Methods of Improving Quality

Methods of Improving Quality

1. Total Quality Management

   • TQM is a philosophy, not a tool
   • A way of looking at a quality issue
   • Requires commitment from the whole organisation, not just the quality control department
   • The business considers quality in every part of the business process from
     • Design to
       • to
         • Sales
   • TQM is about building-in rather than inspecting-out.
   • Success of TQM depend on it being imbedded in the organisational culture

2. Quality Control

   • The traditional way to manage quality; based on inspection
   • Faulty products can slip through and can stop staff from producing the best quality as they'll instead focus on making products 'good enough' to pass checks
     • TQM is a superior approach
   • Quality control inspectors check output meets minimum acceptable values
     • Could be done through checking every item, every 1000th item etc.

3. Quality Assurance

   • Checks quality at every stage in production
   • A paper based system therefore encourages staff to tick boxes rather than care about customer experience

4. Improvement

   • Kaizen - continuous improvement
   • Customer expectations of quality are constantly changing therefore it's important staff always think of ways to improve their work