Session C
Practical steps to
quality

1   Introduction

‘What does “making quality certain” mean? “Getting people to do better all the worthwhile things they ought to be doing anyway” is not a bad definition.’

– Philip Crosby, Quality is Still Free

As we’ve discussed, quality improvement and development only comes about through total commitment and a great deal of hard work. But ‘one big push’ won’t be enough. You have to keep up the effort and enthusiasm all the time, over and over again.

We’ve agreed that quality has to be recognized as an organization-wide problem. In this last session, we’ll look at some practical steps that team leaders can take, while playing their part in the overall scheme of things. But before we do that, we should compare two different approaches to quality improvement.

2   Finding ways to improve quality

As a first line manager, you will no doubt be expected to comply with the systems that exist within your own organization. Let’s look briefly at the possible approaches to the development of quality performance that may be adopted.

2.1    Approaches to quality improvement

In the book The Fundamentals of Quality Management, Dennis F. Kehoe (Chapman & Hall, 1996) contrasts the ‘innovation approach’, often adopted by Western companies, and the ‘continuous improvement approach’, promoted by the Japanese.

We have already discussed continuous improvement, or kaizen.

Kaizen is characterized by:

   a large number of detailed improvements;

   over a long period of time;

   involving teams throughout the organization.

The innovation approach involves:

   a few large-scale improvements;

   at infrequent intervals;

   initiated by management.

Which is the right way? Dennis F. Kehoe suggests that:

‘In reality the real quality development challenge is not how to choose between improvement- or innovation-based strategies, but how to combine the benefits of both approaches to enhance business performance. Long-term competitive advantage is achieved through the application of both improvement and innovation … Most companies therefore need to understand and combine both the techniques …’

That seems reasonable. But to improve the quality of a product or service, it’s first necessary to understand what the problems are.

2.2    Do you know where the problem lies?

Surely, it is true to say that most organizations know where their quality problems exist. If you are making a product, such as garden gnomes, electric saws, or skin cream, or else providing a service, such as hairdressing, newspaper delivery, or financial consultancy, you would obviously know what quality problems you have. Or would you?

Activity 20

Try to think of two reasons why a product or service supplier might not be aware of its quality problems.

There are several possible reasons. An organization might not:

So, before it can solve its quality problems, an organization has to be able to identify them. How can this be done?

One way is to make use of the knowledge and skills of the people who are closest to the work, that is, first line managers and their teams. Time and again, it has been shown that those who perform the work – operators, technicians, clerks, warehouse staff, sales assistants and others who function ‘at the work-face’ – are the once best able to identify quality problems. First line managers are therefore well placed to report, record and (quite often) help the team to rectify these problems. More senior managers must keep the larger picture in mind, and often have insufficient knowledge of the detail to identify quality problems, with little time to learn it.

In recognizing this fact, many organizations have introduced team-based quality improvement programmes.

3   Working as a team

One team-based approach is quality improvement groups.

3.1    Quality improvement groups

These became popular in this country in the early 1980s. The term originally used was quality circles. The concept – continuous improvement through teamwork – is a basic component of total quality management, and this is only one way that it may be implemented.

Quality improvement groups are also sometimes called quality action groups. Their purpose is to encourage active employee participation in solving quality problems.

   A typical quality improvement team is a group of around six people from the same workplace who meet regularly – say around an hour a week. The team leader is often a front line manager.

   People belonging to quality improvement teams are volunteers. There can be no question of instructing people to join.

  The team members decide which problems they will tackle. This is important, because each problem should be one the members have to face in their working lives – ones they are aware of and can get information about.

   They solve their own problems wherever possible. If more resources are needed, they may call upon others in the organization to help.

It has to be said that implementing the idea is not without difficulties.

Activity 21

From what you know about quality improvement teams, can you think of any reason why they may not work as well as expected? Jot down two reasons, if you can.

Even if you have no direct personal experience of quality improvement teams, you should still be able to make some good guesses in answer to this question, based on what you’ve learned so far from this workbook. Think for a few minutes about what happens when people sit down together to try to solve problems – especially people who aren’t used to doing this kind of thinking. Bear in mind the kind of support they need and the difficulties they face.

The subject of roles in teambuilding is covered in the Super Series workbook Building the Team.

There may be a number of reasons why quality improvement teams do not work as well as expected, including the following.

