Managing for Quality

This chapter covers two major topics relating to managing an organization for producing quality results The first deals with managing an organization’s human resources, and the second deals with including quality in the strategic planning of an organization as an equal parameter with financial and marketing metrics 6.1.1 Importance of Human ResourcesFor an organization pursuing quality and customer satisfaction, success greatly depends on how the workforce contributes to this effort “If total quality does not occur at the workforce level, it will not occur at all” (Evans and Lindsay 1996) The contribution from the workforce depends on how it is recruited, trained, organized, and motivated This chapter discusses the issues involved and the approaches taken to optimize efforts in developing, organizing, and managing human resources for achieving excellence in product quality, process efficiency, and business success Dr Deming recognized the importance of the contributions that people in an organization make toward producing quality products and achieving customer satisfaction Nine of the 14 points he recommended to organizations for improving quality, productivity, and competitive position were related to people The points he made in this regard include (Deming 1986):• Institute training on the job • Adopt and institute a new form of leadership • Drive out fear • Break down barriers between staff areas • Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the workforce • Eliminate numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical goalsfor management • Remove barriers that rob people of pride in workmanship• Eliminate the annual rating or merit system • Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement foreveryoneThese points are discussed in detail in Chapter 9 For now, note that Dr Deming considered people’s contributions to be paramount in achieving quality results in an organization We refer in this regard to a quote by Dr Deming on how organizations deal with people issues: “In my experience, people can face almost any problem except the problem of people” (Deming 1986) In other words, a typical organization does not recognize the enormous contribution that people can make toward quality and productivity, and fails to exploit this resource to the fullest extent through understanding their problems and finding solutions The importance of people in the effort for quality improvement cannot be overemphasized It is necessary to understand the challe