Top Management & Improvement Processes

D

D.Salman

Dear all,
How can top management participate in the promotion of improvement processes?
Regards,
 

Marc

Fully vaccinated are you?
Leader
Top management shows support by its actions. This might be a good topic for a discussion of what, specifically, top management can do to support improvement processes.

Is adequate time given for people to do effective correction investigations and actual corrective (not to mention preventive) actions? Are adequate resources available? Does top management show and interest, and if so, in what ways?

Coments from others?
 

John Broomfield

Leader
Super Moderator
Dear all,
How can top management participate in the promotion of improvement processes?
Regards,

Too many management systems exclude top management from training and from process ownership and improvement.

Ask the CEO to own the process for "investing in continual improvement".

Analyze and document this process with her or him as it is (do not create a work of fiction) so everyone understands what your company does or does not do to fulfill its improvement objectives:

  • set/renew objectives,
  • develop its system to fulfill those objectives,
  • monitor the achievement of objectives,
  • obtain customer feedback,
  • collect and analyze data,
  • take preventive action,
  • monitor and correct processes,
  • authorize the internal audit program,
  • remove root causes of problems
  • recognize employees for excellent performance
  • recognize problem solving teams and
  • review performance of the system <return to start>.

Ensure this process identifies the actions and interactions of the senior members of the management team. Have the CEO issue the procedure as part of the system for use and improvement by the leadership team.
 

John Broomfield

Leader
Super Moderator
John,

And why do you think that is? :notme:

Stijloor.

I suppose the reasons are many including:

  1. The narrow view of quality that is common
  2. The system and audit not seen as tools for helping people do better work
  3. Business schools not enhancing understanding of systems
  4. Metrics not causing actions to eliminate avoidable costs
  5. Quality professionals not communicating in business terms
  6. Leaders delegating responsibility instead of authority for quality
  7. Failure to link products to their processes and to the system
  8. Lack of profound knowledge (per Deming)
  9. Thinking ISO 9001 is about certification
  10. Leaders not understanding the importance of requirements
  11. Leaders not monitoring process conformity or engaging process teams
  12. Quality seen as a cost instead of an investment
  13. Departmental interests over-ruling process requirements
  14. Wanting to appear useful, shyness or fear

Too many Quality Managers act as if they think quality is their responsibility. They try and do it alone. They have earned insufficient authority to advise management on their system and have a fuzzy understanding of QA.

QA is promised and delivered as a result of PDCA* and therefore Quality Managers need to work as System Managers with some of the CEO's authority to engage all colleagues in the leadership and delivery of quality.

*thereby providing confidence that requirements will be met"

:horse:
 
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J

JaneB

Top management shows support by its actions. This might be a good topic for a discussion of what, specifically, top management can do to support improvement processes.

Is adequate time given for people to do effective correction investigations and actual corrective (not to mention preventive) actions? Are adequate resources available? Does top management show and interest, and if so, in what ways?

Coments from others?
Yes I agree that actions show support (and speak louder than mere words, to complete the saying).

I've seen organisations where it did happen - and happened well - and the opposite. In ones where it is well done or where the organisation is becoming better at it, some of the common contributing factors included:
  • setting the example and leading the way, always! and knowing why it is important
  • being involved, not just saying 'go do it' from a distance
  • Using simple terminology - words the business understood to describe things, not necessarily the formal technical terms - some people like the formal terms, others don't. A wonderful example from one senior Executive who'd learned in a trucking firm, where they had a form called the 'F*k-up Sheet' which accompanied a procedure by the same name. It was used for every (ahem) 'screw-up'; but truckies being fairly earthy characters - at least in our hemisphere - the vernacular phrase was well-known and remembered
  • investing in training people to understand the concepts and how to do it
  • coaching - for example, one client coached managers in how to set up and employ a cross-functional team approach, another (much larger) had regular coaching sessions for all managers
  • insisting on it being done as per process, and not accepting (after a reasonable time) half-assed attempts or refusals or blinkered approaches
  • delegating the authority as well as the responsibility
  • having improvement an dproblem solving as key items on management agendas
plus of course all the usual stuff of having a systematic approach, written procedure, records, etc etc.
But this is a focus more on corrective action than on proactive improvement. The ones I've seen who were good at that had a real culture that favoured improvement, never punished mistakes, and really invested very, very highly in their people, with excellent results. Because culture doesn't just 'happen' either - it has to be created and fostered and nurtured and nourished.
 
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