Difficulty	Comment
The team does not receive enough support or recognition from management: group can hope to achieve a great deal if it is being ignored.	This is especially true of people with no work experience of group problem solving.
There is insufficient training of team members, which is likely to prevent them being able to get to grips with the problems they are trying to solve.	Training is needed in how to approach the task, how to collect evidence, how to analyse data, how to present results, and so on.
There is poor communication between the circle and management, so that nobody is quite sure what the circle is up to.	As we have already discussed, communication is a key factor in improving quality. It’s surprising how often employees will assume that their manager knows everything that goes on!
The team tries to solve problems which they have insufficient information about, and perhaps jump to conclusions rather than taking the time and trouble to find this information.	Sometimes the ‘instinctive’ or obvious reaction is the most effective. A group may be able to solve some problems without too much effort. It may then assume – mistakenly – that any problem can be solved in this fashion.
Clashes of personality occur within the team, including perhaps some people trying to dominate the discussions, while others are ignored.	This is a difficult one, requiring considerable managerial skills on behalf of the team leader. Volunteer teams do not always attract the ideal mixture of personalities and talents, so that all the required team roles are not covered.
Team members are not given the time to do the necessary work in collecting and analysing data.	It is often wrongly assumed that a ‘once a week’ session is all that’s needed, after which everyone can go back to work. But when the data isn’t to hand, someone has to be set to work actively seeking it out.
The team leader is uncommitted, too inexperienced, or simply incompetent.	Training for the leader may be needed, too.
Teams may tackle problems that are too large for them to deal with adequately.	Over-ambition is a common failing.
The team does not have a suitable place to meet.	This is a basic error. It stems from lack of management support.

3.2    How quality improvement teams work

The fundamental idea of quality improvement teams is sound: that of getting employees involved in solving their own quality problems. But making quality improvement teams work in practice needs commitment and good management.

The starting point for quality improvement team activities is to identify and select a problem for the team to tackle. Problems may be brought to the attention of the circle in a number of ways, but they should be ones which members can become involved in and get information about.

The team has then to decide on ways of tackling the problem. The technique of brainstorming may be used.

The essential steps of a brainstorming session are as follows.

   Members meet in a relaxed atmosphere, away from interruptions.

   The subject is introduced by the leader, and then anyone can make any suggestion, however far-fetched, as a solution to the problem.

   No attempt is made to criticize or analyse the ideas until they’ve all been written down.

Once the quality improvement team has decided on an approach to a problem, there will probably be a need to collect information about it. Often, one person is given the task of fact-finding and analysis of the problem.

When the member reports back to the circle, the ideas and results are discussed. The solution may already be apparent. If it isn’t, the circle may decide to do further work or perhaps to bring in others to help. If a solution has been found, it is presented to management for approval.

Clearly, quality improvement teams can form a useful function in an organization’s overall quality programme, although only a broad outline of the subject has been given in this section.

There is certainly no harm in getting your team involved in talking about quality and about the problems they face, and we will discuss ways of doing this next.

You may want to bear in mind, however, that a formal quality improvement team shouldn’t be set up in isolation. To be fully effective, it needs the full commitment and backing of management. You may think it advisable to discuss the idea with your manager first.

4   Getting your team to work for quality

Quality development and improvement entails:

   Systems; to remind you, a quality system is defined as: the organizational structure, responsibilities, procedures, processes and resources for implementing quality management.

   Techniques, such as data collection and analysis, and statistical process control, which are very important, although we will not discuss them in this workbook.

   People.

As a manager, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that, of these three ‘keystones of quality’, it is people that are the most difficult to manage, and yet offer the greatest potential for success.

4.1    Ishikawa’s seven tools and techniques

1   Ishikawa, Cause and Effect or ‘Fishbone’ Diagram
A method for analysing what causes particular patterns of performance and used in an improvement programme where performance is at variance with desired outcomes. The appearance of the diagram has given the method its more common name of a ‘fishbone’. In its original format the four main ‘bones’ were labelled:

1 Workers
2 Materials
3 Inspection
4 Tools

For service organizations, these four can be altered to:

1 People
2 Resources (equipment and materials)
3 Performance monitoring
4 Systems (roles, organization and procedures)

The method described here allows a diagram to be built up in real time. An alternative approach Cause Enumeration is to generate the causes by brainstorming and then to sort them, creating a diagram afterwards.

STEP 1    Agree the problem whose cause is to be analysed. Illustrate this by arrowing a box containing the name of this problem.

