Develop an
improvement
program 

• Design and develop a quality improvement program. Your program should:                                                   

  • Improve your organization's ability  to serve the needs of its customers.                                 

  • Show people how to use quality  improvement tools and techniques.                                 

  • Help people to identify quality improvement  opportunities i.e. quality losses.                                    

  • Explain how quality improvement projects  should be planned and executed.                                    

Create a
sociocultural
environment
that supports
improvement 

• The following values describe a sociocultural environment  that supports and encourages continuous quality improvement. Managers can help create this environment by:

  • Trusting employees. 

  • Encouraging cooperation.

  • Respecting and supporting teamwork.

  • Respecting and supporting individualism.

  • Encouraging employees to trust each other.

  • Encouraging employees to respect each other. 

  • Transmitting a sense of purpose or mission. 

  • Allowing employees to control their own work. 

  • Encouraging open and honest communication.

  • Giving employees access to corporate information.

  • Setting a good example by improving work quality. 

  • Making quality improvement an important part of every employee's job description.

  • Involving both customers and subcontractors  in the quality improvement process.                       

  • Encouraging employees to meet the needs, wants,  and expectations of internal and external customers.

  • Recognizing and rewarding individuals and groups who make important contributions to quality and quality improvement.                                                    

  • Giving employees the power, ability, and resources to improve the quality of their own work activities and immediate environment. 

  • Encouraging everyone to learn as much as they can about quality and about how to improve quality on a continuous basis.                               

  • Ensuring that all education, training, and awareness programs support quality and                       encourage quality improvement.                      

Reduce or
avoid quality
losses 

• Reduce or avoid quality losses by exploiting  every chance to improve quality.                                           

• Quality losses can be caused by:

  • Decrease in customer goodwill or satisfaction.

  • Failure to take full advantage of employee talent. 

  • Waste or misuse of physical and financial resources. 

  • Inability to exploit every chance to add more value.

Create
a structure
that supports
improvement 

• Develop an organizational structure that supports quality improvement. Such an organization would have methods which can be used to:

  • Identify quality improvement opportunities. 

  • Develop quality improvement objectives. 

  • Allocate resources to achieve these objectives. 

  • Grant the authority to make quality improvements. 

  • Distribute the responsibility to make improvements. 

  • Guide and coordinate quality improvement activities.

  • Monitor and measure quality improvement progress. 

  • Review and evaluate quality improvement results.

• Make sure that all members of your organization are  encouraged to recommend quality improvements.

Define quality
improvement
responsibilities 

• Define and distribute the following quality improvement responsibilities. Your organization should:

  • Develop plans to improve work processes. 

  • Monitor quality losses and improvements. 

  • Ensure that every process is oriented towards quality.

  • Expect open communication between departments. 

  • Identify the needs of internal and external customers.

  • Ensure that suppliers understand customer needs. 

  • Ask people to look for improvement opportunities. 

  • Monitor and control quality improvement projects. 

  • Evaluate quality improvement projects.

Develop an
improvement
planning
process 

• Develop a quality improvement planning process and incorporate this into your business planning process. Your quality improvement planning process should:

  • Identify and address quality losses. 

  • Uncover quality improvement opportunities. 

  • Develop quality improvement objectives. 

  • Define strategies to achieve these objectives. 

  • Involve all personnel in the planning process. 

  • Ask for input from customers and suppliers. 

  • Ensure that implementation is monitored. 

  • Arrange to evaluate quality system changes.

Develop an
improvement
measurement
system 

• Develop a quality improvement measurement system. Your measurement system should:                 

  • Pinpoint quality improvement opportunities (losses). 

  • Evaluate quality improvement results. 

  • Measure and monitor:

    • Customer satisfaction. 

    • Process efficiency. 

    • Resource utilization. 

    • Environmental impact. 

    • Professional development.

Develop an
improvement
review
procedure

• Develop a procedure that managers can use to review  quality improvement activities. This review procedure  should ensure that your:                                              

  • Organizational structure supports quality improvement. 

  • Quality improvement planning process functions properly. 

  • Quality improvement measurement system is effective. 

  • Quality review results are considered at the next planning session.                                          

Carry
out quality
improvement
projects 

• Plan your quality improvement projects.

  • Select a quality improvement topic.

    • Select a quality loss that must be prevented, or

    • Select a quality process that must be improved.

  • Prove that there is a need for the project.

  • Appoint a team to carry out the project.

  • Define the project's purpose and scope.

  • Develop a schedule to control progress.

  • Allocate resources to carry out the project.

• Execute your quality improvement projects.

  • Investigate the loss and prevent or correct it.

    • Clarify the nature and extent of the loss.

    • Analyze the factors that actually cause the loss.

    • Review alternative corrective or preventive actions.

    • Formulate actions to correct or prevent the loss.

    • Implement corrective and preventive actions.

    • Confirm that your actions created an improvement.

    • Verify that changes didn't cause bad side effects.

  • Investigate the process and improve it.

    • Identify and define process problems.

    • Analyze the factors that cause problems.

    • Review alternative corrective or preventive actions.

    • Formulate actions to address problems and causes.

    • Implement corrective and preventive actions.

    • Confirm that your actions created an improvement.

    • Verify that changes didn't cause bad side effects.

  • Find ways to sustain the improvement in quality.

    • Provide training.

    • Modify procedures.

    • Update specifications.

    • Revise job descriptions.

    • Improve process controls.

• Monitor and control all quality projects.

Analyze the
facts before
you decide to
make quality
improvements 

• Use the following kinds of tools and techniques to collect  and analyze data and to discover what the facts are before  you make quality improvement decisions:                      

  • Flow charts

  • Histograms

  • Benchmarking

  • Tree diagrams

  • Control charts

  • Pareto diagrams

  • Affinity diagrams

  • Scatter diagrams

  • Cause and effect diagrams

  • Special forms to collect data

• Make sure staff members have been trained  to use these kinds of tools and techniques.