Quality Trilogy

The Quality Trilogy Universal approach to managing for quality Ibrahim tag el din

Proud to be MUSLIM

The Quality Trilogy Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3 I.

THE QUALITY PLANNING SOLUTION ..................................................................................... 5 1.

ESTABLISH THE PROJECT .................................................................................................. 7

2.

IDENTIFY THE CUSTOMERS .............................................................................................. 7

3.

DISCOVER CUSTOMER NEEDS .......................................................................................... 7

4.

DEVELOP PRODUCT ......................................................................................................... 8

5.

DEVELOP PROCESS........................................................................................................... 9

6.

DEVELOP PROCESS CONTROLS/ TRANSFER TO OPERATIONS .......................................... 11

II.

“Quality control” ............................................................................................................... 12 1.

The Feedback Loop ........................................................................................................ 13

2.

THE ELEMENTS OF THE FEEDBACK LOOP ........................................................................ 14

3.

The PDCA Cycle.............................................................................................................. 15

4.

THE PYRAMID OF CONTROL ........................................................................................... 16

III.

Quality improvement:.................................................................................................... 17

Two Kinds of Beneficial Change. ............................................................................................ 17 1)

Structured Product Development............................................................................... 17

2)

Unstructured Reduction of Chronic Waste. ................................................................ 18

Table of figures Figure 1 ....................................................................................................................................... 4 Figure 2 ....................................................................................................................................... 5 Figure 3 ..................................................................................................................................... 10 Figure 4 ..................................................................................................................................... 12 Figure 5 ..................................................................................................................................... 13 Figure 6 ..................................................................................................................................... 14 Figure 7 ..................................................................................................................................... 15 Figure 8 ..................................................................................................................................... 16

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The Quality Trilogy

The Quality Trilogy: A Universal Approach to Managing for Quality Introduction Quality planning

Quality control

Quality improvement

Establish quality goals Identify who the customers are

Evaluate actual performance Compare actual performance with quality goals Act on the difference

Prove the need

Determine the needs of the customers Develop product features that respond to customers’ needs Develop processes able to produce the product features

Establish process controls; transfer the plans to the operating forces

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Establish the infrastructure Identify the improvement projects Establish project teams

Provide the teams with resources, training, and motivation to: Diagnose the causes Stimulate remedies Establish controls to hold the gains

The Quality Trilogy

Figure 1

Quality Improvement: The Industrial Revolution provided a climate favorable for continuous quality improvement through product and process development. For example, progressive improvements in the design of steam engines increased their thermal efficiency from 0.5 percent in 1718 to 23.0 percent in 1906 (Singer et al. 1958, vol. IV). Inventors and entrepreneurs emerged to lead many countries into the new world of technology and industrialization. In due course, some companies created internal sources of inventors—research laboratories to carry out product and process development. Some created market research departments to carry out the functions of entrepreneurship.

“Quality planning,” is a structured process for developing products (both goods and services) that ensures that customer needs are met by the final result.

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The Quality Trilogy

I.

THE QUALITY PLANNING SOLUTION

Quality planning provides the process, methods, tools, and techniques for closing each of these component gaps and thereby ensuring that the final quality gap is at a minimum. Figure 3.2 summarizes at a high level the basic steps of quality planning. The remainder of this section will provide the details and examples for each of these steps. The first step, establish the project, provides the clear goals, direction, and infrastructure required if the constituent quality gaps are to be closed. The next step provides for systematic identification of all the customers. It is impossible to close the understanding gap if there is the least bit of uncertainty, fuzziness, or ignorance about who all the customers are. The discovery of customer needs in the third step provides the full and complete understanding required for a successful product design to meet those needs. It also evaluates customer perceptions explicitly so that the final perception gap can be avoided.

Figure 2

The develop product step uses both quality planning tools and the technology of the particular industry to create a design that is effective in meeting the customer needs, thereby closing the design gap. The process gap is closed in the next step, develop process.