STEP 2    Add the four main ‘bones’, labelled People, Systems, etc. or use an alternative set of categories which appear more appropriate.

STEP 3    Identify the major causes of the problem by brainstorming, locating each as a spur off the four main bones as appropriate.

STEP 4    Where there is a sub-cause of one of these already identified (e.g.: if ‘lack of experience’ is caused by a high employee turnover) this is shown by this sub-cause being shown as an off-shoot of the ‘bone’, as shown in the diagram.

If brainstorming is not generating much in the way of ideas, two other techniques can help:

   Chronological analysis – work back from present symptoms to identify predetermining causes by asking ‘what happens before that?’

   Repetitive Why? analysis – from the most fundamental causal factor ask ‘why?’ (is it a problem/what caused that?); keep on repeating the question for each answer until the ultimate cause is revealed.

The resulting diagram shows the sequence of causes and their effects which ultimately leads to the problem which is the topic of concern. Knowing this, the group using the fishbone diagram to analyse the problem are in a far better position to work out ideas for changing the situation.

An Ishikawa (or cause and effect or fishbone) diagram

2   Process Flow Charting
The Process Flow chart enables a sequence of events which combine to produce a process to be represented visually. The activity of drawing a PFC is itself useful in ensuring all participants in a quality improvement group have the perception of the process, either of an existing one or a newly devised process which has resulted from the creative solving of a problem. There are a few simple symbols which are joined together to produce the PFC; by using these symbols it is fairly easy for a novice to produce a usable flow chart to help understand the process under discussion.

3   Check or Tally Charts
These are the simplest method for recording when activities or events occur. A simple numerical record will indicate the scale of a problem or event. No improvement exercise should start without a clear picture of the scale of an activity and an associated problem. A simple gate count kept over a period of time can help to supply this.

4   Histograms
These are simple bar charts to illustrate the scale of a problem. A tally count of the different faults reported by customers can be charted (easy enough with modern spreadsheets), converting data from numbers to a simple graphic, making patterns obvious.

5   Pareto Charts
Pareto [1848–1923] was an Italian engineer turned economist who observed that the distribution of income and wealth was uneven; this is usually popularized as the 80:20 rule, that 80% of the population own/earn 20% of the wealth/income, and vice versa.

A Pareto Chart is a technique for analysing and presenting data in such a way that the areas to which priority attention should be addressed are easily identified. It combines a bar chart of the causes or causes of defective performance (or a similar problem) to be combined with a cumulative percentage chart, showing the proportion of all defectives attributed to each case/cause. This enables the high incidence cases/causes to be addressed, which are likely to be responsible for a substantial proportion of cases, in turn.

6   Scatter diagrams
An alternative to histograms for presenting numerical data is the scatter diagram. This is a simple graph to illustrate any relationship between two variables. (A variable is any aspect of the process or the product which can vary.) For example, there may be a belief that the temperature in the factory or office affects quality. If the temperature is measured every hour and plotted on one axis, against the number of faults or rejects during that hour on the other axis, any pattern will show up by the way the points on the graph are scattered.

7   Control (Run) Charts
Control Charts (or Run Charts) are a way of recording and presenting data about performance of an operation or the characteristics of a product. Since production will always show variation, because no process can produce absolutely the same thing consistently, the goal of quality control is to minimize the variation. Control charts are based on samples of production being taken at intervals and particular aspects of them measured. The mean (average) of the sample is plotted on the chart. If this is within the allowable limits, then the process is said to be in control.

The statistical basis for control charts is that the pattern of variation will normally be within certain limits, what is called a normal distribution. Lines on the chart show if the process is under control or not, usually with a warning line (to show it is getting close to being out of control) as well.

Activity 22

Does your organization use any of these tools and techniques of quality improvement?

   If so, which ones?

   Do you know how to use them?

   If not, ask if you can learn from someone who does, so that you can use them with your team.

If your organization doesn’t use any of these tools and techniques, you may find it useful to explore some of the extensions listed.

4.2    Work conditions

For some kinds of work, quality and health and safety may go together. If your team is handling food, then you will need to ensure that appropriate levels of hygiene are met consistently. Zero defects in food preparation may include the goal of zero contamination by unhealthy bacteria; to achieve this, the work environment must be kept immaculately clean.

