4/26/2011. Quality management (QM)

Transcription

1 Quality management (QM) Quality Management is an approach to business that gained acceptance in the U.S in the late 80s, originally called total quality management, or TQM. The safety & health professional of today is likely to work in an organization that practices the QM philosophy. 1

2 WHAT IS QM? The QM concept goes by several different names: TQL for total quality leadership. TQC for total quality control. TQ for total quality. TQM for total quality management. Regardless of name, the concept can be defined as: an approach to doing business that maximizes the competitiveness of an organization through continuous improvement of its products, services, people, processes, and environments. WHAT IS QM? What distinguishes QM from the other philosophies: Customer focus. QM organizations continually solicit input (up front) & feedback (after the fact) from external & internal customers. Obsession with quality. In a QM organization, employees learn to focus on what they can do to improve quality and competition every day. Scientific approach. QM organizations operate on facts rather than assumptions and apply logic rather than so-called gut feelings. Long-term commitment. QM is not a quick-fix approach that will produce overnight miracles it requires a long-term investment of time & effort. 2

3 WHAT IS QM? What distinguishes QM from the other philosophies: Teamwork. Work is done by teams, and performance is measured against team, rather than individual, benchmarks. Continual process improvements. QM organizations continually improve the processes that make their products or deliver their services. Education and training. They are used to equip all employees to be knowledgeable, skilled participants in the continual improvement of quality. Freedom through control. A QM organization frees its employees to improve work processes continually without relinquishing appropriate management controls. WHAT IS QM? What distinguishes QM from the other philosophies: Unity of purpose. All employees understand the organization s vision statement, believe in it, and unite around it. Empowerment. QM organizations involve employees in decisions that affect their work and by empowering them to do what is necessary to ensure and improve quality continually. 3

4 HOW DOES QM RELATE TO SAFETY? QM can solve the same problem for safety managers that it solves for quality managers the problem of isolation. By making quality everybody s job and casting the quality manager in the role of facilitator and catalyst. In the case of quality, isolation is a prescription for failure in safety, it is a prescription for disaster. HOW DOES QM RELATE TO SAFETY? QM characteristics from a safety/health perspective: Customer focus. An unsafe product is not a quality product regardless of the attractiveness of its other characteristics. i Obsession with quality. An organization with unsafe processes or products will pay too high a price to be able to keep up in a competitive marketplace. Scientific approach. The same scientific tools used to identify causes of quality problems can be used to identify safety/health problems. Long-term commitment Teamwork. Just as teams are assigned quality improvement projects, similar teams should tackle specific safety & health issues. 4

5 HOW DOES QM RELATE TO SAFETY? QM characteristics from a safety/health perspective: Continual process improvements. Continual improvement of safety can be achieved in the same way as the continual improvement of quality. Education and training. Freedom through control. Maximum productivity can be achieved by giving employees freedom to apply initiatives in improving both quality & safety. Unity of purpose. Organization-wide unity concerning safety & health will go a long way toward ensuring the effectiveness of a safety program. Empowerment. Some of the best ideas come from employees who are empowered to think, suggest, and act. SAFETY MANAGEMENT IN A QM SETTING The concept of TSM grew out of a need to transform safety/health management from a strict compliance orientation to a performance orientation. Compliance is an important issue, but not the only issue. The TSM purpose is to give organizations the sustainable competitive advantage of a safe and healthy work environment that allows employees to achieve consistent peak performance. TSM involves total organization in establishing/maintaining a work environment that is safe and conducive to quality and productivity. 5

6 TSM Defined TSM is defined as follows: a performance and process-oriented approach that gives organizations a sustainable competitive advantage in the global marketplace by establishing a safe and healthy work environment conducive to consistent peak performance and that is improved continually forever. TSM Defined TSM elements are as follows: Sustainable competitive advantage. Peak performance. ea pe o a ce. Continual improvement forever. 6

7 What Is Your Opinion? Is there a relationship between QM and safety management? If so, what is it? If not, why not? What is your opinion? TRANSLATING TSM INTO ACTION There are three fundamental components through which the TSM philosophy is translated into action on a daily basis. The TSM steering committee - oversees the organization s safety & health program. Improvement project teams (IPTs) - ad hoc, temporary, teams formed by the TSM steering committee to pursue specific improvement projects relating to the work environment. The TSM facilitator - ideally, the organization s chief safety/health officer, who serves as the resident expert on the technical and compliance aspects of safety & health. 7

8 Strategic Basis The fact that TSM is strategically based means an organization realizes that having a safe and healthy workplace gives it a competitive advantage in the marketplace. TSM is strategically based because it is considered part of an organization s overall strategy for competing globally. Strategic Basis Strategic planning is a matter of answering the following questions: As an organization, what would we like to be? What is our dream? This is the vision component of the strategic plan. As an organization, what is our purpose? This is the mission component of the strategic plan. As an organization, what values are most important to us? This is the guiding principles component of the strategic plan. As an organization, what do we want to accomplish? The broad-objectives component of the strategic plan. 8

9 Performance Oriented In any organization subject to federal and state regulations, compliance is an important issue. Failure to comply with applicable regulations can lead to fines and other non-value-added expenses. In a compliance-driven setting, the safety department has a regulation orientation. With TSM, the safety/health personnel are viewed as part of the equation for continual performance improvement. Compliance is still important, of course, but compliance and productivity are no longer viewed as being mutually exclusive entities. FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS OF TSM TSM differs in several ways from traditional safety & health management. Strategically based. Performance and process oriented. Dependent on executive-level commitment. Teamwork oriented. Committed to employee empowerment and enlistment. Based on scientific decision making. Committed to continual improvement. Comprehensive, ongoing training. Unity of purpose. 9

10 IMPLEMENTING TSM: THE MODEL A three-phase, 15-step model that can be used for successfully implementing TSM in any organization. at o 10