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The Quality Trilogy Quality planning techniques ensure that the process is capable of delivering the product as it was designed, consistently, time after time. Finally, the operations gap is closed by developing process controls that keep the process operating at its full capability. Successful elimination of the operations gap also depends on an effective transfer of the plans to the operating forces. A strong transfer plan, executed well, will provide operations with all the processes, techniques, materials, equipment, skills, and so on to delight customers on a continuing basis.

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The Quality Trilogy 1. ESTABLISH THE PROJECT • Identify which projects are required to fulfill the organization’s strategy. • Prepare a mission statement for each project. • Establish a team to carry out the project. • Plan the project.

2. IDENTIFY THE CUSTOMERS This step may seem unnecessary; of course, the planners and designers know who their customers are: the driver of the automobile, the depositor in the bank account, the patient who takes the medication. But these are not the only customers—not even necessarily the most important customers. Customers comprise an entire cast of characters that needs to be understood fully. Generally, there are two primary groups of customers: the external customers—those outside the producing organization; and the internal customers—those inside the producing organization.

3. DISCOVER CUSTOMER NEEDS The third step of quality planning is to discover the needs of both internal and external customers for the product. Some of the key activities required for effective discovery of customer needs include • • • • •

Plan to collect customers’ needs. Collect a list of customers’ needs in their language. Analyze and prioritize customers’ needs. Translate their needs into “our” language. Establish units of measurement and sensors.

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The Quality Trilogy 4. DEVELOP PRODUCT Once the customers and their needs are fully understood, we are ready to design the product that will meet those needs best. Product development is not a new function for a company. Most companies have some process for designing and bringing new products to market. In this step of the quality planning process, we will focus on the role of quality in product development and how that role combines with the technical aspects of development and design appropriate for a particular industry. Within product development, product design is a creative process based largely on technological or functional expertise. The designers of products traditionally have been engineers, systems analysts, operating managers, and many other professionals. In the quality arena, designers can include any whose experience, position, and expertise can contribute to the design process. The outputs of product design are detailed designs, drawings, models, procedures, specifications, and so on. The overall quality objectives for this step are two: 1. Determine which product features and goals will provide the optimal benefit for the customer. 2. Identify what is needed so that the designs can be delivered without deficiencies.

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The Quality Trilogy 5. DEVELOP PROCESS Once the product is developed, it is necessary to determine the means by which the product will be created and delivered on a continuing basis. These means are, collectively, the “process.” “Process development” is the set of activities for defining the specific means to be used by operating personnel for meeting product quality goals. Some related concepts include: Sub processes: Large processes may be decomposed into these smaller units for both the development and operation of the process. Activities: The steps in a process or sub process. Tasks: The detailed step-by-step description for execution of an activity. In order for a process to be effective, it must be goal oriented, with specific measurable outcomes; systematic, with the sequence of activities and tasks fully and clearly defined and all inputs and outputs fully specified; and capable, i.e., able to meet product quality goals under operating conditions and legitimate, with clear authority and accountability for its operation. The eleven major activities involved in developing a process are: 1. Review product goals. 2. Identify operating conditions. 3. Collect known information on alternate processes. 4. Select general process design. 5. Identify process features and goals. 6. Identify detailed process features and goals. 7. Design for critical factors and human error. 8. Optimize process features and goals. 9. Establish process capability. 10. Set and publish final process features and goals. 11. Set and publish final process design.

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The Quality Trilogy

Figure 3

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The Quality Trilogy 6. DEVELOP PROCESS CONTROLS/ TRANSFER TO OPERATIONS In this step, planners develop controls for the processes, arrange to transfer the entire product plan to operational forces, and validate the implementation of the transfer. There are seven major activities in this step: 1. Identify controls needed. 2. Design feedback loop. 3. Optimize self-control and self-inspection. 4. Establish audit. 5. Demonstrate process capability and controllability. 6. Plan for transfer to operations. 7. Implement plan and validate transfer.

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The Quality Trilogy

II.

