Quality Process

Below you will find definitions and some approaches to quality and performance management.  Our consultant team members have completed organizational assessments against the Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria

Our examples are based on an ISO Model.  If you are unsure which standard to use in your process models, contact us to shed some light on the subject.

Core Areas of Quality Management and Processes

• Customer Focus
• Leadership
• Involvement of People
• Process Approach
• System Approach to Management
• Continual Improvement
• Factual Approach To Decision Making

Customer Focus

"Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends."    Walt Disney

• Know your customer needs
• Implement effective, transparent communication
• Seek customer approval
• Create a balanced approach in meeting customer expectations

Leadership

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." Dwight D. Eisenhower 

• Ensure stakeholders, management, and staff understand objectives and goals
• Align organization goals and objectives to strategic plans
• Create approaches for clear communication between all parties involved
• Foster a workforce environment allowing for growth and job security
• Establish goals that are easily identifiable, achievable, and understood by all involved.

Involvement of People

"None of us is as good as all of us". Ray Kroc

• Establish accountability for staff and manager performance
• Ensure management and staff buy-in for continual improvement goals
• Create a ways and means ensuring management and staff understanding in roles and impact of their contributions to meet the strategic goals
• Create a work environment presenting possibilities for employees to discuss issues and problem resolution without fear 
• Encourage staff and managers to complete periodic self-evaluations on their performance creating an opportunity for them to improve rather than instill improvement based on poor performance after it is too late to resolve cascading issues from said poor performance

Process Approach

"Your processes and procedures are perfectly designed to give you the results you are getting."

• Process approach involves finding ways to lower costs through streamlining of resources, use of existing tools, and in some cases, purchases of technology where the cost are minimal compared to the long-term benefits.  In most cases, companies who reference process approach are seeking low cost solutions, shorter deliver times, and improved, consistent results from processes developed.  
• Create an environment where departments have clearly defined activities and roles tied to the desired results of work performed
• Instill a methodology for measuring the outputs of all work
• Create a clear path between activities and the functions of each department
• Establish or review existing risk and consequences of existing processes to gain an understanding of the relationships between activities, employees, and stakeholders
• Develop a clear accountability and responsibility outline for the management of activities 

System Approach to Management

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change." Charles Darwin

• Ensure process systems across all departments been reviewed to ensure they are effective and efficient 
• Review existing processes on a regular schedule to ensure they are tied to an objective or requirement
• Create a clear understanding between people completing a process and how it aligns with objectives or effects the results of outputs
• Omit redundancies and cross-functional issues prohibiting an organization from achieving current objectives; processes developed 5 years ago, even a year ago could be subject to cross-functional, duplications of time and effort, costing companies and stakeholders, time, money, and in some cases, loss of organizational alignment. 
• Create a measurement or evaluation of internal processes and outputs; if measurements of processes is abated, then how can those processes be deemed continually effective?

Continual Improvement

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." Will Rogers

 Performance management is ongoing.  Reflected in all areas of objectives for an organization should be a plan to instill the concept of continual improvement, as continual improvement is the crossroad and basis of future forward vision creation.  Organizations grow, processes change, and management must adjust for these changes to create continual improvement.

• Establish a ways and means to align activities to strategic intent
• Create a flexible environment in which responding to such as land purchases, grants, financing, and overall organizational access to opportunity is easily obtainable
• Establish goals, which can be guided, tracked, and lead to continual improvement
• Foster an environment in which departments within the organization identify and acknowledge improvements in past and current processes to meet historical objectives

Factual Approach to Decision Making

"Erroneous assumptions can be disastrous." Peter Drucker

The concept of making decisions based on facts, versus assumptions is an understandable principle in simple form.  Benefits include informative decision-making, the ability to demonstrate effectiveness and efficiency of past decisions through fact based records, and overall transparency and accountability. 

• Create, deploy, and monitor process and procedures to ensure inputs, outcomes, are accurate and reliable in meeting objectives or other requirements
• Review and develop a plan to supply the appropriate tools and technology to employees which increases productivity, including a seamless and efficient means to access necessary information for decision-making
• Are decisions based on a factual analysis that is aligned with experience in the subject
• Ensure analysis methods and data capturing techniques which can be audited and validated.

Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." Helen Keller

 There are obvious benefits in creating good relationships with an organizations suppliers. These supplier relationships can result in fast delivery of products or services, lowered costs to the organization, and essentially those same businesses who supply services and products also invest into our economy by way of creating employment, making purchases, and paying taxes.  In some cases suppliers are actual agency volunteers who participate in outreach projects touching several areas of local communities.  If volunteer relationships are strong, community development is strong. 

• We assist organizations in establishing relationships that create a pool of expertise between citizens, businesses, within local and national economies.
• We help organizations  develop supplier relationships, which can lead to cost benefits or special savings offered by those suppliers