BUILDING A "RICH PICTURE" AND ASSESSING A "QUALITY MANAGEMENT" PROGRAM AT THORNTON PRINTING COMPANY

This working paper illustrates the use of a variety of systems ideas to explore the problem situation presented by Thornton Printing Company, and to examine its "Quality Management" Program-the major instrument chosen by the Company to address its problems. The method employed to set the proposed solution against the "mess" it was designed to alleviate could be refined to have a very general application, The paper also contains many points of more specific interest. Checkland's guidelines for building a "rich picture" are supplemented by ideas drawn from the organization theory literature and by use of the "cognitive mapping" technique. The legitimacy of such a combination of concepts is therefore raised (but not examined.). The "Quality Management" Program adopted by the Company, and the method of implementation, is revealed to be a much attenuated version of the philosophy set forth in the literature on Quality Management and "Excellence" from which it was drawn. Finally, the assumptions underlying the Company's version of "Quality Management" are neatly exposed and questioned using the strategic assumption surfacing approach. The work reported could have been dressed up lo make it appear a fairly profound intervention (in some respects it was profound). It was deckled to publish it in a less than polished form because this captures much more of the flavor of the project experience-continually thinking on the run to keep up with the rapidly changing problem situation presented by the company. The actual project report must remain confidential until January 1990. but will then be available for consultation.