“Quality control”

is a universal managerial process for conducting operations so as to provide stability—to prevent adverse change and to “maintain the status quo.” To maintain stability, the quality control process evaluates actual performance, compares actual performance to goals, and takes action on the difference. In Figure 4.2 the input is operating process features developed to produce the product features required to meet customer needs. The output consists of a system of product and process controls which can provide stability to the operating process.

Figure 4

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The Quality Trilogy 1. The Feedback Loop

Figure 5

1. A sensor is “plugged in” to evaluate the actual quality of the control subject—the product or process feature in question. The performance of a process may be determined directly by evaluation of the process feature, or indirectly by evaluation of the product feature—the product “tells” on the process. 2. The sensor reports the performance to an umpire. 3. The umpire also receives information on what is the quality goal or standard. 4. The umpire compares actual performance to standard. If the difference is too great, the umpire energizes an actuator. 5. The actuator stimulates the process (whether human or technological) to change the performance so as to bring quality into line with the quality goal. 6. The process responds by restoring conformance.

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The Quality Trilogy 2. THE ELEMENTS OF THE FEEDBACK LOOP The feedback loop is a universal. It is fundamental to any problem in quality control. It applies to all types of operations, whether in service industries or manufacturing industries, whether for profit or not. It applies to all levels in the hierarchy, from the chief executive officer to the work force, inclusive. However, there is wide variation in the nature of the elements of the feedback loop. In Figure 4.5 a simple flowchart is shown describing the quality control process with the simple universal feedback loop imbedded.

Figure 6

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The Quality Trilogy 3. The PDCA Cycle. There are many ways of dividing the feedback loop into elements and steps. Some of them employ more than six elements; others employ fewer than six. A popular example of the latter is the so-called PDCA cycle (also the Deming wheel) as shown in Figure 4.6. Deming (1986) referred to this as the Shewhart cycle, which is the name many still use when describing this version of the feedback loop.

Figure 7

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The Quality Trilogy 4. THE PYRAMID OF CONTROL Control subjects run to large numbers, but the number of “things” to be controlled is far larger. These things include the published catalogs and price lists sent out, multiplied by the number of items in each; the sales made, multiplied by the number of items in each sale; the units of product produced, multiplied by the associated numbers of quality features; and so on for the numbers of items associated with employee relations, supplier relations, cost control, inventory control, product and process development, etc. A study in one small company employing about 350 people found that there were over a billion things to be controlled (Juran 1964, pp. 181– 182). There is no possibility for upper managers to control huge numbers of control subjects. Instead, they divide up the work of control, using a plan of delegation somewhat as depicted in Figure 4.7. This division of work establishes three areas of responsibility for control: control by nonhuman means, control by the work force, and control by the managerial hierarchy.

Figure 8

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The Quality Trilogy

III. Quality improvement: As used here, “improvement” means “the organized creation of beneficial change.

Two Kinds of Beneficial Change. • Product features: These can increase customer satisfaction. To the producing company, they are income-oriented. • Freedom from deficiencies: These can create customer dissatisfaction and chronic waste. To the producing company, they are cost-oriented. 1) Structured Product Development. Many companies maintain an organized approach for evolving new models of products, year after year. Under this organized approach: • Product development projects are a part of the business plan. • A New Products Committee maintains business surveillance over these projects. • Full-time product and process development departments are equipped with personnel, laboratories, and other resources to carry out the technological work. • There is clear responsibility for carrying out the essential technological work. • A structured procedure is used to progress the new developments through the functional departments. • The continuing existence of this structure favors new product development on a year-to-year basis.

It is not sufficient to ensure good results

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The Quality Trilogy 2) Unstructured Reduction of Chronic Waste. In most companies, the urge to reduce chronic waste has been much lower than the urge to increase sales. As a result: • The business plan has not included goals for reduction of chronic waste. • Responsibility for such quality improvement has been vague. It has been left to volunteers to initiate action. • The needed resources have not been provided, since such improvement has not been a part of the business plan.

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The Quality Trilogy

References
Joseph M. Juran and A. Blanton Godfrey. JURAN’S QUALITY HANDBOOK (5th edition). McGraw-Hill. 1998.

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