in manufacturing. For example, if companies do not want to change existing things in small ways, they can completely redesign all their processes in management, administration and customer service, e.g., eliminate some levels of management or install a completely new computer system.