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In Reply to Parent Post by salhebsi
Wes Bucey
This is actually an assignment. I have to find the link between Quality and Policy and what effects does Quality have on Policy. Theoritical information/review and I have to prove it by using a senario
Little information is available on this, I have read QPD (Hoshin Kanri) books, looked in Journals, searched here in the forum but without any luck
Any further help in this
Thanks for ur reply
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OK - part of the confusion you face is what you (and your instructor) mean by "Quality."
Do you mean the generic term we apply to EVERYTHING - the quality of a product or service, a specific department within an organization, the public concept of quality, a numerical goal (six sigma, zero defects, etc.), the ethos which all members of the organization share?
In general, the Policy and the Quality Management System required to implement it are based on the organization's idea of what will be necessary to attract and keep customers for the product or service it provides. The challenge is to actually follow through on many of the high-sounding and "altruistic" policies the organization proclaimed by instilling procedures and processes within the organization to achieve those stated goals.
Sadly, many organizations are like mentally challenged beauty queens who proclaim their goal in life is to
"achieve world peace, eliminate hunger, and save the environment," but who haven't a clue about the first step they will take to achieve any of those things.
Let's revisit your questions with my initial concept of what you and your instructor SHOULD mean by "quality."
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(1)What is relation between Quality and Policy?
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Using "quality of a product or service" as the definition, then Policy must contain concrete, achievable goals backed by the commitment of top management to achieve those goals by allocating manpower, budget, training and all other resources to actually achieve those goals. The Policy must be backed up with a workable plan to achieve those goals and a commitment of funds and resources to implement the plan.
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(2)How does quality play any role in transforming the policy effectively?
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Using the definition of quality in #1, this is a meaningless question. If we change the definition to a "quality department," then continual feedback from the quality department about the evaluation of how well the quality plan is working MAY influence a change or modification in the policy. Organizations typically have an
internal audit process in place to provide this evaluation of how well the plan is working for the top management which then makes a decision whether to maintain status quo or initiate a change.
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(3)what are the factors that you can conceptualize to ensure quality in policy deployment without which the effect of policy is minimum and thus issues with achieving corporate objectives.
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This is kind of a strangled syntax and is difficult to parse accurately. I think you really are asking,
"What are the checks and balances the organization should use to assure the policy achieves its goals without being viewed as an 'empty and shallow promise which the organization did not intend to keep'?"
The factors of an effective quality policy (which is consistent with and goes toward achieving the business goals of the organization) are simple:
- The policy is achievable - not pie-in-the-sky rhetoric dreamed up or copied from someone else.
- The top management will commit time, effort, manpwer, and resources to implement and maintain the policy - NOT (as some have done) stop with making a pretty plaque containing the policy to hang in the lobby or CEO's office.
- The top management will communicate to all employees, customers, and suppliers not only the policy, but will demonstrate commitment to it by providing training, funds, and resources to implement and maintain that policy.
- The top management will implement a continual internal audit system to provide feedback on the implementation and to suggest changes to maintain or improve the implementation.
- The top management will review the findings and suggestions of the internal audit on a regular basis and make decisions whether to act on the suggestions or provide for further study to enable the top management to make such a decision.