Many "Total Quality" initiatives have had disappointing
results. There have been several reasons for this. First, improvement
projects were begun with objectives that were either vague or
uninteresting to upper management. Second, deadlines were either
unclear or nonexistent. Third, managers were told they had to
change their entire approach to management.
Quick Start, Quick Results Total Quality has achieved dramatic
results by avoiding these common pitfalls. One key innovation
is to set a hard deadline for 15-minute briefings to senior executives
90 days after the start of the projects. Another key innovation
is the selection of projects and participants by the executive
team using a decision matrix analysis based on diagnostic interviews
(the first block in the above figure) with a diagonal slice of
the organization. The diagnostic interviews help ensure that the
projects address issues that are seen as important by people in
all parts of the organization. The decision matrices help ensure
a genuine consensus among the executive team, not merely pro forma
agreement that may disappear at first sight of one of the organizational
crises that often seem to occur in real organizations. The projects
are conducted by leading innovators in the organization who receive
training on tools for problem analysis and quantitative problem
solving "just in time" to be used in the projects. The
project teams also receive coaching from external consultants
experienced with similar projects in other organizations. The
15-minute limit for presentations force the project teams to be
clear and succinct in their thinking and their recommendations.
In addition to solid solutions to long-standing and otherwise
intractable problems, the organization gets people who are trained
in new tools that can be used to attack other problems. The experience
gained by participants in these projects increases the overall
ability of the organization to solve problems manage its environment
more proactively in the future.
For more information, call (408)294-5779, fax: (408)294-2343,
or e-mail: sgraves@prodsyse.com
and ask for a free copy of "Quick Start, Quick Results Total
Quality" by Charles A. Cox, Spencer B. Graves, Susanne Morris,
and Alejandro Bolaños (ch. 4 in J.
S. Ahluwalia, ed., Total Quality Management, Tata McGraw-Hill,
1997, pp. 35-45).
Other Productive Systems Engineering programs: Product Development,
Designed Experiments (Design of Experiments,
DoE or DOX), Reliability Experimentation,
Tolerancing, Statistical Process Control
(SPC); Fiber Optic Communication/Transmission Systems
(FOCS or FOTS); Control and Monitoring
(RMM); Electronics (Theory & Application);
Production Line Assembly for Technicians
(Assembly).