A quality culture It is an environment where employees not only follow quality guidelines, but also see others in a systematic way, take quality-focused action, listen to others talk about quality, and feel the quality around them..
With the reduction of geographic barriers and the pressure to compete in the global market, operational excellence has become a necessity for companies to remain competitive globally..
Quality culture naturally emphasizes continuous process improvement and results in a healthy workplace, satisfied customers, and a profitable and growing company..
However, how can you ensure that all employees are focused on delivering a quality product or service??
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The basis for any quality improvement is to develop a quality culture within the organization, incorporating it throughout the company. A culture focused on quality creates a healthy work environment and also generates satisfied customers.
In a healthy corporate culture, what is good for the company and what is good for customers is united, becoming the driving force behind what everyone does..
The culture of quality begins with a leadership that understands and believes in the implications of the systems vision, and knows the need to serve customers to be successful..
The result of that understanding is a culture where a positive internal environment goes hand in hand with creating satisfied customers..
A quality culture results when all stakeholders, from top management to the grassroots worker, seamlessly incorporate improvements into their daily activities.
It is essential to have adequate systems and structures to support quality improvements. Processes must be established with clear customer-focused performance criteria. This means:
- Have a solid command structure that drives quality initiatives and thus ensures that the organization is accountable for meeting objectives.
- Ensure that data is analyzed and reported efficiently.
- Use data to drive decision-making and improvements.
Leaders' commitment is the engine of a quality culture. Therefore, leaders must be clearly visible and firm in their support for quality improvement. This means:
- Proactively provide all the necessary resources to sustain the culture of quality.
- Clearly articulate the vision and values of the company.
- Recognize efforts to improve quality with a reward system.
- Staff must be trained to incorporate quality improvements into their daily work. This means supporting change and facing tradition..
- Employees must be confident of making quality improvements related to their roles.
- There must be open and honest communication at all levels.
- Employees must be able to evaluate their own performance.
- Customer needs and values are critical to decision-making and day-to-day operations.
- Employees must perceive that the organization is truly customer-oriented.
- The company must be seen from the outside that it is focused on the customer, in the sense that it not only meets their expectations, but usually exceeds them.
All staff must understand why quality is important and work together to solve problems. This means:
- Teams should meet routinely to exchange ideas, implement quality improvement projects, and share lessons learned.
- Project teams charged with improving quality should be made up of capable people.
The organization should never be happy with its operational performance, but should constantly strive to be better.
Employees should routinely use quality improvement tools and methods to solve problems and deliver improvements.
Developing a culture of quality requires sustainable habits that provide a platform for long-term change.
Change is only possible when leaders participate at all levels, consistently showing quality principles in action. This means that leaders must:
- Make frequent and highly visible appearances on the plant floor.
- Be curious and participate without prejudice in conversations about quality.
- Roll up your sleeves to help out when needed.
- Avoid actions that put cost, production, or schedule above quality. If quality is said to be the top priority, but management indicates otherwise, credibility is lost.
Immature quality cultures isolate quality, relegating it only to clerical work. Mature companies involve cross-functional teams in quality improvements, recognizing that quality impacts all areas of the business..
A good example is implementing a layered process auditing program. This involves frequently checking high-risk processes, avoiding defects through multiple layers of verification..
Performing at all levels and departments, these audits also provide a structured framework to hold everyone accountable for quality..
Not everyone will be excited about quality or doing extra activities. However, leaders will find ways to energize staff and get them involved. The strategies are:
Instead of expressing how quality stimulates savings, one must take advantage of the competitive nature of people.
For example, talking about baffling the competition, or about preventing the company from failing to launch a product.
Everyone should know their role in quality improvement. Likewise, they need to see the results.
Monthly management reports are a key tool to show staff that their work has a measurable impact.
Demand a proactive approach aimed at preventing problems, rather than putting out fires.
This is made difficult when quality people only perform inspections of already damaged products. A culture of quality also analyzes the previous processes.
Checking the areas linked to quality problems encourages the standardization of the process and reduces variations. Thus, this consistency is a hallmark of the quality culture..
Time and resources must be invested in proactive reviews and measurements. Beyond just looking at the costs of a failure, organizations must develop indicators that provide early warning of problems.
When leading indicators are seen to be deviating, action can be taken before customers are affected.
Businesses should not walk away from trouble. Finding them before they leave the plant is much better than having the customer discover them. This means:
If you lose control, people will simply hide the problems and not express them.
When leaders participate in audits, they show a commitment to quality at the highest level. This inculcates people to open up with their own observations and suggestions for improvement..
When someone identifies a problem, it should be followed up with timely corrective action. Otherwise, people will have no interest in sharing it..
Companies that treat quality as a cost rather than an investment, watch the pennies while losing a lot of money.
Mature quality cultures give your work teams the time and budget to undertake quality improvement projects.
Mature companies reward these successes with recognition and even monetary incentives..
When employees have the initiative to invest their energy in these projects, it can be ensured that the quality culture is working..
Quality culture refers to the awareness, commitment, attitude and behavior of the entire organization regarding quality. Corporate leadership must communicate effectively and, most importantly, demonstrate that quality is an inherent value of the organization.
This is the case of the Toyota company, the classic example of a quality culture. Everyone in the organization accepted their responsibility for quality. This was communicated and demonstrated at all levels of the organization..
However, in the 1990s the objectives of the company changed. His number one priority became growth. His new goal: to become the largest automotive company in the world.
This change meant that employees did not focus on quality as before, and defects were not detected or reported, which ultimately resulted in the recall of 9 million vehicles in 2009, which cost billions of dollars..
Toyota's culture of growth replaced quality in the first place, and therefore the culture of continuous improvement.
However, Toyota rectified and is not alone in its fight for a quality culture. In today's economy, everyone is expected to do more with less, which may seem diametrically opposed to what a quality culture should be, but it is not..
Organizations that put quality first, by putting the customer first and striving for continuous improvement, will be able to do more with less while delivering quality..
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