In other jobs, achieving the right work conditions for quality may be a matter of carrying out activities such as checking on the ambient temperature, or insisting that the work area be kept clean and tidy. People will work at less than their full potential if they:

   are too hot or too cold;

   have too little light;

   suffer draughts or noise;

   are expected to work in dirty or cluttered conditions;

   must use inappropriate tools or materials;

   have outdated equipment, incapable of producing work of the required standard;

   get too many interruptions;

   are required to follow instructions or procedures that are incorrect or difficult to follow.

Activity 23

Give two examples of the kind of information your team members need, in order to meet their responsibilities for maintaining healthy, safe and productive work conditions.

What steps do you plan to take to keep them better informed in this respect?

What kind of training do your team members need to receive to ensure that they will meet quality standards or goals in the conditions under which they have to work?

What steps do you intend to take to ensure this training is appropriate and sufficient?

Explain the steps you have taken, or intend to take, to ensure that team members are given every opportunity to make recommendations for improving work conditions.

Explain how you intend to take actions to improve work conditions, so that they meet the requirements of your organization, comply with the law, and are more conducive to the performance of high quality work.

Provide an example (or a copy of an actual document in your portfolio), of your record-keeping with regard to work conditions, especially any that relate to organizational or legal requirements.

4.3    Recommending improvements to quality-related activities

When you or your team identify a quality problem, you may be in a position to solve it straight away. If you spot a member of your team using the wrong tool, talking to a customer in an inappropriate manner, or failing to follow an agreed procedure, you may be able to take immediate corrective action.

In other cases, perhaps where a whole batch of work is found not to be up to standard, the steps to put it right may take longer, but you may still be able to contain the problem within your own work area.

But sometimes, first line managers don’t have the authority and/or the resources to solve quality problems. Where there is a faulty design or process, or a matter that affects other teams, your best course of action may be to make a recommendation to others. You may need to pass your recommendations to:

   colleagues at the same level as yourself;

   higher-level managers;

   specialists; or perhaps to

   your team members.

Activity 24

This activity, together with Activity 23, may provide the basis of appropriate evidence for your S/NVQ portfolio. If you are intending to take this course of action, it might be better to write your answers on separate sheets of paper.

Give an example of a recommendation you have made, or intend to make, regarding improvements to quality.

Explain to what extent your recommendation is consistent with team objectives, and the values and policies of your organization.

List the other parts of the organization that your recommendations will impinge upon, and describe the ways in which each of them will be affected.

Is your recommendation presented in a clear manner, and in a form that is consistent with organizational procedures? Explain, briefly.

4.4    Empowering teams

Of course, you can’t be expected to come up with all the ideas. Your team members should be encouraged to make suggestions for quality improvements, too.

Activity 25

What actions can you or do you take to encourage suggestions from your team?

You might:

   simply ask them for their ideas, either about specific problems, or in general;

   show appreciation or reward them for good suggestions: some organizations have a graded system of rewards, and each serious idea is formally evaluated;

   set up some kind of competition.

Perhaps you agree that the best way to get people to do anything is to motivate them to do it – to get them in a frame of mind so that they want to do it. And you will motivate a team or a group if they feel that they own their own work and problems.

What does this concept of ownership mean? It is based on the premise that people are better motivated to work for themselves and something that is theirs, than for other people or other people’s ideas.

Many employees are made to feel that they are simply being paid to do a job, and that they are expected to do what they’re told, without discussion or argument. Where this is the case, they will, at best, do what is required of them. Typically, they will do the absolute minimum of work that they feel they can get away with.

But if they can be:

   given the opportunity to make many of their own decisions and set their own standards;

   persuaded to take a pride in their work because it is in their own interests to do so (as we have discussed, these benefits include greater job security, and potentially higher rewards in the longer term);

   shown ways to manage themselves as a team;

then they are much more likely to excel at what they do.

This approach naturally leads to the concept of empowerment. One way to describe empowerment is as follows:

A branch of one large organization improved quality and increased productivity by introducing the following steps.

   Rooms were added where people in teams could meet.

   Communication was improved between shifts, by holding thirty-minute meetings as one shift handed over to the next.

   All types of news was shared with staff – good news and bad.

   Self-managed teams of about a dozen people were set up.

   Multiskilling was encouraged, and a skill-based pay system set up.

   Pay progression depended on the views of peers, not superiors.

   Managers were called team leaders.

   Everyone wore the same uniform.

Empowerment is not a technique – it is a culture. As such, individual managers or team leaders cannot introduce the concept –it needs the full support of the organization. If you work where empowerment has been introduced, you will no doubt be aware of its benefits. If you don’t, you may want to talk over the idea with your colleagues, and find out more about it.

5   Zero defects programmes

The term ‘zero defects’ was coined by Philip Crosby, when he was a departmental quality manager employed by the Martin-Marietta Corporation in 1962, working on the Pershing missile programme. He writes:

‘It was during this time that I developed the concept of zero defects (ZD) because we could just not learn how to find everything that could be wrong in a weapons system. We had to prevent, not sort. … Later, when I was managing supplier quality, we were able to help the suppliers get us the right stuff, on time.’

Perhaps your own organization has used the ZD slogan, and you may have been involved in implementing a programme based on it. The key to zero defects is in prevention of errors, rather than their detection. Every individual and every team must learn never to pass on defective work.

A zero defects programme may entail the following steps.

   Identifying the organization’s quality problems.

   Agreeing quality goals: what is to be achieved, and setting clear targets against which progress can be measured.

   Devising means of motivating people to believe in the programme. This would almost certainly entail full employee participation: empowering teams and team members to ‘take ownership’ of the programme. The high ideals of zero defects must be introduced by management, and have their full commitment, but it is the employees who must be given the opportunity to make the programme their own. Simply sticking up ZD posters will achieve very little; it’s only when people start to talk about it and get enthusiastic about it that the programme will take off.

   Establishing formal, regular, simple procedures for reporting achievement of the targets.

   Organizing jobs in order to make the programme work.

   Encouraging a full and free flow of information.

Self-assessment 3

1 Match each term or phrase on the left with three of the items listed on the right.

A Continuous improvement _________________________ B The innovation approach to period of time quality improvement _________________________ C Quality improvement groups _________________________

a steps taken at infrequent intervals b teams of around six people c volunteers trying to improve quality d many actions taken over a long e initiated by management f people from the same workplace g involving teams throughout the organization h a large number of detailed improvements i large-scale improvements

2 List lshikawa’s seven tools and techniques of quality improvement.

3 List two difficulties that a quality improvement group might need to overcome.

4 Fill in the blanks in the following sentences with suitable words taken from the list below.

a Quality development and _________________ entails:

_______________________: The organizational ________________________, responsibilities, procedures, processes and _______________________ for implementing quality management.

   _______________________, such as data collection and analysis, and statistical process control;

   people.

b It is difficult to produce high __________________ in ____________________ work conditions.

c Teams are much more likely to ______________________ at what they do if they can be:

   given the ____________________ to make many of their own ____________________and set their own _______________________;

   persuaded to take a ___________________ in their work because it is in their own ___________________ to do so;

   shown ways to manage ______________________ as a team.

DECISIONS	EXCEL	IMPROVEMENT	INTERESTS
OPPORTUNITY	POOR	PRIDE	QUALITY
RESOURCES	STANDARDS	STRUCTURE	SYSTEMS
TECHNIQUES	THEMSELVES

5 The main aim of old-fashioned quality control was the detection of errors. What is the aim of a ‘zero defects’ programme?

Answers to these questions can be found on page 95.

6   Summary

   Continuous improvement involves a large number of small detailed improvements over a long period and involving teams. The innovation approach entails large-scale improvements, introduced by management at infrequent intervals. Both approaches have advantages.

   Organizations are seldom able to identify all their quality problems, for various reasons.

   Often, it is employees at the low end of the hierarchy who are able to identify what the real problems are.

   Quality improvement groups may consist of a small team of volunteers, who choose the problems they want to tackle.

   A number of difficulties may be faced by such groups, but these may be overcome through support and training.

   Quality development and improvement entails:

   systems: the organizational structure, responsibilities, procedures, processes and resources for implementing quality management;

   techniques, such as data collection and analysis, and statistical process control;

   people.

   Ishikawa’s seven tools and techniques of quality improvement can help you and your team resolve problems and improve performance.

   People will tend to work at less than their full potential if they suffer from poor quality work conditions, i.e. physical environment, materials, equipment, or working procedures.

   Team leaders are often expected to make clearly presented recommendations about quality, which are consistent with team objectives and organizational procedures.

   Empowerment means giving teams and individuals the power to make their own work decisions.

   A zero defects programme is based on the concept of prevention, rather than cure.